South Park – Sermon on the Mount

Yes. THAT episode.

In yet another in the recent saga of media I was never a fan of, I am now writing a little something about the latest episode of South Park. The show has long been a bastion of irreverent and heavy hitting sarcasm that targets every thing and everyone. Long ago I tried watching and didn’t make it through an entire episode because I’ve always been allergic to juvenile male humor. What can I say? Old lesbian.

Last week I began seeing articles about the latest episode and on a whim looked it up. One look at my facebook will tell you what my political leanings are and I was keen to see what these titans of sarcasm had to say about the American president. I was hoping for a roasting that even the late night tv white guys only kinda touch on, but wow. This episode went way past that. I was watching a lot of it with my jaw on the floor. There were some inside jokes that I didn’t get, since I haven’t watched it for a couple of decades, but that didn’t matter even a tiny bit.

Basically, this nearly half hour bit skewers the American president by, mostly, making fun of his penis. There is a quick musical bit about “money in Christ”, which acknowledges the fact that people are gaining power and money through wedding the president with powerful religious forces in the states. More than a couple of times the president is seen threatening to sue anyone who makes even innocent mistakes concerning his personality or physicality. Namely, a tiny peen.

Jesus shows up as an actual character at the school the main characters attend. I discovered this is not the first time they have shown up, but I was delighted at how much of the messaging came through a religious icon, one that is being shamelessly used to prop up power mongering in the states. There are a number of visual jokes, like making the school principal look like any of a dozen youtube bros who spout Currently Powerful speech, and characters trying to kill themselves by inhaling engine exhaust – from an electric car. LOL Sorry, that was probably the gag that made me laugh the hardest.

The end of the episode saw the president staggering heroically through the desert, as the ancient christian heroes did, culminating in yet another tiny penis joke, this time NOT animated, though there were tiny googly eyes attached. Apparently, there were days of back and forth about making the penis a “character” in order to allow the show to air and the eyes were the end result. I very much enjoyed the historical allegory of a powerful leader struggling through the desert to save us, using a character most people recognize as a narcissistic megalomaniac who intends to screw us all to make more money. Tiny peen aside, I thought that was brilliant.

One of the things I learned in the last week is that it takes only days to make an episode because of the seriously basic style of animation. So I’ll be looking forward to seeing what else the makers decide to skewer in the coming season. Will they “do” Epstein? How will they handle ICE? Will “woke” ever return? I think I may have gotten too old to be concerned with juvenile insults, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next. Hillary’s emails? Bring it.

Triggers: juvenile humor at its lowest and most brilliant form, penis jokes, Jesus as a cynical and compromised character.

Available on: Paramount+ (I know, they suck, but I bought a year’s subscription before they caved.)

LINKS:

• South Park – Sermon on the Mount – Official Site [NOTE: As of the writing of the post, the episode is not available.]
• South Park – Sermon on the Mount – IMDB
• South Park – Sermon on the Mount – Wikipedia

CFR: In Addition

Oh yeah. I saw it. Cue George Takei voice: “Oh my.”

I LOL’d a lot. I loved that South Park took the gloves off and went for Trump full throttle. As someone who years ago worked for my local PBS station I am infuriated that it was defunded. Shame, shame, shame.

Now South Park tends to be too much for me. I appreciate it, but I can’t handle the ugly humor that crops up. Really ugly humor. (See Cranky’s notes above.) I did see one episode years ago where Satan was sleeping with Saddam Hussein. I really laughed when Trump got into bed with him. I never thought I would feel sorry for Saddam. I wonder if he and Trump will fight for Satan’s affection.

Wouldn’t surprise me.

Thanks South Park.