There are two subjects that South Park consistently hits home with; Randy Marsh-centric episodes and holiday specials. Some of my favorite installments in the series’ history involve either the anarchic stupidity of Stan’s dad or riffing on dubious American traditions (see: the Korn Halloween special, Mr. Marsh’s little league stint). “A Nightmare on Face Time” combines both of these premises to a startlingly funny degree; even when certain gags felt stale (Gangnam Style should be erased from our cultural lexicon), the narrative had energy and charisma to burn, the script bursting full of clever cinematic references and great jokes.
The opening to tonight’s episode is an extended homage to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, from the sweeping aerial shots of the Colorado landscape to the doom-laden synth score. Randy has foolhardy purchased the last operating Blockbuster franchise for a measly ten thousand dollars, and is dragging his entire family away from the town’s festivities, specifically the Monster Mash, to operate the decrepit shop. Stan, along with his sister, Shelly (whose become less and less of a presence as the show’s aged), and mother, Sharon, reluctantly assist their father in the non-job of running an out of business DVD rental store.
“How many copies of ‘Meet of the Fockers’ do we have left in stock Shel-lay?” Randy asks upwards of six times, accentuating the abysmal boredom associated with operating a ghost town. The complete lack of costumers and general disillusionment with physical video rental drives Mr. Marsh to fits of insanity; he begins to hallucinate costumers, ranging from an eighties work out video chick to Civil War vets returned from the battlefield to rent a good flick. Convinced his family has simply lost their way in the digital age of streaming Netflix, Randy refuses to let Stan leave for his big Halloween party, restricting his son’s communication with the outside world to Face Time conversation via an Ipad.
While Stan remains imprisoned at the abandoned video store, the rest of the gang suits up as Marvel’s The Avengers and sets out for a night of trick-or-treating and competitive costume shows. Kyle is Thor, Kenny is Iron Man, Stan is Captain America and Cartman is something resembling the Incredible Hulk. I actually paused my video player in laughter when the parents began to guess who Eric was supposed to be;“Oh, look, the Incredible Harvey Fienstien!”, “Oh, a green Honey Boo-Boo”, or “Oh, look, it’s Chaz Bono!” wrung some of the best comedy out of the fall half-season thus far.
From the trick-or-treating escapades onwards, the boys get ensnared with the Red Box Killers, a wildly unsuccessful gang of murderous robbers who steal petty change from the local Red Box video rental centers. There’s a cat and mouse element at play, the criminals pursuing the boys back and forth towards the Monster Mash, and this all serves as a great excuse to incorporate South Park’s astoundingly incompetent police Chief and his crew. The episode reaches a climax as the killers are apprehended and Gangnamstein (Psy+ Mary Shelly’s monster) wreaks havoc across South Park, terrorizing those who would dare to use home streaming for their videos instead of rented DVDs.
If the plot description sounds confusing or contrived on paper, I’m not doing it any justice. The narrative of “Nightmare” is far and away the tightest so far this season, and everything from The Shining motif to the sly visual references (Mr. Garrison dressed up as Ryan Gosling’s character from Drive was pretty awesome) are executed with great humor and panache. More importantly, the episode is actually funny, from the first scene to the last lingering image of a frozen Randy placing an order for some High-C from McDonalds.
This is the type of South Park episode I adore, and one of the reasons I continue to watch the show sixteen seasons into its run. “A Nightmare on Face Time” is fast, controlled, and smart in the stupidest ways. It blends relevant satire (though I haven’t seen a Blockbuster in ages), a good breadth of cinematic knowledge, and go-for-the-gut humor to a dazzling effect. There are always cavils to consider on a show like South Park, but tonight’s episode put a smile on my face that didn’t leave for a moment.
Highlights:
-“Emily—the war is over! Let’s go rent a movie from Blockbuster!”
-I’ll conceded that Jimmy doing the Gangnam style thing was clever and applicable to his character
-“Ew, that’s enough Stanley! Ew! Gross!”- Mr. Marsh’s reaction to Madonna’s “Old Bewbs” was wonderful
-“Oh, crap, there’s a bunch of them… never mind!”-the boys bail on their heroic mission pretty quickly
-“Oh, look, Wedding Crashers!”- razor sharp comedic timing there
Grade: A-