Craig Reviews South Park: Jewpacabra

*SPOILER WARNING*


I found myself a little hesitant when it came to this week’s episode of South Park, especially coming off the back of two great episodes. After all, while the Cartman-centric episodes are often very good, the character’s anti-Semitism is hardly new territory, and at this point in the series it’s really not enough to carry a whole episode anymore. Fortunately the episode doesn’t fare quite as badly as I’d imagined. It’s not a great episode by any means, and it certainly feels a bit run of the mill after the two previous episodes, but it is undeniably funny, and there’s not a recycled joke in sight.

 The episode opens with Cartman quizzing Kyle’s mother on Passover, in an opening skit that was deftly handled, before Cartman reveals that the Jewpacabra may have been spotted in South Park. The ‘Cartman’s Passover Holiday Special’ title card was a nice throwback to ‘Woodland Critter Christmas’, one of my favourite episodes of South Park, but this episode never quite touches the morbidly insane heights that the Critters reached. Then, as the children line up to register for the town’s big Easter egg hunt, Cartman begins to spread fear, exclaiming that Easter and Passover falling on the same week is a sign of the Jewpacabra’s coming. Upon finding a dead bird, which Cartman expertly recognises as a Jewpacabra attack, Butter’s runs off terrified, before Kyle steps in to dispel Cartman’s lies. It’s too late for Butter’s though, who is now too scared to sleep, and thus gets caught up in Cartman’s attempt to get video evidence of the creature. The boy’s Jewpacabra calls of “Jesus was a lie!” and “I don’t think Christ has any basis in reality!” provide the first big laugh of the episode, but for the most part it’s standard South Park at this point. Fortunately the episode then gets turned on it’s head, and things get a bit more interesting.

"This isn't safe or fun!"

When Cartman shows his supposed video evidence to Sooper Foods, the supermarket responsible for the Easter egg hunt, they take the evidence to South Park’s Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization for analysis, with one quick stop at a water slide along the way. The Bigfoot Researchers are probably the highlight of the episode for me, a perfect send-up of those ridiculous TV shows, watching them convince both themselves and Cartman that the Jewpacabra is real because it has a heat signature and is not the same size as their picture of a dog was just perfect. With Cartman now terrified of the creature that he invented in order to get all of the eggs at the Easter egg hunt for himself, he holes himself up in a church, but is captured by the fun folks from Sooper Foods. They intend to offer Cartman as a sacrifice to the Jewpacabra, so that the egg hunt can go ahead. So, Cartman ends up chained to the ground while dressed as the Easter bunny and covered in chicken blood, proclaiming his respect for the Jewish faith. It’s a fun role-reversal for the character and it helps keep this episode fresh in spite of the slightly stale material. Eventually the Bigfoot researchers show up, convinced that Cartman is a 3-foot tall bunny man, and proceed to shoot Cartman with a tranquiliser gun, before taking said gun to Animal Planet as proof of their discovery.

It’s at this point that the episode takes an unexpected and very weird turn, as Cartman dreams that he is the son of the pharaoh in Egypt as the plagues rain down. It’s a very strange sequence, complete with a musical number and some over the top gore, which feels a little out of place in the episode to be honest. It just about works, mostly thanks to the fact that it’s quite brief, but it is slightly jarring. Kyle eventually frees Cartman and takes him home, leading Cartman to a revelation of sorts, as he tells everyone at the Easter egg hunt that he was saved by the power of Jehovah, and that they should all deny Christ. When the crowd tells him where to go we get a final scene between Kyle and Cartman, in which Cartman tells Kyle that he finally understands how it feels to be Jewish, before wishing Kyle a happy Passover. I was waiting for a punchline here, but it never happened, which actually makes for a much more interesting, albeit not very funny, ending than if it had been a joke. I think it’s safe to assume that Cartman hasn’t actually changed his ways, but having Cartman stop being so anti-Semitic could actually be an interesting development for the show, and I think this episode would do a good job of putting a line under that aspect of Cartman if it were the case.

This episode managed to be good enough then, if not amazing. Interestingly it was the little jokes that really got me laughing much more this week. Cartman getting the ‘Hebrew-jeebies’, and his disgust at a sandwich with flat bread, for example, had me laughing out loud, while the somewhat theatrical dream sequence left me a little cold. It was solid enough that it doesn’t quite break the show’s current winning streak, but it was an episode that played things a little too safe for the most part.