Comedy Central is reairing South Park’s “Woodland Critter Christmas” episode from season 8 as season 22 concluded after episode “Bike Parade” on Dec. 12.
South Park’s latest season completed its ten episode run recently and though a season 23 is promised, it’s always a difficult wait for new episodes! Meanwhile, tonight South Park is bringing back “Woodland Critter Christmas” for its regularly scheduled 10 p.m. ET episode.
Tegridy Farms was the focal point of much of season 22, subtly (or not so subtly depending on how you look at it) asking the question if it’s time to move back to a simpler life without home deliveries, smart phones, and modern day inventions like scooters. Mr. Mackey said, “I don’t think people should scoot, people should drive,” this season and it appears a running theme this season was the struggle between the future and those looking to hold on to the past. A modern take on the luddite so to speak, with Mr. Mackey and Randy Marsh aggressively pulling away from a new world. Particularly, Randy’s take on those who vape and how it’s effecting his family, leading him to start Tegridy Farms. Stephen Stotch fearing a work strike cutting the Stotch family’s delivery perks was another spotlight on the other side of convenience.
The thing is toward the end of the season when Towelie was delivering Randy’s Tegridy Farms stock directly to the customers, how long till Tegridy became just like their counterpart? Similar to South Park’s take on shopping locally back in season 8, episode 9, only to have the local store become a behemoth in its own right eventually.
The season was also about desensitization to violence from the show’s premiere from it happening so often, to what’s acceptable to say or not say as fans saw with Mr. Hankey and the obvious vibe of the show’s #CancelSouthPark promos. They even referred back to The Simpsons’ own media attention recently to a certain character, and the #CancelSouthPark promos were a preemptive launch at countering a potential takedown on the series. There’s been many, many before during the show’s prime, so it’s not something that the franchise hasn’t dealt with before.
South Park has always been about parodying absolutely everything and they are one of the last beacons of satire that’s still able to do actively do that on a major platform. Perhaps, now more than ever before, it’s important South Park remains on the air to do what it does best, parody the world around us.
Catch previous episodes of South Park over at Comedy Central and enjoy the comedy gold!