South Park: Aliens at Thanksgiving

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

As much as I enjoy what Matt Stone & Trey Parker do with South Park when it comes to popular culture, I really don't tend to like their holiday episodes. This week, the week before the show goes back on hiatus, they went ahead and tackled Thanksgiving... in a crazy, crazy way. I didn't like it and almost didn't finish the whole thing... I just couldn't wait until the madness was over. But, maybe the fact that I'm not Thor's biggest fan had something to do with it. Or perhaps the fact that Indians/Native Americans were interchangeable in this one. Of course, I then interchange "Miles Standish" with "ThorPilgrim" so go figure. Anyway, let me know what you thought - I'd genuinely be interested in a different perspective on this one.

photo courtesy: Comedy Central

South Park "A History Channel Thanksgiving" (S15E13): Thanksgiving is two weeks away and the school brings in a Native American to talk about Thanksgiving. He assigns the kids a report on Thanksgiving, so Kenny, Kyle, Stan, and Cartman watch the History Channel instead of read books. [no surprise there...] The special they watch suggests that the Pilgrims and Native Americans might have had aliens, as there's no mention that they weren't there. [A until proven B, right? ha.] The show also suggests that stuffing might have come from aliens because there's no mention of it in prior history. [figures. but, stuffing is a weird item when you think about it...] The kids are grabbed on their way home from school the next day by the History Channel people, who heard about their report. They want to know where the kids got their information... and don't believe that they got their information from the History Channel. [this whole problem was probably my main gripe about the episode. Why was it hard to believe that someone heard something from your show? Because you can't believe anyone actually tuned in? Because you think it's so boring that nobody bothers to remember it? Because it's so absurd that nobody else would dare repeat such nonsense?]

They then interview Stan on-camera as a "history expert" to put forth the same view that's already on their special. They list Kyle as a Thanksgiving expert and a PhD who teaches at DeVry. [they make fun of several "fake colleges," like the University of Phoenix as well.] The Native American guest speaker then yells at the kids. [What's with looking at the outline of a hand on everything? that was dumb.] Thor comes to Earth, and the History Channel people think it's a pilgrim. [...and this is really where I start to lose my attention span...] Cartman is afraid of the stuffing shortage [of course] and we then see the "pilgrims" and "aliens" talking about the "stuffing mines." The ThorPilgrim shows up, claiming he is Miles Standish. Natalie Portman drove him to South Park, CO and now needs to get him back to Cape Cod before Thanksgiving.

The History Channel folks are after Kyle, since they think he's been "right" about everything. There are apparently wormholes that connect several planets. [geez.] Natalie Portman is the keeper of the porthole that would let ThorPilgrim go home. Both the History Channel people and Miles Standish make Kyle entice Natalie Portman to open the wormhole... so he takes her for a nice dinner, then walks her to the rock... and straight-up asks her to open her wormhole. Miles Standish uses it to go back to his planet, and his people wipe out the Indians so that there would be stuffing again. [...yay?] It ends with the idea that there may have been spirits from beyond the grave as well. [bleh.]