Liam Hoofe reviews the fourth episode of South Park season 20…
After a brief hiatus last week South Park Season 20 was back underway with ‘Wieners Out’, an episode that as luck would have it, felt all the more important following the Trump tape leaks last weekend. Surprisingly though the show totally avoided the presidential race this week, with no mention of Mr Garrison or Hillary Clinton, instead it opted to shift its focus fully onto the growing civil war between the boys and girls of South Park elementary and Gerald’s inability to leave his trolling days behind him.
Having all been dumped two episodes ago, a group of the boys, led by Butters of all people, decided it was time to stand up against the girls and in protest decided to drop their trousers and expose themselves during the national anthem. This fueled a fire in the rest of the South Park elementary boys and soon they were all walking around the school, waving banners and their wieners for all to see. The episode felt particularly on the nose after Trump’s now infamous ‘grab her in the pussy’ comment, with the gender issues raging through the school. It’s also a fine testament to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, that even after 20 years on the air they can still manage to find new ways to gross us out and shock us, this ability was on display even more as the episode progressed, with a bedroom scene between Sheila and Gerald being the show’s most memorable moment, for all the wrong reasons.
Running alongside the boys vs girls narrative this episode was Gerald’s ongoing Skankhunt42 story line. Having been called out at the end of last episode it turns out Gerald was wanted by an army of trolls, who are preparing to do battle with the Danish government over a proposed website that will expose them all. Watching Gerald’s attempts to hide his double life from his wife and kids led to some brilliant moments in the episode, the aforementioned bedroom scene being the best, though a scene where Sheila catches Gerald on his Ipad also raised a few laughs. It remains unclear as to where exactly the show is heading with this story line but I sense that it could end up being the series’ main arc as things progress. The boys/girls story line is certainly providing the show with some brilliant moments, but the troll story line looks as though it may be dealing with some bigger issues and it will be fascinating to see what Parker and Stone have in store for us with this one.
The show also did its fair share of fan service this week, with the reappearance of a season ten character from the much loved ‘Make Love Not Warcraft’ (which actually aired ten years ago last week) in the episode’s opening and closing scenes and an amusing throwback to last season’s Tweek X Craig episode thrown in by Butters, providing the shows with two of its most satisfying moments.
Perhaps the only downside to this episode was Cartman. His twitter death was funny last episode but the pay off, with Cartman having turned into a more mature, smarter man didn’t really hit home. Cartman turning good only to turn even more wicked than before has been done an awful lot and, whilst this line has the added addition of a girlfriend the story still feels slightly stale.
South Park Season 20 is really getting going now and the season’s big themes look as though they will rear their heads in the next couple of episodes. ‘Weiners Out’ was a great episode of South Park, one that reminded us just how much the show can still surprise us, even after 20 years.
Liam Hoofe
Originally published October 14, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
