South Park (TV Series) Handicar (2014) User Reviews

A Fun Aside to the Boys - Nathan & Mimsy Episode #2

[camachbr0 · 8/10 · 16 October 2014]

Let me just start off by saying: give credit to Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the influential portrayals of their handicapped characters. The great thing about them has been that Timmy and Jimmy are always part of the crew, and one of the "boys". I loved how in this episode Timmy is a innovative business-minded genius. In addition, the quick line that "Jimmy gets all the pussy with his standup act" is awesome, just awesome.

Here's how I see it....

May contain spoilers****

This episode does not include any of the main characters. Starring in this week's episode, "Handicar", are the duo Nathan and Mimsy that we have seen before; goofy and laughable anti- heroes. This time Nathan is trying to thwart Timmy's booming "Handicar" business (a play on Uber cars) which is raising a heck-of-a lot-of money for the handicapped kids in South Park to go to summer camp. Timmy's business is honestly one of the cooler, sweeter ideas South Park has done in a while. The wagon operated vehicle attached to his chair made me smile. The conflict set up here also reminds us that in the last Nathan & Mimsy episode, Nathan was raped by a shark. So he REALLY does not want to go back to that camp. He enlists his sidekick, Mimsy, to help carry out his plans. I still find it funny every time Nathan's plans go down the toilet. I even still find it funny when Nathan smacks Mimsy upside the head. It's even funnier to me when, in this episode, Mimsy acts as the voice of reason. Maybe that's just the child in me, who grew up in the decade of self-deprecating & self-destructive humor. So, you can imagine, I really enjoyed the homages to Dick Dastardly and Muttley in addition to Rocky and Mugsy. With that being said this episode was for an older audience. The parents rioting over cereal in response to the Wacky Race announcement was a fun Saturday morning cartoons reminder, as well as the parents watching the races in their pajamas. The whole race sequence was cute to say the most. The battle between Timmy and his wagon against all the other modes of transportation-- Nathan, the taxi guy, the Hummer salesman, Matthew Mcconaughey, & the eco-friendly car creator guy-- didn't really have much sense to it. It was predictable what was going to end up happening, Nathan would get #@$!-ed & Timmy would prevail. Also, the ending gag between Nathan and his parents, "I can't understand you, you're retarded, son," is too mean spirited to be actually a joke.

While this was an enjoyable aside from the main boys I'm looking forward to seeing them back next week. Taking into account the Lorde episode we haven't seen Kyle or Kenny in two weeks! Hopefully everyone comes back with a vengeance. Till next week guys! I'm going to "Handicar" my way to a meeting now.

• jc

Crippled Summer 2 - More Cripplier

[mobilinear-135-674492 · 3/10 · 17 October 2014]

The South Park Episode "Crippled Summer" is one of the lowest rated episodes of the show's entire run. In it the writers make the mistake of trading the usual, thought provoking 'people are flawed and can do bad things sometimes' plot driver for a stale 50's era cartoon 'this is the bad guy who is bad just because he is, OK, get over it!' formula. I'm sure this seemed like homage when they came up with the idea, but South Park has always done iconoclasm better than toeing the line.

Then, granted, it must have taken some cojones to return to the idea again this season, without even a B-plot to break up the monotony.

I won't comment on the bits that were shoehorned in for shock value, like a (spoiler alert) handicapped boy being raped by a transvestite. Such things have always been par for the course. However, most of the jokes and celebrity jabs just fall flat. Yeah, Matthew McConaughey is in some car commercials, what a douchebag! Elon Musk, yeah, he's a douchebag too, for... I don't know, starting a company that doesn't rely on a smartphone app?

On this point, I should mention the odd swerve to the right that politics takes in this episode. Uber and Lyft have an appealing product, sure, but there are plenty of valid criticisms of their model. Rather than South Park taking their usual attitude of 'the truth is probably somewhere in the middle,' the writers instead go for rather tone-deaf all out criticism of unions and industry regulation, and a can-do-no-wrong attitude to unrestrained capitalism. Because there is no nuance, the characters introduced are really not very interesting.

By the time they get around to the wacky races bit, the episode has taken too much time to introduce boring characters that exist only because they can bring another not-very-interesting car to the race. And when it begins, we know what the outcome will be already, because it's a homage to a tired idea from the 60's. The only surprise is that it doesn't cut to black with another child rape.

The fatal flaw of the episode is that, in the end, Timmy really isn't a character in this one, despite the fact that it all supposedly centres on him. Hence, the positive message from "Timmy 2000" - that handicapped people have their own personalities and aren't just a stereotype - gets lost in the negativity.

The classic South Park conceit used to be the 'You know, I learned something today...' moment. And for me, one of the very best ones was at the end of "Up the Down Steroid." This episode just doesn't compare - if you had to script a moment like that for the end of this one, what would it be? Some people are bad? Competition is good? Not much that I can think of.