South Park is back with a new special “The End of Obesity,” but it’s another swing and a miss for a once great show. Social commentary aside, it wasn’t even that funny.
The last special, “Enter the Panderverse” was cheered by conservatives for mocking the deluge of diversity. But the show’s signature dose of “why can’t both sides just be normal” conservatism fails to recognize that one side wants to chop the dicks off of kids and the other side well, is normal.
The obesity special offers more of the same. Sure, there’s some solid commentary on the abysmal state of the U.S. healthcare system. The show excoriates Big Food brands that shove sugary, seed oil slop down our throats — and get away with it with the full support of the government. But when it comes to weight loss drugs, the key takeaway is “why can’t we all just be normal again”: don’t worry about being super fit and just do normal drugs, like cocaine and Molly. Meanwhile, is it really so hard to be nice to fat people?
This is another skewed bothsides-ism. It’s not a choice between being uber-toned and marginally pudgy. For Americans who eat out of the corporate processed food trough, it’s a choice between being relatively normal and morbidly, disgustingly obese. Normal people probably should stay off Ozempic. You don’t need drugs (and chronic GI problems) to show off your abs — Just Eat Less™. But for people like Eric Cartman, the side effects certainly can’t outweigh whatever comes from scootering around Walmart because the Twinkie aisle is too far of a walk.
