Liam Hoofe reviews the seventh episode of South Park season 20, ‘Oh, Jeez’…
To say things have changed in 2016 would be something of an understatement. Donald Trump’s surprise election victory over Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night left the world reeling and the next few years now look incredibly uncertain on both sides of The Atlantic. One thing that hasn’t changed however, is South Park‘s incredible ability to deliver hilarious and perfectly timed social commentary.
Trump’s election victory was a surprise to us all and whilst most of us are still unsure as to do what to do about it Trey Parker and Matt Stone performed the phenomenal feat of managing to change some of their episode to be relevant in the space of 24 hours. Originally titled ‘The Very First Gentleman’ the show yesterday changed it’s title to ‘Oh, Jeez’ in response to the result and went about quickly fitting the result, and the initial reaction, into the episode.
In fact the episode wasted no time getting to it, opening to the announcement that Douche had won the election, whilst fans at a Turd Sandwich rally watching the results come in cried in terror, one of them even shooting himself. The scene was one of a few in the episode that had clearly been put together quickly and didn’t stick around for very long, instead shifting straight away to the Skankhunt Vs Denmark situation that has been one of the show’s main storylines.
This week we saw Gerald getting recruited by Hillary to infiltrate the Danish company Trolltrace and send back as much information as possible to the US government in an attempt to stop Mr Garrison’s looming presidency. This narrative provided the show with some great moments, the best of which was a Life of Brian inspired scene between the Danish troll hunter and Gerald. The scene was a note for note recreation of the ‘Biggus Dickus’ scene from Monty Python and was one of the episode’s best moments.
Another high point in the episode was the return of the boys vs girls story line. Whilst Cartman and Heidi dropped the ball this week, Butters was on fine form and his wieners out movement continues to be one of the show’s best visual gags. The character is never better than we is enraged and this season has really played up to that. The inclusion of Bill Clinton and Bill Cosby’s Gentleman Club was golden and the dancing sequence between the pair was one of the season’s best moments so far. Some of the Clinton stuff clearly had to have been edited in the last 24 hours and credit to Parker and Stone for pulling that off. The sequences, for the most part, fitted seamlessly into the episode and never really struggled to land.
One of the episode’s final scenes saw Clinton telling Butters how he needed to be nice to girls now, because they were about to realise all the twisted stuff they had been up to in recent times, and a feminist backlash was well and truly on the way. In terms of pushing the narrative along this scene felt essential, it established the battle lines between the boys and the girls further and was a perfect demonstration of some of the perhaps, misplaced anger from both genders in these recent times of uncertainty.
The Member Berries took something of a back seat this episode which was a bit of a shame, but the two scenes they were involved in provided us with some nice visual gags. Caitlin Jenner throwing up member berries in Randy’s face, and then him doing the same to his family later in the episode were two particularly funny gross out moments. The nostalgia epidemic that is sweeping South Park via the Member Berries is still the show’s most enigmatic story line and a big reveal is surely just around the corner.
With only three episodes of the season left South Park Season 20 is marching on at full steam. ‘Oh, Jeez’ was a brilliant reminder than in times of uncertainty we can always turn to South Park to shine a little light on the situation, and to remind us that at the end of it all, the world isn’t going to end and that politics are often, utterly ridiculous.
Liam Hoofe
Originally published November 10, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
