200

To the get the jump off jumped off...
De La Soul - Copa (Cabanga)


Digable Planets - Last Of The Spiddyocks


Raekwon- Catalina (ft.Lyfe Jennings) Prod. by Dr. Dre


Heads been getting hungry. Anyway, now for the main event:
South Park - 200th episode


Two hundred episodes deep, South Park has officially been around for a minute. With high expectations for los dos cientos, I must say ultimately, I was let down.

First the pros: I saw a huge increase in production value, the score, shots fields of depth, detail, cell shading and 3D graphics are all (relatively) new grounds for SP and I applaud them for their growth in that respect. Character development has been strong through out the seasons and I'm glad they've stayed so true, never have I questioned any of the boys personality's or dialogue and every episode they seem to get more "real." I have yet to question "would the character X really say that or was it just written in for a laugh?"


That being said, a lot of the charm is lost from the low-fi days of cut-n-paste SP. While it's unrealistic to expect anything not to undergo changes and growth, I feel SP is drifting from its simplicity which made it so good.

The Cons:
As Stan states in the episodes beginning after Kyle and Cartman exchange (exact) words from South Parks days of yore: "You're just re-using old material!" and that is exactly what the episode proceeds to do. Unfortunately, as an SP devotee seeing all the throw back references and nostalgic characters (Best Super Friends, Hennifer Lopez, gingers, the "who's Cartmans father?" shtick) really just drove home the fact that South Park isn't hitting as hard as it used to. A lot of the humor seems to be purposefully intended for "shock" value but we're bored... nothing is sacred and you've shown us that South Park! Buddah doing lines of coke at the Super Best Friends table? C'mon really? They seem to be grasping at straws just to rattle audiences ever-diminishing sense of what is "off limits" on tv.

Uniting all the celebrities SP has made fun of, the episode breaks down the "voyeurs wall" so to speak and and makes the characters allude to South Park as what it actually is, a television show. For some reason this really rubbed me the wrong way, I can't put my finger on why but it stole from the magic of South Park for some reason.

With laugh's few and far between for me, I worry that like Cartman from "How to Eat with Your Butt" I may have already seen the funniest thing ever, and will never laugh again.

Highlights:
Muhammed in the Uhaul "Welcome"

“Dammit Marsh, why couldn’t you’ve just kept your stupid ugly kid in line?” – Fed
“Hey, don’t start blaming me for his looks!” – Randy Marsh

“Jimmy Buffett, how would you like it if nobody could call your music drunken frat boy monkey garbage?” – Tom Cruise