South Park, "The Magic Bush"

Meh.

Tonight’s episode kind of epitomizes where South Park is at this point in its existence. By that, I mean both what’s good about it—the in-the-moment timeliness, the cutthroat satire, the brilliant ability to allegorize an issue using the surreal and disgusting—but also the negatives, namely how all of those things sometimes come at the expense of humor.

The plot has the devious duo of Cartman and Butters getting their hands on a drone, which they fly around town and use to photograph one character’s mom undressing through her window. As is to be expected, Cartman shares it with the world, leading to the town to deploy their own drone fleet to protect the neighborhood. When they start abusing power, a new fleet comes in to police them, and so on and so on.

It’s obviously putting forth the issue of allowing the powers that be to protect us by forfeiting our privacy. But the stronger point is made about the recent privacy debate in the wake of all those celebrity photo leaks. The woman exposed in this case (the mother of minor character Craig) is less a victim than an object of leering to the men in South Park, who are all fixated on her private features and not the fact that her privacy was invaded, much like how the media is blaming said celebrities for taking revealing photos instead of condemning the hackers who released them. Her unashamed retort that what her body looks like is beside the point, that what matters is the fact that she was exposed against her will, has some real pathos to it, but, alas, falls on deaf ears.

It makes a good point, but is it worth the cost of the episode not being funny (and for that matter, even if the point is a good one, is it the duty of a cartoon to make it?)? The only joke is the repeated, unfunny description of the Craig’s mom’s private parts. Really, that is the only joke, as the episode left little room for more by getting overstuffed with so many points about privacy, the celebrity leak controversy, police militarization, and even some flat spooky thriller elements.

Maybe it was just a bad joke. If it had been a better one, maybe it would have worked. There have been many episodes recently where the show was topical and very funny, and next week, it could very well tackle a current issue or fad while making us laugh. Still, would it be so bad to have a simple funny episode that doesn't make a point once in a while? Like, say, a light, carefree half hour about body hair and cannibalism?