[5.5/10[ Remember when *South Park*’s social commentary was incisive and biting? Now the show’s reduced to parroting generic boomer criticism and repeating the same tired comments you can see in a million places on the internet. It’s a bitch getting older, let me tell you. “People don’t know how to do things anymore.” “Trades are now more lucrative than college.” “Disney makes lazy movies.” “Everything is too ‘female, gay, and lame.’” “Multiverse storytelling sucks.” There are not the comments of an expert, experienced group of cultural commentators. They are the same collection of comments you can find on a million articles, YouTube videos, and other online rabbit holes right about now. Sure, *South Park* is slightly more clever about it, and there’s at least some satirization of these views. But I don’t know, for a show making fun of laziness and being out-of-touch from other studios, it’s pretty easy to accuse the show of doing the same thing. You want to know the funny thing? I actually really got a kick out of Panderverse Cartman here. Maybe it was just Janeshia Adams-Ginyard’s performance, which did a good job of replicating Trey Parker’s rhythms without doing a straight imitation of the character. But I also think to drive the concept home, reverted her to more of Cartman’s classic characterization, which was honestly refreshing! Panderverse Cartman going to incredible lengths and cons and resources, just to play *Baldur’s Gate* is total golden era Cartman shtick, and is frankly better than some of the stuff we’ve been getting lately. Otherwise, the big about Randy trying to find a handyman and getting a group whipped up and mad at them, college, and millionaires, was clumsy and not particularly funny. Most of the other multiverse gags and commentary were nothing to write home about either. Cartman’s dream sequences and the visits to other universes got tired fast. There’s a few bright spots here and there. I appreciate the setup and payoff of Randy’s broken oven that caused all the trouble being the multiversal doorway. The “multiverse” just being him in different clothes was a decent laugh. And the observation that audiences didn’t mind formulaic films until they started getting more diverse is a solid one too. But man, “both sides”-ing the issue at hand -- declaring that bigoted hate spurs pandering spurs bigoted hate spurs pandering, so both parties are to blame, is such a weak, mealy-mouthed take. Considering it’s how the show ends the special, it’s particular meh. Overall, this is another instance of *South Park* having lost more than a step, instead devolving into generic online criticisms and “old man yells at cloud” style gripes, without the deftness of delivery, insight, or humor that used to elevate it. Watchable but not good.

Trey and Matt still got it