Review: South Park ‘Handicar’

This one came in handy.

 

 

Spoiler’s Below:

How can Trey Parker and Matt Stone top last week’s South Park episode? How, dammit?! Or is the better question: can they top it at all? Well, I don’t know, because I wrote this lead before watching the episode.

Stephen and Linda Stotch ran into Gerald and Sheila Broflovski (a.k.a. Mr. and Mrs. Butters & Mr. and Mrs. Kyle, respectively) outside of the movies while hailing a “Handicar,” Timmy’s handicap-run taxi service and obvious spoof of Uber and other similar mobile rape traps.

The service was being offered as a form of fundraising for the special needs kids’ summer camp trip, which excited everyone except for shady student Nathan and his goon Mimsy, who vowed to run the company out of business to avoid the camp.

After unsuccessfully trying to have Timmy scared (by breaking his already crippled legs), and infiltrating the company to sexually harass customers, Nathan and Mimsy (along with Tesla CEO Elon Musk) finally decided to hold a race against Timmy in order to sabotage him. In a Wacky Races tribute, the two competed with a Lyft car, a Zipcar, a standard taxicab driven by an angry Russian, a Hummer salesman driving a Hummer NoClass, Neve Campbell in a Canadian concept vehicle powered by female natural gas, a completely automated self-driving car from Japan, and Dick Dastardly and Muttley in the Mean Machine.

After Timmy got in the lead, Nathan attempted to destroy him, but the plan went awry (with some help from other Handicars) and Timmy won. Timmy then sold the company to Elon Musk for $2.3 billion.

In Case You Missed It:

1) The movies playing at the cinema were Gone Girl and The Boxtrolls.

2) According to the Handicar app’s ad, “Each ride comes with a complimentary beverage and snack.”

3) Handicar hats/medallions are called “handicaps.”

4) Elon Musk is going to actually guest voice in a Simpsons episode. Just saying.

5) Why was Jimmy Fallon shown shoving a giant pickle in some celebrity’s face?

6) Mimsy thought Matthew McConaughey was the “fake soft-spoken douchebag that everybody loves” that Nathan was referring to. It was Timmy.

7) When McConaughey was sucked into the wormhole, he yelled: “Mimsyyyyyyyy!”

Alas, after last week almost any episode would come as a letdown, but all things considered, this one wasn’t too bad. It made a good point (mostly in questions asked by Mimsy, like, “Why don’t you guys just make your cars cleaner and nicer and try to be better to your customers, so that you can compete with Handicar’s popularity in the marketplace?” and “Maybe Handicar is a kind of economic natural selection where the more diligent workers are weeding out the useless ones?” Despite the topic not being especially controversial, and Trey & Matt not offering an opinion that’s especially enlightening, it still was worth something worth addressing.

On top of that, there was a decent amount of humor. I actually enjoy the Nathan/Mimsy combination from time to time, and once again they brought their mixture of an innocent, old-timey feel and South Park’s usual inappropriateness. Like playing off suggested child rape with upbeat music. Also, the Matthew McConaughey bits cracked me up.

Plus, the whole thing was pulled off without Cartman, Stan, Kyle, or Kenny. These episodes (whether they focus on Timmy, Jimmy, Butters, Mr. Garrison, or some other small character) can be hit or miss, but in this case it provided a nice break from the usual story structure and characters, and ended up being quite refreshing.

Also, there was yet another instance of continuity in this season, with Randy singing, “Lorde, Lorde, Lorde,” while on a Handicar ride. I wonder how long they’ll keep this up.

I also wonder how long South Park can keep up cranking out superbly solid episodes, in a season that has been banging on every cylinder that made it work in the past.

For now, let’s just keep enjoying the ride.