Season 2 Episode 8 – Summer Sucks

Summertime comes to South Park for once!

Original Airdate

24^th June 1998

Guest Stars

• Jonathan Katz as himself

Featured Music

• Stars and Stripes Forever (traditional by John Sousa, played by South Park Elementary)
• Nearer, My God, to Thee (traditional Christian, played by the boys)
• Simultaneously (original, sung by Chef)

Synopsis

Turns out South Park’s children hate summer, especially with no fireworks! Jimbo and Ned go all out to get some, while a disaster looms in town thanks to a giant snake. Mr. Garrison is meanwhile going through some troubles, especially as he can’t find Mr. Hat.

Kenny's Death

Crushed by the empty stand after the South Park snake pushes him into it.

My Thoughts Back Then

At the time, I liked summer and the associated break from school, enjoyed the sunshine (unlike the boys from South Park), and a few years prior, still enjoyed swimming lessons despite not being the best swimmer. This one made an impact on me, as from when I first saw this in around October of 2004 (from the video shop again), I started to describe me city of Perth, Australia’s weather as being two seasons – summer and July. The quote from this episode is that South Park has two seasons – winter and July.

Also – Jimbo and Ned play a big role – any episode with them was a winner for me back then, and still now.

My Thoughts Now

Trey, Matt, stop making me so hungry… now I want bacon butties (although HP sauce is much nicer than French dressing) and I want to lose weight!

It’s the last day of school, and Mr. Hat is GONE! Mr. Garrison is MAD!!!!! And he threatens to keep the kids in until he’s returned… Really, Mr. Garrison? You think the kids will listen to you? Only Pip is left in the class (that would have been me haha) – Pip is off to summer school as he’s an orphan, but as for Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny, they’re off to buy fireworks! Well, they would be until these restrictive new laws came in. Personally, I think Australian fireworks laws are too strict, I’d buy them for say Guy Fawkes night if they were easier to buy.

Mr. Garrison calls the MAYOR’S OFFICE to see if she can help look for Mr. Hat! He really is a lunatic… Mayor McDaniels decides to make South Park home of the world’s biggest snake.

Boys… it’s SUMMER – you don’t need to dress like it’s winter! Obviously this is part of the joke, especially as this was before the animators started experimenting (especially with Cartman) with different outfits for the characters. And you DON’T go sledding with no snow! Uncle Jimbo is MAD about the firework ban, and drives to Mexico to get some fireworks (obviously New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska banned them too)

MUDMAN? Just no… and Mr. Garrison has decayed so much in less than a week… You would NOT be laughed at for learning to swim in my city, I’ve even gone to the beach at the start of spring myself. Cartman seems to be aquaphobic, and not concerned about his hat getting wet either, but the pee… oh blimey. Later he has trouble getting to the deep end (and put off the pee AGAIN – Cartman would be bullied so heavily in my area, especially at age 8).

I’ve seen plenty of school orchestras, and a good friend’s concert band she was a part of twice, and they were ALL much better than South Park’s. My ears! MY EARS! But the snake is here! I don’t know if Jimbo and Ned are speaking real Spanish (there’s no subtitles), but the firework from Mexico looks AMAZING. Mr. Mackey’s prank is gold, and Mr. Garrison doesn’t know who he is… this is another early point showing how truly deranged he is, but he gets much worse later.

The South Park snake is about to be lit, and that is a REALLY BAD RENDITION of Stars and Stripes Forever… The snake is ALIVE, but it won’t stop burning! Jimbo and Ned wouldn’t survive Western Australia’s G2G system in use during COVID, they’d be caught out on something that’s for sure. A South Park episode on Australia’s handling on the pandemic would be very welcome from me. And they end up in a Texan prison? You’d think they’d go to New Mexico on their way home.

Chef is away in what appears to be in a Caribbean island, and the boys have his landline number? Chef doesn’t care, and I don’t blame him – when I’m on holiday, I like to relax and not worry about troubles at home. Mr. Garrison continues his denial of being gay while seeing NYC psychiatrist Jonathan Katz, who is killed by the snake, Garrison calls Katz a gay-bashing homo. Scenes like this make me wonder if Trey and Matt had some sort of master plan for the series from the early days, at least for certain characters.

The snake reaches where Jimbo and Ned are in jail, and enables them to break free! And Mr. Hat is in Green Bay, Wisconsin?! Notice Mr. Hat’s eyes move, implying he has a mind of his own. And Cartman is in a closed pool (very 2020) so he can swim to the deep end without the first graders. Uncle  Jimbo and Ned save the day, by giving Stan and Kyle fireworks, which they set off and stop the snake! The snake goes out from the ash, and the pool turns into pee!

Mr. Garrison now has a new assistant, Mr. Twig! And the town is covered in black ash aka black snow, and everyone’s faces are sooty, which makes Chef mad!!!!! Another reference that went over my head when I was 13 (I didn’t know what blackface was until I was 18)