Review: South Park ‘Grounded Vindaloop’

Spoilers Below:

We are now entering the home stretch of South Park’s 18th season, and there’s no question about the success of the first six episodes thus far. If this one, and the last three, can keep the momentum going, the show could have its first consistently high-quality season in years. No use beating around the bush (especially Craig’s mom’s bush) so let’s get right into it.

The episode began with Butters wandering the halls of South Park Elementary wearing a makeshift pair of “Oculus” virtual reality goggles and noise-canceling headphones under the direction of Cartman, who tricked him into believing he was really just experiencing a virtual reality world. Eric continued to deceive him, using fancy lingo like “access point” and phrases such as, “the discrepancy bars are oscillating,” getting Butters to do as he wished. However, Butters got carried away, and punched his dad in the junk, carjacked someone, and got himself stabbed by a hooker.

Covering his own ass (or possibly just further fucking with him), Cartman told Butters that he was still trapped in the virtual world. But the tables turned when Cartman got a call from Oculus tech support, informing him that he was the one trapped in a simulation, due to a malfunction in the glasses. Kyle, Stan, and Kenny eventually found him, and Kyle went into the virtual space, only for Cartman to tell Kyle he was the one wearing the goggles and stuck in the fake world.

Inside the supposed world of Cartman, Kyle and Cartman found Stan and Kenny, and Stan informed them that they are all, in fact, in the real world, having taken turns with the Oculus glasses. To confirm this, they once again called Steve at customer service, who informed them that Butters was the first one of the group to contact him. As soon as Steve hangs up, however, he gets a call from himself, informing him that “a customer who was in virtual reality called customer service, and it has created a customer feedback loop,” which in India is called a “Customer Feedback Vindaloop.” (In addition, Butters was caught in a “Grounded Vindaloop,” because when you get grounded in virtual reality, you get grounded in real life.)

Eventually, Steve called the gang and they realized if they said they received good customer service, even though their questions weren’t answered, the loop would, and did, end. Everyone disappeared but Stan, who retreated back to the access point. At the episode’s close, it was revealed (and shown) that the boys were real, live-action kids, and real Stan remarked that the virtual reality world was “pretty cool, but the graphics suck.”

In Case You Missed It:

1) I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: any episode that starts with Butters in the first scene is brilliant. And he’s not an asshole.

2) “I could almost feel his balls on my fist!”

3) Hey, it’s Bill Hader as Steve!

4) I, too, hate it when customer service reps don’t help you with anything and then ask how their service was. Or worse, when they say, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” You didn’t help me with the whole reason I called!

5) I’ve seen the South Park kids re-imagined as real people previously, but never with a Butters character before last night. Hooray!

6) “Ohh, fuck you!”

South Park has such a unique and recognizable style associated with it, that sometimes it’s easy to pigeonhole the show. At first (and once in a while since then) the show was out for shock value. It was a crude bunch of third-graders spouting off more profanity than Ozzy Osbourne in an argument with George Carlin. They capitalized off the offensiveness, crafting a show that seemed to push the envelope further every week.

But then the show discovered it actually had semi-important and relevant things to say, and people were willing to listen. South Park’s clever but absurd allegories stated opinions that were surprisingly level-headed, and usually took a middle ground between extremes, or simply called someone of something out on their bullshit. Thus far this season, episodes have focused on the Washington Redskin’s name, gluten, transgender people, Uber, leaked nudes, and freemium apps, to name a few. Every installment has had something to say about a current issue, and made no secret of their intentions.

Once in a while, though, throughout its glorious seventeen-plus seasons, South Park just provides a damn good story. “Grounded Vindaloop” is one of those episodes.

Sure, you could look for the deeper meaning of Trey & Matt’s commentary on virtual reality, or the newest tech device, or you could simply view it as an entertaining tale that referenced Total Recall, and a host of other sci-fi, time/dimension/reality jumping shows and films. I’ll stick with the latter.

It’s always fun to see (and sometimes try and guess along the way) who South Park will be lampooning in each week’s episode. It’s also fun to be grossed out, or made uncomfortable by the content. But at the end of the day, if the episode has funny dialogue, and an enjoyable plot from start to finish, then it doesn’t need to have any deeper meaning or commentary.

It can just be fun.