From The Nerd Cave: March 6, 2014

So is this blog weekly now? It’s certainly starting to look that way. I honestly meant to post an update days ago, but then South Park: The Stick of Truth happened and, well, you can piece the rest together yourself.

By the way, it’s worth pointing out that The Stick of Truth — developed by Obsidian Studios in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios — is one of those rare licensed video games that’s simultaneously faithful to the source material and wholly engaging as a stand-alone piece of entertainment. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker were hands-on during the game’s production, and it shows throughout the crude, disgusting and oddly charming experience. Whether you’re a casual fan or one of those kids who was rarely seen without a South Park shirt in the late 1990s (ahem), The Stick of Truth is a hilarious must-have.

Speaking of kick-ass licensed games, Game Informer gave us our first look at Batman: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady Studios’ latest installment in its critically acclaimed Arkham series. I’ve been holding off on fully embracing next-gen gaming consoles, but I think this was the push I needed. Because Batmobile, that’s why.

Check out the trailer below.

Go Behind the Scenes of 'South Park: The Stick of Truth'

We can probably all agree that South Park doesn’t have the best track record in the world when it comes to video games. Remember the first-person shooter by Acclaim? I’m trying not to.

That being said, Ubisoft and Obsidian’s long delayed South Park: The Stick of Truth looks spectacular — largely because of the close involvement of the show’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I never thought I wanted a South Park role-playing game at this point in my life … but here we are.

Check out this behind-the-scenes look at South Park: The Stick of Truth, slated for release on March 4.

South Park Takes on Superheroes

If you're not watching the current season of South Park, you really should be tuning in. After spoofing the Jonas Brothers in “The Ring”—which kicked off the show’s 13th season with a hilarious jab at Mickey Mouse and the Disney empire—South Park takes aim at “dark and edgy” superhero films in “The Coon.”

Taking to the streets as masked crime-fighter “The Coon,” Eric Cartman is hell-bent on making a name for himself as the “symbol” South Park needs by dressing up as a raccoon themed (and offensively named) superhero. Speaking in a guttural rasp with a penchant for disappearing in the middle of conversations (sort of), The Coon is a blatant riff on Christian Bale’s Batman in The Dark Knight with just a pinch of Watchmen’s Rorschach thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, The Coon has competition in the form of “Mysterion,” another pint-sized vigilante with a similarly raspy voice and an affinity for monologues.

South Park is always right on the money when it’s focused on Cartman, particularly when his narcissistic nature gets the best of him. The show’s even better when Cartman teams with Butters who, in this episode, takes on his “Professor Chaos” supervillain persona alongside his henchman “General Disarray.” With another hero stealing The Coon’s publicity, Cartman hatches a plan with Butters to force Mysterion to unmask himself by threatening to blow up a hospital. Again, a great nod to The Dark Knight.

There’s a lot to love about this episode, including the South Park Police Department’s apparent fear of Professor Chaos, poor attendance at Coonicon ’09 and the big “reveal” of Mysterion’s identity at its conclusion. It’s not necessarily as laugh-out-loud funny as “The Ring,” but “The Coon” has a lot of fun at the expense of the current crop of superhero films.

Head over to South Park Studios to watch the episode in its entirety.

Guinea Pigs and Pan Flutes

I’m normally a hardcore South Park supporter. You know the type. The people who seem personally offended when you admit to them that you missed the latest episode. “Dude, you’ve gotta watch the encore tonight, man. It works on so many levels.” Yeah, I’m that douche. But mostly I’m right. South Park is one of the best-written shows on television today and its consistent blend of topicality, irreverence and absurdity keeps it interesting after being on the air for over a decade.

However, the recent two-part “Pandemic” episode has me a bit flustered. Well, more flustered than I usually am. Why? Because I don’t think I liked it very much. I can appreciate that it managed to tie a worldwide epidemic of pan flute bands (pandemic…get it?) to a Cloverfield parody in which giant guinea pigs ravage major cities around the globe. I even liked the inclusion of the boys’ classmate Craig, through which co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone seem to be mocking how absurd the show is getting in its twelfth season. A plot to raise money by forming a pan flute band leaves Craig, Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman lost in the Andes Mountains. Craig provides a running commentary.

“Do you know why nobody else at school likes hanging out with you? Because you're always doing stuff like this,” Craig says. “You're always coming up with some stupid idea to do something, and then it backfires, and then you end up in some foreign country or in outer space or something. That's why no one likes hanging out with you guys.”

Craig is awesome. The rest of “Pandemic” and “Pandemic 2: The Startling?” Not so much. South Park works best in the realm of the bizarre, but the giant guinea pig Cloverfield spoof just wasn’t funny enough to spread over two episodes. And the plot with the boys was pretty boring, all things considered. What would have been a fine 22-minute burst of insanity became an exercise in “how far can we take this premise” and it backfired, in my opinion.

But judge for yourself. Head to SouthParkStudios.com to watch the two-parter in its entirety.

Image Courtesy of Comedy Central

Cartman Gets His Ass Kicked

As a rule, cancer just isn’t funny. So when I learned that this week’s new episode of South Park was titled “Breast Cancer Show Ever,” I cringed just a little bit. Thankfully, there was a lot more to this episode than some off-color cancer humor.

When Cartman crudely interrupts Wendy’s presentation on breast cancer awareness, she vows to beat the hell out of him. Naturally, this gets all of their classmates amped to see the two face off after school while Cartman tries everything in his power to get out of fighting her, including intentionally getting detention by taking a crap on Mr. Garrison’s desk.

This episode was reminiscent of what South Park was in its early days. You won’t find much in the way of profound hidden meaning or layered political messaging in this fairly straightforward episode, but you will see Wendy beat the snot out of Cartman at its finale, something that he’s really had coming for the past few years. This wasn’t a great episode—the plot wore a bit thin halfway through—but there were plenty of great Cartman moments throughout, and it was nice to see Wendy featured so prominently. However, even an average episode of South Park is better than most comedies on television.

Head over to SouthParkStudios.com to watch this episode in its entirety.

“Well, Well, Indiana Jones!”

South Park kicked off the second half of its twelfth season last night and…wow. It’s pretty clear that the series' writer/director Trey Parker was not all that impressed by Indiana Jones and the Kingdom and the Crystal Skull.

In the episode, titled “The China Probrem,” Cartman suspects that the elaborate opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympic Games were signaling a Chinese invasion of the United States. As is the case with most Cartman-centric storylines these days, Butters tag along as he takes customers and staff hostage at a local P.F. Chang’s. This plotline has its moments—particularly Butters accidentally shooting people “in the dick” (not cool)—but the episode truly shines in its secondary story.

At the beginning of the episode, Kyle is clearly traumatized. He and his friends were forced to watch as one of their close friends was raped. Of course, we soon learn that their friend is Indiana Jones. The assailants? George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Yep. South Park went there. To prevent this from ever happening again, the boys call for the arrest of Spielberg and Lucas for sexually assaulting their own creation. Poignant.

But the joke doesn’t end there. We actually get to see Lucas and Spielberg rape Indy through some downright disturbing scenes in homage to Deliverance and The Accused. It takes balls to go after two of the most powerful filmmakers in the world like this.

Oh, and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull will be released on DVD October 14, but I doubt anyone will look at that film the same way ever again. Personally, I thought Crystal Skull was a fun movie (and hey, so did Butters), but I have to appreciate the satire at play here.

Check out SouthParkStudios.com to watch this episode in its entirety. Just don’t do it at work.

Catch Tonight's All-New South Park!

If you've been paying attention, South Park has been on a roll these past few weeks, and tonight's episode should be no different. Entitled "Super Fun Time," the episode takes the boys on a field trip to a pioneer village, replicating 1800s Colorado. Expect some jabs at the ongoing Texas polygamy saga that's been front-page news for the past few weeks.

Also in the episode, Cartman convinces Butters to abandon the field trip for an amusement center next door. Butters and Cartman? Comedy gold.

This is the last new episode of South Park until the fall, so be sure to check it out on Comedy Central at 10 p.m. For more info, visit SouthParkStudios.com.

South Park is Out of Internet!

Bravo to the South Park crew for yet another brilliant Season 12 episode. While the series has become known for taking timely stabs at pop culture and current events, this week's episode takes on a more evergreen topic: our over-reliance on technology.

Entitled "Over Logging," the episode poses the question—what would we all do without Internet access? In a fairly clever parody of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Stan and his family head out west to Silicon Valley so they can log on, uniting Shelley with her iChat boyfriend and Randy with his precious Internet porn.

Favorite moments? Randy's visit to an Internet porn simulator, his encounter with a "ghost" which leaves him covered in "ectoplasm" and...aw heck, just about every scene that Randy is in is gold. Is there any wonder why he's slowly becoming a fan favorite? He's responsible for some of the series' best moments throughout the last few seasons.

But in all honesty, the thought of losing Internet access is a scary one for a lot of us, and this episode truly highlighted how helpless we all would be if we couldn't log on to the Web.

To watch "Over Logging" and other episodes in their entirety, visit South Park Studios.

South Park Riffs on Guitar Hero

It's safe to say it: South Park is on a roll this season. Following up the phenomenal "Imagination Land" trilogy, the South Park gang set its sights on the Guitar Hero series in tonight's episode.

While one can argue that South Park is leaning a little heavy on commercials that advertise/satirize video games (the Emmy Award-winning "Make Love, Not Warcraft," for example), it's hard to argue with them when they nail their subjects so skillfully.

Tonight's episode saw Stan and Kyle attract the attention of a record producer due to their high score playing "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas. But their journey soon leads to hardships, as success strains their friendship and Stan throws his career away when he becomes addicted to Heroin Hero.

Kudos to Trey Parker and co. for several great moments. Randy's introduction to the game and his inability to understand why the kids don't just play real guitar, the kid so good at Guitar Hero he could play acoustic (tap tap tap tap tap), Stan and Kyle's reward for scoring 1,000,000 points. All classic send-ups of a game that has fast become a console sensation.

Catch the encore tomorrow, November 8th, at 10 p.m on Comedy Central.