Liam Hoofe reviews the third episode of South Park Season 25, ‘City People’…
Back in 2015, South Park had a great run of episodes in Season 19 with its SoDaSoPa storyline. The story was centred around the gentrification of Downtown South Park, with Kenny’s House famously becoming a bit of a hot spot as coffee-loving hipsters took over.
You’d think that Parker and Stone would have beaten that horse to death, but seven years later they have managed to take aim at gentrification and city folk once again with episode 3 of season 25, simply titled, City People. The episode centres around Cartman’s Mom getting a job as an estate agent thanks to an influx of remote workers from the city moving into South Park. Cartman, annoyed at his mom for not giving him enough attention, starts up his own real-estate business and goes to war with her.
Cartman becoming an estate agent just so his mom can’t have a job is a classic South Park set-up, and there’s a reason the show falls back into these kinds of premises so often – because they’re often hilarious. This episode manages to provide plenty of laughs, with the gags about estate agents not outstaying their welcome and Cartman delivering plenty of cracking one-liners.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of South Park if there wasn’t some social commentary sprinkled in as well. The takedown of gentrification is still as enjoyable as it was seven years ago, with Parker and Stone somehow finding new ways to take down city people and their way of life.
The constant pigeon-like clucking of the city people shouldn’t work as well as it does, but it provides plenty of great laughs throughout the episode. Likewise, Mr Kim’s city/shitty pun should have grown tired now, given that it has been around for well over 20 years, but somehow, it still manages to raise a chuckle. Sometimes, the bluntest hammer is the best option, and there is nothing particularly subtle about the satire on offer here, but that still doesn’t stop it from being very funny throughout.
South Park Season 25 may only be around for six episodes, but it is shaping up to be one of the finest in recent years. The show has hit all of its targets in its opening three episodes and shown that there is nothing quite like it when it comes to long-term consistency. City People was another top entry from Parker and Stone, with Cartman being at his spoiled best, and the interactions with his Mom and the city people providing plenty of laughs.
Liam Hoofe
