[5.8/10] Man, this is a tough one to judge. Like a lot of early South Park, it feels like the show is hitting on something legitimate, but hasn’t honed its voice enough to really address it with the searing wit the series would develop as it went.
I’m of two minds about all of this. On the one hand, the show makes a good point about the depiction, or more accurately the absence, of disabled people on television. There’s something to be said for the idea of overprotective moral guardians keeping them out of the public eye for fear of mockery, who are unwittingly preventing them from being enjoyed and appreciated and happy.
On the other hand, it feels like prophylactic way for South Park to preemptively deflect criticism for its depiction of Timmy, and it feels like a pretty weak attempt on that front. While there’s a certain Being There-esque depiction to other projecting all kinds of motives and intentionality on Timmy that aren’t really present, which works as humor, a lot of what the show is shooting for with his depiction feels like raw mockery. Part of the show’s stock and trade is transgressive humor, but this feels like boundary-pushing comedy and more like a lot of pointing and laughing at disabled people while masking it as some kind of moral stand, which doesn't sit well.
Then there’s Phil Collins, and I just don’t know what to do with it. On the one hand, mercilessly mocking celebrities is South Park’s brand, and they’ve offered worse to others. Plus, I also happen to think that Phil Collins’s music sucks mightily and was aghast that he won an Oscar for Best Song over not only “Blame Canada” from Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, but also “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2.
But on the other hand, there’s something that feels especially mean-spirited and bitter about the show going after a guy who bested them at an awards show, however undue the win. I’ll cop to laughing at the idea that people would have to be on drugs that make them stupid and boring to like his songs, but the fact that Matt and Trey have such an axe to grind with him just makes the depiction feel kind of cheap and easy.
That said, there’s parts of the episode that work much better. The overmedication of kids is something we’ve seen play out in the decades since this aired, and while Matt and Trey’s take is oversimplified, there’s some potency there in the social critique. (That said, it’s a little awkward to listen to a character voiced by Isaac Hayes, whose Scientology affiliation drove a wedge between him and the show, rail against psychiatrists.)
At the same time, apart from any broader social critique, there’s just something funny about the show running through the cliché “band forms > band breaks up > band reunites” tropes in the span of a month with Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld.
Overall, this is a pretty shaggy episode, with a few good points, but a set of problems to match.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2020-04-16T00:50:28Z
[5.8/10] Man, this is a tough one to judge. Like a lot of early South Park, it feels like the show is hitting on something legitimate, but hasn’t honed its voice enough to really address it with the searing wit the series would develop as it went.
I’m of two minds about all of this. On the one hand, the show makes a good point about the depiction, or more accurately the absence, of disabled people on television. There’s something to be said for the idea of overprotective moral guardians keeping them out of the public eye for fear of mockery, who are unwittingly preventing them from being enjoyed and appreciated and happy.
On the other hand, it feels like prophylactic way for South Park to preemptively deflect criticism for its depiction of Timmy, and it feels like a pretty weak attempt on that front. While there’s a certain Being There-esque depiction to other projecting all kinds of motives and intentionality on Timmy that aren’t really present, which works as humor, a lot of what the show is shooting for with his depiction feels like raw mockery. Part of the show’s stock and trade is transgressive humor, but this feels like boundary-pushing comedy and more like a lot of pointing and laughing at disabled people while masking it as some kind of moral stand, which doesn't sit well.
Then there’s Phil Collins, and I just don’t know what to do with it. On the one hand, mercilessly mocking celebrities is South Park’s brand, and they’ve offered worse to others. Plus, I also happen to think that Phil Collins’s music sucks mightily and was aghast that he won an Oscar for Best Song over not only “Blame Canada” from Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, but also “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2.
But on the other hand, there’s something that feels especially mean-spirited and bitter about the show going after a guy who bested them at an awards show, however undue the win. I’ll cop to laughing at the idea that people would have to be on drugs that make them stupid and boring to like his songs, but the fact that Matt and Trey have such an axe to grind with him just makes the depiction feel kind of cheap and easy.
That said, there’s parts of the episode that work much better. The overmedication of kids is something we’ve seen play out in the decades since this aired, and while Matt and Trey’s take is oversimplified, there’s some potency there in the social critique. (That said, it’s a little awkward to listen to a character voiced by Isaac Hayes, whose Scientology affiliation drove a wedge between him and the show, rail against psychiatrists.)
At the same time, apart from any broader social critique, there’s just something funny about the show running through the cliché “band forms > band breaks up > band reunites” tropes in the span of a month with Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld.
Overall, this is a pretty shaggy episode, with a few good points, but a set of problems to match.