South Park: "Butt Out" Talback (SPOILERS)

[Corrado]

HOLA!!!

After a one-week hiatus, South Park returns tonight with a new episode. Here's the synopsis:

"After representatives from the anti-smoking campaign do their song and dance for the children of South Park Elementary, the boys take up the nasty habit."

Also, in the commercials, Butters does something funny in it which I won't spoil.

Sounds like another winner!

Enjoy!

 

[The Landstander]

Boo

Bleh.

Got too wrapped into formulas. Made fun of Rob Reiner too directly and too much, the song wasn't funny, the satire was too thick (on both sides)....bleh.

SP has made each of these work induvidually (hell, the last episode with Mormons was just as direct of making fun of Joseph Smith as this one was with Rob Reiner), but it just didn't work at all in this one.

Bad episode.

Though, I do admit, the opening WAS funny, with the Butt Out! group (though HM did it better with "We're Just People Too" =P )

 

[JeffTMBG]

So what was the Butters scene in the commercials? It seems to have been cut.

 

[The Gunnshuu]

Also, in the commercials, Butters does something funny in it which I won't spoil.

Actually, that part got cut out. That's probably why that scene was featured in the commercial. It showed Butters succumbing to peer pressure by the "Butt Out!" gang, and he peed himself.

 

[Eddy]

Well... I liked it.

I notice they didn't show the scene where the "Butt Out!" group was trying to demonstrate peer pressure with Butters as they were showing in the commercials.

I also notice it said something at the end of the credits... anyone catch what that said?

 

[DianaGohan]

Hey Corrado, I Don't Think You Should "Butt Out" Of The South Park Episode Review, But You Should Know That Smoking Kills And Should Be Abolished And Maybe There's Another Side To That.

Irony: When viewing this episode, there was an anti smoking ad on. You know, the one with the guy in the cowboy costume going around and then at the end the kid holding up the cigarette? Just wanted to point that out.

You know what's great about South Park? When it focuses on an issue, it dosen't just take the side that we think of as "good". Rather, it takes both sides sometimes or other times just the side that we think of as bad. This reminded me of "My Future Self And Me" where at the end we learned that it's wrong for the ends to justify the means and that you should tell the truth about smoking in order to stop your kids from doing it. And in this episode, we learn that your view on a topic can't be so extreme, and that just because you think that smoking is wrong dosen't mean that you can just tell others that and force your believes down they're throats. Rather, you are responsible for your own decisions about smoking and that you can't blame the Tobacco Company for that. That's a pretty intresting opinion, but one validated enough to be belived in.

Anyway, enough about the message, let's get to the comedy. From the "Butt Out" program (that reminded me of of a class I took in High School, although I would like to think that our message about smoking was potrayed more postivley then that), the boys smoking to NOT become like the "Butt Out" kids and ending up liteing the school on fire, Rob Riener being a fat ass anti-smoking bastard (that Cartman idolized for awhile), the boys trying to get out of the Formula for getting involved and in the end couldn't, and Cartman's anti-smoking commerical (I've seen a lot of commericals like that on TV. Once again, it shows a diffrent opinion then most others have). In the end, I give this episode a solid B+. Nothing hilarious, but it had an intresting message and a few noteworthy laughs.

Oh, and Corrado, I didn't see that scene with Butters in this episode. What was it anyway?

EDIT: Oh, that was the scene? Intresting.

 

[TnAdct1]

As the boys of South Park pointed out in this episode, Butt Out is basically yet another "two sides with different opinions" story (the town of South Park argue about an issue, with the boys having to be the ones who straighten things out), only with the boys actually being aware of the Formula this time around. Definitely not as good as the "Mormons" episode. Would have been better if the episode, instead of being another "formula" episode, focused more on the possibility that the reason why people smoke (and do drugs) isn't because of the tobacco industry, but rather because of the awful anti-smoking (and anti-drug) propoganda that some companies put out these days (in fact, one of the few good anti-smoking propoganda ads is actually done by a company that manufactors cigarettes, which shows that, as this episode suggests, the tobacco companies aren't always "pro-smoking").

 

[shogunthethird]

AHA so now we know the truth about kids smoking, it's the fault of those godawful anti-smoking assemblies! and maybe Meathead, but mostly terminally perky people who think kids want to grow up to be pathetic racially diverse sexless eaunichs who spew out horrible puns and preach with all the subtlety of the spanish inquisition, Remember kids, assembly groups are for people who couldn't make it in the adult film industry

 

[Corrado]

****

"Oh, and Corrado, I didn't see that scene with Butters in this episode. What was it anyway?"

The Butt Out gang Butters. Butters then wets his pants. Funny.

Typical Funny from Trey and Matt.

Highlights include all the kids at the assembly, Kenny eating his hand, Kyle's various 4th wall speeches about the show, Rob Reiner, Cartman at Kyle's house (hammering his room), and Rob Reiner at the end.

Out of 5, I give it 4.

 

[Mynd Hed]

"It's a formula but it bloody WORKS!"

-Dana Carvey as George Michael

Well... it works in just about every episode other than this one, that is. The opening scene at the anti-smoking assembly was too true-to-life to be funny: it was just as unbearable as the real assemblies it was mocking. I wish they'd gone with some clever lyrics or something the way they did with Getting Gay with Kids in Rainforest, Schmainforest, a similar but much better episode. Instead they went with straight imitation as opposed to irony, and the result was comic suicide.
Rob Reiner could have been funny, but they went too far with the fat jokes instead of sticking to the intelligent satire of his anti-smoking campaign. The only really good bits of this episode, in my opinion, were Kyle and the boys slowly realizing that they were in the grips of a formula, and Cartman coming to idolize Rob Reiner, which reached its peak in the scene where he tries to nail Kyle's door shut. Other than that... meh.

Overall Grade: C

 

[mobo85]

I found it surprising that they made fun of Rob Reiner for no apparent reason, as Norman Lear, creator of All in the Family, is a staffer on South Park. But then again, in the world of South Park, anyone's fair game.

I have no idea why they picked Reiner, but you gotta love the obvious irony of Reiner preaching how the cigarette companies are causing deaths while he's gorging on cheeseburgers.

 

[Bubblegum Girl]

That was a funny episode! The guys smoking so they wouldn't be like those lame "Butt-Out" teens (That "Butt-Out" seminar reminded me of those seminar I used to attend during elementary school) and Kyle bringing up the whole "I-Learn-Something-Today" formula. In the end, they get grounded anyway!

 

[Frank Castle]

You just have to love the school being burned down while Mr. Mackey is talking to the kids about not smoking. Um-Kay

 

[Juu-kuchi]

It was quite the funny episode and I enjoyed it a whole lot. The opening sequence always reminds me of motivational groups like that in real life, and I think they do promote smoking more than prevent it.

Rob Reiner was funny, although his 'death' isn't as good as I'd thought it'd be. It's like a shoutout to those 'truth' commercials. I think they've gone too far.

 

[Ultra8]

Major school flashback with this one, liked the Ommpa=lumpa-ish sequence in the Tabacco factory, the Cartman nailing Kyle's door shut, the formula joke, and Cartman freaking out later on.
A+ episode