South Park: The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerBalls

Posted by Justin Weinblatt on 03.25.2010

After reading Catcher in the Rye, the South Park Four set out to make their own banned book, and unintentionally create a masterpiece.

Welcome back to another South Park Review! As a general disclaimer: I am not the sole authority on what is funny. I may not enjoy a joke that you find to be hilarious. You may love a joke that I do not care for. Humor is subjective. With that out of the way, let's see what those boys are up to.

This week's episode of South Park begins with Mr. Garrison handing out copies of Catcher In The Rye to his class. He warns the children that Catcher In The Rye is banned in many areas, contains adult language, graphic scenes, and may have inspired John Lenon's murderer. Naturally, these warnings only serve to entice the boys to read the book. When they do, they are severely disappointed by its relative tameness. Enraged at being duped into actually reading, the boys decide to write their own book. A book that will be 100 times more deserving of the ban-hammer than Catcher In The Rye.

The boys write their book, "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerBalls", and fill it with the most vulgar, vile, disgusting, language they could think of. Stan's Mom finds the manuscript, begins reading, and immediately starts puking her guts out. She gathers the parents in South Park together to discuss the matter with Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman. Sensing the danger, the boys con the gullible Butters into believing that he wrote the book in his sleep. It's a pretty stupid story, but Butters is a pretty stupid kid.


Randy reacts to Scrotie McBoogerBalls.

Surprisingly, the parents of South Park thought the book was a work of literary genius, despite the fact that it makes everyone who reads it vomit. The book quickly sweeps the nation, making Butters a nationally renowned author. Stan and Co. try to reclaim credit for their book without success. Angered by Butters' undeserved fame, the boys attempt to get the book banned. Meanwhile, Butters writes a sequel to his book. I believe it was entitled, “The Poop That Took A Pee”. This book is almost as renowned as “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerBalls", and sparks multiple interpretations. One of these interpretations leads to great tragedy, and the two books finally make it to the banned book list.

The beginning of the episode is classic South Park. For anyone who remembers being a child, the enthusiasm, and then disappointment, for a supposedly risque book will ring true. I was reminded of my own childhood, when the promise of vulgarity made it feel like Christmas morning. Unfortunately, I've never read Catcher In The Rye, so a few of the jokes probably flew right by my head.

Anything with Butters in it is bound to be classic. When Butters reads "Catcher In The Rye" he is overcome by the sudden urge to kill John Lenon, which is hilarious. As we saw in Casa Bonita, Butters can be convinced of just about anything. Seeing Butter's become 100% convinced that he is a great author is another strong point for the episode. Butters even ditches his normal clothing to look the part of the pretentious author.


Butters. Voice of a generation.


The adult community's reaction to the book is also great. Any time an adult reads the book they begin projectile vomiting, while simultaneously being awestruck by the book's brilliance. The effect is quite comical. Unfortunately, they go to the well one too many times. By the time they showed a clip of a game show, which tested how long one could listen to the audiobook of Scrotie McBoogerBalls without vomiting, my laughter had diminished into a slight chuckle. There's only so many time you can use the same joke over a span of thirty minutes, and still get a reaction out of it.

Many people feel that South Park is too preachy, and often shoves a moral down the viewer's throat. If you're one of those people, you can rest easy this week. There is no real moral to this story, for better or worse. Personally, when I saw the beginning, I was hoping for an episode which discussed censorship in American schools. Instead, what we have is a series of jabs at the literary snobs, who insist on reading far too deeply into even the most basic of texts. I'm an English Major myself, and I had to read the works of a great deal of literary critics. Honestly, I wouldn't be at all surprised if a book written by a group of fourth graders, with the sole intention of grossing people out, became the subject of literary scrutiny. There is also the subtler point that we assume anything in a book is brilliant. If Scrotie McBoogerBalls had been a TV show, movie, or god forbid, a videogame, the reaction would have been far different.

Unlike last week's episode, The Tale Of Scrotie McBoogerBalls, actually seems to know where it's headed. Spoilers are ahead, so if you haven't watched this episode already, skip to The 411. Early, in the episodes allusions are made to the Kardashian sisters, and to the “phonies” presumably mentioned in The Catcher and the Rye. Cartman brings up the idea of killing a celebrity to get Butter's book banned. When it all comes together, it's a great aha moment that makes sense. Plus, seeing the Kardashian sisters blown to bits was satisfying. *end spoilers*

The 411: The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerBalls was a great episode of South Park. The boys actually seem like 4th graders here (as opposed to miniature adults), which is a nice change of pace. Almost every joke that was attempted landed, especially the jabs at academia. The only thing that didn't work that well was the vomit jokes. The vomiting was funny, but only to a certain point. To top it all off, we got a lot of Butters, which in my opinion is always a good thing. To me, the best episodes of South Park are the ones with a strong point of view to express. We didn't get that here, but we did get a ton of great laughs. This episode probably won't leave a strong impression, but you'll certainly enjoy it while you're watching.

Final Score:  8.4   [ Very Good ]