Welcome to Sodo Sopa, where there’s no swearing, no weirdness and no speeches. Also, no poor people.
Warning: Full spoilers from the episode follow.
After turning Mr. Garrison into South Park’s resident “Donald Trump” in last week’s episode, it only made sense that the town would pay for it in “The City Part of Town.” The irony of the townspeople being up in arms about Jimmy Fallon (who loves everything!) making fun of them on national TV when they themselves are constantly ragging on stuff was pretty hilarious. “Apparently he doesn’t care that his jokes are at the expense of actual people.”
But as this season has already made clear, South Park is a changed town. They’re socially conscious, dammit! Which is exactly why they felt they deserved a Whole Foods in their town — the mark of a true gentrified district. Of course, the funniest part about this episode was the fact that the only place to gentrify in South Park was Kenny’s house and… pretty much just Kenny’s house.
Compared to previous episodes though — including the first two this season — “The City Part of Town” wasn’t all that outrageous. Not that that’s a bad thing, because a lot of the recurring bits here were amusing. The idea of the whole town turning Kenny’s family homestead into a trendy hotspot where “all economic classes” (read: hipsters) could mingle was very clever. In fact, I chuckled more than once at the “Sodo Sopa” ads, as Trey Parker’s soothing narrator voice described the different eateries and bars around the “historic Kenny’s house.”
However, I thought this episode relied a bit too much on “PC” Randy and Mayor McDaniels trying to please the stuffy Whole Foods inspector. By that point, the joke had gone about as far as it could go, and the distinct lack of the boys’ perspective on the matter felt off. For example, I thought Cartman might take advantage of the situation to suit his own interests, or Kyle and Stan would object to Kenny’s family being priced out of the area. (Although I suppose this is the dawn of a new South Park era where moral speeches are no longer permitted.)
Meanwhile, Kenny’s child labor subplot, which I thought was going be the main focus of this episode, was drastically downplayed and actually had little crossover with the main storyline. Even when Kenny and the City Wok owner conspired against the Sodo Sopa project, it backfired, resulting in the town getting a Whole Foods after all. That said, Kenny revealing he’d spent his earnings on a toy for his sister was surprisingly heartwarming, and there was some justice — albeit vague — in Kenny’s area being abandoned again, now that the new grocery store was far away from it.
While Kenny’s character-driven subplot felt like an afterthought, this week’s South Park served up a clever commentary on gentrification — most notably the Sodo Sopa ads. Granted, the main joke of renovating Kenny’s house only had so much milage in it, but it was still humorous enough for one episode at least.
