so South Park just released its newest
special and as usual I am substantially
late to covering it but at this point I
think you guys would be more surprised
if I was on time so we don't really have
to talk about it they started teasing
this special a few weeks back and in
typical South Park fashion it was clear
that they weren't straying away from the
hot button issues of today they were
going after OIC the hottest new trend in
weight loss and what better show to
tackle a weight loss craze than the show
that has one of the most iconic fat kids
of all time now what we all expected was
for South Park to make fun of this new
weight loss Trend and make some topical
jokes along the way you know that's what
they usually do what I didn't expect was
a scathing commentary of the US healthc
care system pharmaceutical companies
sugar companies and even lizo and of
course all of these things are equally
evil so instead of me yapping for an
unreasonably long time like I usually do
for these intros let's get to talking
about crop tops skinny Cartman and
mascots for cereal dying gruesome deaths
this is how South Park brutalized
Healthcare big Pharma and lizo
[Music]
the episode begins with a disclaimer
about the use of real audio of Trey
Parker using an obesity drug which is
funny because I always talk about how
Matt and Trey do Insane amounts of
research into the topics they cover but
Trey really took it to the next level
with this one I mean he gained a bunch
of weight just so that he could know
firsthand what it's like to use asmic
now that's a man who's committed to his
craft so the episode begins with Cartman
at a checkup and the doctor reminds him
that his weight is very unhealthy I
think it's time time for some drastic
measures to bring down his weight oh God
here we go with this again you see this
is nothing new to Cartman he's gone
through this several times before but
he's never actually showed any interest
in losing weight even when he gets sent
to Fat Camp back in season 4 the only
thing he shows any interest in was
profiting off of his fellow campers by
running a black market for snacks but
Cartman has had many years to change as
a person and when the doctor tells him
that he could not be fat anymore he is
Overjoyed at the thought now since it's
Cartman it's not because of the health
or self-esteem benefits that losing
large amounts of weight would bring but
rather because he wants to be able to
freely insult people you see Cartman is
delusional enough to believe that
literally the only flaw he has is his
weight so if he weren't fat he could say
awful things to people and they would
have nothing to respond with hello there
Pakistan your whole country ising dumb
and it smells like ass well you are a
normal person you are very average
looking this was a pretty clever way to
give Cartman the motivation to lose
weight and it plays out even better as
the episode continues the problem is
it's $1,200 a month for the medication
which Cartman's mom would never be able
to afford so instead of OIC the doctor
offers a substitute for the
medication all right I'm going to write
you a prescription for lizo she's a
really good singer who talks about body
positivity and just being happy with the
way you look as it turns out lizo is
less of a medication and more of a
mindset now if you don't know who lizo
is which apparently is very possible
considering the amount of comments I've
received from viewers who claim to be in
their 50s and 60s so shout out to all
the viewers old enough to be my parents
lizo is a rapper who often preaches body
positivity and self-love hence why they
use her name to represent the idea of
body positivity as a whole they evolved
this joke throughout the special and
lizo even recorded her reaction to a
fake commercial they make for it which
we'll talk about later on we then cut to
a montage of real life media coverage of
OIC backed by a folk version of the
South Park theme song I'm going down to
South Park going to have myself a TI
which I was really happy to hear funnily
enough I was just thinking about how we
haven't had any changes to the theme
song in a while now so it was pretty
refreshing to hear this change up this
whole intro really feels like the
opening to a documentary which is kind
of fitting since I always see tweets
claiming that South Park is basically a
documentary at this point but we open at
tegr farms where Randy is arguing with
Shelly about wearing a crop top to
school and I don't want my innocent
little daughter going to school dressed
like aore Shelly decides to ignore Randy
and go to school anyways and Randy
leaves us with a piece of wisdom that
will definitely not be relevant
throughout this special if you walk
around wearing a shirt that exposes your
belly you end up with a bad group of
people doing a bunch of drugs Sharon
goes to get some coffee and is chatting
with Wendy's mom about it who brings up
the fact that all of the moms are using
OIC and wearing crop tops to show off
their stomachs as she says this Butters
and Craigs moms walk up doing exactly
that they're unwilling to admit to
actually using these drugs though and
Butter's mom only admits it when the
others do the rest of the moms discuss
the upcoming party where they all get
together and use OIC and Butter's mom
decides to stop by at school Cartman is
absolutely distraught at not being able
to afford OIC and butters decides to ask
Kyle for help Cartman tells Kyle the
situation giving us a line that
perfectly summarizes the American
healthc care system and one of the major
messages of the whole special rich
people get oympic poor people get body
positivity despite his better judgment
Kyle decides to try to help Cartman by
taking him to his insurance company
which is straight out of a sci-fi movie
that is until they reveal that they want
to file claim and they're directed to a
wing that's a bit less
impressive hello they argue with the man
in the claims department who is
essentially the sloth from zootopia and
he tells them about how they might be
able to get it covered if they do one
simple thing so all you have to do is
navigate the American healthare system
we then get a montage of the boys doing
just that backed by an original song
from Butters we're going to navigate the
American Health System it's there for
you and just fill out these forms this
is probably my favorite part of the
entire special just because it's so real
as someone who has recently entered
adulthood and begun dealing with this
kind of stuff it's almost too real like
we all know how South Park likes to take
things to the extreme for the sake of
Comedy but this quite literally is not
an exaggeration this is literally what
it's like to try to get anything done
through the US Healthcare System some of
you know this but a lot of you probably
don't but I'm actually a registered
nurse outside of YouTube specifically a
psychiatric nurse in the situations that
I see from patients every day are
honestly worse than even this
over-the-top comedic portrayal
psychiatric patients especially are
likely to be forgotten about or forced
to jump through countless Hoops by
insurance companies assuming they even
have insurance at all which most of them
don't it's an incredibly sad situation
that countless people in the US suffer
from every day and quite frankly it's
hard to see any way out of it with the
way that the Health Care system is so
deeply intertwined with insurance and
pharmaceutical companies creating a
feedback loop that just funnels money
into their pockets while leaving people
dying more financially destroyed and now
that my ranting has backed me into an
awkward sad Corner let's go back to the
funny cartoon but yeah this scene is
pretty hilarious especially as it gets
more and more complicated until it
eventually devolves into confused chaos
placing Butters in an mcer painting and
even in the Tesseract from
Interstellar
help meanwhile Randy goes to pick up
Shelly from school while wearing a crop
top to try to get back at her when twe's
mom takes notice of ry's outfit and
begins to suspect that he might share a
secret with her you're into the drug
drug well yeah I'm into drugs ry's
complete misunderstanding of the
situation leads to him being invited to
Craig's mom's house where they have
parties where they all use OIC together
Randy shows up ready to rage but quickly
becomes concerned when he doesn't
recognize the drugs they're using and we
all know that if Randy of all people is
questioning using a drug it's got to be
completely foreign to him also quick
side note they mentioned that Wendy's
mom brought the drugs and they refer to
her as Alexis and I'm pretty sure that
this is the first time they've ever even
mentioned her first name so that's cool
I guess but as we all expected Randy
ends up taking the OIC and he parties
with the moms all night the next morning
he notices a suspicious lack of a
hangover as well as an appetite he has a
conversation with t about it where he
mentions all the benefits of this
seemingly miracle drug last night I was
partying with nine hot mils and this
morning I woke up and guess what I don't
feel like total [ __ ] meanwhile the rest
of the boys get Stan and Kenny to get in
on their new plan to create their own
OIC by ordering powdered Supply and bulk
from India and mixing it themselves and
Kyle discusses how he learned about all
of this through only the most reliable
resources who needs hospitals and
insurance when we have Tik Tok and
YouTube Sharon begins to notice some
strange changes in Randy and asks if
he's using OIC to which Randy responds
by gaslighting her enough to throw her
off the trail while simultaneously
shaming her enough to get her to
question her own body afterwards he
throws on his crop top and heads to
another party but when he gets there he
finds out they're all out of drugs so
like some true Junkies they decide the
easiest way to get their hands on some
is to rob a pharmacy they head over in
their disguises which are totally
inconspicuous and they're in and out in
no time one of my favorite running gags
throughout the episode is the fact that
not only are the women showing off their
stomachs at all times but they're
literally like always posing like a
model to better show them off even Randy
begins to do it striking a pose as he
leaves the pharmacy it's pretty
hilarious so the rest of the boys decide
it's time to test their homemade OIC on
Cartman who tests if it works in the
only way that he knows how get me some
Cocoa Puffs what I need to make a cereal
bomb get me cocoa pffs Captain Crunch
and a bucket of KFC hurry he's unable to
finish his cereal bomb something that
has never happened before and with that
the boys know that their experiment is a
success honestly this is one of the most
underrated running gags in South Park
that Cartman is essentially some kind of
food scientist who invents and names the
most horrific combinations of junk food
imaginable some of my favorites include
powdered doughnut pancake surprise
toaster pastry chocolate milk mix butter
bar Fried Chicken sundae and the
legendary chocolate chicken pop pie
because of their success Kyle makes a
vow to begin working for the greater
good now now we're going to make a whole
lot more we're not going to just help
Cartman we're going to help everyone in
America who can't afford obesity
[Music]
drugs we then cut to a mafia looking guy
sitting at a table discussing how the
sugar industry is taking a big hit due
to the rise of these obesity drugs and
as the scene continues we begin to get
an idea of why this matters so much to
them but now obesity drugs are making
people less cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs we
talking a 60% hit to the business the
table is full of mascots for sugary
cereals and snacks smoking cigars and
drinking wine like mob bosses this is
another one of my favorite parts of the
special since it's a hilarious way to
represent the sugar industry as a whole
I also think it's an important thing to
include since a lot of people still
aren't aware of the fact that the
Obesity epidemic is essentially a direct
result of of the incredible amounts of
sugar in everyone's food which only gets
them more and more addicted to food for
example did you know that in the 60s
sugar companies funded studies that
concluded excess fat was the most
dangerous part of the typical diet
leading to The Craze of lowfat food that
span for decades and in many of these
Foods they replace the fat with sugar
causing the sugar consumption per capita
to increase by over 30% and completely
unrelated here's a graph that represents
the percentage of Americans who are
obese over the years I'll let you come
to your own conclusions there's a bunch
more information that is pretty easy to
find about how big sugar has a hand in
almost every Big Industry and politics
in the US but I value my life so I'll
leave it at that and for the record I am
not currently nor have I ever had any
thoughts of ending my own life just
wanted to throw that out there but yeah
I love using these cartoon mascots as
mob bosses it's a hilarious way to
portray the sugar industry and just how
influential they are meanwhile Cartman
continues to dream about all the
horrible things he'll say to people once
he's skinny you want to know what else
Pakistan your haircuts are dumb and
that's why your women cover their hair
yes he finds out that he's lost almost 2
lbs in a week and the business is in
full swing everything's going very well
for the boys until they are robbed by
the moms and Randy meanwhile Sharon
discusses how she started a new drug for
people who can't afford obesity drugs
transitioning smoothly into an
ad in case studies 70% of patients on
lizo no longer cared how much they
weighed I don't give two
[ __ ] it parodies the zic commercials
that we've all seen a million times and
it's a pretty hilarious way to highlight
the idea of body positivity as I
mentioned earlier lizo actually reacted
to the scene and there were some pretty
funny moments in her
reaction he
is that's crazy guys my worst fear has
been actualized I've been referenced in
a South Park episode we then find out
Cartman has given up on the medication
and is crafting a food creation so
diabolical it would make Matt Stony weep
it's a sh bomb but top with twinkies and
gravy he said it's called an Oppenheimer
Kyle then gives him a pep talk to snap
him out of it further exciting all of
the kiman stands in fact this whole
episode kind of felt like fan service
for all the kimman shippers don't worry
I'm sure one day it'll be Canon we then
cut to the Indian Factory that's
producing the semi glute tiddes and the
mascots sneak in and commit a
surprisingly disturbing and realistic
Act of terrorism but it's hard to deny
that it's pretty hilarious to watch
these childhood icons doing such
terrible things when the boys learn of
the news courtman loses his hope
entirely and ends up making the most
dangerous creation known to man
Cartman's in there with a Serial bomb
that he says is 10 times more
destructive than an Oppenheimer he says
it's called a Stormy Daniels they're
able to talk him out of it once again
and Kyle reveals that he's found another
supplier said supplier is then stopped
by some construction workers with
suspiciously short shirts and flat
stomachs earlier Randy had come to the
realization that he had become a
self-fulfilling prophecy yeah and a bad
group of people doing a bunch of drugs
and because of this he makes a spur of
the moment de decision and takes off
with the drugs you're bad people I'm get
the fck away from you it quickly turns
into a Mad Max style chase scene leading
Randy directly to the boys he explains
the situation to them quickly I should
have never worn this mid drift shirt to
school certain things just aren't
appropriate to wear honestly this joke
throughout the episode kind of just
feels like Trey Parker trying to push
this message to his daughter through the
most extreme examples and that makes it
a lot funnier to me pretty soon all the
mascots get involved in the car chase
and it only gets crazier Tony the Tiger
even goes as far as to bring back an old
classic Tony the Tiger killed Kenny this
ended up being a pretty hilarious chase
scene one thing I was really impressed
with was the 3D animation honestly this
might have been the best South Park has
ever looked in 3D they somehow managed
to match the South Park art style almost
perfectly but with that extra Dimension
and it's perfect for the scene and it
just looks amazing I'm sure a big part
of that was the extra time they got for
these specials so I hope that this 3D
can be utilized at least for future
specials I also love how perfectly they
characterize all of the boys in the
scene Stan is unwilling to to shoot at
anyone but Kyle is more than willing
which perfectly highlights the
difference in their characters I've
talked about in the past how Kyle is
more willing to be the bad guy if he
believes it's for the right reasons
whereas Stan is more likely to be
performative in his actions and is very
rarely willing to act on what he
actually believes Butters is stuck in
the least enviable position of all of
them being stuck outside and having to
hold on to the side of the truck and his
naivity even shines through when he
can't believe that his mother would have
lied to him about doing Pilates
Cartman's horrible selfishness is of
course the reason that they're all in
this position in the first first place
and they even kill Kenny I mean everyone
is playing their role absolutely
perfectly eventually Cartman crawls up
on the hood to try to grab some of the
OIC and this is the moment where I
realize that he's been wearing a
hospital gown for the entire episode
because I immediately thought about the
fact that he's giving everyone in the
truck a pretty unfortunate view they
eventually lose all of their pursuers
and when they finally open the truck
they're shocked by what they
find hello
when Randy eventually returns home he
finds Sharon just as she's about to use
OIC they have a heart-to- heart where
they discuss how they feel about these
drugs and in a very rare moment they end
it on a happy note with a pretty good
message you are so much cooler than any
other woman out there you know that and
I do not want you to change one bit you
know I'm so used to Sharon hating Randy
that it was honestly shocking to see
them actually treating each other well
and it was pretty refreshing I thought
it was good back at school Kyle comes to
the conclusion that all of these
different forces trying as hard as they
can to make money off People's Health
makes it nearly impossible for most to
actually be responsible for being fat
he's able to convince the rest of the
school to stop making fun of people for
being fat and that's exactly what
Cartman was looking for the whole time
hello ma'am you got a big nose hey do I
know you [ __ ] you the special ends with
Cartman boarding his flight to Pakistan
and flying off into the sunset backed by
the legendary track free ride this was
honestly the perfect way to bring the
Cartman plot full circle and I thought
it was a hilarious way to end it I've
got a lot of catching up to
[Music]
De this turned out to be such a
fantastic special I was a bit confused
at first because in the past they've
been releasing the seasons before they
released the specials but this time they
released the special before the season
but honestly I think it ended up being a
pretty good move it ended up capturing
pretty much everything that makes a
South Park episode good it was topical
it was satirical and it was funny and
something that was especially impressive
to me was the fact that they were able
to include pretty much every single main
character that's in the show while
making sure that all of them played an
important role in the episode and it
just felt incredibly natural everyone
felt like themselves it didn't feel like
anyone was being forced to play a
specific role or anyone was just there
without actually having an important
role in the story it just worked
perfectly and I think that's kind of one
of the main things that makes a really
good South Park episode I've noticed a
lot more recently that they tend to
focus episodes more heavily around two
or three characters at a time time
instead of all the characters and I
think when they can find ways to tell a
story that includes all of the
characters in a natural feeling way I
think that's kind of what makes it feel
like classic South Park for the past few
years I've constantly wondered why the
show doesn't feel fully like Old South
Park it just feels like something's
always been different but I couldn't put
my finger on it and come to think of it
I think that that might be part of it
most of the best South Park in recent
years has come from episodes or specials
that do just that for example the postco
specials do this better than anything
South Park has done in a long time time
and in my opinion they're probably the
best thing South Park has made in the
last 10 years so it's no surprise that I
ended up really loving this special it
checked off pretty much every box that
makes for a good South Park episode it
even managed to generate some slight
controversy with the whole lizo thing
and I think that controversy in South
Park is kind of an indicator of how well
the show is running all around I thought
it was pretty great it had some
incredibly funny moments and if I had to
rank it I'd probably put it either in
the top of a tier or the bottom of s
tier haven't really decided yet but it
was great
now instead of obesity drugs people have
to rely on good things like self-esteem
and body positivity they're great
[Music]