Mongo Nation

The spotlight finally shines on dark side of South Park

By Jeremy Azevedo

Throughout the years, South Park has become increasingly more preachy and topical, almost to the point of rendering each new episode irrelevant two weeks after the original airdate. Remember Terry Schiavo? No? How about James Frey? Didn’t think so.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been painting themselves into a topical corner so long that they almost didn’t seem to realize that the real star of South Park always was, is, and will be Eric Cartman.

“The Cult of Cartman” serves as an evolutionary study of a character that began as a fat sidekick and blossomed into the rotund little sociopath that we all know and love today. Fittingly, this DVD collection begins with the 2001 episode, “Scott Tenorman Must Die”, the definitive turning point in which Cartman transformed from a piggy little victim into a truly diabolical and godless little monster. This transformation continues onward throughout each episode until every trace of sympathy is removed from his persona.

The thing that makes this DVD collection so great is that it fully embraces the fact that Cartman represents the only real freedom the writers of the show have to lampoon their own show. Just when you think Cartman is going along with the same socially redeeming character arc as Stan and Kyle, or possibly even learning something, his true agenda is eventually revealed to be completely self-serving and probably evil. Any good that comes as a result of Cartman’s actions is purely by accident, and probably serves as an embarrassment to him.

Next to Cartman’s sociopathic, racist, homophobic and soullessly greedy behavior, the other South Park kids look kind of vanilla. This is a great compilation to illustrate this fact, and not entirely coincidently, is also an archive of some of South Park’s most extreme moments. If you have been watching regularly, you may be disappointed that as much of a third of the episodes are less than a year old, but everyone else will find The Cult of Cartman an entertaining diversion.

Score: 8 out of 10
+ 1 if you are also the scheming, overweight offspring of a slutty hermaphrodite, and thusly relate to the character
-1 if you have every season of South Park on DVD already

In Canada, it’s just Season Four

By Jeremy Azevedo

Kenny Vs Spenny may be one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. Granted, my tastes are considerably lowbrow, but I have to call it like I see it and this season of Kenny Vs Spenny had me damn near shitting my pants with laughter.

The premise of Kenny Vs Spenny is simple: two best friends enter into a series of friendly competitions that result in the loser being subjected to some kind of scarring humiliation. The competitions range from the obvious, like “who can blow the biggest fart” to the bizarre, like “who can be tied to a goat the longest”. The humiliations are almost always horrible, like making out with an old lady or rolling down a hill in a plastic ball filled with dog turds. No, I did not make that last part up.

These ten episodes were executive produced by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, which ratcheted up the humor in an already funny show. Kenny is such a dick and Spenny such a sad sack that you can’t help but suspend disbelief that some or all of the show may be staged and just enjoy the sadistic abuse levied upon poor Spenny. How “The Hills” became the de-facto pseudo-reality show when there’s something like Kenny Vs Spenny out there defies all logic. Read the rest of this entry →