South Park S12E07 - Super Fun Time

South Park reaches its Mid-Season finale with the episode 'Super Fun Time' which like most of the season so far, contains moments of genius but never quite reaches the consistent levels that were hit in the last series.

Unlike most TV shows, season finales seem more of an afterthought for the South Park writers due to the intense writing process they put themselves under for the rest of the season. Creating & producing an entire episode from scratch in the space of a week often means by the time the end of season comes round the team seem burnt out and often fall back on ideas animated in advance to get out of jail - see Stanley's Cup and Night of the Living Homeless for recent examples.

Super Fun Time follows this theme losing the topical themes that weekly format brings to instead rely on a simple parody of a movie format - or this case two, with 80s stalwarts Ferris Bueller and Die Hard those in line for a good ol' fashioned spoofing.

The episode is set around a school trip to Pioneer Village - a living museum set in 1864, but Cartman forces Butters to sneak away with him to go to the amusement arcade (Super Phun Thyme) he spies through the fence. While they're having a good time (Well Cartman is...) at the arcade, a group of thieves who've robbed a Burger King break into Pioneer Village and take the class hostage.

The leader of the armed robbers is named Franz and has the air of Hans Gruber about him, the terrorist leader from the first Die Hard. This is the cue for several parodies and references to the heist movie genre throughout which leads to some nice lines, particularly his exchanges with Morlich. Though I must add I was slightly disappointed that when the cops arrived, the Irish cops weren't present - still you can't have it all.

Cartman and Butter's escapades borrow even more liberally from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, with the stuff like the Super Fun Time song heavily referencing the film before the "life moving pretty fast" speech being almost lifted ad-verbatim straight from 1986.

The way these two parodies are brought together suggests to me the writers had one on the beach when making this one, bringing together a couple of ideas floating around (What about, Cartman as Ferris Bueller!) into an episode that never fully functions as a whole and tends to drag a bit in the middle.

South Park for me always ups a gear in the second half of the season, look at the Imaginationland trilogy of last year for proof of that and I've no doubt it will do the same when it returns later in the year.

In fact I'm not just sure... I'm HIV positive.