South Park: Season 22 Episode 8 "Buddha Box" Review

"Everybody is so stupid."

-Eric Cartman

The 8th episode of South Park's 22 season focuses on Eric Cartman who has had enough of everyone else in the world and just wants to be left alone to be on his phone.  His therapist suggests he may suffer from anxiety, which Cartman quickly latches onto and starts using as an excuse for his awful behavior.  He gets himself a Buddha Box, a cardboard box you wear on your head that drowns out the outside world and allows you to be on your phone uninterrupted, and gets many other residents of South Park to use Buddha Boxes as well.

Kyle finally has enough of Cartman and tells him everyone has anxiety, but they deal with it instead of being a jerk and shutting out everyone.  Cartman teams up with the Mayor and gets everyone in town a Buddha Box of their own to help them with their anxiety.

Meanwhile, PC Principal and Strong Woman are struggling to raise the 5 PC Babies and are fighting with each other a lot.  Cartman convinces them to start using Buddha Boxes, which distracts them enough that the PC Babies go off on their own to cry about injustices and eventually land a record deal.  PC Principal and Strong Woman find the babies and realize that being on their phone so much is what is causing them to have anxiety and they try to tell everyone, but the rest of the world is in their Buddha Boxes and not listening, which leaves the couple to raise their kids and share their affection for one another without anyone noticing.

What Works:

This episode started off very strong.  The opening scene in the therapist's office with Cartman was fantastic.  I've never related to Cartman so much in my life.  Cartman, as per usual, was freakin' hysterical the entire episode and gave us near constant gold.

I also liked Kyle's reaction to Cartman's behavior and he had a great speech.  There are plenty of people out their who use anxiety (or really any disorder) as an excuse for their horrible behavior.  It was great to see Kyle call Cartman out for this even though it didn't have the desired effect on him.

I also thought the PC storyline started out strong.  PC Principal is one of the best characters on South Park and I liked seeing more of his relationship with Strong Woman and the PC Babies.  It gave us a lot of funny moments, especially the intro of a PC Babies TV show.

What Sucks:

As much as I enjoyed Cartman's antics and Kyle response to him, I do have a few issues with the anxiety storyline.  The episode makes it seem like everyone with anxiety issues is a complete a-hole.  I am someone who struggles with anxiety and am even on medication for it.  I do my utmost to make sure it is no one else's problem and deal with it myself.  This episode just made me suspect Matt Stone and Trey Parker aren't super familiar with anxiety disorders.  They didn't make a distinction between anxiety and anxiety disorders.  Don't get me wrong, I still though the episode was very funny and I'm not mad about being part of the group being made fun of for once, I just think it could have done a little better.  It was a little black-and-white for my tastes.  But, let me reiterate, it was still very funny.

I also thought the PC storyline got a little old.  Once the PC Babies ended up having a hit song on the radio, I was a little tired of their story.  The title of their hit song was funny, but the jokes about them had gotten fairly stale by this point, especially because there was a previous episode about the PC Babies.  South Park frequently runs with one joke over an entire episode, which is fine, it's when they do it over multiple episodes that it becomes a problem.

Verdict:

"Buddha Box" is another solid episode of South Park that has a very strong start.  Cartman was fantastic, Kyle's speech was great, and the PC storyline gave us some great moments.  I don't think the anxiety stuff was handled particularly well and the PC Babies jokes got old, but it was still a funny episode that has certainly got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good