Rate and Review South Park: "Faith Hilling"

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

March 28, 2012: It's a battle between humans and cats using the deadliest weapon of all: memes! Discuss!

[Flimpson Tide]

Lordy, that cat became annoying.

3/5

[Rax]

I thought it was easily one of the funniest things they've done lately. South Park rarely goes wrong with this kind of completely off-the-wall silliness. Nice meta-humor at the end too. 5/5

BTW: Kenny seemed to have a lot more lines than usual for an episode that doesn't focus on him.

[zartok-35]

I could see Don Piano coming for awhile, but all his scenes were still pretty funny. Also, Cartman singing is a perfect formula for success.

[jordanwj]

Why did I just vote 1/5? I meant 4/5. It was high-brow low blowing and really came together in the end......the o-long Johnson cat thing was kinda stupid but Butters with the 38 in his mouth was typical Butters,

[Friz]

I thought Canada on Strike, their other LOOK AT THE INTERNET episode, was a lot better. 2/5

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Eh, I thought it was pretty weak but then the subject matter didn't really appeal much to me. The end with the Republican candidates debating the olong Johnson cat(that's what it sounded like to me) was really the only part I liked, including Cartman reviving Faith Hilling. I'll admit it was refreshing that for once Cartman was not the antagonist, in fact he and Kyle were legitimately on the same side! Still, only enough for a 2.5/5, rounded down to a 2.

[TriforceBun]

South Park's been pretty boring this season. All these long scenes and repeated jokes (the train) with very little in the way of variety (although it bursting through the tall building was a good bait-and-switch). Nothing really made sense or came together or was really all that funny to me. I kind of liked Cartman's little victory at the end, and the fact that he and Kyle were together, and that weird cat thing was sort of funny because of the crazy voice and Republican part, but...meh. Pretty much agreed with Raspberry on this. 2.5 ~ 2/5

[D DEBBS]

Liked the cat-breading....everything else: M-E-H.

[Shaunbadia]

I thought it was kinda nice to have Cartman and Kyle on the same side, and that Kenny got more lines...Though I did get worried that Butters might actually hurt himself at some point.

The meme stuff was amusing and the train gag worked for me..though the first time got me thinking of an old Austin Powers gag.



Pretty good ending too, the song kicked ass and the "Pandering" thing got a laugh out of me...though the best laugh of the episode for me was "Reporting".

4/5 only because of how fucking annoying the "Oh long Johnson" cat got.

[Bella Drape 'er]

I'm glad SP has gone off their cutting-edge political satire stuff...which is what I feared this episode was going to be about in the first minute.

But no, SP entertained me tonight just like the other two episodes this season, by sticking with current events and just making a silly, but amusing mockery of them.

3/5

[Food Blog]

The cat really got boring/annoying quite early in, but I'd seen the actual video last week. I too wondered if Butters would get hurt, and got a few laughs including the "Reporting" bit, but ultimately this episode didn't do a lot for me even though I'm very familiar with the subject matter. Liked the ridiculous "old" infovideo with the retro shiznitz and iPhones and ending up being from 2010, as that sums up the progression of culture these days so well. And good call on the Austin Powers bit too, must say the original is still funnier and doesn't get dragged on too long.

[irvine_11]

Finally got to watching... I loved it! The first South Park of this season to make me laugh from beginning to end! 5/5

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Liked the cat-breading....everything else: M-E-H.

When isn't an episode an "M-E-H" from you?

[Dobbie]

This was basicially one of those gag-filled episodes in which every scene had to have a joke somewhere. I loved it! Despite some repetitions I laughed every time the train came by (the ending was the best one IMO) and the cat was hilarious during the presidential debate. So these 'repeats' were actually used fairly well and they never really annoyed me. A rare occurence on my part.

I knew the subject matter so obviously I liked the pacing of the episode and how each meme just flew by. Cartman's victory at the end was fantastic and I felt that the boys acted like boys in this episode; Naive, playing/doing something stupid due to the popularity of said game/thing, impulsive, etc.

5/5. An episode I could watch a few times more.

[MagicalManFromHappyLand]

This episode was awful. What I like most about South Park is they rarely have bad episodes, 'Crippled Summer', 'Funnybot' and 'A Million Little Fibres being the only ones I truly hated, this one was up there with being one of the worst ever for me. Incredibly they managed to stretch this tediously thin plot line across 20 minutes, mainly by having long clips of cats, or people "memeing".

1/5

The first two episodes of this season were 4/5's for me, both really good and a nice improvement on last year but this episode was pretty shocking.

[leprechaun_dan]

Pure and utter stupidity. Yet it was completely spot on and amazing. Loved the "Oh Long Johnson" cat and Cat Breading. I don't care if the joke dragged on too long and it became annoying, it was fucking funny and the end with the cat being involved in the debate really made me piss my pants with laughter. Also, the old memeing video with the idiots on the train track, "Go back to the 90s, fagggggguttt" and "Taylor Swifting", this episode was packed with laugh-out-loud moments.

9.2/10 or 4.6/5 rounded to a 5 for me

Updated my avatar as well; the cat's expression is priceless

[Mozy]

1/5, this episode was obnoxious and annoying, just seemed like a filler.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

If you count South Park with all other shows, it is filler, taking only weeks to complete.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

1/5, this episode was obnoxious and annoying, just seemed like a filler.

Because it's produced in a week! Like most other shows of course.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Yes, most movies are produced in like, five days though. Especially animated movies.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

My favorite TV show is produced in one.

[irvine_11]

My favorite TV show is produced in one.

What, Teh Samsins?

[Kayla]

surprisingly this was a really good episode. i like when south park takes something in pop culture like movie special editions or memes that aren't usually mentioned in the daily and puts their spin on them. i also liked how they used audio from the real republican debates. it was kind of a one joke premise but they had fun with it and made damn sure not to stretch the premise too thin. blows the past two episodes out of the water by far. B+

[kkkrusty]

This is the first time I've watched South Park in ages. It looks so shiny and new, but why does it have to be so graphic. Maybe if they paid more attention to the writing instead it'd be a better show. As it was the jokes were few and far between. Butters and the gun didn't work. The train was mildly amusing. The cats were intensely annoying. The plots as well were so formulaic despite the insertion of trendy internet humor it seemed the writers got bored attempting to do them. The republicans at the end was probably the best bit although I would have preferred seeing them in front of the train.

2/5

[Jesse Pinkman]

worst part of the episode was the cat repeating the same phrase over and over. the rest was pretty funny i thought. 4/5

[NoOneFamous]

Well, its a talking cat! what else do you expect it to say?

[Mr. Krikt]

I actually ended up rewatching this episode with people and it just strikes me how it didn't go anywhere. The whole plot felt strained and the introduction of the cat seemed a bit senseless because they had nowhere to go with it. It has to be the time limit they assigned themselves that ended up with that song at the end with no resolution.

[MDB]

"Faith Hilling"
Memes + South park = Good chapter

VERY GOOD
+ The talking cat! (Tell me whatever you want! I laughed so hard everytime the cat said oh long jonhson)

BAD
- These stuff were especially repetitve
1 - Intoducing a stupid meme
2 - Show the talking cat
3 - The train gag (which was funnier the first three times)
4 - Butters with the gun (which never was funny)
- As you already said the plot didn't go anywhere,

FINAL THOUGHS
* The memes are appearing more often on TV
* Even though It was a stupid chapter, it was funny enough to deal with it

GRADE: B+

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Faith Hilling

In the epicenter of internet culture lies something that's there the next day, gone the next and those things are memes; I have never particularly cared for memes nor did I think of them as anything special but I'm not going to let that get in the way. Tonight, Matt & Trey provide their take on memeing that pertains mostly to the internet culture rather then the general basis of it. Recent South Park episodes have mainly catered to the people on the internet by basing episodes off of topics seen on the internet and making it sort of appeal to the internet in some way or another (hence the tons of shirts with quotes from the episodes appearing after the episode has aired.) and while I'm not doubting their choice in subject matter, I'm doubting the direction as it seems like South Park moves away from it's core audience and moves towards the internet people I don't want to have to be a constant follower of internet culture to know what's going on, especially considering the fact that I don't like much of what the internet produces.

Their take on meming is interesting in that it doesn't just specifically target internet memes, they make some sort of an attempt to reference memes of the past; sort of draw a reflection to the presence of memes even before the internet made the widespread; it's various attempts to reference what it does to the generation is also appreciated as these things do define an era in some way by the things that they do... What isn't interesting is how memes are presented as having an extremely short shelf life (being presented as if 20 or so years have passed) and the whole death from memes thing; it is interesting in that they try to reference how old things become quickly and how stupid they look doing the thing that was considered cool but it just doesn't seem to be brilliantly clever, only somewhat clever. It's known that memes in real life fade into obscurity long after they've enjoyed themselves, that means anything from Twilight to Head-On to even lolcats can be forgotten about after a few months or so solely because the public has grown tired of the concept, it would of been nice if they somehow made it into a reflection of how fast things change but instead it's treated as something that becomes instantly dated as soon as something else comes along; there are times where the incredibly dates aspect of those memes works well within the context of the scenes that they're in, (the introductory video and scenes with Kyle and Cartman for example) but it just seems like something they could of made more interesting, same goes to the whole "death from memes" thing.

The aforementioned faith hilling is decent even though it doesn't really seem like people pulling up their shirts to reveal boobs. I don't know if it's recent or not but they do use it to craft a decent plot regarding the boys from South Park as they attempt to hold on to the faith hilling thing as long as possible and not bow down to current trends; there are some times where it feels like a movie (IE the beginning and the end) but the moments where they get excited, doubt themselves, get somewhat emotional and doubtful, try to get with the new trends and ultimately turn it around at the end helps to compensate those feelings. I like it some of the time that it's a movie but most of the time it just feels like an overused thing, like they don't know how to use the boys in that situation without resorting to using a movie plot; the unusual paring of Kyle and Cartman is decent, in that we don't see them fighting, we see them sharing something in common; "faith hilling", Cartman is portrayed as the leader (one of the problems is the inconsistent personality he has, I mean one moment he's liked and the next he's hated) but it actually works well here as it helps to guide the scenes where they do fight for their meme and bow down to pressure, the Cartman who does the faith hilling may be over the top but I think that's the point, they wanted to get both the impression that Cartman's making an impression that's impactful as it is cute; though there are times where it doesn't exactly work, making the thing feel pretentious. Kyle doesn't get much screen time edgewise but I did like some of his antics; I personally think the scenes with the kids hold up the episode well when compared to the other things the episode has going on.

It's really nice that they decided to acknowledge the existence of lolcats (the meme, but I really would of preferred an episode about the person "lolcats", get on it South Park writers!) but their whole presence in the plot serves to mess things up; I get that the joke is about how the adults worry about the war at hand, the cats are treated as a threat but they're really just acting cute but it just serves to showcase what is wrong with South Park; over-the-top plots that just happen to remind people of movies rather then South Park at hand, it is somewhat normal for South Park now but still... I thought it was clever they decided to use a video of a cat saying "Ol' Long Johnson" and the culturally development thing actually serves to weigh these scenes down but it just serves to conflict with the episode at various times. The republican conventions at both the beginning and the end of the show just had me scratching my head as alot of it just seemed to be Matt & Trey taking clips from the conventions and using that to create their voices; now it may have a purpose for both setting up the plot and wrapping up the plot at the end (for that it's appreciable, as it does set in the message of the episode which is to fight for what you believe in.) but it just seems like someone an unknown satirist or a super-fan of South Park would do. Maybe they were trying to make a point with how common these sayings are and how indistinguishable they are with the actual convention clips? I don't know but I really don't know why they didn't do their own voices, they did them before didn't they, so why use clips from the convention now?

There are some decent jokes within this episode though; the film in the beginning of the episode has a decent twist on the whole bad acting thing and taking it seriously thing, some of the things on the newspaper got a chuckle. ("Woods Wins Tour" for example, it's both grandiose and funny in today's times.) and I liked many of Cartman's moments. They even manage to include some decent running gags with the convoluted naming of memes as the episode goes on and the ridiculousness of the memes as well, it's decent mainly because it's something that's ridiculous but doesn't draw attention to itself, it's playing a part without making itself known. There's also the train which is played out as the dangerous parts of memes and some excuse to add some bloody gory stuff in there; there are time where they manage to make it clever but there are also times where the joke is predicable as hell; it sort of makes itself known around the second time they do it and every time you see train tracks or a reappearance of a guy who got hit by the train tracks, you're expecting a train to come therefore ruining any potential surprise Matt & Trey might of had stored; it's a shame because the train thing is decent but they should learn how to make stuff like this less predictable. However, with the decent humor comes some bad ones as well, I understand what the school teacher was going for (scaring kids, focusing on Butters) but the obvious setup and the advanced foreknowledge that Butters is going to be the particular focus of the subject just zaps the funniness from these scenes; on a side note, there are good things that come from this, the teacher becomes a more important character and a nice little thing with Butters is introduced but that isn't enough to save these scenes; there's also the usual fight scenes, the french cafe (which would of been funny if it were casual) and the adults misunderstanding the situation, whether you like those or not is up to you.

I'll be honest, internet culture is pretentious and stupid; It doesn't feel like anything representing a coherent and interesting culture, if anything it represents a shallow and dry culture where people say stuff to seem cool and a majority of the stuff is pushed by sites of the Cheezburger network. I've seen various lolcat images, various "verticals" (hint; think "heds") and various funny images that just make me depressed at what's out there today, while I can understand the desires, it just seems like something that lacks soul, lacks individuality, and smells of desperation. (especially in regards to cleverness and all.) While Trey & Matt are parodying it somewhat, it just seems like they're going with the flow rather then going against it; however, this episode isn't terrible because of it. It contains a good story with the kids, some good jokes and memeing that at least acknowledges the past but at the same time it also contains lolcats, the over reliance of movie plots and some ideas that seemed clever but just failed in execution. While this episode isn't terrible, it does make me wish for the days when they wouldn't require me to be completely up to date with stuff such as Kony 2012 (and I admit, I still don't know what that is) and the internet and just parody whatever the public is interested in without intending to push out a political message or statement. On a side note, I do appreciate when somebody creates their own meme using pictures from their own studios; I can see people Taylor Swifting in real life because of this, just one thing that shows that South Park has some individuality in it.

4.5/10