South Park Season 23 Episode 5 “Tegridy Farms Halloween Special” Review

Yo Ho! Nightrider here!

South Park has a new Halloween special that is a parody in itself.

Beware of spoilers ahead!

Shelly has a “marijuana problem” because she hates weed and wishes it to be illegal again, much to Randy’s “shock.” Randy doesn’t want Shelly to ruin his Halloween Special weed promotion. He keeps trying to force the benefits of marijuana use onto Shelly unsuccessfully.

Meanwhile, Archaeologist Butters receives a “love curse” from the mummy Took-Ran-Ra by putting his stamp on a sticker book. Took-Tan-Ra visits Butters and offers a love gift: a Fitbit watch. But because Butters already has one and wants to give the mummy’s gift to a friend, Took-Tan-Ra rages across town and has Butters become the “bad guy” in town.

In the end, Randy is the only one who enjoyed the “Halloween Special” and Butters “breaks up” with Took-Tan-Ra; Butters is still “cursed” as the bad guy. Randy comments about him getting possibly raped by Harvey Weinstein and shows a used condom, further confusing his family and the viewer if it really did happen.

What I liked about this episode is that the music used when horrors come to life comes from the horror classic Creepshow. Specifically using the musical pieces “Father’s Day” (the music used starts at 3:29) and “Something to Tide You Over” (the music used starts at 2:00), South Park most certainly pleased their target audience (Randy being the target audience is the joke).

However, the “surprise ending” with Randy mentioning Harvey Weinstein was something the episode could do without. Unless they ended it ala one of Creepshow’s segments, I felt it was in poor taste. It did provide shock value, so perhaps this could lead to something more. But since it’s a Halloween special, I doubt we’ll hear something involving Weinstein again. More characters, like Shelly, are emerging and want to do something more but then fade back into the background.

Generally speaking, “Tegridy Farms Halloween Special” is another success. There is still continuity from previous episodes. There’s probably going to be a Thanksgiving episode but maybe it will be better than Halloween.