South Park 22.05 Review – “The Scoots”

South Park rarely does Halloween episodes wrong. “Pink Eye” is a classic that still holds up to this day. “Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery” perfectly blended South Park style humor with a classic cartoon concept and some celebrity voiceover work. “Sons a Witches” was one of the better episodes last season.

Well, we can officially add “The Scoots” to the list of classic South Park Halloween episodes.

As I’ve said all season, South Park is at its best when the focus is on the kids. This was a Kenny heavy episode and Matt and Trey acknowledged that they haven’t paid much attention to Kenny over the years. He was not only the central figure in the main storyline, but we found out at the end that he was the narrator for the episode. It would have been fitting for him to die at the end, and it sure looked like he did on the tower, but it wasn’t meant to be. The theory that he has become invincible lives.

The show had obvious parallels to The Grinch, which makes sense given that, for some reason, there’s a new animated Grinch movie coming out next week. Mackey trying to stop the town from having their fun with scooters and ruin Halloween was straight out of the Suess playbook. Of course, while the Grinch was knowingly tried to ruin Christmas because it made those of Whoville happy, Mackey just wanted to be able to drive in peace.

Tegridy farms returned, which is perfectly acceptable continuity for this season. The serial episodes of South Park in previous seasons became a drag and Matt and Trey tried to keep the show relevant while also following the storyline they mapped out. We all ‘member two seasons ago when Donald Trump being elected President threw a wrench into their entire season and we ended up with a gigantic mess that is rarely mentioned today. Seriously, ‘member that Mr. Garrison is the President in the South Park universe?

Cartman continues to be a standout player this season, which definitely feels like old times. Give me Cartman ripping on his friends and coming up with lil schemes to only serve him. Not Cartman falling in love and doing whatever the hell he was doing in the last two seasons. Tonight, Cartman ripped on Kenny for being poor. He told Kenny it would catch up with him.

Much like the last couple of episodes, this is another one that is going to hold weight for years. Maybe people won’t get the scooters stuff, but to be honest with you, I didn’t get it either. I’m sure scooters are everywhere in certain towns, but not where I live. We still drive like normal people here in North Carolina.

The episode was Matt and Trey taking a simple premise with some relevant humor, highlighting the characters we love, and hitting the right notes. When they do that, South Park remains at the top of the game.

7.7

The final score: review Good

The 411

After a rough start to the season, South Park is back in form. We got a Kenny heavy episode, which fans have been clamoring for for a few seasons now. We also got some callbacks to earlier this season and previous seasons. The only thing holding the episode back was it being light on "laugh out loud" moments. But there were enough jokes and moments, combined with a good story that plays to any audience, to make this episode a success.