Monday, April 27, 2009

Honourable Mentions: South Park – The Ungroundable

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I’ve said many a time that vampires get everywhere and this time they have got to the Trey Parker and Matt Stone created South Park. This is the season 12 finale, entitled the Ungroundable, and is an honourable mention because it is about wannabe vampires rather than the actual creatures of the night – though one character thinks they are for real.

Butters warns KennyMr Mackey (Trey Parker) is trying to teach information technology but whilst he gets muddled the kids are all deathmatching. Into the room comes Butters (Matt Stone) to tell the kids that vampires have invaded the school. Of course no one is interested and, eventually, they tell him to watch the vampires and document their movements so they can get rid of him.

caught by the vampyresButters goes to the school gym where the vampires are hanging out. Their leader Mike, who keeps punctuating sentences with “Per se”, talks about being a sanguinary vampire, Annie is a psi vampire and Ryan is a hybrid of the two. Actually they are just kids wearing dark clothes and fangs but Butters sets off a recording on his Dictaphone and they surround him. He pulls a cross and beats a hasty retreat.

the GothsThe Goth kids in the school are less than impressed that it is suddenly trendy to act like a vampire. They are being lumped in with the wannabes, who don’t even want to smoke. Meanwhile Butters goes home and tries to tell his father (Trey Parker) about the vampires but his father is more bothered about the pantry not being organised. Butters realises that vampires probably don’t get pushed around.

Butters turnedThe next day he supplicates himself to the vampires and asks to be transformed. Having got them sodas and snacks they agree and take him to Hot Topic. Having transformed his image they give him blood to drink – actually Clammato. Butters is not keen on blood as it tastes like tomato but truly believes he is a real vampire. When his father tries to ground him he claims to be neither living nor dead, he is ungroundable.

feeding on CartmanHe is also starving and thus breaks into Cartman’s room to feed. The resulting attack does little more than give Cartman (Trey Parker) a hickey and convince his classmate that he is gay. The Goth kids decide to kidnap the head vampire, in order that they might stop the trend, and mail him to Scottsdale. The infestation continues until Butters tells them the source – Hot Topic. They burn it down using lighters and hairspray and Butters returns to normal.

Goth kidnaps vampyreAn amusing little look at vampyre trends, in the wake of Twilight one assumes, and some of the pretensions associated with it, this also has a knowing look at the angst that can occur between outwardly similar sub-cultures and the gullibility of some who fall into the vampyre scene. The imdb page is here.

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