The progressiveness and confidence that regentrification instilled in South Park spurred an outbreak of charity and body-shamers this week: The Whole Foods cashiers become child-hunger-help hounds who harrass Randy, and Cartman thinks his Yelp profile will benefit from unsolicited semi-nudes:
The episode turned into a searing conversation about what putting yourself out there and dealing with detractors entails. And the charitable and bodily ridicule that ensued was not exclusive to townspeople.
The drama extended to visiting celebrities, too — chief among them Vin Diesel, Demi Lovato, Gigi Hadid, and Steven Seagal, all of whom required the help of Butters to comb through their social media accounts and delete every negative comment they accrued. The most memorable of the celebs was Seagal, who showed his SeBoomBoom, a.k.a. confidence-inspiring dance moves that have become as legendary as (if not more legendary than) his action skills:
South Park again became a microcosmic stage for more universal problems: dishing criticism but not taking it; touting philanthropy but half-assing fund-raising or helping in nonsensical ways; daring to be provocative but sloughing off the discourse and attention, however negative, that follows — paradoxes expertly sent up and summed up with yet another inspired song:
You can watch the whole hilariously surreal episode that seeks to make America shameless again here.