By Mikhail Shevchenko
Contributor

The latest South Park brought a healthy blend of bros, blow jobs and Broadway as Trey Parker and Matt Stone teamed up with fellow Book of Mormon writer Robert Lopez.

This episode, as others have in the past, focused primarily on Randy Marsh, Stan’s father. Just as those other (see “Crème Fraiche” and “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson”) episodes were, this one was hilarious. Randy learns that the town’s production of Wicked is subliminally influencing women to perform more fellatio and quickly takes advantage. He even writes one himself titled Splooge-Drenched Blowjob Queen (later changed the name “The Woman in White” at the suggestion of Stephen Sondheim). His attitude towards musicals sours, however, when he discovers his daughter Shelley is on a date seeing Wicked. This prompts Randy to don a Spider-Man outfit and destroy the entire show.

This episode was co-written by Lopez, who wrote Avenue Q and worked with Parker on Book of Mormon. I’m curious about the spoofed versions of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim, etc. along with their confrontation of Randy, and if it mirrored similar treatment of Lopez or Parker when they began their work on Broadway. The ridiculing of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark was hysterical and very appropriate as a climax to an episode based off Broadway plays.  Even though the boys had barely any presence in the episode, Randy’s childish exuberance is so funny that he’s able to hold down an entire episode without need for much side-story.

Even though I find the musical bits within shows like this and Family Guy pretentious, I can truly say that this is one of the better episodes of South Park this season.

Front page image and image 2 from animationstudios.com, image 1 from orlandosentinel.com.