Oct 092000
 
two reels

With the whole of South Park lacking in Christmas spirit, Stan Marsh (voice: Trey Parker), Kyle Broflovski  (voice: Matt Stone), Kenny McCormick  (voice: Matt Stone), and Eric Cartman (voice: Trey Parker) go down in the sewers to find Mr. Hankey.  He has gotten married to a drunk and had three children, so hasn’t had time to bring the spirit of Christmas to the people.  The boys decide they need to help out and set out to make an animated film that will get people in the proper mood.  22 min.

Sometimes you just get lazy.  It’s tricky coming up with something new each week, particularly if you’ve got the money from a successful series to spend.  Some sometimes, you just toss a few old ideas together and hope no one notices.  A Very Crappy Christmas is the work of people who just want a nap.  It has funny moments, but most of it looks pretty old to any fan of South Park.

Once again we get Mr. Hankey, in his most unnecessary appearance.  It’s the same old talking poo jokes, that weren’t that great the first time.  To go with them, we’re given a flat, repetitive, bit about Mrs. Henkey being a drunk.  It is never funny.  Things are better with the boys, as they make their cartoon, The Spirit of Christmas (yes, in the episode, they are making the original short that Trey Parker and Matt Stone made in ’95 and that eventually got them their job).  But a majority of the jokes were told previously, and better, in that short film.  If you watched the five minute short on the internet, and thought, “I like that, but I’d like it better if it was longer, slower, and had less swearing,” then A Very Crappy Christmas should excite you.  And if you did indeed think those things, what’s wrong with you?

The one successful new segment is a parody of the Lion King’s Circle of Life song, The Cycle of Poo.  It is every bit as deep and meaningful as the original.  You’ll have to decide if that means they are both insightful or vacuous.