Raising the Bar (South Park)

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"Raising the Bar"
South Park episode
Episode no.Season 16
Episode 9
Directed byTrey Parker
Written byTrey Parker
Production code1609
Original air dateOctober 3, 2012 (2012-10-03)
Episode chronology
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South Park season 16
List of episodes

"Raising the Bar" is the ninth episode of the

Primetime Emmy Award
for Outstanding Animated Program.

In the episode,

obese. However, rather than resolving to lose weight, he concludes that he is entitled to use a mobility scooter for transportation. This attitude is embraced by other obese people throughout the country, including reality television personality and pageant participant Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, who is eventually pitted against Cartman in a spaghetti-wrestling match on the White House South Lawn. While Kyle worries that the standards of decency are deteriorating, James Cameron ventures into the ocean depths to find and raise the societal bar to a higher level.[1]

Plot

While shopping at

TLC's Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
.

Kyle, unfamiliar with the show, watches an episode and is shocked by the behavior of the Thompson family, such as Honey Boo Boo's habits of drinking Red Bull and Mountain Dew and her relentless heart attacks. He comes to believe that the societal bar has been lowered so much that no one feels shame over their actions anymore. Eventually,

South Lawn of the White House
.

Meanwhile, film director James Cameron embarks on an ocean voyage to find the bar and raise it, despite his crew's attempts to explain that "the bar" is only a metaphor. After descending to a depth of over 50,000 feet in a submersible, he is confronted by composer Randy Newman, who fears no one will hire him if the bar is raised. After besting Newman, Cameron successfully locates and raises the bar. As soon as he does, the attendees at the Symposium wrestling match begin to feel disgusted and leave. This includes Michelle Obama, who puts a stop to the wrestling and announces that from now on, she will dedicate her husband's administration to fighting childhood obesity, which she does by beating up Cartman and destroying his scooter.

Back on his ship, Cameron, having completed his mission, announces to the crew that he will next embark on the filming of Avatar 2. When his support team tells him that the public should know that he saved them by heroically raising the bar, Cameron responds that he does not do what he does for his own interests, but because it is in his nature.

Production

According to the DVD commentary, the inspiration for the episode came after reports that Disneyland was building their ride lines wide enough to include mobility scooters.[2] Neither Parker nor Stone had heard of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo until they learned it was beating South Park in the Wednesday night ratings, inspiring Cartman's reaction in the episode.[3]

Critical reception

The episode won the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.[4][5][6] It competed against Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers and Regular Show at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, which was held September 22, 2013.[7]

The episode was nominated for but lost the 2013 Annie award for best animated production to the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special.[8]

Marcus Gilmer of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B+, writing "only South Park would think to work in something like Cameron's deep sea explorations into a storyline already involving Honey Boo Boo and obesity and, yet, make it work as a commentary on what a shit culture we've made for ourselves."[9] Max Nicholson of IGN gave the episode an 8.7/10. Commenting on the meta conclusion to the episode, "perhaps South Park is the one responsible for letting the bar fall so low. It's a thought-provoking sentiment, and with a show that has started calling itself out in recent years, it was nice to see Matt and Trey take some of that responsibility."[10]

June Thompson, the mother of Honey Boo Boo, took exception to the way she and her family were depicted in the episode. Though she indicated that she was amused by some of the various spoofs that have been made of her family, such as those on Saturday Night Live, she characterized "Raising the Bar"'s portrayal of her family as "trashy".[11]

James Cameron revealed on a 2014 Reddit AMA that he enjoyed the parody of himself, saying that "It's funny. It's like they were actually on the expedition, except I didn't actually make the crew sing a song about me."[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Raising the Bar (Season 16, Episode 9)". South Park Studios. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  2. ^ Brandon Lowrey, Jonathan Lloyd and Vikki Vargas (22 September 2013). "Disneyland: Disabled Will No Longer Skip Lines". NBC Los Angeles. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  3. Parker, Trey (March 2013). South Park: The Complete Sixteenth Season: 'Raising the Bar' (DVD audio commentary). Paramount Home Entertainment
    .
  4. ^ "Emmys 2013: Complete list of winners and nominees". Los Angeles Times. July 18, 2013. Archived from the original on August 17, 2013.
  5. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
    . Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  6. ^ Gelt, Jessica (September 16, 2013). "Creative Arts Emmys: HBO's 'Behind the Candelabra' wins the night". Los Angeles Times.
  7. ^ "'Breaking Bad,' 'Modern Family' are top shows at Emmys". USA Today. September 23, 2013. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  8. ^ Busis, Hillary (December 3, 2012). "Annie Award Nominees Announced – Wreck-It Ralph, Brave, & More". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 29, 2017.
  9. ^ Marcus Gilmer (October 3, 2012). "South Park: 'Raising the Bar'". The A.V. Club. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  10. ^ Max Nicholson (October 4, 2012). "South Park: 'Raising the Bar' Review". IGN. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  11. ^ "'Honey Boo Boo' 'South Park' Parody: Mama June Calls It Trashy". HuffPost. October 16, 2012. Accessed March 12, 2022
  12. ^ Thompson, Anne (April 12, 2014). "James Cameron on Reddit: Three 'Avatar' Sequels Almost Written, 'Years of Living Dangerously,' Guilty Pleasures, Oculus Rift". IndieWire. Archived from the original on April 15, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2022.

External links
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