South Park (TV Series) Gluten Free Ebola (2014) User Reviews

Continuing on from "Go Fund Yourself"

[camachbr0 · 7/10 · 2 October 2014]

This week's episode, "Gluten Free Ebola" had some continuity with last week's. Is serialization the show's new formula? Here's how I see it: Episode two of South Park's 18th season jabbed at the gluten-free diet craze that has been going on in the country. No bread, except if it's wheat!! It also showed the boys recovering from their Redskins start-up program, in which they lost all their friends. Their solution is to throw a huge party with Lorde performing; and supplying it with endless snacks. Unfortunately the gluten-free 'craze' takes a turn for the worst. At a USDA meeting in South Park it is determined that gluten is so bad for you it will make your dick fly off. No seriously, your dick will fly off and bounce around the room at lightning speeds. The discovery sends the town into a panic and they burn all their gluten filled products, or everything except ice cream, which is "healthy". How will the boys throw their awesome party without gluten-filled delicacies?? There are a lot of laugh-out-loud moments here including the flying of the dicks. The town panic is also great as the adults rummage through their fridges and drawers to incinerate their food supply. And Papa Johns becomes a quarantine center. Randy Marsh has a lot of moments here. Mr. Garrison's character seems to be diminishing from that interesting, sexually confused whack job to just a grumpy old man. Although the gluten topic is not as recent and controversial as the NFL it is still satisfying that someone finally called out those self-righteous and self-proclaimed "healthy" dieters, who gloat as if their way is the only way. (Mr. Mackey humorously parodies these people.) In the end the message is clear– after a Aunt Jemima hallucination of course– eat all the junk food you want, life is like a party.

Speaking of parties the boy's struggle to throw theirs is coated with more Scott Malkinson abuse (the kid with a lisp and diabetes). Stan and Wendy are experiencing relationship difficulties. The boys market their party on the radio, and Eric screams to Kyle on the phone a few times. Not much going on here taking into consideration the incorporation of the food pyramid to solve everything.

In all this was a funny episode. I'm still feeling more distant from the characters as the parody and satire seems to be forcing them into specific roles. I'm also noticing a lot of new animation in terms of body positioning, which makes the show look even more state-of-the-art. There is also some new and noisy background music that sometimes trump the voices of the characters. This new age feel is complimented by the reference to Lorde (and we'll never be Royals Ro-yals). The decision to continue with last week's outcome is both exciting and concerning for me. Is this more a sign that there is a lack of creative development in the writing room? Or is this a whole new method to South Park? It seems to be the latter since the storyline that Butters burned the school's gym down was left untouched. We'll have to wait until next week. If there's one thing I can hope for it is more parody/satirical punchlines rather than story lines.

– jc

Good beginning awful ending

[Devincano · 8/10 · 2 October 2014]

The beginning was very promising and it even was joking about how bad the last episode was and everyone was mad at the boys because of how they told everyone to go f themselves but the boys have a good idea and that is to throw a party for everyone to make up for what the horrible idea they had last week. So then they go to the gym which butters burnt down and start wondering how will they make the party good so on and so forth. Meanwhile a PTA meeting is being held at the school and then comes Mr. Mackey talking about how good it is to be gluten free and once this happens everyone starts complaining and they call a scientist to tell Mr. Mackey that gluten isn't bad and the scientist then gets a solid form of gluten and says how it doesn't do anything to you and then Mr Mackey tells him to eat it resulting in his dick exploding and the town freaks out (Pretty usual stuff). The boys go on a radio interview and get pretty fun questions and then the ending starts to come and the boys can't throw a party because there will be nothing for the guest to eat at the party so then Cartman gets a dream about Aunt Jemimia and she tells him how to get everyone to stop eating gluten and so he tells the USDC that aunt Jemimia was on a pyramid and all of the sudden it flipped upside down and then the USDC guess what flips the food pyramid upside down and everything turns out well the boys have a party and everyone is happy that is literally the ending

The Verdict: Funny episode but lost a star due to the horrible ending

Gluton Free Zone

[hellraiser7 · 8/10 · 9 July 2018]

Gluten Free Zone

This isn't one of my favorite episodes but it's a good one. I really liked the beginning of the episode which I'll admit caught me off guard when for the first time in the show we see serialization. We see the aftermath of the first episode of season 18 and it's not pretty. The negative feeling toward the boys in a way reflect our feelings toward that last episode, our way of saying you better start stepping up your game. I'll admit the negativity sort of came out of the blue and in a way is the one weakness of the episode because it seemed out of character that the South Park boys would act so badly toward everyone especially Stan on what he supposedly said to Wendy after the failed venture. And visa versa for Wendy when she phoned in on the radio and put him and the rest down on not making the party possible even though it wasn't their fault, she must've forgot to tune into CNN at that time.

But the way it's all handled I can easily let it slide; probably at the time of their business venture they were all on an egocentric high and when people are in that psychological state they can do some crazy crap. Especially Butters whom for some fraked up reason burned down the gym and graffied a message, I won't say what it is it's bad. I don't feel bad Butters gets suspended, it was rightfully so that he paid the price for his misdeed, though I would have also put him on psychiatric leave doing something like that he's got problems. Though a funny scene was seeing all the kids try to play at that burnt down gymnasium which the safest place isn't to play but I guess they all had to make due; though you can also say the burnt gym reflects the status and state of mind of Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman just all destroyed.

I like that we see the boys (well mainly Stan, Kyle, and Kenny) really learn total selfishness isn't the way to go in life sort of goes with that rule from the film "Scarface" "Never get high on your supply." Yeah, they all got high and fell fast and hard. They know they have to make up for it, by showing everyone a good time as well as pursuing a good cause.

But of course, meanwhile there is a gluten epidemic scare going on, this episode obviously parodies on the Gluten diet craze, personally I think that would be hard to do as most products are made from that material. Really like that town meeting scene when one of the scientists does a demonstration on explaining Glutton and then he stupidly drinks the gluten and well as you can guess in South Park calamity struck as we see it has dangerous side effects which leads to your um nether region flying like a rocket and death. It's just funny once it happens we see everyone panic, that nether region does eventually hit someone, and everyone is just taking drastic measures to ensure safety by starting the first Glutton burning I've ever seen. And even the CDC burn wheat fields with a flame thrower, it's just funny how everyone is just cheering on as if bugs or a virus is being exterminated.

This complicates things for the boys as the ban on gluten is wrecking their plans for redemption. So not just do they have to save their reputations but also the entire world as usual.

Rating: 3 stars