9x05 The Losing Edge

[9.5/10] This is one of the all-time great South Park episodes. The way the main story flips the usual “ragtag group of kids win the big game” narrative on its head. The boys trying everything they can to lose every little league game so that they can go home and play video games and have fun is a delightful conceit. I enjoy baseball, but their digs about the game being boring, utter despondency as they win each game and have to keep playing it, and the kids’ competing efforts to lose all lead to great comedy. Bits like the opposing team straining to guess the pitch so as to strike out, or bringing in Connecticut Kyle as a ringer, or facing a team so good that they can intentionally give the other team hits is all delightful absurdity.

(I’ll admit, the Comic Book Guy-esque critic in me wonders how the team they met in the state championship found themselves winning the number of games it would take to make the finals if they were that good at losing, but whatever, willing suspension of disbelief for the sake of the joke!)

And Randy Marsh’s half of the episode is just as good! His desire to be an obnoxious dad and get drunk and fight in the stands makes for an amusing B-story. Between the homages to Rocky, him taking off his shirt to show off his doughy dad bod as a challenge to other fathers, and his confrontation with the appreciably ridiculous “Bat Dad”, the whole thing is hilarious. Sharon’s disbelief about the whole thing is a great comic note, and Stan’s dismay each time his dad fights is even better.

But I love how the two stories dovetail perfectly in the end. The boys rooting for Randy to fight so that they can get disqualified and won’t have to go to nationals is the perfect marriage of the two parts of the story. And Randy’s “I thought this was America” protests to the cops is the icing on the cake.

All-in-all, this is an episode where every part of it works, from the montages, to the reverse-Bad News Bears situation, to Randy’s rowdiness. A true classic.