South Park still brilliantly skewering current events

Last night marked the premiere of the 14^th season of South Park with Trey Parker and Matt Stone taking on the Tiger Woods sex scandal. The controversy was handled in typical South Park fashion, which usually involves the current event being tied to a conspiracy that might destroy the world. Nobody makes fun of Hollywood disaster flicks like Parker and Stone and this format has served the show well over the past 13 years. As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This season should be no different with the show bringing the jokes while skewering current events.

In the kick off episode, Woods’ woes serve as the backdrop for a video game that finally makes golf exciting. In the game, players can utilize “Pre-nup Power-ups” and other hilarious game bonuses in a Mortal Kombat style fight between Woods and his wife Elin Nordegrin. The boys also endure a very scientific test to see if they’ve been afflicted with sex addiction, only to find that some of them are carrying the disease. While Kyle struggles to understand what causes sex addiction, Kenny quickly succumbs to his ailment and dies in one of the funniest ways yet.

At the same time, the Center for Disease Control is trying to get to the bottom of the sex addiction outbreak striking rich, successful men. Top researchers ponder why a man who’s famous and has lots of money would use that to try and have sex with lots of women. One scene involving lab test monkeys is particularly amusing and, when news of the outbreak makes its way to the White House, Obama and his staff think they might have finally discovered a cure.

While there’s been the occasional miss, South Park has shown that a show can be consistently hilarious into its teens. If the opening episode is any indication, we can expect a lot more delightfully outrageous pop culture satire this season.

View the full episode at southparkstudios.com