Who Doesn't Love Memes? South Park, Apparently

South Park, S16E03

I wondered if the big joke yesterday was going to be about the upcoming election, but instead it was about the certain fads that go along with memes.  I'm not fully acquainted with those (having just recently understood what "meme" even means), but the general idea of the story wasn't entirely lost to me.  Stan and the others found out what is popular and cool with the masses one day, will soon be lame and irrelevant the next.  The boys find a rain of sunshine amidst this grim reality that their favorite meme ("Faith Hilling") may be looked upon as a relic, but there's nothing wrong with sticking to what you love, especially if you can somehow bring it back with a bang like Cartman was able to do in the end.  

There isn't much that I absolutely loved about this story, as it was poking fun at the futility of trying to stay on top of what is "hot" with memes, but I think I liked that they made it seem like following trends like "planking" or what have you, had the possibility of getting you killed.  Luckily, it never came to that where the boys were concerned, but that film the students had to watch in class was pretty ridiculous.  The train gag at the heart of that film that appeared several more times in the episode (including the end) was less funny each time, though.  

I think what missed the mark for me most was that I didn't know some of the references (not unusual for me at all).  The one that bothered me the most was the one with the cat that kept saying "Oh, Long Johnson."  I've never been a fan of "cute" animal videos in the first place, so not only did I not know of this cat's popularity, I also didn't care.  But it, unlike some of the other internet fads, it wasn't just mentioned but was used as a part of the rising danger against the humans (super intelligent animals who were able to create memes of their own--bah), so I was had to endure that irritation throughout most of the episode.

This was a good episode that captured a moment in time (like many episodes of South Park in general) and made it more amusing than the actual thing itself (the number of memes and their various popularity are not that interesting alone).  I learn about some fad/news through this show, and I'm grateful that they "educate" some of us about current yet, stupid or infuriating matters.  Years later, I think I could look back at this episode and others and recall "history" with a laugh.  It's much better than looking through old magazines or newspapers.