Fortunately, as if the comedy gods (or simply Matt Stone and Trey Parker) sensed that it’s just too much, this week’s South Park episode, “Wiener’s Out,” is free of election commentary. Pretty sure we could all use a break from the ridiculousness and awfulness of the real-life Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich dilemma, even if it means seeing Gerald and Sheila Broflovski take their relationship to the next level.
This week, Butters convinced the other boys to stand up for themselves in the face of female bigotry, while Gerald continues to be torn between the thrill of the LULZ and taking his place among the trolls, as the people of Denmark organize their mysterious assault on SkankHunt42. Let’s waste no time and dive into the hilarious and particularly disgusting “Wieners Out”…
“I’m a boy, dagnabbit. I’m proud of my little wiener.”
Butters has been praised as the author of the most brilliantly disgusting book ever written and he was once a schoolyard pimp who changed the game forever. However, in perhaps his strongest moment, he is now the leader of the “#WeinersOut” movement and he’s sure to be grounded once his parents find out that he is leading the other boys in standing up to the girls’ first attack in the Gender War. Letting their little ding dongs hang out has shown the girls that breaking up with the boys has only made them stronger. They will no longer feel shame for their wieners, and you know they mean business when even Stan has dropped his pants, just as Wendy seemed to be changing her mind.
As always, that leaves Kyle as the lone voice of reason, and this battle is so tough that he is calling on his greatest nemesis as an ally.
“I’m starting to feel a lot of guilt just for being a boy. How do I not feel that?”
Wow, look at Kyle becoming quite the cuck. Sorry, this election has gotten to me and I’ve seen that word used so much on Twitter that I just wanted to try it once. Cuck! Cuck! Sounds like a chicken with a lisp. But I don’t want to take away from the plight of the Alpha Males. That said, “Uncle Kyle” is, once again, one boy against the world, and he seeks the help of the Twitter-less Eric Cartman to bring Butters down. Except, this is no longer the Cartman who once fed a boy his own parents in a bowl of chili.
“I saw a vagina, Kyle,” Cartman tells his foe before adding, “I saw the potential for our species to terraform other planets and reach the infinite.” The greatest change that South Park could make is having Cartman mature and reverse his wicked, racist, and misogynistic behavior. But that’s… that not fun, right? And that can’t be what’s happening here, as he tells Kyle how his girlfriend, Heidi, is the funniest person he knows.
The burn on this one is so slow and deceptive that, when surrounded by the other actions and revelations of just this episode, I am now sort of scared of what Cartman may become. Mostly because what he will become may be what he already is.
“Membering is so much more fun than thinking.”
Even when it’s a passing joke, the member berries subplot is wonderful. That Randy and the other dads are addicted to nostalgia is funny enough; however, I was bummed that Randy hasn’t yet embarked on his quest to learn the truth behind the member berries. This show is only its best when Randy is at his worst. But I think we can all agree that Gerald covered the “worst” of this 20th season.
“They dwelled in rocks, in caves, isolated from civilization.”
Gerald was terrified that someone was on to his secret digital identity of SkankHunt42, but it turned out that he was being sought out by another notorious troll: Dildo Swaggins. Yes, the Dildo Swaggins from Pussy Storage dot org. The Danish, as we discover later in the episode are creating a service called TrollTrace that will allow normal people to expose the real identities of trolls who are harassing people online. Obviously, this service is a double-edged sword, but that appears to be a plot point for another episode.
In the meantime, Gerald has a choice to make: Does he accept his place among the internet’s greatest trolls and team up with them to save their kind, or does he fight the urge to unleash his frustrations on the stupidity of others and bury SkankHunt42 once and for all? Two moments in particular begin to answer that question, the first being something so unexpected and awful that it gets its own talking point, and the other being the final scene of “Wieners Out,” as Gerald enters a room full of the worst trolls in the world. Only time will tell how Gerald will mesh with his new “friends,” but that’s hardly his most pissing, I mean pressing issue.
“Am I doing it right, Gerald?”
Holy sh*t, you guys. Twenty seasons and I can honestly say I was not ready for Sheila pissing on Gerald. And this is only the fourth episode of the season. How far will Gerald go to hide his shame? Poor Ike has already seen enough.