South Park coins the hashtag #ShamelessAmerica in this week’s episode.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
Spring-boarding off the Whole Foods and Yelp storylines from previous episodes, this week’s South Park lampooned another PC hot button — shaming. And not just body and fat shaming, but the all-too-familiar “charity shaming” at cash registers across the country — you know, the “donate a dollar to help feed starving children” shaming. I think it’s safe to say most of us have been in Randy’s awkward position this week: “Not today, thanks,” followed by that condescending stare from the clerk.
Which is why Randy’s storyline hit its mark this week. Not only was it relatable, but it also touched on some of the same points Cartman’s storyline addressed, but in a finer, more innovative way. Instead of tackling body shaming directly, Matt and Trey devised a clever analogy that simply mirrored some of the same issues. More importantly though, this storyline was actually pretty funny and ramped up the ridiculousness accordingly, going from a simple ask to Randy forcibly announcing over the intercom that he did not want to give a dollar to the hungry kids. Granted, by the time it got around to putting a hamster through college, the joke had been beaten to death, but for the first few interactions, it played well. It also deftly captured the subtle harassment technique of the shamer — in this case, the affable clerk — who badgered Randy with passive-aggressive remarks.
Of course, there’s nothing subtle about Cartman’s antics, which cut the pretense in favor of addressing body shaming head-on. The results were not quite as astute. Here, Cartman assumed the role of a a quivering, melodramatic victim (along with Steven Seagal and Vin Diesel), with PC Principal assigning Butters to filter Cartman’s social media feed — a fool’s errand if there ever was one. This side seemed to take the position of, “If you don’t want people fat shaming you, don’t post pictures of yourself on social media.” For poor Butters, this meant sifting through all the horrible comments the Internet has to offer, resulting in a mental breakdown.
But similar to the premiere episode, Matt and Trey’s stance on the matter was ultimately unclear. On the one side, Randy’s, the shamer was at fault, while on the other side, Cartman’s, the shamee was to blame. While the creators made good arguments for both sides, they didn’t seem to favor one over the other — which isn’t so much satire as it is reinforcing both sides of the same argument and lacks conviction.
Beyond that, the midpoint addition of “Reality” felt half-baked and thrown in just to pad out the episode. That said, the tongue-and-cheek ending with all the starving kids getting iPads to do Butters’ job for him was a nice way of tying Randy and Cartman’s storylines together.
This episode also benefitted from a Broadway-inspired tune, eponymously titled “Safe Space,” complete with minimalist framework sets. In Cartman’s own words, “That was nice.” The rest of the episode aside, Matt and Trey’s knack for writing music is undeniable. It kind of makes me wish they’d take another crack at a musical, or even just a musical episode of South Park (although I realize that would be difficult, given their six-day turnarounds).
This week’s South Park took on the subject of shaming with some success — specifically with Randy’s storyline, which was highly amusing. Meanwhile, Cartman’s fat shaming subplot was okay, but it felt incongruous with the aforementioned Randy storyline, resulting in a vague stance on the creators’ part. However, this episode also included a catchy song-and-dance number, “Safe Space,” which gave Cartman’s storyline a boost. Meanwhile, “Reality” was a nonstarter.
