Review: South Park ‘The Magic Bush’

Spoilers Below:

After a short break, South Park returned to Comedy Central with a new episode. Let’s hope the time off didn’t cause the show to lose any of its tremendous momentum.

This week, a bored Cartman discovered that Butters’ dad owns a drone for photography purposes, and of course had to steal it. He, Butters, and Kenny then explored its capabilities, eventually spying on (and filming) Craig’s mom while she was changing. Cartman then showed Stan a snap of Craig’s au naturel mom, and fearing he would be discovered as the source, quickly uploaded it to the Internet to cover his tracks. When Kyle overheard Eric and Butters discussing making the video in the bathroom, Cartman turned the clip into a music video starring them, to make it seem like that was the video to which he was referring, once again being forced to cover his tracks.

Outraged that drones are flying freely about the town, the neighborhood watched obtained one for themselves, and began flying it freely about the town – including a visit to Craig’s mom’s window. The police then got a drone of their own, and, well, this news story should sum it up: “Shock and outrage all over the state tonight after an on-duty police drone chased and shot down an unarmed civilian drone. And worst of all, yes, the civilian drone was black.”

After a protest by a bunch of civilian drones got broken up by a police drone, drone rioting began. In the end, Cartman saved the day by creating a decoy that resembled Craig’s mom, and lured the drones out of town.

In Case You Missed It:

1) Any episode where Butters is in the first scene is a good episode.

2) The poster on the back of Butters’ door was for something called Bill Won’t Run

3) Miss the continuity that had been occurring this season? South Park Elementary still has its “Cissies” bathroom

4) Randy Marsh is hilarious any and every time. Including saying, “Ewwwwww…” in the background.

5) Yes, South Park just said: “You can get on the Internet right now and look at that chick from Hunger Games’ butthole” and “Jennifer Lawrence’s butthole didn’t take a picture of itself. It started with her.”

6) “Your wiener, my balls: they’re all public domain.”

7) “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

8) The infamous video was called “Full Metal Bush” on YouTube. Other videos on the page included “Crazy mom spoils daughter,” “Cutest kittens alive!!!!!>:3,” “Deadliest training method…WORKS!,” and “Secret Movie Trailer.”

9) It was difficult to make out the comments on “Full Metal Bush,” but someone named Brent1989 said, “Locked and loaded!” and another named Sammwich Time said, “Girl need a trim!”

10) Did the 3D-animated blow-up doll freak anyone else out?

11) “Craig’s mom’s bush, Craig’s mom’s bush, gargantuan thicket of madness. Bigger than Earth, and denser than gold, truly a magical bush to behold.”

All things considered, this was another solid episode of South Park for a number of reasons. First, it touched on a lot of issues. Drones were debated, Ferguson was spoofed, and the whole thing was a reference to “The Fappening” celebrity nude photo leak scandal. They expressed a loose opinion on each, but didn’t take a firm stance like they’ve done on previous episodes. It was more of a parody of the events rather than a commentary.

Second, the show basically involved the whole town. Sure, every character wasn’t used, but most of the major ones had at least an appearance. Not that there’s anything wrong with episodes that only focus on one or a few characters, but sometimes it’s nice to spread the love a little. Especially when my two favorite South Park residents, Randy and Butters, have prominent roles.

And finally, as always, it was funny. It wasn’t hilarious, but it was still worthy of its fair share of laughs. For instance, there weren’t a ton of quotable lines or jokes (save for the bush lines) but there were some good statements on the issues that also happened to be quite funny. South Park has a real knack for taking a line of dialogue, even if it’s relatively mundane, and injecting it with its patented style of humor. However, I think watching the plot unfold was probably more entertaining and humorous than most of things actually said during it.

In the end, it wasn’t quite a slam dunk, but they still scored, and it was enough for a win (sorry, yesterday was the first day of the NBA season.) It didn’t live up to a couple of the other episodes this season, but not many episodes can.

And I’m pretty sure I’m going to have the “Craig’s Mom’s Bush” song stuck in my head for days.