17x08 A Song of Ass and Fire

7.7/10. Game of Thrones is a show of constantly delayed satisfaction. While there are big moments, shocking twists, and dramatic deaths that keep things heightened and exciting from episode to episode, the promised events like the approach of the White Walkers, the arrival of dragons, and the fabled coming of winter are delayed and delayed and delayed until the audience's anticipation is at a fever pitch.

It's appropriate then that, at the end of "A Song of Ass and Fire," George R.R. Martin pushes Black Friday back by another week which, coincidentally, happens to give South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone some extra time to figure out the finale for their own epic little tale, just as the real Martin has.

It's a tack that South Park makes fun of both itself and Martin for (see also: the finale of this arc which includes an explicit ad for the long-delayed South Park: Stick of Truth game, promised to be "coming soon" to which Butters replies, "Yeah, and if you believe that, I've got a big floppy wiener to dangle in your face.") When Butters is dispatched by Cartman to go meet the Game of Thrones author in order to find out what happens at the end of the book in order to perfect the XBox legion's strategy for Black Friday, he finds a man whose M.O. in matters great and small is delay and withholding.

That's illustrated well in Butters's traveling companion, Scott Malkinson (of "I'm Scott Malkinson, I have diabetes" fame) starting to faint because his blood sugar is low, and Martin promising him pizzas that never come. It's an obvious but nevertheless amusing parallel to Martin promising big developments in-universe that take forever to come, like the aforementioned dragons and battle with the white walkers, but also Martin's promises that the release of his next book in the series is imminent. (As of now, three years after this episode aired, the HBO show has mostly moved past the amount of plot from the books, leaving book-readers and TV-watchers on an even playing field.) The George R.R. Martin in this episode, who when pressed reveals that he hasn't even ordered the pizzas, and who attempts to paper over the dereliction of duty by promising bigger and better things, works as a nice jab at the author and the "just keep promising more" spirit of the show based on his novels.

But what's odd is the way that "A Song of Ass and Fire" depicts Martin, and by extension Game of Thrones as obsessed with wieners. For as much as Matt and Trey belabor the point here, there are ten times as many depictions of female anatomy in the show as there are depictions of men's reproductive organs. It's an odd criticism that seems to say more about Matt and Trey's longstanding focus than it presents any sort of novel of insightful observation about Game of Thrones's excesses.

Then again, it wouldn't be the first time that South Park has exaggerated or straight up invented details about a celebrity or piece of pop culture purely because it was funny, not because it was accurate. And as out of step as it is with the actual nudity focus of Game of Thrones, the episode's ribald riff on the series's theme song, remixed with new penis-themed lyrics, is outstanding in that trademark straight faced sophomoric South Park way.

But beyond the entertaining Game of Thrones riffs, there's more commentary baked into the episode as well, which expands the arc's focus. This time, Matt and Trey take aim at the various entities and institutions that stoke the flames of the Black Friday madness because it helps them feather their own nests. The heads of Sony and Microsoft are shown to be introducing fancy new bundles to try to establish their product as the new market standard, going so far as to straight up arm the people of South Park to encourage them to choose sides.

The peak of this is Bill Gates deposing Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer in an appropriately brutal Game of Thrones fashion. It's telling that Balmer, the only person in the episode who seems to recognize this ridiculousness for what it is (and his baffled responses to his underlings is very funny) meets such a harsh end. The war isn't just raging on the streets of South Park, it's going on across boardrooms, with corporate competitors deciding that it's not enough to have a solid share of the consumer market, but feeling compelled to obliterate their competition. Who knows how accurate the picture the episode paints is, but it's an amusing jab at the way the sales of something as silly as a video game console is treated as a life and death struggle. And the hypocrisy of Gates fanning the flames of the Black Friday danger while claiming to be worried about safety is another tweak of these companies expressing concern for the risks of Black Friday on the one hand, but encouraging it in all its enflamed glory on the other. The way that Gates turns Cartman's own manipulation against him suggests who the real chessmaster is here.

These companies are not alone in receiving South Park's ire, though. As is often the case on the show, the media gets a healthy dose of criticism too. As the reporter who blackmails the local anchors (who are sleeping together despite being brother and sister, in another amusing GoT nod) notes, the media benefits from the hoopla around Black Friday as much as anyone. Stories of bloodshed and trampling get eyeballs and clicks, creating a vicious cycle where the media gives the "event" more attention, thereby making it a bigger and more prominent part of the culture, which only gives it more attention. At the same time, more people become involved, more companies lower prices and try to stoke excitement and rabid demand for their products to win the news cycle, and the dangers that threaten poor Randy increase. Matt and Trey suggest that the media and the companies that benefit from Black Friday are literally in bed together, and it's not a pretty sight.

Amid all of this social commentary and the jabs at Game of Thrones and George R.R. Martin, the divisions between the boys continue to grow, the assorted alliances and means of support continue to become more frayed, and despite the delays, the climax of this particular tale (if not the far more wide-ranging one that inspired it) is at hand. Once again, South Park delivers an episode that manages to take the stuffing out of a piece of pop culture, while also taking shots at a part of the real culture, at the same time while managing to blend the two with wit and aplomb.