Review: South Park ‘#REHASH’

Spoilers Below:

Hey, you know what this season of South Park hasn’t had yet? A multi-part episode. (Okay, to be fair, there’s a bit of a story arc throughout the entire season – but that’s not what I mean.) Like last season’s Black Friday/Game of Thrones trilogy, or the three Coon episodes from season 14, or season 11’s “Imaginationland” shows, South Park has clearly developed a taste for topics that can’t be contained in a 22-minute installment. With only two episodes left, is there still time?

Not to drop a spoiler on you, but yes. Yes there is. However, it’s not a trilogy like the aforementioned ones; it’s instead a Part Un et Part Deux. Like season 12’s “Pandemic” or 10’s “Go God Go.”

In one-of-two, Kyle became distraught over the fact that his little brother, Ike, didn’t want to play Call of Duty with him, but instead wanted to watch PewDiePie, a [real life] gamer from Sweden with over 30 million YouTube subscribers, play and talk about it. Furthermore, Kyle went on a tirade against the fact that kids these days don’t want to experience anything, but instead want to watch other people doing things, make commentary on stuff, and other rehashed shit. He saw it as the death of the living room. Cartman, sensing an opportunity, became a commentator, and quickly gained fame. However, just as quickly, his commentary on everything turned into a nuisance.

Meanwhile, Randy continued to perform as Lorde, alongside Iggy Azalea and Nicki Minaj in a local concert, but wished to differentiate himself from the other singers. He did, by being the only one that got booed. After unsuccessfully trying to whore-up his act for popularity, Randy/Lorde decided to come clean to his fans. His manager, however, wouldn’t allow it, instead demanding that Lorde (or a hologram Lorde) expose her butthole on The Tonight Show as a publicity stunt.

In the end of the episode, Randy’s manager revealed that he has a whole army of holograms ready to perform, and offered Cartman an opportunity to lead them all. (Cliffhanger!)

Also, a Michael Jackson hologram escaped from the music event, and a hologram of Tupac was sent to “take care of the situation.” He banged  Stan’s mom.

In Case You Missed It:

1) How many more YouTube subscribers do you think PewDiePie will have now? Yikes.

2) “He plays video games and makes millions of dollars, and it’s lame how?”

3) More season 18 continuity: Randy as Lorde again, references to gluten (and Africa), Stan’s Freemium game debt, Randy’s cock magic.

4) I don’t know why, but the moment when Michael Jackson’s hologram broke free was by far the funniest of the episode.

5) I cannot believe how many times “clit” was said in this episode. And the one time Randy said, “Flick my bean.”

6) Some very white dude: “Oh my gosh, honey, look, it’s Tupac. I told you them homies didn’t cap his ass. Oh this is going on Instagram.

7) “Be sure to comment on that, #KyleIsGettingFrustrated.”

8) Hey, look, Buca de Faggoncini is back!

9) “Cartmaaan-Brahhh!”

Hope you didn’t get too comfortable with the last two episodes not making some sort of statement, because that’s long gone now. Not only did this episode have commentary, but it had commentary about commentary. (How meta.)

In addition to the rehashing subject matter and the criticism of today’s youth, “#REHASH” also took aim at the use of holograms, Iggy Azalea’s allegedly unoriginal style and similarities to Missy Elliott, and Wendy Williams and every & any other talking head on TV. Summing up Trey & Matt’s opinion nicely, one of characters noted that in today’s culture, “An artist is a conversation piece. Nothing more. Like a vase or a kitschy side table. Just something for people to comment on.” This is absolutely spot on. Even before this episode began, I was lamenting about the lack of good songwriters in today’s newer artists – or at least the ones getting most of the attention. Most artists are just out to shock. Still, I’m not a “grandpa,” to use a term from this episode, because I’m fine with kids doing whatever the hell they want. Adults too. Today’s world allows us the luxury and opportunity to listen to music from all over the world; music by multi-platinum bestselling artists, down to some random kid in the sticks with a YouTube account. And if you’d prefer it, you can solely jam out to music from two years ago, or twenty years ago, or two-hundred years ago. Still, the episode’s facts stand.

As for humor, this episode had its share of funny lines (Cartman-Brah was cracking me up) but I think it was the plot itself that was funniest. Since this is technically the last episode of the season (along with next week’s conclusion), South Park basically rehashed all its old storylines from earlier in the year, at least four of them were very obvious. Which was the whole point. In addition, the Michael Jackson hologram character made some allusions to that fact that the show has featured the late Prince of Pop previously, most notably way back in season 8’s “The Jeffersons.”

Like previous installments in year number 18, this wasn’t necessarily about the laughs. Yes, there were (and almost always are) a fair share of traditional jokes, but South Park is still a satire at heart. You might not be slapping your knee, but there’s always overt humor throughout in what they are saying and how they are saying it.

Since this is a two-parter, the score for this episode can greatly be influenced by its finale. I might end up having been too generous, or too stingy. Time will tell, so for now I’ll deem “#REHASH” an undeniably solid showing.