About Last Night: Post-Election Fever and "South Park"

The long haul that was the 2008 Presidential campaign came to a long-needed end on Tuesday evening. I felt it anticlimactic, really. After this exhausting battle between the Obama and McCain camps (Unfortunately, Ross Perot remains the last third party candidate to inspire a large amount of people. Also, many of the third party candidates this time around were batshit crazy.), I expected to see at least a little bit of a contest instead of the landslide Obama victory.

Over the past year, especially within the last week, there has been a lot of yelling, debating and otherwise heated exchanges concerning this election. I saw my end of it earlier this week when I re-posted Craig Ferguson's monologue reiterating the "If you don't vote, you're a moron" segment much to the ire of a few of my friends. Part of it had to do with being called a moron for not voting, part of it was because they completely misunderstood my point, and another part of it was they seemed to misunderstand well...the point.

Regardless of who it was, I had originally prepared a one-size-fits-all three-page response to everyone that tore down their arguments and their assessments of what they perceived as my beliefs and attitudes (which, in every case, was completely wrong) and then trying to one-up it by attacking the "unfunny-ness of Craig Ferguson" (missing the point that the monologue itself was not meant to be funny).

But, I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Most of them wouldn't listen to what I had to say or would only distort it further and cause a much larger fight. I mean, I didn't feel like arguing about it until next week and I'm sure my friends felt the same. So I've decided the only proper way to solve this issue is as such:

I'm right. You're wrong. Neener neener neener.

Fuck, I feel better already!

Cue South Park, one of the smartest and oft-times most unpredictable shows on television. In Wednesday's episode, "About Last Night," the show began dealing with the aftermath of the election. The show's style of production usually allows Matt and Trey to quickly respond to the world around them. But holy shit. There are many moments in the episode that refer to speeches and moments from Tuesday evening. Parker and Stone's quick wit cannot be stressed enough. To not only have the balls to be the first scripted show to deal with the after-effects of an election that remains extremely sensitive for many people, but to attempt do it the day after said election showcases what mad geniuses Matt and Trey really are. I've heard stories of the boys turning in episodes the day the show aired, but this just takes the cake.

Now, I'm sure they had much of the episode planned or written depending on the victor of Tuesday's election, but there was still more than enough mined from things less than 24 hours earlier to impress even those who aren't the show's biggest fans. And Matt and Trey, as they are known to do, did an excellent job of putting things in perspective and people in their place.

As Travis Fickett explained in IGN's review of the episode, "This is something of a kick-off for healing the wounds caused by what was an increasingly hard-fought and often bitter and divisive election....Matt and Trey seem to be holding up their hands to say "Okay everyone, calm the fuck down. Obama won't bring about world peace and free unicorns for all, nor will he turn the country into a socialist republic or destroy it like an oncoming asteroid." This is something South Park has always been good at – exposing the extremes for what they are: extreme. It's like looking at videotape of yourself drunk: yes, you did say that. And yes, that is the face you make when this trashed. It's embarrassing and eye opening, and all you can really do is laugh and get on with your day."

And that's exactly what we should do. I'm looking at the next four years with a resounding "We'll see."