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South Park Review: Kyle and Cartman Get HIV!

Well, one thing’s for sure about the newest episode of South Park: no one can claim “The Simpsons already did it!” In the episode, Cartman undergoes a routine tonsillectomy, but a fateful mistake ends up infecting him with the HIV. He soon finds out AIDS was more of an “80′s and 90′s” disease and most people think of it as pretty retro now. He couldn’t even get Elton John to perform at his benefit. Jimmy Buffet shows up in his place to sing a touching version of “AIDS Burger in Paradise.” When Kyle can’t contain his joy at the irony of the situation, Cartman drops some HIV blood in his mouth while he’s sleeping. I wish I were shocked to have just typed that sentence. After Kyle and Cartman fight, the two of them travel to see Magic Johnson about a cure, which, of course, is money.

This was one of those episodes of South Park that’s funny in its audacity, but not as laugh out loud (The kids call it LOL because they have no respect for words) as episodes with lighter themes. I loved the little touch of Cartman changing his outfit to HIV appropriate duds after being diagnosed, and the “I’m not just sure, I’m HIV positive” joke that ran throughout. Also, the ongoing feud of Kyle and Cartman was taken to a completely new level, and it’s hard to think what Cartman could possibly do to top this. Although he did feed Scott Tenorman his own parents in a bowl of chili one time.

South Park always has a message embedded in it, and this time it was about cancer. Okay, not directly, but the point of the episode was to say AIDS has fallen out of public interest in favor of cancer. I thought it was a good storyline until the end. It was clever, but there’s only one logical conclusion to a South Park AIDS story: Visit Magic Johnson. Magic isn’t played for laughs, but his money is. The cap of the episode is that money is the cure for AIDS. The problem with this is that everyone makes that assumption. Magic Johnson has money and can afford the best treatment, so money must be the cure. Unfortunately, it’s not a revelation because it was such an obvious, direct comparison.

A lot of times, Trey Parker will take winding paths to get to his point, making it a surprise when it’s revealed. As Kyle and Cartman were looking for something special that protects Magic from AIDS, I was fully expecting something alien or completely off the wall, which I guess is what happens after watching South Park for 10 years. Instead, it was money. They did take it as far as they could, melting down cash and injecting it right into Kyle, then showing a man proclaiming the end of AIDS to a poor African village. But something about the ending didn’t pop with me.

Oh well, at least it gave Jimmy Buffet an excuse to sing “Cure Burger in Paradise.”

Tonsil Trouble Rating: 7,006 arbitrary stars out of 10,000

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 12:50 am and is filed under South Park Reviews, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “South Park Review: Kyle and Cartman Get HIV!”

  1. Saint Says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 11:01 am

    Thank you for putting the picture of Philadelphia up on your blog. It was driving me nuts that I couldn’t figure out what the P on Cartman’s hat stood for.

  2. stampy Says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    Yeah…. me too…..couldn’t figure the hat out…thanks

  3. mike Says:
    March 18th, 2008 at 2:46 am

    I watched this episode wondering when the funny was coming. I was about to write it off when they brought in the money. Yes jimmy buffet was pretty good. Yes the Kyle/Cartman was kicked up a notch. “I’m going to break everything you own.” Yes one statement was the increasing manageability of hiv and continuing fatality of cancer. “I think I’d rather have aids than cancer.” I didn’t like the story until the end. I didn’t know what to expect, and was surprised and delighted when they went with the literal and pulled it off. The entire show was a set up for them to go too far. Everyone may make the assumption that money buys health for aids patients, but the show also laughed at the size of public funding for aids research or disease research generally. Money is the cure, there’s no lack of money, where’s the cure. That was another message.

  4. Randy Says:
    March 20th, 2008 at 11:14 am

    I missed this one (cable’s out) but heard about it. Thanks for filling in the blanks. I teach HIV prevention. The joke might just be that people see AIDS as retro but they’re still getting HIV and it still costs a fortune to treat and you still die from it, unless you’re hit by a truck or something. Of course, there hasn’t been a case of HIV transmission by blood transfusion (in the US) since the early 80′s, and you can’t normally transmit HIV by swallowing blood. So maybe that’s part of the joke, too. Love South Park, but I hope the non-nerds aren’t relying on it for accurate HIV info.

  5. Nerd With Words Says:
    March 20th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    Yeah, I would hope that people are educated enough to understand the risks (and non-risks) associated with HIV, and aren’t getting their facts from South Park. It’s satire and they use outrageous plot devices to get their point across.