South Park, "Where My Country Gone?"

Well, it looks like the show’s going to repeat what it did last year and give us a season-long ongoing narrative, because PC Principal and a few other things from last week made it to this episode. I’m not sure how I feel about that, as I felt last year’s connectedness yielded mixed results at best. On the other hand, it made for the night’s top moment this time, with a Caitlyn Jenner gag that almost seems like it was cut for time from last week. It was passively awful and ruthless in the right South Park way, and hilarious.

And, it was kind of downhill from there. The rest of the episode had the perverted, bigoted teacher Mr. Garrison riling people up against the influx of immigrants. But, this is South Park, so there of course was a stand-in for the actual immigrants hated by so many stupid people—sorry, I should be more P.C.: “patriotic Americans”—in the real world.

So, who is this target of Garrison and his followers’ ire? The same time-travelers from when the show broached this subject over a decade ago? A new crazy and dirty creation? Maybe the forgotten British wussy Pip and his family?

The answer is more disappointing than all of them (except for Pip, screw him!), but very predictable: The floppy-headed Canadians.

I’ll probably take some fan heat for this, but it needs to be said: the running Canadian joke is NOT funny. It never was funny. And no, I’m not turning into PC Principal and saying it’s offensive (seriously, if any viewer doesn’t know Canadians are nothing like that in real life…); I’m saying this because it’s just so stupid and always has been. Aside from the movie, everything throughout South Park history that's incorporated this joke is mediocre at best, excruciating at worst.

This time, it’s mediocre. There were some funny lines courtesy of Butters, and the twist of why Canadians are immigrating to the U.S. was amusing. And while it failed to make much of a point on its chosen issue, the satirical sharpness was prime. The depiction of ant-immigrant racism and ignorance was so on point that if it weren’t for some dirtiness thrown in, it would blur the line between parody and imitation. Also, a running plot point of Kyle being denied the chance at being the show's moral center, being ridiculed and dismissed as P.C. when he’s really the voice of reason, stands in stark contrast to the preceding episode. Last week may have made the show the hero of conservatives and other anti-P.C. loudmouths and trolls, but I think this week belongs to the liberal crowd.