Wednesdays 10:00 PM on Comedy Central

South Park Review: Anonymous Andy Takes a Load Off in San Diego

by at . Comments

This week's episode of South Park, "Butterballs," was absolutely brilliant. It featured that perfect mixture of elements that make for a fantastic half hour: pointed social commentary, along with plenty of ludicrous over-the-top moments.

This installment took the two-pronged approach of satirizing both the upcoming documentary Bully and KONY 2012, especially the controversy around the films and the well-publicized meltdown of one of the latter's creators. Stan ended up creating an anti-bullying film that helped bring attention to himself, while Butters tried to muster the courage to face his unlikely bully, while also becoming the face of Stan's campaign.

Stan Produces a Video

I especially loved the recurring elements. Every time the episode wound up with a bullying situation with a locked bathroom door, I only laughed even harder as the situations grew more ridiculous.

Every character driving the creation of the film showed that even people with good intentions can be flawed. While it became apparent that each time someone of power came along, he/she would act like a bully, it only got funnier because, well, it just kept happening.

That's the thing about this week's episode: its strength was in those inane moments. A grandma bullying her grandson? An extended musical sequence that featured Cartman dressing up as a female singer talking about her "vajayjay" that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the sequence? Butters beating up a famous talk show host? It was all absurrd, and it will likely stand up well out of context when KONY 2012 and Bully are all just asides in the Wikipedia article about 2012.

It all culminated in an absolutely fantastic musical end sequence. Take a load off in San Diego, indeed. (Based on what I've seen of San Diego when I've been there for the last couple Comic-Cons, the locales were actually fairly accurate as well).

That was just the cherry on the hilarious sundae because while it all makes sense when aware of the real-world context, it's still just laugh-out-loud ridiculous. This was the funniest episode of the show so far this season. Visit our South Parks quotes section now and see if you agree!


Editor Rating: 4.6 / 5.0
  • 4.6 / 5.0
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
User Rating:

Rating: 4.4 / 5.0 (120 Votes)
Tags: ,
Like Us On Facebook

Want more South Park?


From Around the Web

    More From TV Fanatic


    Gossip Girl Rewatch: There Might Be Blood


    Duck Dynasty Recap: A Brand of Brothers


    Graceland Review: Unintended Consequences?


    The Bridge Review: Finger, Hand, Ear?


    Avatar This is the video which is being parodied.


    Jay, You're comments make me want to bully you right now.


    Fantastic ep, even though the anti bullying song was copied off an internet idea they did an totally original ( and funny) song on it, lets make bullying kill it's self is on my i pod


    "It's like declaring war on war" - that's brilliant, Jay. I'll have to steal that line from you sometime.


    I felt they didn't quite give enough info to show they were lampooning the Kony 2012 guy. I was 99% sure they were, but I didn't know he did it in San Diego. But I guess it's okay they didn't have to explain I suppose that makes it funnier and stay more relevant if watched years down the road by someone unfamiliar with the kony guy. I'm glad they lampooned this because I too have felt some TV show hosts bully the kids into talking about bullying. I was hoping they'd make an episode about how these types of people basically are into bullying the bullies but this comes close enough. The point is that bullying is everywhere and comes in all shapes and sizes. Heck, most of the time, the anti-bullying people employ bullying when describing bullies (they'll use insults like "jerks", etc). An anti-bullying campaign is like declaring war on war. Peer pressure itself can become a form of bullying, especially when exerted in the way they want where that behavior becomes taboo. It can't be done without bullying especially to young children. Schools should probably focus on kids learning to be self-confident and stand up for themselves, less than focus on disparaging those who bully.