South Park Season 16 (2012)

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South Park Season 16 Review

The sixteenth season of South Park is nowhere near as great as its previous seasons, but it is still the last pretty good season as its successors are going to dive into mediocre territory.

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“Love is like taking a dump, Butters. Sometimes it works itself out.

But sometimes, you need to give it a nice hard slimy push“

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Reverse Cowgirl opens up this season in style. It is such a crazy episode that is frequently hilarious, but above all pleasantly weird and fueled with an interesting storyline. But it also explores its subject matter really well as well as presenting the differences between men and women when toilet use is concerned quite accurately.

Cash for Gold is without a doubt one of the two greatest episodes of this season. This is unfortunately the last classic South Park season with classic Erik Cartman characterization and here is the best example of that. He is absolutely hysterical here and some of his lines are so memorable. But the entire plot here lends itself to a lot of humorous situations and the ending in particular is bold and memorably dark while of course simultaneously being funny.

Faith Hilling goes into overly ridiculous and silly territory in the second half with the cat stuff in particular being too crazy even for SP standards, but this is still a somewhat underrated and pretty funny part that is humorous in exploiting the foolishness of memes.

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Jewpacabra is such an odd episode. Its flashback is so unique and interesting and the ending is notable for being the only time that Cartman apologized to Kyle, but that was still a problematic development as it didn’t actually change anything in the long run and it is troublesome that the creators throw some major plot points too many times and then do not revisit them and they seemingly have no consequence on later episodes and seasons.

Butterballs has a somewhat forgettable Stan subplot, but the one with Butters is so great. Him being bullied by his own grandmother not only led to a lot of laughs, but also surprisingly to some big life lessons.

I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining is one of the worst parts of the season that suitably makes fun of these types of shows, but is too repetitive in the process and the live-action incarnations of the four protagonists is atrocious and those sequences were so stupid.

I just love Cartman Finds Love so much! It is easily the finest episode of this season and also to me the last truly great, classic episode of the show. Cartman has rarely been better and more quotable, it is just endlessly hilarious and it explores its racism really well while also having a great use of Cupid Me, Token and Kyle. It ends on such a high-note, but the whole episode is a laugh riot and it is absolutely spectacular.

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Sarcastaball is such a ridiculous episode in a typical SP fashion. Randy is excellent here, the subject of children being too safe is so well ridiculed and of course Butters is so funny and his part here is just so crazy.

Raising the Bar is also one of the best episodes here. It is such a perfect attack on fat people and that issue is so well touched upon here. But of course Cartman is great and Honey Boo Boo is such a memorable celebrity character and certainly one of the best in the show’s history. And James Cameron himself is so funny too. Yes, the episode has a lot of subplots and characters, but it perfectly weaves them all into a perfect whole.

Insecurity again benefits from Erik’s racism, but it also has a great Stephen Stotch part. The entire story is so well crafted and each and every character here got their proper due. The highlight to me was the security system part.

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Going Native is by no means a bad episode as Kenny and Butters’ dynamic is pretty sweet and it is worth watching just for Butters alone who is so funny and likable here and gets his interesting backstory, but the episode itself is too repetitive and lacking in its second half to be enjoyed more.

A Nightmare on Face Time is such a great parody of ‘The Shining‘ while also being a great Randy vehicle. But unfortunately the kids’ subplot is much more forgettable with the exception of some funny Cartman moments.

A Scause for Applause is too political for its own sake, but the scause animation scene is so authentic, Jesus is terrific here and so funny and the episode is very smart while above all being funny and entertaining.

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Obama Wins! is way too crowded with too many subplots, but Mickey is great once again and all of those subplots, although not that well executed, are still interesting and most of them solidly merged into the episode.