South Park (TV Series) The Losing Edge (2005) User Reviews

This review contains spoilers. Readers beware.

[cmt330 · 10/10 · 28 April 2015]

This is by far one of the best episodes. Most likely spoilers:

All the south park boys are the best baseball players, but they don't want to be, as they hate baseball. They keep trying to lose, but all the other teams also want to lose, and everyone else is better at losing than the South Park boys' team. Meanwhile, Randy purposely gets in fights with all of the other competitive baseball dads. At the end of every fight he gets taken away by the police and says "This isn't America? I thought this was America!" as he's drunk. Now I'm not as much as a randy fan (I still love him) as everyone else is, but he's a reason why this might be the best episode ever.

This episode also marks the return of Kyle's cousin Kyle, and Kenny is shown without his hood on for most of the episode. If you want to show someone South Park for the first time, show them this. If they don't get offended easily, then they'll love it. It also shows spoofs of the Rocky series and The Karate Kid.

10/10.

Such a great spoof on all sports films!

[johnmichael-2 · 10/10 · 9 September 2008]

Sports films are probably my least favorite films of all (only "Bend It Like Beckham" got a 10 from me), so I was delighted to see this episode spoof all those lame sports films, as well as satirizing the crazy parents that get into fights during little league games.

The basic plot is that the South Park boys are sick of baseball, so they try to lose their playoffs so they can spend their summer doing other things. But, much to their chagrin, all the other teams are thinking the same thing! Meanwhile, Randy Marsh fights a dad from the opposing team every single game.

This episode is very funny. It's nice to finally see a sports piece that doesn't take itself seriously, even if it's merely a 20-minute TV episode. Parker and Stone hit out of the ballpark with this one!

One of the greatest South Park episodes of all time.

[tomdegroot-57224 · 10/10 · 26 January 2022]

The Losing Edge maybe features the greatest Randy Marsh moments of all time even including up to seasons 24. This episode featuring the boys, parents and distant relatives and balances it all perfectly in comedy gold.. The plot and side plot is EPIC in being funny and engaging. Some of the most memorable moments come from this episode and the pacing is near perfect. Two things that fuel a GOAT South Park episode. Must. Watch. Bottom line.

Randy! Randy! Randy!

[RainDogJr · 25 November 2008]

Two tournaments we see in this terrific episode from Season 9 (awesome Season so far). There you have the boys playing baseball during their summer and there you have Stan's dad Randy having his own tournament, he fights at every game of the boys with against another trash talking father! So if we think certainly the "tournament" of randy is way more exciting however this time baseball is not as we know it, this time the objectives are others, here the team that lose is the team that will be happy and satisfied, is all between kids and we see a very nice baseball tournament!

Once Homer Simpson could not drink any beer and at a baseball game he finally realized that baseball is actually an extremely boring game. I think you can't argue that, personally I love football (soccer) and I don't really have a big taste for any other sport yet I do enjoy sometimes basketball and American football (for sure I don't miss the playoffs and the Super Bowl) but ironically the sport that I played formally when I was a kid was baseball but now for me is together with golf (which is the worst sport) the most boring game you can play or watch. Then I understand the feel of Cartman, Kyle, Kenny, Stan, Butters and the rest of the boys when they are about to play baseball for the rest of the summer certainly if they keep winning and they do win a lot and that's like a curse. So yes they play to lose just like every other team! Is really funny and is great when they play against Denver (and not only because of the annoying Bat Dad) for the State championship since the team of Denver trained very well to lose and damn they were really good at that and that the South Park team has Kyle's cousin Kyle playing with them will be not make the Denver team the winners but Randy will be there, basically the savior, we also see nice references to Rocky (even Mickey appears) and thanks to Randy the winners of South Park will not play more baseball in the summer! Terrific episode. 9.5 out of 10

Something from Trey and Matt's mini commentary: Trey says that the whole idea started with the brilliant concept of wouldn't the boys be cute in baseball outfits. Oh and was hilarious that the trash talking Mexican dad from Pueblo, Colorado didn't speak very well Spanish (Viva la Pueblo!).

Marks the return of Kyle's Cousin

[gangstahippie · 9/10 · 1 February 2009]

The Losing Edge is a great South Park episode.It spoofs many different sports films such as "Rocky".The episode has the boys playing baseball.They do not want to play baseball and are mad when they get accepted to compete in the finals.They decide to lose on purpose so they will not have to play baseball anymore.HOwever all the other teams are trying to lose as well(and are much better at it than they are).Eventually, they get Kyle's cousin to be on their team in hopes they will lose.Meanwhile Randy starts getting drunk and fighting with other dad's at little league games, however he meets his match when another dad who gets extremely drunk at games decides to fight him.The Losing Edge is a great and funny South Park episode with many sports movie references.

My Personal Favourite Episode and Immensely Underrated

[ChazzaVT · 10/10 · 22 January 2023]

I absolutely adore this episode for so many reasons.

It's the turning point of Randy's character, where he goes from just 'Stan's dad' into a hilarious idiot who we all know and love. This was before Randy became an incredibly overused character, and I would say this is his best/funniest episode.

Another thing I can give this episode is how damn relatable it is. I'm sure everyone had that experience as a kid being forced to play a sport which they hated, (for me being British it was Cricket instead of Baseball) which just adds to the humour of the episode.

The pacing of this episode is perfect, it quite literally feels like you're watching one of those stereotypical sports movies but with the hilarious twist that the team hates the sport and is trying to lose. This opens up the opportunity for so many funny parts, such as the awesome montage of them trying to lose to all the teams in Colorado aided by Randy getting into fights with all the different Dads and saying 'I'm sorry, I thought this was America!!' every time he gets arrested.

It also has a brilliant throwback when they bring back Kyle's cousin Kyle, as the 'star' player who will surely make them lose. All the montages and Randy's Rocky inspired fight scene at the end which causes them to be disqualified all paired with 'You're the Best Around' makes this episode an absolute joy to watch and by the end feels like you've just taken an awesome ride with these characters. Chef's kiss.

Rare hit.

[GiraffeDoor · 8/10 · 16 October 2021]

South Park is a show that can really annoy me in a way that other animated shows do not.

But this is one of those episodes that is just straight up good. It's neither based on misunderstanding transgressive stuff (like the tolerable early episodes) but neither is it s half baked attempt at satire.

As someone who does not follow sports and gets annoyed when I was forced to play soccer, cricket and rugby as a kid, this really resonates with me. These boys are lucky they at least don't have to play rounders, baseballs lamer cousin.

If it's a fun sport like table tennis or basketball then that's different.

It's a great story concept to have to get out of doing sport by losing on purpose. There is a summer vacation at stake here! And even I (someone who doesn't understand the nuances of the sports I have been forced to play) found it quite fascinating how much strategy went into losing on purpose.

And it all ends splendidly.