Rating: 3/5 stars

The latest episode of the 26th season of the long-running adult animated comedy series “South Park” recently aired and it is sure to give some old fans of the series a few smiles. However, it does not live up to the highs that the rest of the season has offered so far. South Park has been on the air since 1997, with 317 episodes to its name; alongside specials, a feature-length film and multiple successful video game adaptations. Co-creators Trey Parker (“Despicable Me 3”) and Matt Stone (“The Book of Mormon”) have been dedicated to their craft of dark, satirical comedy for 26 years and they have no intent on slowing down anytime soon. People have grown up with the iconic boys Cartman and Stan (Parker), Kyle, Kenny, Butters (Stone) and their misadventures in the small mountain town of South Park, Colorado.

After years of working on the show, the creators began to grow experimental with their creation and started implementing “serialization” into the show with each season having an overarching story. The format forced viewers to tune in every week in order to stay in the know about what was going on as no explanations were given at the start of each episode. Viewers were expected to remember going into each new episode what had happened previously. This format drove audiences away and some even said that the show was taking a dive in quality or that it was “jumping the shark” so to speak. “South Park” was going through something very similar that “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” had experienced after so many years on the air. Seemingly out of nowhere, came the end of season 20 with an episode titled, “The End of Serialization as We Know It” which promised to bring the series back to its less story-driven formula and into standalone stories told in 22 minutes. This has continued into the 26th season of the show which has seen some wonderful praise. The latest episode gives fans something they have wanted for a while, which is a Butters and Cartman episode. Whenever this duo teams up, or rather when Cartman manipulates Butters into getting what he wants, it is sure to be a recipe for success.

The episode entails Butters getting his first paid job and Cartman wanting in on the glories of a paycheck decides to open his own restaurant. Sadly, the episode does not always land the mark it dives for. The episode does have its highlights and waiting for the moment where everything crashes down on Cartman is rewarding, however, it is not really clever with a lot of the jokes being told. Episodes of this same season have featured political commentary smartly on Prince Harry and his wife and also tackles the subject of AI getting too advanced where they begin to take our jobs. The newest episode feels like an old episode in a lot of senses, even in the fact that the message is a little flimsy; although there is one tact on at the end almost as if it felt mandatory for Parker and Stone to put in. It is a fun time and has a few laugh out loud moments, but it feels like the first dip in quality since the season began earlier in 2023.

Image from South Park Studios via YouTube