# South Park 4/19 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416 "2006-04-20T02:37:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/21 "2006-04-20T14:20:57Z")
I caught the first ten of fifteen minutes while winding up my evening workout, but decided to take a shower instead of viewing the rest of the episode upstairs. I concur: Mildly funny at times, but overall just gratuitously bizarre and and a little pathetically inane. S.P.'s been in a state of creative decline for about a year or so, but a few more like this and I’d say it’s time to empty the shark tank and call it quits. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/22 "2006-04-20T14:40:14Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > “Wow, long still shots of Oprah’s crotch must have saved them a bundle on animation.” Ditto here, along with imagining the animators knocking on Trey’s door and saying, “Okay, I know we have this same conversation pretty much every week, but… you want us to draw _what_ again?” At least they didn’t try to make a big preachy point in this one, beyond “Geraldo’s kind of a fairy.” ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/23 "2006-04-20T14:48:37Z")
To quote CBG from the Simpsons… Worst…Episode…EVER! after about 5 minutes I got bored and surfed the Interweb then again, I _hate_ Towlie based episodes anyway, it’s a one-note character that stopped being funny 30 seconds after it was originally introduced… Towlie is most definitely _NOT_ the most useful thing in the universe… on a scale of 1-10, I’d rate this episode a NEGATIVE 20 ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/24 "2006-04-20T14:56:06Z")
I’m with the folks who said it was the worst episode ever. I’ve come to expect South Park to at least be clever even when it’s not terribly good, but that one was just…well…dreary. The spouse and I watched it all the way through, but looked at each other with that “WTF?” look several times throughout (with increasing frequency near the end). The sad part was that it could have been a good satire of the whole “Million Little Pieces” thing, but it failed in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/25 "2006-04-20T15:19:35Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > I was thinking, “Wow, long still shots of Oprah’s crotch must have saved them a bundle on animation.” Then I fell asleep. Yeah, that corssed my mind too. The whole Minge and Gary thing felt like an overlong Monty Python sketch. Gary sounded exactly like Eric Idle doing a fey voice. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/26 "2006-04-20T16:21:57Z")
I think it’s OK for Matt and Trey to go off on a tangent once in a while, so I won’t bag on them too hard for this episode. But it would have been nice–and I kept expecting it–to see a quick cut-in of the boys watching all that on TV and one of them saying, “This here’s pretty fucked up.” That would have redeemed the episode, to a certain extent. But [[shrug]] what’re ya gonna do? Everyone has an off day once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/27 "2006-04-20T16:58:52Z")
> [@JeffB](#): > > I think it was the accents of Minge and Gary that made it work so well. The credits went by too fast for me to read. Was that Graham Norton? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/28 "2006-04-20T17:00:58Z")
My hopes were raised so high when Towelie appeared. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/29 "2006-04-20T17:30:55Z")
I understand when they go on tangents as well. Probably the whole episode should have been a smaller part of a larger episode. Anyway, it probably sounded good on paper. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/30 "2006-04-20T17:58:28Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > The sad part was that it could have been a good satire of the whole “Million Little Pieces” thing, but it failed in my opinion. That’s what made this episode such an absurdist dud, IMO. A good satirization of James Frey is shooting fish in a barrel for the SP crew…or should be. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/31 "2006-04-20T18:37:46Z")
Damn. I couldn’t figure out what the hell you guys were talking about. Everyone kept bitching about “Pop Culture” references and “current events” and shit. And I couldn’t figure out how that episode had anything to do with current events. I didn’t realize they were mocking any real life events until after I just now googled “million little pieces”. Since I was out of the country during any of that scandal, I was oblivious to it. Watching the episode, I thought it was definitely not their best work. But I’m not going to hold it against them. You gotta throw in shit like that every now n then. They can’t all be classics. And it seems like maybe they were intentionally lazy with the episode. Like the way they jost showed the outside of Oprah’s pants when Mitch was talking. It’s not like they’re above actually animating a talking vagina. They just decided to not put much effort in the episode. It’s obvious they weren’t trying too hard on this one. And I think the final thought of the day “don’t get high to get ideas for a show” was pretty accurate for what went on. But I dont think we should get all bent out of shape about this episode. These guys are obviously having fun with their show, and I think that’s what matters. I picture friends just sitting around coming up with some funny and sometimes ridiculous ideas. I did laugh at the end though. The episode was pretty slow and there was a lot of WTF moments… but the ending was funny and worth sitting through the episode, IMO. I think some of you are a little too critical of the show and analyze the humour and the plot way too much. It’s only like 20 mins of entertainment. It’s not a novel or an epic or something. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/32 "2006-04-20T18:46:22Z")
I should note that I had never heard of “Million Little Pieces” or whatever until I googled it just now. That said, this episode was pretty terrible, and I’ve liked the other eps so far this season. But this one? Wow. I was thisclose to turning it off in the middle, but I stuck it out (which was probably good, since the asshole crapping its pants at the end was the one cheap laugh it got out of me). As for the voice in Oprah’s crotch, well, it was OBVIOUSLY Russel Crowe making his voice sound artificially deeper. ---
**Author:** ![Burrido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/33 "2006-04-20T18:53:57Z")
Horribly dumb episode. So far a horrible season. Haven’t found a single episode this run funny at all. ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/34 "2006-04-20T18:59:21Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > Gary sounded exactly like Eric Idle doing a fey voice. I thought so, too. I just kept waiting for him to say “I just want…to sing!” Overall, I agree with the sentiment that this was perhaps the worth South Park ever. I think I cracked maybe a smile or two at the beginning, when I saw Towelie, but after that it just sucked. Oprah’s minge may have been a good one-shot joke, but neither it, nor Towlie have enough momentum to carry a whole episode (even between them). I hope they were just taking the week off so they can do something extremely creative and clever next week. Otherwise, my enthusiasm for South Park will start dwindling. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/35 "2006-04-20T19:10:43Z")
The things I learned: Last June’s ‘Hermes Incident’ is behind us. Geraldo is getting more effeminate. Assholes are British - but b doesn’t necessarilly = a. Larry King is still the go-to guy from dropping bombshells. Cops in Chicago don’t say ‘hut, hut, hut, hut’ when in pursuit of an armed and dangerous vagina. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/36 "2006-04-20T20:03:38Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > I think some of you are a little too critical of the show and analyze the humour and the plot way too much. It’s only like 20 mins of entertainment. It’s not a novel or an epic or something. I don’t know – up until fairly recently _South Park_ could be relied upon to be consistently humourous and entertaining. I could be plenty forgiving, because even if the story was absurd or designed to deliver an ideological viewpoint that I found offensive, because during that twenty minutes they made me _laugh._ I’m not going to be overly critical of an episode of _South Park_ because of incidentals, and have no problem focusing my attention on the positive things that are there in episodes that are, largely, Libertarian dissertations – because they were still _funny_, and all that I want from the twenty-two minutes that I dedicate to watching the show: to have my attention held during that time and have a few laughs. Lately, though, it seems like they’re using the show as a bully pulpit more frequently, and I wouldn’t even mind that, so long as there were some good jokes along the way. My problem with this episode has nothing to do with overanalysis, it couldn’t be simpler: It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t funny at _all._ Yeah, it was purile and pointless, and large blocks of the “animation” made Terrance & Philip seem sophisticated, but I don’t care about that, all that matters is that at no point between the titles and the credits was I entertained, except by the _anticipation_ of humour provoked by the initial sight of Towelie. The laughs have been getting less loud and less frequent for some time now but I think this is when the corpse begins to really reek. I have a hard time getting my head around how folks that managed to be so funny before could start turning out such total crap. Unless they’re just sick of it and are trying to get out of a contractual obligation? ---
**Author:** ![FlyingCowOfDoom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyingcowofdoom/32/21776_2.png) [@FlyingCowOfDoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingCowOfDoom)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/37 "2006-04-20T20:23:18Z")
I still can’t believe that there wasn’t some kind of punchline at the end to make the episode funny…I don’t know what the hell M&T were thinking here… I know this has already been said, but IMO this was the worst. episode. EVER. –FCOD ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/38 "2006-04-20T20:51:18Z")
I loved Gary’s accent. It was just like the Scottish girl on Project Catwalk. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/39 "2006-04-20T21:08:27Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > Geraldo is getting more effeminate. That wasn’t Geraldo–it was Mr. Slave in a Geraldo suit. I kept expecting him to start ending his sentences with “For Christ’s thakes…” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416/40 "2006-04-20T21:19:47Z")
Gary the Asshole’s voice _was_ indistinguishable from Eric Idle’s in a particular _Monty Python_ sketch. But it wasn’t merely British. And it wasn’t Scottish at all. It was the voice of a Welsh coal miner. I expected Gary at any moment to appeal to his foreman about some interpretation of Sartre. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-park-4-19/353416.md?page=3)