South Park: The End of Obesity

I don't have any especially strong feelings either way about the new South Park special, although I believe it's a fairly valid one. This time, the subject is the American healthcare system, insurance companies, and the maddening labyrinth that these entities will put people through.

However, it also concerns body positivity and uses Eric Cartman to represent something I've sometimes noticed within the body-love discourse. A lot of people simply want the thing that THEY are insecure about to get destigmatized so that they can then poke fun at other people's shortcomings from a position of superiority -- of not being "ugly" themselves. They want to be able to dish it out without having to take it.

Something similar happens in "gender wars" discourse: Many incels espouse that they should be worthy of love even if they are short or thin, but will gladly demonize fat women, while a woman who pushes for fat acceptance may readily use the very language she's decrying when it comes to small schlongs and "skinny b-itches". Both sides will tell you it's totally different when the other does it.

But I digress. How is the rest of the episode/special/"Paramount+ event"? Well, it has some laughs and it lets a lot of characters shine. (Randy, as per usual, gets a pretty funny B story where he gets in on the South Park moms' obsession with semaglutide drugs.)

Also, it has appreciably better cereal mascot gags (yes, cereal/sugar companies also become involved in the plot) than anything we got in Unfrosted.