ADMR – South Park Into the Panderverse is merciless and exactly on point – 5/5

South Park Into the Panderverse: More chicks. More Lame. More Gay.

Full disclosure from the git-go…prior to watching South Park Into the Panderverse, Average Dude had seen exactly 1/2 of one episode of South Park (TIMMY!!!). Not throwing shade, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. That’s not to say that I am ignorant to the characters that Trey Parker and Matt Stone created. I could not be a sentient American over the past QUARTER CENTURY and not know who Cartman, Kyle, Stan and the ever-resurrected Kenny are. But when I heard the premise for this episode I was too intrigued not to give it a watch. And man, am I glad I did.

I’ve been skewered by South Park! I’m somebody now!

Everyone knows that Parker and Stone are brutally irreverent and comically merciless in their content. That’s been their lane from the beginning, and its served us all well. And they are on point because NOBODY has been immune to their slings and arrows. Donald Trump. The NFL. PC Culture. Caitlyn Jenner. Covid. Anti-vaxxers. Celebrities. And now…finally…Disney. South Park Into the Panderverse takes particular aim at The Mouse. And Disney is not happy about it. Not. One. Bit.

Parker and Stone have taken a few shots at the House of Mouse over the years. How could they not? They acquired the greatest entertainment properties of all time! Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Marvel, Pixar, ESPN, ABC and of course, their own kiddie entertainment juggernaut. They truly seemed like they were immune to failure. Such amassed power demanded the attention of South Park. And so confident in their great power, they laughed off the barbs because they believed in their own invulnerability. Hold up a hot minute there, Disney…

Times they are a-changin’

Setting aside my own opinions for a bit, here are some facts: Disney has promoted some very polarizing content in their biggest properties. The troubled story of the latest Indiana Jones movie (which the Average Dude liked) was well-publicized. The toxic battle behind the scenes between Kathleen Kennedy and Gina Carano. Their very open push for ‘diversity and inclusion’ but is widely seen as ‘indoctrination’ has led them to roll out financial failures like Strange World, Lightyear, the Little Mermaid redux, and pretty much anything from Marvel in the last year. Do I even need to mention the backlash unleashed on Rachel Zegler and Snow White and the 7 Magical Creatures. (I can’t even…no) All this content is a monolithic financial failure. Fact. Undeniable fact, not earnestly open for debate. All that begs the question: why? That is open for opinion, of course. And that’s where South Park Into the Panderverse comes in.

Opinions are like buttholes, and South park shows you theirs

South Park Into the Panderverse was amazingly topical on so many levels that the Average Dude truly needed to make physical notes on everyone who got shish-kebobbed. Sure, the major shishing was reserved for Kathleen Kennedy, one of the biggest names at the Mouse House. Kennedy was pivotal in promiting some very non-traditional content that pushed the LGBTQ+ agenda (Disney has long been a proponent ) Stone and Parker’s parody of this open pandering was to lampoon the lazy-writing macguffin of Marvel’s Multiverse to both bring Kennedy into the South Parkverse AND to remake it with the battle cry ‘put a chick in it and make it lame and gay’. Cartman, having voiced much anger at Disney for ruining so many once-awesome properties, was pulled into the Kennedyverse where everyone was a chick and gay. I’ll let you ponder the possibilities for a moment…

A secondary but no less relevant story within was the ascendence of the local handymen because they can fix things, while the college educated elite were suffering because they didn’t know how to do anything and relied on the handymen for even the most simple repair tasks. (Note – never mind that any of us can build a particle accelerator by quickly searching YouTube but whatevs) South Park Into the Panderverse gives us an over the top parody but the point gets made hilariously.

So, let’s get a (severed) head count…

Having only seen one full episode of South Park in my life, I have no idea if the show is typically multi-layered. In this one, they managed to bust chops on Disney, Kennedy, Iger, Feige, Marvel, LGBTQ+ corporate pandering, Cartman himself, the college-educated elitists, the skilled craftsmen, and even a sideswipe on Elon Musk and Richard Branson (did anyone but me notice the Branson cameo in Superman Returns? Just sayin’…). That’s an impressive body count for one show and I enjoyed it so much. I’m not saying that I’ll be going back to watch 25 years of the show. But I’m glad I watched this gem.

One knock on Parker and Stone is that this episode comes way after the mustard was off the hot dog. The pendulum of more traditional values has long since begun swinging back. This episode would have been so much more of a skewer if it had been done even a year ago. Even so, I’m giving South Park Into the Panderverse a very rare 5/5. The fact that Disney is actually attacking back and employing their journo-army to help out is proof that they struck a nerve dead-on. Better late to the party than not at all, I guess.

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