South Park Fixed The National Anthem And Set The Stage For The Rest Of The Season In A Good Season Premier

At long last, South Park’s 20th season debuted last night, tackling Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem protest, bringing back the Douche vs Turn Sandwich presidential race, sprinkling in some Black Lives Matter, and mocking JJ Abrams throughout it. It was a layered episode which really set the stage for what is sure to be a politically driven season. And like the last few seasons, the episodes will all follow a story arc- which last night clearly set the stage for.

The Kaepernick spoofing was the best part of the episode, as they started the show at South Park Cows girls volleyball game where everyone was focuses on if the black girl would sit or stand during it, with the crowd betting on it. When the National Anthem ended, the gym emptied out, as all anyone really cared about was who would protest the anthem. The reason they were protesting- harassment online, which Cartman was not going to stand for.

The episode was also heavy on Trump (or in their case, Mr. Garrison) who keeps gaining in the polls the more he tries to sabotage his own campaign. Hence, once again, we are trying to decide between a Douche and a Turd Sandwich, a call back to the 2004 election.

And Randy sums up American politics pretty well.

The episode tied it all together at the end, when Mr. Garrison planned on sitting during the Anthem to purposely blow the election, but his plan was foiled by JJ Abrams who “reboots” the National Anthem, a play on how people say he took Star Trek/Star Wars and just made them flashier without really doing much to the stories

Overall, a solid episode of South Park. The opening scene was great, Cartman was gold, the “member berries” were funny, and Mr. Garrison’s “fuck them to death” montage was gold. And very, very underrated part of the show- Gerald, not Cartman, is online troll “skankhunt42″. That will play well in future episodes for sure. I give the season premier a 7.5/10.