South Park: Season 22 Episode 2 "A Boy and a Priest" Review

"I wasn't always this cool."

-Butters Stotch

The South Park Catholic Church has seen a spike in attendance due to the entire town showing up to make pedophilia jokes at Father Maxi, who becomes more and more discouraged every day.  Only Butters stands by the priest and the two form a friendship in spite of what the rest of the town may think.  When Father Maxi and Butters close the Church for awhile, the rest of the town becomes lost in their faith and the Catholic Church sends out a clean-up crew to fix the Father Maxi situation.

What Works:

This episode is basically a sequel to the season 6 classic, "Red Hot Catholic Love".  They even bring up Father Maxi's adventures in Vatican City during this episode.  I've seen some people complain that this is sort of a retread of the that episode, but it's been 16 years and pedophilia in the Catholic Church is still a major issue, so I'm glad to see South Park go back to the well on this one.

Most importantly, this episode was freaking hilarious.  Sure, some of the priest jokes were a little repetitive, but the first one by Randy caught me off guard and some of the later jokes made me laugh until I cried and had to pause the episode to compose myself.  The Cumboni is one of the most absurd things I have ever had to process and will stick with me for a long time.  Absolutely hysterical.

Even the montage sequences where Butters and Father Maxi are just hanging out were hilarious.  These scenes were totally innocent, but still made my skin crawl and forced me to laugh.  The scenes themselves weren't funny, it's the context in which they were presented that made me laugh.

The Clean Team the Church sends out was an awesome addition to the episode and their blunt and brutal dialogue was great.  Trey and Matt were not pulling any punches with this episode and they have my utmost respect for it.  Plus the visual of Stan, Butters, and Clyde being tied up by a campfire mixed with the Priest-call was simply fantastic.

While this episode had a ton of laughs, it had some heart was well.  Father Maxi gets some great development and his realizations about the Catholic Church being a cancer with just a few good apples is brutal and I have to imagine pretty heartbreaking for those who have had similar experiences in the Church.  He has a great arc in this episode, which adds a lot to the story.

Finally, I just want to say how much I appreciate the continuity from last weeks episode.  Stan showing up with a cast on his arm after being shot was great, but the fact that no one mentions it at all makes it even better.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Verdict:

"A Boy and a Priest" is one of the thing funniest episodes of South Park I've seen in a long time.  I can't remember the last time I had to pause an episode because I was laughing so hard.  The laughs were great, but it also had some solid emotional moments and a good story-arc for Father Maxi.  This is truly a worthy follow up to "Red Hot Catholic Love" and this episode has definitely got it going on.

 10/10: Amazing