#I’m not sure how much of it was written by CharGPT

[methinmycoffee]

~~Spoilers (S26 E4)~~

Okay, the new episode. I thought it was pretty good, I’m glad we got an episode where the kids felt as much like kids as they possibly could for modern South Park, I like the relationship between Stan and Wendy and the relationship between Clyde and Bebe. Here are my thoughts in way too much detail.

First, The positives:

I live for Clybe. They’re such a garbage fire couple and I am here for it. Same thing goes for Stendy. Canon Stendy is such a hot mess now that it’s like watching “Balloon Boy” unfold live. I understand that some people may not like it, especially when Stendy used to be so wholesome (I’ll touch on this later). But as an isolated thing, it’s entertaining in my opinion. The inclusion of Clyde as a semi-major part of the episode does it a favor too.

Garrison! I don’t know how much he’s done since his flop (Trump) era. I genuinely missed him and think he’s relatively in character for this episode. Maybe he would notice that the dumbest kids in his class are suddenly really good at writing, but he’s not the brightest bulb himself so maybe he wouldn’t. I enjoyed seeing Rick again, I’m glad they remembered him.

Cartman! Finally, this is exactly what he would do in this situation. There’s no question of redemption for that little asshole, he said something about women ruining slavery during the episode. But he wasn’t even the first person to discover the AI and he immediately started gatekeeping it. Icon. And perfectly in character for him.

This episode was relevant, but still fun. It didn’t even feel like it really took a stance on AI, it just told a story based around the technology. They really took their own advice and didn’t preach, they just had characters do stuff and sort of argued for both sides. Some of my favorite episodes do this, like Best Friends Forever (S9 E4)

But, The Negatives:

Stan is mean to Wendy. There is something so wholesome about early Stendy, where Stan is head over heals “in love” with Wendy and would do anything for her. Yes, a toxic relationship has a place in the show, but that’s what for Clybe is for, and they were a garbage fire since Clubhouses (S2 E12). This episode would have worked just as well if Stan didn’t want to hurt Wendy’s feelings by not knowing what to say/ not having time to respond. Honestly it’s not that bad isolated to this episode, but I feel like there’s been a shift where every relationship is a little one sided or toxic.

Weird pacing/structure. I wasn’t sure if this should be a nitpick or a true negative, but pacing is important. Some parts of the episode move a little bit slow, which is fine, but that long ass scene where a kid uses the bathroom for like 45 seconds could have been cut if you needed extra time to make the ending feel like it wasn’t a random after thought. This could be a product of certain parts of the episode being written by an AI, though I’m not sure how much of it actually was. If it was just the ending or the text messages or the major story beats, or maybe it was nothing at all and they just credited ChatGPT for fun. Still, it could have been better.

And what’s life without Random nitpicks?

A little itty bit out of touch. Just a tiny bit, but like why does the Home Screen of the iPhone 12s that the kids have look like it’s from 2010? Also it’s not like nobody would have heard of ChatGPT

That scene of Peter Mullen peeing was way too long. Very Family Guy style, with a long drawn out joke that went on for it to still be funny.

I don’t really like the design of the character played by the incomparable Betty Boogie Parker. It feels too modern, and I liked Heather William’s design more.