This is a really great episode. It takes South Park's fondness and notoriety for toilet humour and it actually weaves a quietly poignant dramatic arc through it. It's a really impressive achievement.
The whole running gag of Stan seeing everything around him as shit (music, movies, food, people) would be somewhat of a tiring gag if it was exclusively just a gag. Yet, it's also at the same time about growing up and growing out of love with everything that once had meaning. It's quietly the single most emotionally upsetting episode of the entire series.
It's further supported by Randy's experiences in this episode. Him trying to prove to Sharon that he's a kid at heart who likes this Tween Wave music is hilarious but once again, there's a dramatic core at the center of it all. The final scene between him and Sharon is one of the most shocking (says something considering how provocative the show can be) and honest scenes in the show's entire history and it has the obvious meta angle of Matt Stone & Trey Parker speaking through those two characters at that precise moment. They are themselves getting sick of writing for the show and going through the motions to churn out content week after week.
This episode has a bit of everything. Absurd comedy, drama, poignant reflection and its perhaps South Park's most revealing and devastating episode ever. Excellent episode that leads into the slightly disappointing follow-up episode, "Ass Burgers".
Heavily scatological - not one to watch with your mum to get her to like it!
I remember this episode fondly as the one that my (now ex-)wife walked in on me watching, looked at me and shook her head like I :asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol:really:asterisk_symbol::asterisk_symbol: was a subnormal wankerloid...
Ironic really that she’s now pretty much how Stan is in this episode. Surrounded by shit.
Shout by AnthonyBlockedParent2021-09-24T09:56:16Z
Okay, this is better than Margaritaville, probably my favourite episode, this or Tweek X Craig. Watching this at 16, it was one of the most relatable pieces of media I'd ever seen, it still is very relatable (though now I don't think it is as much, which is probably a good thing) and I don't think maybe more than 10 seconds went by when I was cracking up laughing, despite the fact that it's literally a handful of jokes repeated over and over again.