South Park Season 15 Episode 5 – “Crack Baby Athletic Association” – Review

While “Crack Baby Athletic Association” was not as good as last week’s episode, South Park looks like it’s starting to get back on track. Even though the episode was pretty uneven in places, there were a lot of great moments to make up for it.

The videos of the crack babies at the start and the boys’ reactions were great; those sad commercials can crack even the hardest of men. Although I had never seen the Sarah McLaughlin commercial that the video is based on, I looked it up afterwards and I have to say South Park‘s take on it was spot on, with the obvious difference of crack-addicted babies rather than animals. I thought the voice they used for her in the video was inspired; intentional or not, it made the whole thing a lot funnier.

Speaking of crack-addicted babies, it’s probably one of the more random crazy South Park ideas, which is saying something! As soon as you saw Cartman volunteering for something, you knew he was up to one of his crazy money-making schemes, but I have to mention Butters’ reaction to Kyle finding their hideout, because it was hilarious. I liked how instead of Kyle opposing Cartman’s scheme they actually joined forces for a change.  And can I just say once again how much I love Butters?  Because I watched and watched and re-watched that karaoke scene over and over again–the best part of the episode by miles!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but Cartman is a sick son of a *****. That’s why he’s so great! Who else would offer a crack-addicted pregnant mother more crack in exchange for her crack-addicted baby? Cartman is always at his best (worst) when he’s making a power play, and he had some great moments this episode. His KFC Gravy hot tub was possibly the greatest and sickest creation I’ve ever seen, and I couldn’t help laughing at his slave trading outfit and accent.  His comeuppance at the hands of the only monsters worse than him, EA, was definitely apt.

Kyle has had it rough lately, there’s no question, so maybe he joined forces with Cartman this time because he was tired of all the constant abuse. It was great seeing Kyle in a different role, though I didn’t actually find him as funny for some reason; I think he’s better when he’s mad at Cartman! I still enjoyed watching him become more and more like Cartman as the episode progressed, though, falling for the money and power. He did try to save his soul, but when Cartman showed him his KFC Gravy Hot Tub there was no going back.

Now being honest I don’t know much about the NCAA and how they run things, but South Park does a pretty good job of sticking it to them here, pointing out the obvious exploitation of players who get nothing for their efforts. Cartman’s slave character exemplifies this attitude the group has towards players as non-paid athletes whose only purpose is to make their “owners” millions as does the portrayal of EA head Peter Moore, who is shown as cold and callous with no regards for the players his games make millions off. F**k them pretty much sums up the attitude of EA towards college athletes. While not the best satire South Park has ever done (and personally I still prefer the EA Tiger Woods parody, which was a hilarious jab at how EA will exploit anything they can think of for money) ,it got it’ point across pretty well, and they definitely succeeded at making Peter Moore look like a complete tool; his cruelty was hilarious and one of the highlights of the episode.

I know so far this all sounds pretty good , but there were parts of this episode I didn’t really find funny or that didn’t work for me.  The whole Slash thing pretty much came out of left field, and it just seemed like it was added in to fill up time. I don’t get what it was trying to spoof? Santa Claus? If that was the case it was a pretty odd fit for this episode. The episode dragged a bit in some parts, too, and the comedy was pretty hit and miss sometimes. This is more like the South Park we love, though; the comedy, while patchy, still has its moments of genius that make this one of the funniest shows on tv .  The spoof of the NCAA and the “thinly” veiled insults towards EA chief , while far from the best satire the show has ever done, did its job in making the NCAA and EA look like douchebags. I just have one pressing concern though.. Where the hell is Kenny this season?