Six months after ripping into the Prime sports drink craze, South Park's back with another special, this time aiming at Ozempic weight loss drugs.
In true South Park fashion, Matt and Trey take a topical idea and ramp it up to absurd levels, culminating in a "Mad Max"-style road battle.
Firstly, let's get the one negative out of the way: the jokes at Lizzo's expense seem a little too cruel. While Lizzo's star has dimmed due to recent allegations over her behaviour, the shots at her 'body positivity' image and her music feels a bit lazy. Or, if you want to give Matt and Trey the benefit of the doubt, maybe their criticism is directed at all the keyboard warriors who love ripping into her on social media? Either way, it feels like Lizzo is an easy target.
The best thing about this special is Cartman's portrayal. We're so used to seeing the evil Cartman who cynically manipulates everyone to get his way. In this special he's genuinely vulnerable and almost resigned to a life of being teased about his weight. Even the rest of the boys - who usually love ripping on Cartman - do their best to help him, including navigating the almost impenetrable American healthcare system (with a nice little song from Butters) and Big Sugar (in the form of famous cereal mascots). And we get a nice happy ending with a genuinely satisfied Cartman.
It's also nice to see Randy in a different light. As one of the most popular characters, Randy can be massively overexposed (the Tegridy Farms stuff got old quickly), but here he actually grows: he starts out with selfish motives, and gets caught up in the Ozempic craze, but learns that he doesn't need that life. It's also nice to see him and Sharon actually being affectionate to each other.
