Rate and Review South Park: "Bass to Mouth"

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

October 19th, 2011: Bass to Mouth
Someone at school is posting juicy gossip on-line.

[Flimpson Tide]

For everyone who was super worried about the direction a Wikileaks episode would take, I think they will wind up thoroughly satisfied. There was no connection at all to the news event of last year other than Lemmiwinks' brother being named Wikileaks. Was that even his name, or was it Wikilinks?

Anyway, the first act and a half or so wasn't too funny, but then it really began to pick up. Perhaps the most sinister the school staff has ever been in an episode, but still funny since Principal Victoria, Mr. Mackey and the shop teacher don't have too developed of personalities anyway. Watching them shove Cartman under a bus was pretty funny. Mackey shitting his socks hard at the end and slamming his head on the ceiling was the highlight of the half-season thus far. I'd say a solid 4.5/5 or so, just because sometimes Matt and Trey need to work more on the episode being funny start to finish instead of building it up so much.

Was anyone else super stumped about what the title meant until tonight? I was going to ask if it was wordplay on something like Face-to-Mouth (wrong "bass" it turns out) but I decided to just let Matt and Trey show me. Good decision.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

This felt like a really fun episode. I was expecting something kinda preachy, but I really liked it and was relieved by the time I saw Lemmiwinks' return. The whole Stan being okay with it until something got posted about him angle is something I didn't care for though. Is it telling I have no idea who that girl Cartman wanted to see harmed was? Cartman's decision to just make someone else want to commit suicide instead of the first boy was really in character though, and the faculty literally throwing him under the bus was great. I also loved that song they were playing before the final battle. Could've done without Mackey shitting himself honestly. All in all I would probably give this a solid 4/5. Definitely much better than I was expecting though.

BTW Flimpsons I too was not aware of what the title meant and still don't know if Lemmiwinks' brother was supposed to be named Wikileaks or Wikilinks.

Also, the shop teacher sounded kinda weird but then I believe this might only be the second episode I remember him speaking in, though it probably wasn't. I'm not that knowledgeable in South Park episode history, especially in the past 5 seasons or so...

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Bass to Mouth

I knew the title was a sexual reference beforehand, watching it now; I still know it's a sexual reference; except it refers to the ass.

I have to say, this was enjoyable... Though it does take some time to build up to the enjoyability; I mean it does start off as usual as South Park episodes do, with them discussing something they saw (in this case, the TMZ parody "Easedropper".) and a kid crapping his pants which does become a major theme pretty quickly... and then it builds up to an epic adventure involving the return of Lemmiwinks. (which was hinted at in the episode "AWESOM-O", even though it wasn't really shown, but still.) When it does kick in, the episode does get pretty enjoyable. I mean the epic adventure stuff is pretty enjoyable but it doesn't feel in-place, even though I got the joke that Lemmiwinks was an ordinary gerbil who was thought to be magical by the other people Wikileaks however... (SIDE NOTE: I haven't cared much about Wikileaks or what they were leaking so I guess it didn't work out on me.) Is as much of a snooping rat and computer user as the other kids, therefore possibly hindering any cleverness (they are brothers after all) that the Lemmiwinks joke has.

The argument they do make up about privacy and how it's wrong to have their lives private is a great message but one that has been done many of times before; but I'm willing to somewhat forgive it seeing as how it's an episode about the kids and all... I would like to know what the other kids were doing, especially Butters and Kenny and well... Wendy for one but eh, what are you going to do...

I did like Cartman's side plot; I though he'd be the one that'd be behind "Easedropper" but I guessed wrong, anyway this intitially involves bullying then veers right into a shady business plot involving Cartman and the School trying to avoid another "suicide" (this is related to the pooping his pants plot BTW.) by diverting attention away from that subject. The Cartman we do see is one where he has a master plan instead of the sneaky deviant, I did like his interpretation of what he did, some of the stuff in the kitchen and the moment where he threw him under a bus; that was really funny, and it did affect their kids epic adventure as well...

While I would of liked to see the story posted, they at least ended it in a satisfactory way that'll please both people watching this episode and the fans. There are a lot of parts that could of been done with but aside from that; the recent season's focus away from satire-heavy episodes is a nice change of pace.

Also while some may praise the shit jokes, I don't care either way; it doesn't make laugh or pissed, it just doesn't elicit any response because well... it's become so commonplace that it doesn't seem laughworthy anymore.

Anyways, great episode... Got the return of Lemmiwinks, mostly not satirical (execpt for a few parts.) but it does contain some parts that bring it down... That's all I gotta say.

7.0/10

[Diversity Pumpkin]

I knew the title was a sexual reference beforehand, watching it now; I still know it's a sexual reference; except it refers to the ass.

Lol wtf.

[Postmaster]

What did you think it meant?

[D DEBBS]

I wish Trey would have focued more on the kids and not on the animals-I felt they distracted from the story.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

I wish Trey would have focued more on the kids and not on the animals-I felt they distracted from the story.

I have to agree, however it's still enjoyable though...

[Mr. Krikt]

Finally an episode focused within the town and particularly the school. I'm fed up with nationwide events so this felt like a breath of fresh air.
Overall I quite enjoyed it. It's a far cry from the "classic" series but it was still a lot more entertaining than a lot of recent episodes.

[irvine_11]

I was dissatisfied with this episode. This had potential to be a great episode, but it fell flat on a lot of levels. It started out well and lead up to what could have been a good mystery story, but once WikiLeaks was introduced this episode quickly went to hell. The idea that a rat was posting gossip on a website was stupid and only got worse as the episode went on - eventually turning into yet another current events parody. I personally would have preferred if it was the mystery story I thought it was going to be, with the gossip blogger's identity being revealed at the end of the episode. The subplot was terrible - the elementary school staff were very out of character and it didn't come to a very satistfying conclusion.

I do have some good things to say, however. I liked that characters that we haven't seen in a long time came back (Mr. Adler, Lemmiwinks) and that they got a good amount of screen time. I also like that subplots are being used more regularly now - the problem with the last few seasons was that the writers were using storylines that were too thin to be supported by one plot. Guess they finally realized it.

Overall, a disappointing episode. 6/10, because I feel generous.

Edit: Did anyone notice Brad Paisley's name in the credits? Guessing he performed the Lemmiwinks song.

[NoOneFamous]

As much as I wanted to/was prepared to hate this, I ended up really enjoying it. It started off pretty heavy handed as a "by the numbers" current events episode, but about half-way through it seemed like they were like "wait, this is exactly what the fans are sick of" so instead of getting the FBI involved and a huge action sequence, we got the rat and a callback to Lemmiwinks, two things that felt like something they would have done in earlier episodes.

4/5

[Ryan]

a fun, goofy-as-hell episode. they got their point in, but didn't stray them from just having fun.

after watching the documentary, I think I have a better appreciation for all the shit jokes.

[NoOneFamous]

is the documentary online anywhere?

[Jesse Pinkman]

i wondered if they were going to have it so the person (or animal, in this case) who was running Eavesdropper be revealed early on or near the end, to keep it a big mystery throughout the episode. definitely made the right choice. i was kinda annoyed it was a gerbil, but then we saw lemmiwinks return and i thought to myself "ok, this is going to be pretty good." and, it was. i haven't laughed so much at an episode in a while. things i laughed at:

"We're going to have to throw Eric under the bus"
"How do we do that?"
"We get a bus, and then we throw Eric Cartman under it" (might not be 100 percent right, but you get the idea)

Wendy's line about having a boyfriend addicted to crack

"He's devasted."
"yup, devasted."

the song that was playing when the kids and lemmiwinks were running to the school

the song that played with the fish

other moments i can't remember now. point is, i laughed a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the plot.

[Mira]

Did anyone notice that Mr. Mackey actually called the website "Wikileaks" rather than "Eavesdropper"? Lol, dunno if that was a slip or intentional. I know they pump out these episodes pretty quick, so a mistake like that is probably easy to make.

[Bella Drape 'er]

The episode took a very weird turn towards the end.

And I know this is South Park, but the hamster shenanigans here just bored me

2/5

[Bleedin' Gums Murphy]

1/5

[Inblackestnight]

A fun and crazy ep in good ole SP fashion. One twist I was expecting, that never happened and I'm surprised was not at least brought up, was for the school administraitors to poison Eric so he's the one who craps his pants at school and gets made fun of. If Cartman was the reason one student committed suicide and another attempts it then I would think taking him down a peg would solve the problem instead of everybody. Besides, it's likely that since Eric came up with the pizza idea he would not eat any and be the only one not to crap his pants... Although it was crude I couldn't help laughing at the whole 'bass-to-mouth' tale by what's-his-name Fish.

[12340987]

Sorry to dredge up such an old post, but I just don't understand this episode and it's been bugging me. Seems to me that Matt and Trey tend to lean towards the liberal side, and that likening Assange to a rat doesn't really fit in with that. The whole time I was watching this episode it made me wonder why they would do it. Can anyone explain how this disagreement would be reconciled?

[Matty]

Sorry to dredge up such an old post, but I just don't understand this episode and it's been bugging me. Seems to me that Matt and Trey tend to lean towards the liberal side, and that likening Assange to a rat doesn't really fit in with that. The whole time I was watching this episode it made me wonder why they would do it. Can anyone explain how this disagreement would be reconciled?

First of all, you shouldn't think of them as liberals. They've exclaimed to hate liberals even more than they hate conservatives.

But here's some comments on Assange from them:

Stone: Julian Assange is crazy and fascinating. He's a one-of-a-kind guy, whether you like him or not. And I tend not to.
Parker: He's a one-of-a-kind douche.
Stone: The best is when he gets mad at people for leaking his stuff. Do they not have irony in Australia?

I think the DVD's are coming out this week, so maybe mini-commentary will shed some more light on this.