I was really hyped for this special but it didn't live up to expectations for me.
The good:
The concept is great. Playing off the idea of both forced diversity in movies and everyone doing a multiverse fits perfectly for South Park.
Taking shots at disney and kathleen kennedy is never not deserved and is always welcomed. I loved that Matt and Trey pointed out how disney keeps losing money and their stock is getting worse and worse. Alternate KK always telling people to put a chick in it and make her lame and gay was decently funny.
Alternate universe Kenny. Need I say more?
The alright:
Cartman was alright in this special but it felt weird having him forgive kathleen kennedy. I legit expected him to let go of her hand or something before returning to the normal universe so she could be stuck there. He also didn't have many funny moments despite the fact that he was the focus of the special.
The jokes of the panderverse plot. I liked PC Principal's thoughts on it and how he totally accepted it without thought. Nice social commentary there. Besides that, I can't remember any specific examples of anything being funny other than haha both normal and alternate Kenny like a girl with big honkers so he/she keeps telling her that Cylde is going to fart on her, ruining the prank.
The bad:
The actual shots taken at disney and kennedy. This special was extremely soft on both of them. No super sharp quips about either and they really weren't made out to be that much of a laughing stock. And frankly, they kind of made kennedy out to be not bad in the special, which feels weird. Why is the explanation for lazy writing and forced diversity that of "well I was responding to hate mail so I tried to combat racism by appealing to everyone". Like that should have been her excuse and it turns out she had much more sinister motives for the diversity but Matt and Trey didn't take it that far for some reason.
The use of the other 3 boys. Stan, Kyle, and Kenny yet again had no real importance in this special. Why is this a trend in South Park now? The whole point of the show is it's about Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny being kids in crazy situations but nowadays, the boys almost never even feel like they're friends but rather just kids who tolerate the other three more than the other kids at the school. The same can be said about Butters too. The trailer made it seem like he'd have a key role in this special but he was practically nonexistent.
The alternate universe characters' usage. These characters were completely disposable and served absolutely no importance to the story. Alternate universe Cartman did nothing and the normal boys just rolled with Cartman appearing to be a black woman after being forced to. And normal Cartman in the alternate universe experienced nothing except kathleen kennedy chasing after him. No discrimination from all the diverse women and none of them really confused by why their Cartman is now a fat white boy. Why didn't Cartman get super freaked out or mad when he saw all minorities like he did in the pee episode? It felt like a lot could be said or done with this idea yet nothing was. It was just basic stuff. It was also stupid that the alternate universe's "boys" were just saying their Cartman skipped school so she used the fat white boy to take her place.
The Randy B plot. Jesus, can we please get Randy out of having a main character status? His character has been so overused and it has overstayed its welcome for multiple seasons and specials now. And he's still running Tegridy Weed despite the fact that he went back to his old job at the end of the last special. The actual B plot is extremely boring and doesn't tie into the panderverse plot at all until the end. It's just your basic screw billionaires, the system doesn't work, and AI is better than us type preaching. It's grating to watch and Randy's modern day character is just obnoxious, unfunny, and frankly a jerk to his friends and family. Was he sometimes this way in early seasons? Yes, but that wasn't his entire character. Now it is. He's so stupid that he can't figure out how to fix a broken oven door yet he can use computers to do the countless things he's done in previous episodes/seasons. Also why did Matt and Trey write more about AI? They had a whole episode dedicated to that last season but I guess they're just fixated on it now. Please don't make AI the new Tegridy Weed of South Park.
Ultimately this special was alright but felt severely neutered. It could have done and said a lot more but for one reason or another, did not. It feels like they intended for it to be longer and be edgy yet they got told no and had to tone it back. Maybe because Paramount was worried about being sued by disney? Either way, it just felt weird and did not live up to the hype, at least in my eyes.
The good:
The concept is great. Playing off the idea of both forced diversity in movies and everyone doing a multiverse fits perfectly for South Park.
Taking shots at disney and kathleen kennedy is never not deserved and is always welcomed. I loved that Matt and Trey pointed out how disney keeps losing money and their stock is getting worse and worse. Alternate KK always telling people to put a chick in it and make her lame and gay was decently funny.
Alternate universe Kenny. Need I say more?
The alright:
Cartman was alright in this special but it felt weird having him forgive kathleen kennedy. I legit expected him to let go of her hand or something before returning to the normal universe so she could be stuck there. He also didn't have many funny moments despite the fact that he was the focus of the special.
The jokes of the panderverse plot. I liked PC Principal's thoughts on it and how he totally accepted it without thought. Nice social commentary there. Besides that, I can't remember any specific examples of anything being funny other than haha both normal and alternate Kenny like a girl with big honkers so he/she keeps telling her that Cylde is going to fart on her, ruining the prank.
The bad:
The actual shots taken at disney and kennedy. This special was extremely soft on both of them. No super sharp quips about either and they really weren't made out to be that much of a laughing stock. And frankly, they kind of made kennedy out to be not bad in the special, which feels weird. Why is the explanation for lazy writing and forced diversity that of "well I was responding to hate mail so I tried to combat racism by appealing to everyone". Like that should have been her excuse and it turns out she had much more sinister motives for the diversity but Matt and Trey didn't take it that far for some reason.
The use of the other 3 boys. Stan, Kyle, and Kenny yet again had no real importance in this special. Why is this a trend in South Park now? The whole point of the show is it's about Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny being kids in crazy situations but nowadays, the boys almost never even feel like they're friends but rather just kids who tolerate the other three more than the other kids at the school. The same can be said about Butters too. The trailer made it seem like he'd have a key role in this special but he was practically nonexistent.
The alternate universe characters' usage. These characters were completely disposable and served absolutely no importance to the story. Alternate universe Cartman did nothing and the normal boys just rolled with Cartman appearing to be a black woman after being forced to. And normal Cartman in the alternate universe experienced nothing except kathleen kennedy chasing after him. No discrimination from all the diverse women and none of them really confused by why their Cartman is now a fat white boy. Why didn't Cartman get super freaked out or mad when he saw all minorities like he did in the pee episode? It felt like a lot could be said or done with this idea yet nothing was. It was just basic stuff. It was also stupid that the alternate universe's "boys" were just saying their Cartman skipped school so she used the fat white boy to take her place.
The Randy B plot. Jesus, can we please get Randy out of having a main character status? His character has been so overused and it has overstayed its welcome for multiple seasons and specials now. And he's still running Tegridy Weed despite the fact that he went back to his old job at the end of the last special. The actual B plot is extremely boring and doesn't tie into the panderverse plot at all until the end. It's just your basic screw billionaires, the system doesn't work, and AI is better than us type preaching. It's grating to watch and Randy's modern day character is just obnoxious, unfunny, and frankly a jerk to his friends and family. Was he sometimes this way in early seasons? Yes, but that wasn't his entire character. Now it is. He's so stupid that he can't figure out how to fix a broken oven door yet he can use computers to do the countless things he's done in previous episodes/seasons. Also why did Matt and Trey write more about AI? They had a whole episode dedicated to that last season but I guess they're just fixated on it now. Please don't make AI the new Tegridy Weed of South Park.
Ultimately this special was alright but felt severely neutered. It could have done and said a lot more but for one reason or another, did not. It feels like they intended for it to be longer and be edgy yet they got told no and had to tone it back. Maybe because Paramount was worried about being sued by disney? Either way, it just felt weird and did not live up to the hype, at least in my eyes.