Cynical Cinema

Anyone who watches South Park knows that without Eric Cartman, this show would not be close to what it is. And now, Paramount Home Entertainment and the people behind South Park have acknowledged this fact with the new DVD set The Cult of Cartman: Revelations. A series of 12 episodes, the very best (or worst) of Eric Cartman, combined with Cartman’s philosophies of life. Philosophies like, of you are sinned against, be prepared to retaliate a thousand-fold. Which is exactly what he does in the opening episode, the truly shocking and heinous “Scott Tenorman Must Die”. This is Cartman’s most despicable (and therefore most brilliant) moment in all of South Park. Watching him lick Scott Tenorman’s tears at the end of this episode might be the freakiest, creepiest moment in TV history. Well, next to that time a drunken Joe Namath hit on Suzy Kolber on the sidelines during Monday Night Football.

Every episode here is a winner, and each one comes complete with an introduction by Cartman himself, inviting you to worship at the altar of the most despicable character in cartoon history. His wisdom is suspect, his morals are corrupt, his motives are selfish at best and heinous at worst. But boy, can this kid ever preach! Great episodes like “Awesome-O”, an episode where Cartman dresses up as a robot to put a mean practical joke over on Butters, but upon finding out that Butters has an incriminating video tape of him, he must stay in his robot costume for days on end until he can find that video. The Tourette’s episode, where Cartman pretends to have Tourette’s Syndrome so he can swear whenever he likes. Then there’s the one where he pretends to be mentally handicapped so he can win money at the Special Olympics. And, although it isn’t the most despicable moment in Cartman’s career, it is likely the most offensive: The episode where he contracts HIV through a blood transfusion, and then purposely gives it to Kyle when he laughs at him.

I am not exactly ready to worship at the altar of this horrible, horrible little boy. But I am certainly ready to watch him doing what he does, and I will indeed sign up for his fan club. The Cult Of Cartman: Revelations DVD set comes with a sticker for your bedroom wall when you pray, and an official membership card for the Eric Theodore Cartman Society. All of this is great. All of Cartman is great. Well, in the worst possible way.

South Park recently came out with a DVD release of their Imaginationland trilogy, three episodes from Season Eleven that were crammed together on DVD as though they were a full-length movie. I took issue with Imaginationland because it sucked. As a full-length movie it sucked, and as three individual episodes it sucked. Those three episodes are a part of South Park: Season Eleven, which comes out on DVD today, August 12th, from Paramount Home Entertainment. In that review, I suggested that the creators of South Park may well be running on empty. That the well has run dry for them. And, in recent seasons (and the Imaginationland trilogy) this looks to be true.

However, Imaginationland is only three of fourteen episodes in Season Eleven. Of the other eleven episodes, there are two bad ones, six good ones, and three classics. Worth skipping is the Hillary Clinton episode, which is juvenile and painful. You see, apparently just doing offensive things to Hillary Clinton is in itself funny…although the end of the episode is almost worth it, to hear Cartman explain how his intolerance of Muslims saved America. A solid moment in an otherwise mean-spirited and stupid episode. The other bad one is a silly, juvenile and unfunny episode about Mr. Garrison (now Mrs. Garrison) discovering that he (she) is a lesbian and fighting to save a lesbian bar. There just isn’t anything smart or funny in that episode at all.

The good ones involve a Night of the Living Dead spoof involving the homeless, an outbreak of lice at the school, an episode where Stan’s dad says the “N” word on Wheel of Fortune, a spoof of King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters that involves Stan’s dad competing with Bono for the crown of “who took the world’s biggest crap”, an episode about the Guitar Hero phenomenon, and one about a list the girls have made at school that ranks the best-looking boys. All of these are very good, smart, and worthy inclusions in the South Park oeuvre.

The three classic episodes, however, are so much better. The episode where Cartman pretends to have Tourette’s Syndrome in order to swear as much as he likes, whenever he wants to, is fantastic. He attempts to turn his “courageous” battle with Tourette’s into an appearance on national TV, where he can go on as much as he likes, and as offensively as he likes, about Jews. Mostly to enrage Kyle. Not only is it a reasonably accurate and (considering it’s South Park) sensitive portrayal of actual people with Tourette’s, but it’s also a good satire of media culture, and funny all the way through.

The second classic episode involves Cartman playing a practical joke on Butters that backfires in a huge way. While Butters is asleep, Cartman takes a picture of him in a compromising position, to show people that Butters is “gay”. But the picture would more accurately paint Cartman as gay, and he begins to lose his mind trying to find the picture, thinking that Kyle has it and is planning to show everyone. Meanwhile, Butters’ parents, thinking he is exhibiting gay tendencies, pack him off to a camp for bi-curious youngsters to have him “fixed”. This episode is a fantastic skewering of the Christian panic over homosexuality, and also involves some terrific Cartman moments.

And the other classic episode, the best on the disc, is the one where Stan starts to question Easter. This is something I myself have questioned many times. What, exactly, is the connection between Jesus dying on the cross, and being resurrected, and rabbits and eggs? Painting eggs and chocolate rabbits and the Easter bunny are even more removed from the religious reasoning for Easter than are Santa Claus and Christmas. In this episode, Stan’s questioning of Easter uncovers a vast, Da Vinci Code - style conspiracy involving the Vatican, the American Christian League, and a shadowy secret society that protects the secret of Easter. This episode, (I don’t think I’m giving too much away here) also involves the funniest killing-of-Jesus scene in TV history. Although, I can only assume it’s the only killing-of-Jesus scene in TV history.

Five terrible episodes, six good episodes, and three fantastic episodes make this DVD, like the series itself, hit-and-miss. But overall, it’s still a hit, and it has not thrown in the towel. The three classic episodes alone make this DVD a must. South Park: The Eleventh Season comes out on DVD today.

The original South Park movie, Bigger Longer and Uncut, was a masterpiece. I truly mean that - it was the best musical I have ever seen. The political anti-censorship message was brilliantly delivered, the characters made great sense and there were endlessly quotable lines throughout the film. Since then, the guys over at South Park seem to be on autopilot. Every now and then they come out with another great episode - The Tom Cruise in the closet episode was classic. The World of Warcraft episode was classic. But for the most part, the show has been running on empty. And this new DVD, ostensibly a movie called Imaginationland, is really a DVD release of three back-to-back episodes that make up one whole 70-minute piece. And it, like most of South Park these days, is not very good.

Oh, there are some quality moments only South Park could deliver. Cartman’s quest to get Kyle to do some very dirty things to him is memorable. Butters, as usual, has some quality moments. But mostly Trey Parker and Matt Stone just come across as bitter, malicious people bent on being mean to any public figure they can think of. Al Gore, Kurt Russell, and so many more get skewered. And they also REALLY seem to hate their main competition, Family Guy. They make several references to Family Guy sucking, most notably mocking the idea of a Star Wars parody (which Family Guy did to great comedic effect on the Blue Harvest DVD, available now). Perhaps that is because the South Park guys truly have been surpassed when it comes to offensive humour and belly-laughs-per-episode.

The plot here is that the kids end up in Imaginationland, a place where every creature ever imagined by a human being congregates. Superman, Jesus, Santa, Zeus, Strawberry Shortcake, Luke Skywalker, Aslan, they’re all there. And Butters is left behind when Stan and Kyle return to the real world. Then, bizarrely, terrorists attack Imaginationland, and only Butters can save the world. The military starts plans to nuke Imaginationland, and Cartman takes his fight with Kyle to the Supreme court. all of this could work, and like I said there are good moments, but what the South Park guys have forgotten is that just being mean to public figures is not in itself funny. (The Michael Bay bit and the M. Night Shyamalan thing were very well done.) But those moments are few and far between.