A fun special, but barely an exaggeration.
For the last couple of years, reality has slowly started to outpace South Park, the constant outpouring of stupidity, intertwined with tragedy, made the show seem almost subtle, in comparison to current events. How are Trey Parker and Matt Stone supposed to compete with Facebook-poisoned conspiracy theorists who believe that Bill Gates is planning to inject nanotech tracking devices via COVID-19 vaccines, after he and Hillary Clinton sacrifice a child on the altar of Mammon? It’s not easy to exaggerate the state of the modern world, but “The Pandemic Special” at least provides a good laugh, during dark days. The special sees Randy Marsh, who has transformed into a profit-hungry marijuana producer, come to terms with the fact that his business trip to China (the premise of last season’s best episode), and subsequent night of debauchery with Mickey Mouse, inadvertently created the coronavirus. The sight of Randy enthusiastically engaging in beastiality (twice), is shocking even for South Park, and his desperate attempts to conceal the evidence, even blocking progress towards a vaccine, are hilarious. Most of the episode, however, feels more familiar than absurd; you’ve got the self-righteous mask-shamers, the coronavirus “skeptics,” people who can’t quite figure quite out how to wear their masks, and Eric Cartman, who is living his best life in quarantine, keeping a careful distance from his fellow humans.
