[8.4/10] Plenty to like in this one. I’ll admit, when I originally watched this, I’d barely seen anything from High School Musical. But now, having seen a school production of it (yo dog), I appreciate what a pitch perfect parody this episode it is. Everything from the blandly affirmational character of the songs to the unadventurous rhymes to the pop-ish sensibility is right on point.
I especially enjoy the reversal at the center of the episode, where musicals and singing are popular, but what the male protagonist really wants to do is play basketball, over his father’s strenuous objections. I’ll admit, the humor ran aground a bit for me on the dad’s physical abuse. I know the show tried to make light of it with the guy’s slaps being ineffectual and effeminate, and there’s even some legitimate Loony Tunes humor to it, but it didn’t pull back far enough from reality for me to laugh at it. (Though I will say the sound effects for the kid and his mom turning the tables and punching the dad got a chuckle out of me, so maybe I’m a big hypocrite).
That said, I did get a big kick out of him pushing his son to be in musicals at all costs, and his hatred of all things jock. It’s a nice flip of the actual High School Musical form, and gets a lot of mileage out of reversing the usual Billy Elliot routine. Plus, the fact that the dad ultimately gets into the basketball game when he realizes there’s chanting involved was a nice touch.
I liked the boys’ portion of the episode as well. This show’s done a lot of episodes where there’s some popular thing that our crew doesn't really understand, but musicals and singing was a great one. All the prompts for Stan to get involved and sing his heart out were very funny, and the rest of the group’s disinterest is amusing as well. Cartman’s frank desire to end things rather than live in a world where this is popular, and the random appearance of Scott Malkinson were both very laugh-worthy.
Last but not least, I like the twist at the end, where the boys do, in fact, pull off the High School Musical-esque number, only to discover that people liked signing and dancing because the cool kid did it, not the other way around.
Overall, this one is a clever parody and reversal, riffing on musical tropes and the kind of silly humor I like from South Park.
Shout by Solid GoldBlockedParent2019-04-05T22:41:57Z
I don’t care how popular being like these kids becomes, I’m not doing it.Stan sums up my approach to fashion and much of popular culture.