South Park – The Complete Fourth Season
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B
At the
time, it was uncertain if South Park
could hold its popularity and the success it was having was at a phenomenal
peak. One of the show’s greatest-ever
achievements is to prove that more than a few cable companies not carrying
Comedy Central were purposely not to maintain a certain kind of conservative
hold on both programming and their subscribers, showing how much cable
companies love to abuse people. When
those censorship-crazy operators got a huge surge of people threatening to drop
service or lose subscribers and huge sums of money, just about all of them
caved in. The quality of their fourth
season did not hurt that at all.
Though
these were done in sets of four, like the previous season, there are seventeen
episodes here like the previous season (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and
are as follows:
The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000 – The boys are so impressed with
the idea of money they get for losing baby teeth, that they try to make it into
a money-making scheme, but when they run out of teeth to give up they try a new
twist: a criminal enterprise of stealing other kid’s teeth for profit! Cartman dressed as a tooth fairy on a stick
is classic.
Cartman’s Silly Hate Crime 2000 – A good swipe against how
political correctness goes too far leaves Cartman going to prison for a minor
offense at best. The best twist is how
the prison Cartman goes to is a kids equivalent of the Cable-TV classic Oz.
Timmy 2000 – Timmy is seen as suffering
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) instead of as the mentally handicapped and
retarded wheelchair-bound kid he is.
Quintuplets 2000 – In a great bashing of former
Attorney General Janet Reno’s awful handling of the Elian Gonzales case, five
acrobatic look-alikes from Romania try to defect to the U.S., despite the fact
that the Cold War is long over. That is
the point, of course, as far as Reno is concerned. Her dressing up as a rabbit with tear gas
filled Easter eggs is classic.
Cartman Joins NAMBLA – A brilliant show
attacking the real-life man/boy organization that actually supports
pedophilia! A bold show and the subplot
of Kenny trying to stop his parents from having another baby is a hoot. They combine with Marlon Brando and friends
for one of the most insane conclusions in series history.
Cherokee Hair Tampons – Cheech & Chong
both loan their voices to a story involving Cartman willing to donate a kidney,
for $10 Million Dollars. Not bad.
Chef Goes Nanners – The town’s voice of sanity
(Issac Hayes) goes on a tear when its explicitly racist flag is still in
effect, and the Klu Klux Klan arrives as the rest of the town its around and
either does nothing or does not get it.
A good send-up of the real-life debate over the Confederate Flag still
as part of South Carolina’s state flag.
Something You Can Do With Your Fingers – A
much-needed send-up of the worst cycle of boy bands in music history bashes the
phoniness and the nightmare head on.
Do The Handicapped Go To Hell? + Probably
– A two-part episode taking on the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, including
the continuation of the Satan/Saddam Hussein love affair.
Fourth Grade – The boys make it to the next
grade… somehow. Unfortunately, their new
homeroom teacher is a separated-at-birth variant of Janet Reno, but possibly
more evil!
Trapper Keeper – Cartman carries around the
famed, hip school folder in a new cyber version, but this one break the record
for content by holding something that could possibly destroy the world! With references to Invasion Of The Body
Snatchers and 2001: A Space Odyssey, a cameo by Jesse Jackson and
wacky appearance by Rosie O’Donnell, this is another gem!
Helen Keller! The Musical – Timmy
takes the title role, though Timmy has more faith is in his sick pet turkey
Gobbles in this send-up of holiday TV specials, most obviously A Charlie
Brown Christmas.
Pip – The British kid gets a show on his own, a wacky
variant on the literary classic Great Expectations with a unique twist
on having a different ending. Malcolm
McDowell shows up in a rare live-action appearance for any real-life person on
the series. The more you know the book,
the funnier it is.
Fat Camp – Cartman has got to lose the
weight, but it is an intervention that gets him behind bars and off of candy
bars. In the meantime, Kenny becomes a
TV star in the worst way.
The Wacky Molestation Adventure –
Cartman becomes Mayor and the kids take over the town when they all gets rid of
their parents by having them taken away over molestation charges. Mixed.
A Very Crappy Christmas – Mr. Hankey The
Christmas Poo introduces his family, but at least Kenny lives.
One again, the full frame image is not bad with decent color for its
time, but evidence of analog-like/composite digital transfer, while the limited
animation looks good. There are no
scratches, noise, or flaws in any of it.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 is available in the brief Stone/Parker commentaries,
Spanish Mono, French Stereo, and English Stereo with limited surrounds. The “4th Grade” credits with a
sweetened techno music version of the score gets tired quickly and is the
loudest thing on any of the four boxed sets to date. The mini commentaries are the only extras
again and Paramount uses a folding DigiPak to store the three DVDs. This is a quality way of doing this without
taking up a ton of room, plus the artwork is top notch.
Though
they are still very outrageous, that is the disbelief you have to expect in
order to get into these shows, they use that freedom to make points no one else
would dare, saying things many are thinking, but never thought they would see
on TV, on film, and animated. South
Park – The Complete Fourth Season is one of their best
and one of the last seasons before the events of 9/11/01 affected the show for
good.
- Nicholas Sheffo
