11. You Got F'd in the A
Season 8 Episode 4
Character of the Week This may be the only opportunity I get to mention the irreplaceable 'Goth Kids' so here it goes... South Park plays host to four of the funniest examples of Gothic parody on television. Another honorable mention has to go to the vampire episode where the Goth Kids are disgusted by the Twilight phase that has just struck the world. The tallest Goth gets to show off his dance moves in this episode... they're pretty smooth. Goth Kid's Wisdom The only cool way to dance is by keeping your arms at your sides with your eyes fixed on the floor and every three seconds you take a drag on your cigarette. Culture Tarnished All of dance... it's silly now. Why This Episode Is So Good This episode is one that I have clear memories of watching for the first time, like 'Man-Bear-Pig' and the one where Randy Marsh does a really big poo I found myself literally rolling on the floor in hysterical laughter. South Park can be brutal, it can be crude but one thing it does really well is make observations of subtle eccentricities in human character that are just exaggerated enough to make the viewer rethink the entire way they live their life (OK, maybe I'm just extremely susceptible to exterior influences.) A number of these observations of character come through strong in this episode, I particularly enjoyed the scene where Randy is teaching Stan how to dance and he gets so into the action that he begins singing along to the tune under his breath. It's such a human reaction that one almost forgets they're watching a computer generated paper-man. Beyond the small observations though this episode's real genius is the fun it makes of the ridiculous human traditions. Stan and the gang are confronted by a group of street dancers who perform their act in front of the boys before declaring that they 'got served'... Randy, devastated by the news teaches Stan a routine to Billy-Ray Cyrus' 'Achey Breakey Heart' which he then uses in response to the street dancers. 'It's on!!!' everyone in the street cries so Stan must gather together the best dancers in South Park in order to defend his honor in a dance-off. The humor of the episode is so strong because whether or not one is familiar with dance-off rules they are familiar with the strange way that humans have of putting immense meaning into mundane things. Randy is hospitalized because a man break-dances in front of him - the ultimate expression of how silly we can be sometimes.