Photo by: 37Prime.com
There is a line between being cruel and being straight wicked. As usual, “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker don’t just step over this line, they sprint past it. As usual, genius comedy ensues.
In the mid-season premiere of the 13th season of Comedy Central’s most popular show, Stone and Parker show once again they have a knack for tackling controversial subject matter and producing belly-laughing humor.
The season premiere, titled “Dead Celebrities,” focuses on Kyle’s little brother Ike, who is tormented by the ghosts of dead celebrities.
After intruding while his parents are being “naughty,” Ike is scolded and sent back to his room where an apparition of the late Billy Mays tries to sell Ike a product called “Mega Scrub Cleaner.”
Parker does Mays’ voice to perfection with “Hi Billy Mays here” and then asking a terrified Ike “are you tired of your kitchen counter’s stains? Don’t just rub them, Mega Scrub them!”
Although it may be offensive to some to resurrect a celebrity who has been dead for only a short time, Parker and Stone don’t have a problem with it.
The celebrity haunting only begins with Mays as Ike encounters the ghost of Farrah Fawcett and David Carradine.
There is a brief “Sixth Sense” reference when Ike tells his psychiatrist, “I see dead celebrities,” as Ed McMahon stands to the right of the psychiatrist.
Cartman, as always, serves as the vehicle for the show’s constant boundary pushing and the heart of its offensive material.
In “Dead Celebrities” this is no different. As Cartman battles Kyle throughout the episode about the relevance of “Chipotle-away” a product designed by Mays to remove blood stains in underwear after someone eats Chipotle.
The commentary is blatant on the American fast food industry. The brilliance is that the commentary is coming from a pair of kids.
The heart of the episode, however, is in the resurrection of Michael Jackson. His debut in “South Park” came in the hilarious eighth season episode “The Jefferson,” and became an instant classic. Jackson’s denial of not being dead is preventing the other dead celebrities from leaving the gates of purgatory and passing on to another life.
“One person isn’t cooperating,” Walter Cronkite complains. “Just admit you are dead.”
Jackson’s denial is the foundation of his insecurity, which propels the show. His hugely televised and talked about death creates a cloud over all the other celebrity deaths, holding them in purgatory and still in the minds of the living.
Jackson, whose soul ends up entering Ike’s body, is ecstatic to be a “little white child” and continues to claim that he has been alive the entire time. Although such material can be extremely offensive in other hands, “South Park’s” creators make it painstakingly funny.
“Dead Celebrities” just proves what every previous “South Park” episode has proven – that there is no better place to be on a Wednesday night than watching Comedy Central’s premier program.
