Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 12:13, 5 October 2019

"Band in China" is the second episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series South Park. The 299th episode overall of the series, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on October 2, 2019. The episode parodies media censorship in China, and the manner in which the American entertainment industry purposefully compromises its productions to avoid it.

Plot

As Stan Marsh sits in his room attempting to write a song for his new death metal-style band, Crimson Dawn, his father Randy Marsh announces to the family that he plans to travel to China and expand the family's Tegridy Farms marijuana business there. However, when he boards a plane to China, he sees many other people are also traveling there for the same reason, including characters belonging to Disney.

During a Crimson Dawn rehearsal, the band is visited by a music producer who wants to make a biographical film, or "biopic" of the band, as traditional music resources such as albums and tours are no longer profitable. Stan, who desperately wants to leave his farm home, is thrilled.

Arriving in China, Randy is arrested by customs officials when marijuana is discovered in his luggage. He is sentenced to prison, where he witnesses the practice of summary execution, and is subjected to slave labor, torture, and Communist Party re-education.

As the producer discusses the structure of the band's biopic, the band learns that certain aspects of the band's lives, like references to the Dalai Lama, Winnie-the-Pooh, organ transplants and homosexuality, will have to be edited out in order to make the film marketable in China due to their censorship of the media.

In prison Randy meets fellow prisoners Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet, who are there because they were banned in China after internet memes comparing Chinese president Xi Jinping to Disney's version of Pooh became popular. When Randy is brought before a court, he criticizes the Chinese government for the way it treats its prisoners, accusing them of lacking "integrity". He offers a deal between Tegridy Farms and the Chinese government. When Mickey Mouse learns of Randy's criticism, however, he angrily confronts Randy over the Chinese customers he is losing because of it, but Randy holds firm on his beliefs that business should not be conducted on the basis of intimidation, and expresses his marijuana import idea to him. When Mickey and Randy make their case to the Chinese officials together, their offer is rejected, which Mickey attributes to the Winnie-the-Pooh matter. Randy is so angered at this that he lures Winnie to a secluded street with honey, and strangles him to death.

As the Crimson Dawn film is shot, the censorship continues to the point that Chinese officials are on set to approve its content, which at one point prompts a halt in filming and a rewrite of the entire second. The producer asks Stan to rewrite it "from his heart", but Stan is frustrated by a Chinese censor standing over his shoulder as he writes in his bedroom, erasing passages he does not approve of. Later commiserating with his bandmates, Stan realizes that the only film that will even be accepted in China is something "vanilla and cheesy". Stan's best friend, Kyle Broflovski, disembarks from a bus with Eric Cartman following their stay in an ICE detention center in the previous episode. The two friends' reunion inspires an idea for Stan.

Stan briefly reunites his previous band Fingerbang for a new biopic, but changes his mind during filming, saying that no matter how badly he wishes to leave the farm, he cannot bring himself to compromise for China, commenting that anyone who does is worthless in his view. Meanwhile, Tegridy Weed has become legal in China. As a dump truck unloads a massive amount of cash at the farm during a family meal, Stan asks Randy why he is covered in honey and blood. When Randy discloses that he murdered Winnie, Stan calmly leaves the table to go write another song about his father.

Reception

John Hugar with The A.V. Club gave the episode a grade of "B", and noted that it was a "strong episode" and an improvement from the previous episode.

Forbes contributor Dani Di Placido praised the episode's political satire and regarded the episode as "hilarious, and depressingly insightful".

Joe Matar, writing in Den of Geek, was less favorable, giving it a rating of 2 out of 5 stars. He criticized the plotting and "shock humor", yet praised the episode's subject matter.

Matthew Rozsa of Salon felt the episode expressed valid criticism about the manner in which the American entertainment industry compromises itself to suit China's government, and enjoyed the way in which it illustrated this point, including the reference to the PC babies, which he saw as a joke made at the expense of liberals. Overall, however, Rozsa felt that the episode's jokes were not funny, including Randy's climactic murder of Winnie, which unlike previous episodes that expressed larger points about society, did not find a creative or memorably humorous way to do so. Rozsa did, however, appreciate that unlike the previous episode, "Mexican Joker", the A plot and B plot of this episode were related.

References

1. Pasbani, Robert (October 3, 2019). "Yes, That Was DYING FETUS on South Park Last Night". Metal Injection. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
2. "Episode 2302 'Band in China' Press Release" (Press release). Comedy Central. September 30, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
3. Parker, Ryan (October 2, 2019). "'South Park' Episode Mocks Hollywood for Shaping Stories to Please China". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 3, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
4. McDonell, Stephen (July 17. 2017). "Why China censors banned Winnie the Pooh". BBC News. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2019. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. Hugar, John (October 3, 2019). "South Park takes some hard shots at China as Randy grows his weed business". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on October 3, 2019.
6. Di Placido, Dani (October 3, 2019). "'South Park' Review: 'Band In China' Mocks Hollywood's Addiction To Chinese Box Office". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 3, 2019.
7. Matar, Joe (October 3, 2019). "South Park Season 23 Episode 2 Review: Band in China". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on October 4, 2019.
8. Rozsa, Matthew (October 3, 2019). "'South Park' takes on Hollywood's pandering to Chinese censorship with sharp words, weak jokes". Salon. Archived from the original on October 4, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2019.

External links

• "The Return of Fingerbang - "Band in China" - s23e02 - South Park". South Park Studios/YouTube. October 3, 2019.
• "Band in China". South Park Studios.

• South Park (season 23) episodes
• American television episodes about cannabis
• Works about censorship
• Television episodes set in China