…Christmastime in South Park.
No surprise here: when the holidays begin to approach, there’s a sudden influx of Christmas-themed DVD releases which arrive for our perusal, so I figured that Premium Hollywood was as good a place to tackle them as any. Now, everyone knows that there’s a real unfortunate tendency for these things to get really, really schmaltzy…but in the case of “Christmastime in South Park,” which features all seven of the series’ Christmas episodes from 1997 through 2004, that’s decidedly not the case.
I haven’t been a dedicated “South Park” viewer since…hmmm, I’d have to say my regular viewings stopped right around the time I first started dating the woman who would become my wife. Coincidence? Nah, not really. My wife would be the first to tell you that she has limited tolerance for the show; she’s laughed at it on occasion, but as intelligent as the show can be, she just can’t handle the gross-out comedy…and given that the first episode on this disc introduces Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo, it won’t surprise you that I watched this all by my lonesome.
Each of these episodes have their fair share of laughs, but the legitimate classics definitely come toward the beginning, such as Mr. Hankey’s inaugural appearance, the hilarious visit by the guys to experience a Cartman family Christmas which results in a lovely number from Charlie Manson, and “Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics,” which takes a cue from the legendary “Star Wars Holiday Special” (complete with the ridiculously obscure “fighting the frizzies” reference) and presents a variety-show-styled visit with the various citizens of South Park.
As the show continued, however, it’s clear that Matt Parker and Trey Stone wanted to keep doing holiday episodes but weren’t exactly sure what was left to parody, so in 2000, they went after…themselves! Yep, they make fun of the original “South Park” short that they’d made as as a digital Christmas card; unfortunately, however, Comedy Central completely misses the boat by not including that short as a special feature. “Red Sleigh Down” is a return to greatness, however. It’s a brilliant send-up of action flicks, with Santa trying to bring Christmas to Iraq, only to get shot down, captured, and tortured. His savior? Why, Jesus Christ, of course! The following year’s special, “It’s Christmas in Canada,” proved comparatively disappointing, unfortunately; as ever, the shots at Canada are spot-on and hilarious, but as a Christmas episode, it’s rather lacking.
The last episode on the disc, “Woodland Critter Christmas,” is another one of those episodes that, as I was watching it, made me remember exactly why I haven’t watched “South Park” regularly in quite some time. Yes, it’s a genius parody of the cuter-than-cute Christmas specials that are chock full of anthropomorphic animals who celebrate the holidays just like people do, but when it turns out that the animals’ religious beliefs lean toward the dark side – there’s a delightful blood orgy sequence – and the plot involves baby cougars learning how to perform an abortion, all I could think was, “Oh, God, my wife wouldn’t have made it more than five minutes into this.”
Not that I didn’t laugh, you understand. But, uh, yeah, I can kinda see why she has a problem with the show.
In closing, here’s that aforementioned first “South Park” Christmas short, complete with Spanish subtitle for no apparent reason:
