AC22: Random TV Special Review - Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo (South Park)

There is a lot of different characters associated with Christmas. There's Santa, Mrs. Claus, the elves, Rudolph and the other reindeers too. But for South Park there is a Christmas poo. The show has been crude, controversial and very often in danger of being cancelled or banned by various countries and channels that are not Comedy Central. But unlike other crude adult animated sitcoms, South Park has actually won some awards for some of its content. Not as much as The Simpsons mind you, but when people get it, they love it. So of course with tackling so many different things, they too would handle Christmas too and there is no shortage of Christmas specials for them. But to pick out one to review is tricky because there is a lot of them and I really wanted to find one where they take the mic out of the holiday as they do with literally everything else. Which bought me to their very first one, and it is quite literally a stinker of an special (in a good way of course). So let's see how this one plays out:

Now with most of the show's first season, there is an introduction first from the show's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone who offer insight into the episode's creation and do a bit of comedy before the main event. The show begins with the students of South Park Elementary getting ready for their nativity play. Kyle (voiced by Stone) who is a Jew, is forced to quit when his mother Shelia (voiced by the late Mary Kay Bergman) hears word of the play and because her character is often the leader in mostly unnecessary or unwanted protests, she sets out to have the play remove anything that could cause offence to anyone in the play. This unfortunately leaves the play to be very bare bones while Kyle begins to believe in a sentient poo called Mr. Hankey (voiced by Parker) who may become the town's newest and least offensive character to the holiday.

Unsurprisingly, this special like the rest of the show was controversial. Ren and Stimpy Show creator John Kricfalusi accused the creators of stealing his own idea which they denied and that really was the only controversial thing there is. As a special it (like the rest of the show), explores the problems of the holiday and goes to great lengths to try and do something different with very funny results. Its crude in every way (even the title makes that very clear), its funny and once again proves that the show can do great things despite what people say. 9/10