South Park, "You're Not Yelping"

I’m a little disappointed in myself for laughing at that closing musical number. Not because it was mean or all that offensive (for all its grossness), but because the joke was just so easy. South Park has gone here before, and anyone who's ever worked in, eaten at, or just seen a movie or TV episode taking place in a restaurant has heard these jokes before. And yet, there I was laughing it up like the immature kid I was when I fell in love with the show. It wasn’t as goofily great as the musical takedown of the Kony 2012 guy, but hey, I’m humming it to myself as I write this, and probably still will be tomorrow.

What led to this point was that all the restaurants in South Park, from the longstanding ones to the classy joints in the recently gentrified part of town, became beset by insufferable Yelp reviewers. All of them see themselves as the most important voice on the subject of food online, and all abuse their standing to get special treatment. And of course, Cartman is among them, using threats of a bad Yelp review to bully the student son of a restaurant owner.

And all the while, I was thinking to myself, “Is Yelp really that influential in the restaurant business currently?” Yes, the last episode two weeks ago was one that shows Trey Parker and Matt Stone still have good ideas left in the tank, but this one is the latest in a relatively recent batch that makes them sound pretty old. Sometimes their indignation at current culture is righteous (last week’s episode and their critique of freemium games last year certainly were). Sometimes it's just light and funny (“Handicar"). But at its worst, it comes off as just crotchety (last year’s “#REHASH” being the greatest example). That was kind of the case here.

Maybe I would have been more forgiving if it was funnier (I’m not too disinclined to agree with the overall point about arrogance and self-importance). But, quite frankly, I could see what jokes were coming from the start and was just waiting for them to finally show themselves. Though I had a pretty good chuckle when they finally came at the end, I wasn’t laughing much while I was waiting.