23x05 Tegridy Farms Halloween Special

[6.8/10] I’m of two minds about this one. The A-story, featuring a squabble between Randy and Shelly, isn’t perfect, but it’s exaggerated and a little out there in the best South Park tradition. The B-story, featuring Butters in a toxic relationship with...a mummy, isn’t bad as a “mundane mixed with the ridiculous” bit, but has some uncomfortable subtext that makes it hard to enjoy.

That said, I like the A-story enough to almost pull this into “good” territory. Randy trying to persuade Shelly to get over her “marijuana problem” is amusing enough, albeit a little awkward in places. But I really enjoy the kicker. Shelly creating a “potion” (really just bleach and acid and whatnot) to mess up Randy’s “Halloween Special” crop of pot is a good bit. The resulting zombie cows and Winnie the Pooh and other horrors attacking Randy and Towelie are a laugh. And the reveal that it was all a pot hallucination is a nice closer of a gag.

But the B-story is, well, weird. Maybe it’s just having scene Marriage Story recently, but that, coupled with the knowledge that Trey Parker recently got divorced, makes this feel like Trey trying to write his life on the screen and act like his partner was a manipulative, gas-lighting monster. Who knows, maybe this has nothing to do with Trey’s personal life. But even without that context, there’s something about the tone of Butters’s story that feels misogynistic. There’s some comic mileage to be had from treating a haunting like a bad relationship, but this feel a little too mean-spirited and one-sided to make that work.

So this evens out to an episode that’s alllllmost good, but can’t quite get there. Still some enjoyable material though.

(Oh, and the Harvey Weinstein material was pretty gross without there being anything actually funny about it, so there's that too.)