Of all the episodes in the current season of South Park, the opener "Go Fund Yourself" still takes the cake. It took all the issues currently in discussion with regard to the NFL and tackled crowd funding in a way that tied all of them together. Brilliant stuff. But on the other hand, Trey Parker and Matt Stone also had months to work on that episode and craft a plot that neatly interweaves all of those talking points.
The pair had roughly a week to bring two-parter "#Rehash" to fruition. You could tell that the issues at hand must've been bothering the writers for a while however. All of the various recurring jokes throughout the season—but mainly Randy as Lorde—seem to play too strongly into this last episode to be just happenstance.
If you didn't watch last week or forget, a 14-second recap: Cartman has found success as an online commenter giving snarky analysis on everyday life in South Park. The music industry reveals to Randy that it makes more money from musicians trending online than it does via the music itself, thus they've opted to replace all musicians with hologram versions, similar to real life holograms involving Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson (the hologram of the former is hunting that of the latter). As last week's episode ended, the industry exec picks up Cartman to run the entire operation, due to his finger on the pulse of the youth.
Kyle has been the opponent to all of this, and episode two opens with him launching a Twitter campaign to save our living rooms and bring families back together. He gets a visit from Bill Cosby to support his campaign via a huge televised Christmas special. Little does he know, it's holo-Cosby.
The event is "The Washington Redskins Go F--k Yourself Holiday Special," planned by the music and television industries to formally kick off a new era of entertainment (named by Cartman of course). It'll feature holograms of deceased stars including Kurt Cobain and Elvis Presley duetting with live ones such as Iggy Azalea. One well-timed segment features Cosby singing "Baby It's Cold Outside" to Taylor Swift, making the line "what's in this drink" less comfortable than ever. Meanwhile Cartman comments on the whole thing from a box in the corner while live tweets flash across the screen below.
Remember how Cartman's screen began popping up in real life to the consternation of adults during the last episode? It finally gets an explanation: He's become so trendy, appearing in almost 96 percent of Twitter references during the special, that he's become "trendcendant"...humanity no longer has any choice BUT to watch him.
It's revealed however that although Cartman commands a huge audience, few of his loyal viewers actually like him. Real-life viewers noticed that the repeated hashtag was "#IHateCartmanBrah." Kyle's brother Ike realize that if timed properly, a new trend could defeat Cartman. He and his friends begin aiming the hashtag "#webelieveinyou" to an unnamed figure who supposedly can fix everything (as of publication, the #webelieveinyou was trending on real Twitter as well).
That turns out to be PewDiePie (a real-life guest appearance from the YouTube commenter who inspired Cartman), who essentially kills Cartman's transmission and ends the holiday special, returning some sense of sanity to the world.
The epilogue reveals that Parker and Stone don't totally hate YouTube celebrities, a fact that that was hinted at throughout the two-part episode. Kyle and Stan suggest that perhaps this is the new wave of entertainment and it's impressive how characters such as PewDiePie build themselves from the ground up. The state of reality is left in question however, as the YouTube sensation ends the episode by thanking the guys from South Park for appearing on his show.
What do you guys think? Too big, too crazy, or just right? We don't normally invite your participation but it seems to be trendy, so what the hell?
OUR FAVORITE QUOTE: "I'm pretty sure 'The Washington Redskins Go F--k Yourself Holiday Special' is not a good name." -TV producer, stating the obvious in hilarious deadpan.
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