I was brushing up on the latest episodes of South Park when I came upon E12 S15 "1%". It struck me as one of these episodes where comedy takes the back seat and lets "tragedy" drive for a bit. The entire episode isn't tragic of course, but the ending has a heavy touch of pathos making the situation funny and something else as well. You rarely see Death in Sitcoms, although South Park changed that a lot, so when it shows up we aren't really comfortable. See, the Sitcom genre doesn't evolve or it does very slowly, so if you break it down, you'll see many times the same thing between series, seasons and episodes. Thus, we like Sitcoms because of the familiar feeling like we are part of the family, group of friend, town... in which the characters lead their lives.
So, when Death appears, since we are not used to seing it in Sitcoms, we don't really know how to feel. Some people laugh much harder, others cry... doesn't matter. What matters is the concept of reciprocity between our feelings and the feelings exposed in the episode. If a character is sad and that makes us laugh, then there is a reason for that opposite reaction, as there would be if if the reaction was the same.
Getting back to Eric Cartman, eponymous "hero" of this post.
Cartman is a despicable fat young spoiled brat with very extremist ideals and a very egocentric point of view : many features that aren't really attractive. And yet, he becomes an overly quoted character in our everyday lives. In some ways, he's a much worse version of Dr. House and so less likable when we first meet him. But, the way he goes over the top in everything he does makes him a very relatable character because he is really a dreamer that can't see how awful he is. Remember S13 E07 "Fatbeard" where he goes to Somalia to live the Pirate life. The problem with Cartman is that we may disagree entirely with what he says, but we can't help feeling sorry and admirative at the same time when we see how persistant and somewhat imaginative he is.
So in S15 E12 "1%" the conclusion is that Cartman had to grow up and get rid of his stuffed animals. He did it, but in his own way.
The only way he could move from "childhood" to "adolescence" is to go over the top and push the limits of his own reality to give even more life to his stuffed animals in order to kill them off.
Cartman always lives in a dream and so, to impact his reality he needs to go much further.
But that's what makes the character likable and relatable. So in this episode, "1%", when tragedy hits the poor boy and his dolls get killed one by one and they tell him as they die to stay cool, we can't help feeling a bit sad, just a little bit.
The death of Peter Panda is very well done I think and the whole episode is "filmed" more and more as a movie and not as a sitcom would be traditionally shot. Scenography, lights, music make this episode particularly intense. This also happens in Family Guy's "The Screams of Silence : The Story of Brenda Q" S10 E03.
Now, even though there are a couple jokes during these tragic scenes, I don't know about you, but I didn't laugh that much. Not because these jokes weren't funny, but because the tension of the moment was higher than the comedy level of the joke.
So I felt genuinely sorry for Cartman although the character would be unbearable in real life. Is the lesson of all this : "even bad people have feelings" ? I think not. The power of one character on an entire audience is truly fascinating and actually diverse. I'd love to hear what you think. I just love looking at the double reality that is Cartman : Reality of the series (with his friends and everyday life) and the reality he creates to go through his adventures.
Share, Comment and Subscribe !!!!
Thank you,
TRJ
No comments:
Post a Comment