DVD Review: South Park - The Complete 12th Season - Page 2

In another episode that spoofs The Grapes of Wrath, the Internet mysteriously disappears in "Overlogging." Stan's dad, panicked over the fact that he can no longer masturbate to Internet porn, packs up the whole family Joad-style and heads out "Californee-way" where he hears there's still some Internet left. In "Britney's New Look," the media's ongoing antagonistic obsession with Britney Spears culminates in her attempting suicide as the show compares the whole scenario to a kind of cult sacrifice.

South Park's effectiveness in making a point through humor is especially evident in "Eek, A Penis!," when Ms. Garrison leaves teaching to undergo another sex change operation and Cartman is put in charge of teaching her class. When the students' test scores hit an all-time high (because they all cheated), Cartman is asked to help teach underprivileged inner city kids calculus. In a great parody of Stand and Deliver, Cartman extols to the teens the virtues of cheating just like Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots did. As Cartman puts it, "Bill Belichick proved that, in America, it's okay to cheat, as long as you cheat your way to the top!" This episode is a prime example of the show's ability to make a satirical point in a memorable and very funny way, in this case, the show's creators' ire over the way they felt the NFL glossed over the Patriots' tactics after they were caught cheating.

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have playfully hazed George Lucas and Steven Spielberg before when they poked fun at the duo's penchant for "updating" their classic films with new special effects, but in "The China Probrem" the gloves come off as they issue their disgust over "the raping of Indiana Jones" in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by showing Lucas and Spielberg actually raping Indiana Jones over and over again in the episode. The image of Lucas getting red-faced, bent over Indiana Jones on a pinball machine is about as disturbing a sight as I've ever seen, but, as with the "messages" in their other episodes, Parker and Stone ensure that their voices are heard.

Article Author: Sombrero Grande

This writer is a member of The Masked Movie Snobs, a collective that fights a never-ending battle against bad entertainment.

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