Rate/Review South Park "A History Channel Thanksgiving"

[Ryan]

New South Park, parody target this week: History Channel, ancient aliens.

Discuss.

[Ryan]

The first act was hysterical, but as soon as the "Thor" parody hit things just slipped downhill and never fully recovered until the final tag. Wouldn't the proper joke for Natalie Portman to open her wormhole is to tempt her with an Oscar? I was seriously expecting that, but they went in a totally different (and far blander) direction.

Honestly, I'm not sure how to fix the episode either since they obviously couldn't just keep on doing the crazy Ancient Aliens jokes from act one for the entire episode, but come on, something better than, "Oh it's all real and we're trashing a bad superhero movie we saw last summer. Also we're gonna bash Natalie Portman for totally vague reasons that you will never get."

Stinks too, because before this the run was on a butter roll. (sorry)

[Gatorgod]

Move over Charlie Brown,.. I have a new animated Thanksgivings holiday favorite!
No Thanksgiving will be complete without having first viewed this ep

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I knew it was on but was with family so I said forget it. I'll watch it eventually but am in no hurry.

[The Love-Matic Grandpa!]

2.5

Basically, it felt like they were treading over old ground, the Portman stuff wasn't very funny or clever (and, as noted above, they missed the obvious joke) and the kids weren't given very much to do at all. I was actually expecting this to be a much harsher indictment of History Channel, but a few amusing swipes aside, there wasn't nearly enough satirical commentary on what the network is slowly morphing into and the fictionalization of historic events in general. I suppose it took some chutzpah to cast Native Americans as the villains, but it's not like we haven't seen that before from this show as well.

[Bleedin' Gums Murphy]

Awful and it made no sense. 1/5

[Redem]

They absolutely nailed the history channel parody and I really liked the Thor parody (it help elevate the usual conspiracy stuff)

4/5

[Mr. Krikt]

Wow, it was hard to maintain interest in this episode once the Thor parody began. It was missing the spark that a parody requires rather than just treating it like a mad lib.
Just like the 1% episode I just tuned out of it.

[Dark Homer]

it was alright. I laughed at some parts

but I watch maybe 2 episodes of south park a year and they're always the same. everything's a big conspiracy and it becomes an action movie parody and a female celebrity gets bashed for no apparent reason

zzz

[Mr. Krikt]

it was alright. I laughed at some parts

but I watch maybe 2 episodes of south park a year and they're always the same. everything's a big conspiracy and it becomes an action movie parody and a female celebrity gets bashed for no apparent reason

zzz

That's partially what disappointed me so much about this episode. The boys having to write a school report could go anywhere, like the episode where Cartman attempts to send himself back in time. Having that devolve into the same nonsense as Ass Burgers, Last of the Meheecans or Funny Bot where suddenly the boys' actions have national repercussions is boring.

[D DEBBS]

History Channel is anything BUT the History Channel these days: their #1 show is 'Pawn Stars!'

[Shaunbadia]

I really enjoyed this one. I was a little surprised that Cartman didn't have a "THERE'S NO STUFFING!" sub-plot, instead just giving him the one scene at the store, but the Thor parody was great, though I did get a little lost at the whole "Natalie Portman won't open her wormhole" thing. Is she supposed to be really hard to get or something? Been a while since I've seen Thor itself so I can't really remember much of what she did in it.

Don't ask why, but I laughed pretty hard at the Green Lantern planet nobody cares about thing.

5/5, best of this half-season yet for me along with "Broadway Bro Down"

[Jesse Pinkman]

it started off pretty funny but the humor pretty quickly diminished and they focused a lot more on the action/parody aspect, which wasn't as interesting to me. 3/5 or so seems about right

[HappyPalooza]

It was ok, pretty generic South Park overall but some scattered funny stuff. The History Channel jokes at the start were great. I'm way into all these movies like Thor so that stuff was fun and the Green Lantern swipe was the biggest laugh for me. The Natalie Portman thing was kinda funny but they missed a solid opportunity with the Oscar thing. I could see wanting to go in a different direction than the obvious, but it's not like the way they chose to handle it was a brilliant aversion or anything.

[Flimpson Tide]

Matt and Trey,
Please stop with the action/conspiracy garbage. If you want to do something epic, write a comic book.

2/5

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

It started alright but the whole thing felt meh. 2/5 I guess, weakest of this run so far. I'll likely never watch this one again.

[christmas_ape]

Seeing as I'm not American and have never watched either Thor (I didn't know this episode was a parody of that until coming on here) or the History Channel, this episode failed to grab me. From my perspective, it seemed an ok premise that got far too silly too quickly (Similar to how I feel about Pinewood Derby, but that episode is much funnier than this). Maybe I'd have enjoyed it more if I had got the Thor parody, or knew what was going on with that Natalie Portman thing but for now 2/5.

The first disappointing episode of this half-season for me, though, so South Park's doing well at the moment.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

A History Channel Thanksgiving

If it's anything that this episode taught us about Thanksgiving; it's that the South Park people probably created 1% to give Ryan McLee some form of bone to chew on while they made this... I was hoping that they'd focus more on the History Channel's absurd documentaries then what we got but I guess all they know what to do is conspiracy/action movie stuff...

Almost instantly, you realize that Cartman has barely changed from last weeks episode, but it doesn't matter as we do got the kids together working on their thanksgiving report... One of the main focuses; the History Channel, is initially done well. With it's biting satire of both it's programs and the people behind the channel. While it does dwelve into conspiracy stuff early on; it manages to keep it going by portraying the History Channel people as both people desperate for the truth and the people who put out the "truth" in the first place. An example of this is how the History Channel puts Kyle on TV with gives him the title of a professor from DeVry University; one of the most widespread, most non-university universities out there... I actually got the joke they were putting out, that some people think DeVry is a prestigious institution and the people coming out are high quality when in actuality, the students there are people who have 3 kids, got something about it in the email and got a degree in less then the usual time... Anyways... he's given the title of professor while he's pointing out the most ludicrous stuff that in South Park fashion ends up to be true (seriously, everything Cartman says manages to be true, even though it's racist) and then later on the History Channel believe he's an actual professor and forget that they gave him the title in the first place; I thought of that to be somewhat clever... The moment at the end where they find out even more ludicrous stuff even after they found out the truth is somewhat clever as well...

There is a good running gag involving Kyle being called a woman on his menstral cycle for his ranting and overall displeasure... But other then that, after the first act ends with "we were foolish to believe that Pilgrims were aliens." It all goes downhill... I guess they needed something to fill the second and third acts because they can't end on that line, even though that would of been the greatest South Park moment in history and changed the episode drastically. What we are treated with is a Thor parody that somehow manages to be as boring as the movie is parodying... And yes, I watched the movie itself. I admit it was disjointed and corny; too corny for it to be enjoyable but still, they should of at least ripped it a new one; or at the least bit find something else to replace it. I mean sure, they hit the marks and they manage to make the cities look fantastic but I felt really, really bored watching all of the action that was happening... It would of been funny if it was revealed to be a History Channel recreation but I'm guessing it actually happened so... yeah, it could of done something back there. The Thor-like character does play his role well but it doesn't matter at this point...

Adding Natalie Portman did help somewhat but I would of taken the idea that ryan o suggested rather then what we're presented; which is Kyle taking her out to dinner and talking it up to her to open her "wormhole", which you already know means both things. A sexual reference and an actual wormhole... I did appreciate how they managed to fit the hand thing into the story (even though I didn't care for the Green Lantern jab.) but this claims that end up to be true is tired... I mean if what Kyle said manages to be true, what's to stop anybody from claiming anything and it instantly becoming true... (Again, look at Cartman.) The episode also seems to bring upon the knobs of intelligence upon it's characters. I referenced this previously in the City Sushi review before people pointed out to me that the adults were stupid all along. Well I'd like to take the time to reaffirm my theory...

The knobs of intelligence affects everybody, not just the adults. This is evident when the kids are impressed by watching History Channel and Kyle being the only one speaking out. Notice how people have previously said that the kids are smart and the adults are dumb... Well Kyle is the only one speaking out, the rest of the gang is feeling awkward but they don't speak out, only being impressed that they were on TV. The adults are also dumb as well but that's somewhat expected as they had to fit in the plot... Note that there have been non-dumb adults before; just look at Smileyland. There were two adults who managed to at least be intelligent while following the Kids illogical rhetoric (because their kids man, kids.) Other examples include Randy's brief moments of intellect, Mr. Garrison, Terrance and Phillip... And there are possibly tons of examples. What I'm trying to say is that anybodies intelligence can be adjusted to fit the plot, and it involves anyone... Anyone can become smart or dumb based on what the plot needs; anyone... And while what happened in City Sushi was not the best example, the knobs of intelligence exists. It's not just adults are dumb and kids are smart...

So anyways... This episode was really weak; I'm struggling to even remember anything from the episode and from what I do remember, it just feels underwhelming. The Natalie and Thor parody is a waste (it doesn't matter if you've seen the movie, it's still a waste) and the History Channel thing had so much potential that was just wasted. Everybody is right, this is the weakest South Park episode this season... I feel like I have nothing else more to say.

4.0/10

[Inblackestnight]

I'm on the fence about this ep, as I am with all of season 15. This season was just sub-par IMO because Matt and Trey were too busy with their musical and it shows. Zombies hit the nail on the head saying that the potential for the History Channel plotline was wasted, but I for one enjoyed the Thor parody and mentioning of Green Lantern. Granted that enjoyment was for very simplistic reasons, I'm a fan of GL and from a town called Plymouth, but the visuals were great and pointing out the so-called "experts" HC sometimes has was hilarious. (a HS teacher and U of Phoenix prof? Good Stuff!) All in all this ep falls into the ranks with most for this season; not bad but not great.

[Dark Homer]

they didn't start writing this season until they were done with the musical, I don't think burn-out is to blame

[Flimpson Tide]

Yeah, so I gave it a 2/5 on the initial viewing. Upon another viewing tonight, I actually really enjoyed it. I felt like there was actually a good amount of little funny parts, like the boys cheering when the Pilgrim wails on the Native American, the Pilgrim's way of disintegrating him, the History Channel commercial boasting that they're the one channel that cares about history and subsequently advertising monsters and Hairy Bikers, the Green Lantern Planet just being the one nobody cares about... If given the option I would now change my 2/5 to probably a 3.5 or 4/5. I suggest giving it another try if you hated it at first like me.

[leprechaun_dan]

I started off liking it and re-watched it and now I don't enjoy it as much. So I'm the complete opposite.

But oh well, I appreciate anything Matt and Trey do