[7.8/10] This felt like a classic IASIP episode. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the show’s meta humor and boundary-pushing installments quite well, but this is a pretty straight up example of the show’s usual formula. Everything starts at the bar, sends different pairings of the characters out into the world to cause trouble and make blackly comic mischief, and then brings all the storylines and characters back together for the grand finale. It’s a tried and true mode for the show, and it works even in IASIP’s twelfth season.
I enjoyed each of the storylines, each of which manage to find a surprisingly harmonious melding of stories of trauma and Magic Mike, but my absolute favorite was Dee’s. Maybe it’s just that South Park has trained me to enjoy byzantine, Machiavellian revenge plots, but the swerve of her seemingly trying to rebuild her would-be stripper boyfriend’s life to show him that meeting her was a good thing not a sign that he’s at his lowest point, only to trick him into stripping for his estranged and soon-horrified daughter to establish his new “rock bottom” is hilarious. The storyline is full of little amusing bits, like Dee confusing the stripper’s military character on stage with him being an actual veteran, and shows a calculating side of Dee that’s more fun than her being the constant butt monkey of the show.
Dennis and Charlie doing a weird “bad father and the boy” strip show fits well with the show’s deranged sense of humor. The way it escalates and is implied to be a reflection of the guys’ own traumas is nicely done.
The same goes for Mac and Frank playing a Call of Duty knockoff. Mac seeing his dad (and maybe harboring a crush on Dennis?) in all his dreams is scary, sad, and funny, and Frank himself getting a bit “unzipped” by the experiences and promoting his “push it down with some brown” philosophy on dealing with trauma is a good bit as well. Plus, more Cricket as an uncomfortable emcee to the worst strip show ever!
Overall, this was a well-done version of the show’s standard formula, with nice riffs on trauma for everyone involved and lots of the dark humor that the show does well.
Cannot believe Dee went there. So dark. Loved it
This may be Dee's best moment in the whole series - not that there's many. Her Cartman-esque moment (if you know, you know) was excellent.
Also the Cricket reveal was fantastic. One of these secondary characters, like Artemis, I'll never get sick of.
That’s like the most fucked up thing any of them have done on the show lmao :joy::joy: wtf dee
that was some dark Scott Tenorman Must Die typa ending, which I love.
a banger IASIP episode :fire::fire:
Omg I can’t believe they all are still sleeping together
Shout by Zachariah Jordan MwanzaBlockedParent2017-02-16T11:59:03Z
Stuff it down with brown