South Park Wants You to Eat Sh*t in New Ep. “Let Them Eat Goo.”
SPOILERS AHEAD
First and foremost, I couldn’t stay awake for the Wednesday premiere. I’m an early-riser, and I just couldn’t do it. But I did watch this new South Park episode (S23E04), “Let them eat goo,” this morning. Between 6am and 8pm on Thursday, 10/17/19, I received no less than FIVE notifications on my phone from various publications. Each… and… every… single… damn… one… had the header “South Park Rips Lebron James in New Episode.” Some used words like, “rips,” or “mocks,” or “makes fun of,” but the concept is the same. Each news source seemed to have the exact same header with the exact same body of work. Is anyone thinking for themselves anymore?
While ripping into Lebron for his absurd and silly remarks on freedom of speech was clearly a large part of S23E04, it doesn’t seem at all centric to the episode. Are people reading TOO MUCH into South Park’s episodes? Maybe, but maybe not. The show is clearly more topical now than ever, and they are absolutely CRUSHING it this season! But when I watch “Let them eat goo,” I feel there’s more at play here. Before we dive into that, let’s recap the episode.
RECAP
Goin’ down to Tegridy Farms, gonna have myself a time. Or a plant-based burger instead. By happenstance, Randy discovers the Impossible Burger at Burger King. For all you meat lovers: the Impossible Burger is a plant-based vegan burger. He notes that it tastes like dogshit, then comes up with the brilliant idea of making his own “special” burgers with Tegridy Farms ingredients. Randy’s brilliant marketing t-shirt, “Tastes Like Shit, You Won’t Care,” propels their business, and clearly business is good as almost the entire town is hooked and just eating it up.
Meanwhile at school, Cartman has discovered that his favorite meaty foods have been removed from the school menu, literally stopping his heart. Throughout “Let them eat goo,” Cartman is battling Wendy (and some other students) over the right to eat the food they want. After twice being brought back to life by the defibrillator, Cartman eventually settles down and delivers a long speech about “freedom of speech,” quoting word for word Lebron’s recent remarks.
WHAT’S REALLY AT PLAY
While jabs are clearly being made at Lebron James (i.e. the speech and the jokes about “Taco Tuesday,” mimicking Lebron’s tweets), “Let them eat goo” is much more about everyone’s obsession with plant-based meats. And there may possibly be an even more subtle jab directed at someone else, corporations maybe – “no matter how shitty our product is, you’ll just eat it up, won’t you?”
Despite what other news sources are trying to sell you, the Lebron James jabs are really the least interesting part of the show. Seeing Parker and Stone make fun of a celebrity is hardly a shock, nor is it news-worthy. Them tearing into China and the NBA and a whole society of misinformed Vegans is MUCH more interesting. And that’s what’s really at play here. The ultimate conclusion in “Let them eat goo” is that most of the mass-produced plant-based foods are highly processed (like processed fast food meat). That processed vegan food is turned into goo before being shaped and packaged and sold.
Perhaps the shitty goo is representative of the crap we’re force fed by the news. And we just eat it up, despite how unpalatable it is.
CONCLUSION
“Let them eat goo” is an absolutely hilarious episode. There’s one semi-big laugh delivered through the Daniel Day Lewis character Daniel Plainview, the oil-tycoon from There Will Be Blood. Mr. Plainview makes repeated cameos, and you’ll laugh your ass off. He states over and over, “You see, I am a goo man,” reminding everyone that he sells “goo.” His role is seemingly pointless, but hilarious nonetheless.
And a shocking, yet laughable moment is when Randy and Towelie get baked and go on a murdering spree of 300 cows. Visually, it’s disturbing yet downright hilarious. And the point they’re trying to make didn’t quite hit me until the end when Randy says, “we didn’t eat them!” Hm, it’s okay to shoot them in the head if you’re going to eat them? There’s some food for thought. It’s easy to see that South Park is trending up not only in news exposure, but also in hilarity. Just be sure to tune into Modern Neon Media where we don’t fall prey to popular opinion, eschewing bait-clicking headlines for good ol’ fashioned Tegridy.
“This is my son, H.W.”
“My name is Rick.”
“Shut up, H.W.!”
CATCH UP ON OTHER SOUTH PARK REVIEWS.
S23E04 – Let Them Eat Goo. Oh wait, that’s this page.
David “Nerdberry” is the proud founder and owner of Nerdbacon.com, a video game reviews and news website. Nerdberry owns a local pressure washing business in North Carolina, has a family, and a little house. With a college background in film and a personal love for dissecting movies, he feels aptly suited for Modern-Neon. The jury is still out on whether or not Modern-Neon wants him. We’ll see. But he is excited to be part of the team here in an effort to help it grow!
