Review: South Park “The Problem with a Poo”

Time to call the waaaaambulance.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Mr. Hankey is informed that the production budget for his big-time Christmas show has been cut in half, and worse yet, is subsequently fired after a round of Ambien-laced tweets are fired off. Hankey wants to fight back and opts to get Kyle as his lawyer though none of that helps so the piece of shit opts to put on his own production anyway.

Meanwhile, VP Strong Woman and PC Principal’s prior flings have come to a head as Strong Woman ends up having five PC babies. Despite the resemblance, Strong Woman is unable to accept the fact that PC Principal is the father of her children. Worst yet, the five babies have a tendency to cry whenever they hear something they don’t agree with.

On the day of Hankey and Kyle’s production, but Hankey’s jokes gain the ire of the PC crybabies despite the fact that a lot of the jokes being laid out aren’t even all that bad which subsequently causes a commotion and the eventual exile of Mr. Hankey from South Park from good. Hankey opts to go to a town where being PC is frowned on and that town? Springfield…home of The Simpsons.

Our Take

After weeks of testing the limits of the PC audience, the producers of South Park finally throw a jab at the nearly year-long conversation about PC culture’s impact on content. As seen in the series, when Kyle is covered in shit, he becomes the outlier of South Park, despite the fact that fellow piece of shit Mr. Hankey is just as nuts as say Eric Cartman who seems content to stay quiet about the matter.

Matt Stone and Trey Park put together an episode that showcases light on both sides of the conversation. People are way too easily offended nowadays and really it isn’t an audience’s job to influence a particular work, and South Park gets that. Clearly an attempt to restoke some of those Problem with Apu flames though not without shining a spotlight on those that pretend to be altruistic, but really come off as petty.

While other publications saw that a straight shot at the Brett Kavanaugh hearings was coming, really, Mr. Hankey’s hearing really didn’t amount to much and was more about the aesthetic of a piece of shit giving his take on the importance of Christmas in front of a government committee. Probably the sillier commentary came with Mr. Hankey using Roseanne Barr’s troubles from earlier in the year as a focal point on the other end of the spectrum as it amounts to the conversation about jokes with more serious racial overtones.

Overall, this week’s episode of South Park is a view of the increasingly wrought battle between free speech and sensitivity to equality. Those thinking that the producers of South Park want to see The Simpsons canceled just because of the #cancelthesimpsons bit, should note that the lone advertising campaign done for the premiere for South Park was, in fact, #cancelSouthPark, and as such should be dismissed just as quickly. I would’ve liked to have seen someone like Stan or Kyle take more of a share of Matt and Trey’s viewpoints and bring them to the forefront as to what they really think, what’s the moral of the story? However, in today’s highly ostracised environment, perhaps keeping the door open to interpretation is the boys’ way of keeping people talking about South Park…until next week’s episode that is.