South Park: A Woodland Critters Christmas (2004) (TV Special Review)

   Sense I kicked-off the month with a review of my personal all-time favorite Christmas special … that being 1983’s “A Christmas Story” … it only made sense that I’d follow-up with a review of my personal least favorite Christmas special I’ve ever seen. Now, this isn’t an objective look at something that’s universally deemed as the worst Christmas special, nor is this a Crusade on my part to convert people to follow my opinion. This is just me personally saying that … when I think of a Christmas special that I hated with a passion, and stood out as one of the most unpleasant things I’ve ever viewed, I immediately think of the 2004 TV episode “South Park : A Woodland Critter Christmas". This is the one that just made me feel sick, and the one that sucked the holiday cheer out of me for a season.

   I should start by saying that in general … I love comedy, and there’s nothing quite like laughing at something we find amusing in either a movie or TV show. However, comedy can be very subjective, and viewers can have different tastes on what they find funny. 

Some prefer comedy when it’s straight forward and goofy, while others prefer their hummer to be more aggressive and mean. “South Park” was one of those breakout comedy shows that drew in a huge fan base, had a distinct style of hummer, and like “The Simpsons”, it’s one of those animated comedy shows that just seems to keep going and going with no foreseeable end in sight. At first glance, the show never really peaked my interest, but being a general comedy fan, I knew I was going to have to look in on this phenomenon eventually. I started with the 1999 hit movie “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut”, and needless to say, despite my best efforts … I just couldn’t get into those sped-up voices, the relentless swearing, the onslaught of rude behavior, and I couldn’t even stand its signature animation style of paper-cut-out stop-motion. So, I said to myself after a saw the movie, the fans can have their show, but I’ll skip the train for this event. Then during my college years, one of my friends was very insistent that I give “South Park” a second chance, which is fair, as I’m always willing to give something a second chance. It was the holiday season, my friend had the entire “South Park Christmas Episodes” collection on DVD, and naturally … the episode we ended up viewing was Episode 14 from season 8 … “A Woodland Critter Christmas".

   In this Christmas themed outing, Stan is confronted by a group of talking Woodland Critters, and is suckered into doing a number of choirs and favors for them. At first, it’s like your typical fluffy Christmas special, and I have to say, the comedy wasn’t off to a bad start. There’s an amusing narrator going through all the events like a bed-time story, much in the vain of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, and the narrator subsequently ends up taking the role of Stans irritating conscience … which is honestly an amusing take on the cliché of narrators in Christmas specials. I even liked the music at first, as it was satirizing the stock music of the season, which always seems to glorify that Christmas only comes once a year. Also, even though I’m not fond of the show’s animation style, I thought it was at least lending itself to some pleasant holiday colors. However, this is “South Park”, and I knew deep-down that something really cynical had to be building … and boy howdy, dose this special take a nose dive into uncomfortable territory.  

  The critters arrive in Stan's house one night, and the porcupine seems to have a Virgen Pregnancy on her hands … oh deer, red flags are going up. As one would expect from the unexpected and cynical nature of “South Park”, this isn’t going to be a cheery spin on the Virgin Mary, oh no … this is a spin on “Rosemary’s Baby”. That’s right, the porcupine is pregnant with the Anti-Christ, and Stan is responsible for its coming. From there, the special continues to dive into it’s sink-hole of uncomfortable subjects and aggressively cynical jokes. It’s very much in the vain of “Bad Santa”, in which the whole joke is just how off-beat and dark it can get in contrast to what we normally see in a Christmas special, and like the former, it’s just not for me. In general, I’m actually the kind of guy who occasionally enjoys a Christmas special with a bit of an edge. “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation” for example is my favorite Christmas comedy, as it balances its cynical hummer with all the warmth and comfort of a Christmas special. Heck, I’m one of those nuts that likes watching “Die Hard” on Christmas, because despite all the violence and action, it’s still a movie with great characters, and it just leaves me feeling warm inside. This special however, I feel just goes too far with how dark, disturbed, sick, negative, insulting and unpleasant it gets.

   In this specials effort to be as Anti-traditional-Christmas as it can possibly be … I feel it just never balanced out with anything of value, substance, or even anything that enjoyably funny. There’s one particular joke revolving around a certain clinic that dose away with unwanted children, and it really pushed my hot button. Like, the longer this scene went on, the more I felt my soul slowly being devoured. Things only get more distasteful from there as the special highlights the devil, orgy, cult sacrifices, mother killings, Satanism, and a climax with a violent gun wielding Santa. Fans of this show often sight this as one of their favorite classic episodes, as it broke the boundaries of foul content in a TV program, and for being at complete odds with virtually any other animated Christmas special under the sun. Honestly, had this just been a favorite among fans of the series … I still wouldn’t have like it, but I’d be a little more dismissive about it. However, this is one case in which the specials popularity went beyond fans of the show, as I often see it on lists of the all-time best and greatest TV Christmas specials ever … that’s when my issues with this special break the barrier. Fans liking this episode is one thing … but to speak of this special in the same breath as other holiday classics like “A Charly Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” ... it not only hits a nerve, but it puts this episode at rock bottom of the Christmas barrel for me.           

        

  This marked my very first episode I ever saw from the show … and to date, it was also the last one. While I’m aware that “South Park” has a reputation for being a comedy series with a deliberately cynical edge, I’m also told that it’s a very smart and clever show that goes beyond it’s foul hummer … so I’m not one to objectively judge if it was a good series or not. All I can say was that after watching this episode, I was done … just done with “South Park”. It was one of those rare cases in which I watched something that left me in this depressed and miserable wake … and I just couldn’t shake it. Again, I know this show has fans, and this episode is a fan favorite, so I can’t make any objective argument that it’s officially the worst Christmas special ever made … I’m only speaking for myself when I say that “South Park: A Woodland Critter Christmas" is the worst Christmas special that I personally have ever seen.  

Thanks for reading my review of the 2004 TV special “South Park: A Woodland Critter Christmas" … and if I may quote "Home Alone" ...

Merry Christmas you Filthy Animals!