South Park, Vol. 2: An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig/Death/Pinkeye/Damien

This was my first encounter with South Park and I have not been disappointed. For their science project, the urchins try to genetically cross an elephant with a pig, but the scientist at the South Park Genetic Engineering Lab told them it could not be done. They therefore follow Plan B, mating the two animals. This is done with the help of the kindly chef who provides romantic soul music, and with lots of alcohol. There's even a cameo appearance by Elton John. Absolutely classic!

Then there is the euthanasia skid, which had me alternating between shock and roars of laughter as the 102 ear old gentleman tries to get the kids to dispense with him. Amidst all the turmoil and tumult, the angel of death appears but instead of grandpa it goes for Kenny. At the same time the urchins' favourite TV programme, the coprophilic "Terrence and Philip," has drawn the attention of some South Park residents who go east to protest the show at network headquarters. This is a brilliant send-up of offensive TV but I quite enjoyed Terrence and Phillip as they blow off, swear and laugh about it. That's all they do! Later they appear in space suits doing the same things.

In Pinkeye, Kenny infects everyone with a Zombie virus. This one is good but not quite as side-splittingly funny as the first two. Damien is a send-up of The Omen and much more, classic stuff again, including Cartman's wild birthday party. The creators of the series, Matt and Trey, introduce each episode and that is also witty and charming. I cannot wait for the movie Team America: World Police, it's going to be something to remember. Discovering these lovable South Park urchins has been a revelation and a delight. The picture and sound quality of the DVD is superb.

... very funny.

Okay, well- I'm adding this part to all my South Park Reviews: For this price for four episodes, this is a great deal. I remember buying the VHS versions first (which are split up differently), and feeling I got ripped off on those once I saw how great these DVDs were. I'll review each individual episode the best I can remember now...

An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig: I can't remember if this episode was supposed to coincide with the genetic cloning hoo hah that was going around the world at the time (Trey and Matt seem to like to do that...), but it introduces one of my favorite characters in south park - Mephesto, the evil geneticist. He pops in later for for the Cartman's Mom episodes, but he's still funny in this one. The kids are trying to come up with an unbeatable science project, so they decide they'll try to clone an elephant with a pig by making them fall for each other.

Death: Stan's uncle makes me laugh. He wants to die. He wants to die really really bad, but he just can't die. Of course, this episode has, as you'd imagine, a lot about Kenny and his role with Death.

Pinkeye: The first season's halloween episode, I believe. I always try to watch the holiday episodes around the coinciding season, but this one never seems to get me in the mood. Bleah. NOT my favorite episode... the town is zombified, even though everyone thinks they just have pinkeye.

Damien: I sorta like the character Damien, regardless of his role with Hell. His father comes up to fight Jesus, which the last time I checked, is pretty blasphemus, especially given the events that occur in the episode. But hey, it's a comedy. Laugh a little. Oh, and speaking of- the Devil makes his first appearance, so if you've seen the movie, you might want to check this episode out for a little background information.

This volume of South Park episodes is structurally identical to all six volumes that have been released so far, and suffers from the same shortcomings. It includes the episode "Pink Eye", which was the first Halloween special. Also, the mad scientist is first introduced in "An elephant makes love to a pig".

I don't find these episodes as funny as the first time I watched them. A lot of the humor of South Park is in shock value, and that has worn off. But even so, I find them funny enough to be worth watching every now and then. If you are a hard core fan, I recommend you drop thirteen bucks for the DVD. If you are just a casual fan, your money would be better spent elsewhere.

There are no extras on the DVD to make it really stand out from the VHS version. The primary advantage of the DVD is random access to the episodes. You also get Matt and Trey introducing the episodes, which is fairly amusing. However, the lack of substantive extras is very disappointing. Also, the menus are static and silent; the power of the DVD medium has been completely ignored. This is why I only give this DVD 3 stars.

Some have complained that you can't skip the introductions, but I have no problem fast forwarding through them with my DVD player. Many have also complained about the three worthless items appearing at the end of each episode (the Braniff logo, Comedy Central logo, and FBI warnings). But simply pressing the "menu" button on your DVD's remote is all that is required to skip these items. I don't like this rubbish either, but the people who whine on incessantly about this are making a mountain out of a molehill.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

Episodes
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Originality: A+
Creativity: A
Complexity/Depth: C-
Relevance/Message: C- to A-
Artistic Merit: D
Overall Entertainment Value: A

DVD
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Transfer Quality: A
Extras: D
Use of Medium: D