The Pandemic Special

"The Pandemic Special" is an hour-long special episode of the American animated television series South Park. The 308th episode overall of the series, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on September 30, 2020,[1] while also being simulcast for the first time on MTV and MTV2.[2][3]

For the two-part episode from the twelfth season of South Park, see Pandemic (South Park) and Pandemic 2: The Startling.

"The Pandemic Special"
South Park episode
Directed byTrey Parker
Written byTrey Parker
Featured music
Original air dateSeptember 30, 2020 (2020-09-30)

Multiple sources indicate that the episode is the premiere episode of the 24th season, the remainder of which has yet to be announced,[4][5][6][7] while others indicate that it is a stand-alone special, and not premiere of the 24th season.[1][8][9][10][11][12]

The special satirizes aspects of the United States' COVID-19 response, police brutality and racial unrest, including mental health, improper mask-wearing, education, sinophobia and divestment from police. Critics praised the social commentary and humor, but criticized the plot and overall length of the episode,[12][13][14][15] with Adam Beam of The Slate opining that the episode's running time was not sufficient to develop its various story threads.[16] It was the highest-rated South Park episode in over seven years, drawing in over 4.05 million viewers and becoming the most-watched program of the night.[17][18][19]

After its Comedy Central debut, the episode was released on the South Park website for free, as well as on the Comedy Central app and website with TV Everywhere authentication. It was also released on HBO Max in the United States 24 hours after its premiere. It is the first new South Park episode released on HBO Max after the service obtained the rights for the show from ViacomCBS, ending the Hulu second window.[11]

Plot

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, fourth grader Butters Stotch is upset that his parents will not allow him to visit Build-A-Bear. His father, Stephen Stotch, is criticizing improper wearing of protective masks, derisively calling them "chin diapers", when he is distracted by a crowd assembling for a live show staged by Randy Marsh, who announces a "pandemic special" on marijuana sold by his Tegridy Farms. Randy's wife, Sharon, berates him for seeking to profit from the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Eric Cartman sings ecstatically about social distancing, as he can stay at home and avoid online school lessons by faking connection problems with Zoom classes. His joy turns to fury when his mother, Liane Cartman, tells him that school could soon reopen.

At Tegridy Farms, Sharon informs Randy that her brother, Jimbo Kern, has COVID-19, but Randy insists Jimbo is sick because he is a "fat alcoholic". Randy learns from the television news that a bat in Wuhan, China started the pandemic, prompting a flashback to a past visit to China, in which he cavorted with Mickey Mouse, during which they both had sexual intercourse with a bat. Realizing they are responsible for the virus, Randy then calls Mickey Mouse and wanders around South Park, guiltily observing the negative impacts of the virus.

Cartman visits Kyle Broflovski to complain about the prospect of having to return to school. The South Park Elementary school board convenes a Zoom meeting led by Mr. Mackey. The meeting quickly devolves into a shouting match of obscene insults, prompting Mr. Mackey to use a mute button. The meeting decides that South Park Elementary will reopen; however it will be run by the now defunct police force, which had lost most of its funding because of police violence.

Back at Tegridy Farms, Randy tries to block Sharon, Shelly Marsh and Stan Marsh from watching the news, and learns the virus actually originated from a pangolin. Randy has another flashback, recalling that he also had sexual intercourse with a pangolin in China, which Randy assumes was the source of the virus.

As the local school reopens, the police officers find they have no idea how to teach when Cartman is suddenly dragged in and handcuffed to a chair. He tries to escape and attacks Kyle who then fights back, prompting the police to open fire and shoot Token Black.

The pangolin from Wuhan is brought to the United States for study in the hope of developing a vaccine. Fearing his zoophilia will be exposed, Randy steals the pangolin. Mickey Mouse threatens to kill Randy and send his DNA samples to scientists to create a vaccine. Randy convinces Mickey to give him more time by promising to find a cure. That night, Randy enters Jimbo's hospital ward and gives him a marijuana joint mixed with Randy's semen. The following day, Sharon informs Randy that Jimbo has recovered. Randy sets about augmenting his Pandemic Special marijuana with his semen but is interrupted when Sharon summons him to observe that Jimbo has grown a mustache identical to Randy's. The local hospital becomes packed with male and female patients afflicted by the same type of mustache. Dr. Anthony Fauci appears on television, telling people to wear masks over the area where their mustaches are, while the news advises people to stay home and relax with some Pandemic Special.

The police claim Token was hospitalized for testing positive for the coronavirus, and the entire school is placed under quarantine, which becomes more like a prison under the officers' watch. Butters becomes increasingly upset he may never get to visit Build-A-Bear, while Stan starts to suffer a nervous breakdown. In the White House, President Garrison receives a call from Stan, who tells him that one of the students is really sick, but Garrison refuses to do anything about the virus because Mexicans and other ethnic minorities have a higher fatality rate than whites.

Stan promises to take Butters to Build-A-Bear and convinces the students to break out of the school. Protests, rioting and looting erupt in South Park, enabling police to regain their funding and munitions to quell the civil unrest. Kenny McCormick is among those killed by the police. The boys break into Build-A-Bear but Stan is unable to successfully operate the equipment. Police are about to open fire on the boys, when Randy intervenes and hands over the pangolin. Cartman grabs the pangolin, intending to kill it, but changes his mind when Stan makes a passionate speech. Cartman gives the pangolin to a scientist, only for President Garrison to suddenly appear and kill both it and the scientist with a flamethrower. He then reminds people to vote in the upcoming presidential election while the police, Randy, and the boys just stand by flabbergasted.

In the aftermath, wildfires have broken out and South Park is placed under a lockdown. Randy is about to confess his actions to Sharon when he notices that she too has a mustache. This changes Randy's mind and he decides to run a few more specials.

Ratings

The episode drew 2.3 million viewers on Comedy Central[17] and a total of 4.05 million viewers overall including the simulcast on MTV and MTV2,[19] making it the highest-rated South Park episode since 2014's "Go Fund Yourself".[17] The episode was the number one rated cable broadcast on the evening of September 30, 2020.[18]

Critical reception

Jesse Schedeen, writing for IGN gave the episode a 5 out of 10, writing, "There's no doubt that some new South Park is better than no South Park at all. Unfortunately, the series' first experiment with a longer, standalone format doesn't really pay off. 'The Pandemic Special' has moments of comedic brilliance but is brought down by a messy plot that struggles to put a fresh spin on the reality of life in 2020."[12] Stephanie Williams for The A.V. Club gave the episode a B+, stating, "While things were far from normal for the residents of South Park in this hour-long special, the show stays true to form, offering a surprising source of consistency. The world is in complete chaos, which couldn't be any more on-brand for South Park."[15]

Ben Travers of IndieWire gave the special an overall grade of B-, praising the special for how it tackled the social issues, stating, "...kudos to South Park for being one of the first scripted series to tackle America's new normal head-on, all the while making the case against its very existence. The hourlong special had plenty of targets — from trigger-happy cops to a bat-raping Mickey Mouse — but it only really dialed in on its own relevance in these trying times. And in the end, 'The Pandemic Special' is only here because TV is an essential — and still lucrative — service."[14] Andrew Bloom from Consequence of Sound gave the film a mixed review, praising the social commentary but criticising the plot, stating, "'The Pandemic Special' is unlikely to become anyone's new favorite episode of South Park. Randy's adventures are fine but nothing truly new. Cartman's homebody preservationism is amusing but slight. And the social commentary at play here is entertaining, but not exactly revolutionary. What's novel, though, is that sort of sincerity and vulnerability coming from the show's usual mouthpiece, echoing what we're all going through right now. There's a particular resonance to that at the present moment, especially when a series that can otherwise project the sense of being 'above it all' is admitting that this hurts."[13]

A point of criticism for multiple reviewers was the overall length of the special.[15][12][16] Writing for The Slate, Adam Beam stated, "The hour-long runtime greatly hurts this special, and a lot of this material would work better if the show was given more time to develop. Maybe as their own individual episodes. While plenty of the jokes land and many 'South Park' fans will enjoy, 'The Pandemic Special' lacks any kind of focus as it struggles to cram too much material into a very limited time frame. No matter how you feel about the special, the creative team continues to work on the new season remotely."[16]

References
  1. "South Park Returns With One Night Hour Long Special Event". Comedy Central (Press release). September 15, 2020. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
  2. "Comedy Central's Emmy & Peabody Award Winning South Park To Simulcast On Mtv And Mtv2 For First Time Ever With Pandemic Special Event Tonight, Wednesday, September 30th At 8:00pm Et/Pt". Comedy Central (Press release). September 30, 2020. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  3. White, Peter (September 30, 2020). "'South Park': ViacomCBS To Simulcast Pandemic Special Across MTV & MTV2". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  4. Kemp, Ella (October 1, 2020). "Go Behind the Scenes of the South Park Pandemic Special". NME. Retrieved November 15, 2020. The episode launched season 24, and is the show’s first one-off, hour-long release.
  5. Roberts, Samuel (November 10, 2020). "South Park Season 24: Release Date, Trailer and What We Know About the Show's Future". Tech Radar. Retrieved November 15, 2020. Technically, the site counts The Pandemic Special as South Park season 24 episode 1.
  6. Martin, Anne (September 16, 2020). "South Park Pandemic Special to Air Sept. 30". United Press International. Retrieved November 15, 2020. 'The Pandemic Special' will serve as the show's Season 24 premiere.
  7. "South Park - Season 24 Ep. 1 - The Pandemic Special - Full Episode". Comedy Central. September 30, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
  8. Longo, Chris (September 15, 2020). "South Park To Premiere A Pandemic Special Event Episode". Den of Geek. Retrieved September 21, 2020. Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the episode is a special event, not the premiere of season 24
  9. Kim, Allen (September 16, 2020). "Comedy Central to air one-hour 'South Park' pandemic special". CNN. Retrieved September 23, 2020. A premiere date for the 24th season of the series has not yet been announced.
  10. Hibberd, James (September 15, 2020). "South Park tackling COVID-19 with its first hourlong episode". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved September 23, 2020. The show's 24th season premiere date hasn't yet been announced
  11. Kobb, Kayla (September 30, 2020). "How to Watch the 'South Park' Pandemic Special Live Tonight". Decider.com. Retrieved October 2, 2020. The Pandemic Special' will be the first special in South Park's history. It's not connected to this upcoming season and will be a standalone, hourlong episode. There's a good and bad side to that news. The bad is that 'The Pandemic Special' is the only South Park episode that we know is premiering in 2020. Comedy Central has yet to announce when Season 24 will start
  12. Schedeen, Jesse (September 30, 2020). "South Park: 'The Pandemic Special' Review". IGN. Retrieved October 1, 2020. there's no new season on the horizon
  13. "South Park's Pandemic Special is damning and yet surprisingly earnest: Review". Consequence of Sound. October 1, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  14. Travers, Ben (October 1, 2020). "'South Park: The Pandemic Special' Makes a Convincing Case for Its Own Inadequacies". IndieWire. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  15. Williams, Stephanie (September 30, 2020). "South Park's pandemic special thrives in 2020's chaos". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  16. Beam, Adam. "Review: Even 'South Park' can't handle 2020 in the messy hour-long 'Pandemic Special'". The Slate. Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  17. Thorne, Will (October 1, 2020). "'South Park' Pandemic Special Delivers 7-Year Ratings High". Variety. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  18. Metcalf, Mitch (September 30, 2020). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Wednesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 9.30.2020". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  19. Nakamura, Reid (October 1, 2020). "'South Park' Pandemic Special Notches 7-Year Ratings High". Yahoo. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
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