Review: South Park “Pajama Day”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Sides form and Nazi comparisons are made when the fourth graders of South Park Elementary are prevented from participating in the school’s Pajama Day.

Our Take

It’s been two years since viewers have gotten a full season of South Park. Sure, we got a few specials to tide us over during the brunt of the pandemic, but now we’ve got a brand-new season ahead of us. The specials had to do a lot of heavy lifting for the show, not only keeping fans entertained and engaged, but keeping up with the strange events that seem to happen almost daily. As Trey Parker and Matt Stone get back to the grind, can they deliver a quality episode in this “new normal” era?

As if there was any doubt, “Pajama Day” was a pretty good return to form for the show. To get the ball rolling, Mr. Garrison chews out his students for a lack of attention, causing PC Principal to step in and prevent the class from participating in the school’s Pajama Day. The principal’s unawareness that Garrison was using the fourth graders as a tool to discuss his love life is a classic setup, and the plot begins to spiral exactly as you think it would.

Parents and students begin to rebel at the principal’s mandate, and the recurring accusations of living in Nazi Germany begin. If it wasn’t enough that Stone and Parker have based a plot on the real life binds school districts find themselves when it comes to disgruntled families, the subject of masking gets a bit of commentary as well. Some South Park residents begin wearing pajamas in support of the kids, others simply want to wear their normal clothes without judgment. What comes after that? More accusations of Nazism.

The plot is fairly standard for what you’d expect from an episode of South Park. A little less grand than The Pandemic Special or South Park: Post COVID, but by no means less funny. Admittedly, Stone and Parker have a point to people throwing out the Nazi card a bit too wantonly, but it was one of those things that got a little less funny as the show went on. I really felt “Pajama Day” had something when it came to the tough position PC Principal found himself in and was hoping the show would center more on that. I felt like the show had a lot to say, but not enough time to say it all. But to be fair, it’s been a while since South Park has had to fit a plot in a 30ish minute runtime, so it probably just needs a period to adjust.

That said, the show was extremely satisfying. With a new crop of episodes and a few more specials heading to Paramount+, South Park fans should hold their head high with confidence that the 25th season shows no signs of declining quality.