19x05 Safe Space

9.1/10 -- the best of Season 19 so far. South Park is generally at its best when its teasing out little hypocrisies in our culture. There's a fine line between sensitivity and kid gloves, and it's pretty clear which side Matt and Trey think our culture has landed on. That said, they didn't skimp on the humor in the midst of their commentary. The escalating gags between Randy and the Whole Foods checkout guy in particular was a great comic runner, and the safe space song, with accompanying musical gags, is up there in the pantheon of great South Park musical numbers.

Butters, as always, is superb, and his being a hard at work filter to the mean things on the internet was an idea as silly as it was inspired. By the same token, tying the episode together by doing one final "starving children infomercial" parody where the kids used iPads to do Butters' old job was a brilliant way to tie a bow on the episode's themes. The "safe spaces" people construct to make themselves feel good when there's people with far worse problems out there is a striking theme. I can't say I loved that "Reality" basically acted as the creators' direct mouthpiece at the end, but it was still an episode with an interesting point, and a lot of excellent comedy to keep the episode flowing.