User Reviews

It is November 2008 and it has just been announced that Obama has beaten Senator McCain in the presidential election. As the result is announced most of South Park's adult population are celebrating as though all the world's problems are solved while the remainder act like it is a sign of the Apocalypse! While scenes like this are replicated across America a gang of crack jewel thieves are planning to steal the Hope Diamond from inside the Smithsonian. This team includes Obama and McCain! It turns out that they both ran for president so that one of them would win giving that person access to the White House escape tunnel that runs directly under the Smithsonian; the only way it can be accessed. Back in South Park Ike is injured and Kyle and Stan try to get him to the hospital but everybody is too busy partying or panicking to help.

One problem with having topical episodes is that they can become stale as soon as the event slips from people's minds; thankfully the plot is so silly that it manages to keep its humour after four years... it helps of course that even the losers of that election were high profile enough to be remembered. Randy's over the top antics can get a little annoying but here he was pretty funny as the rabid Obama supporter who partied like a mad man then felt totally disillusioned the next day. It made a nice change that something important was going on but none of the four protagonists were involved in it is anyway; the robbery did have a surprising link to South Park though but I won't spoil it as I thought it was the funniest moment in the episode because it was such a surprise.

Here is an episode that parodies the aftermath of the 2008 US presidential elections which as everyone knows, Barack Obama emerged victorious in. It largely satirizes how completely consumed people become in matters such as this in its immediate aftermath, whether it be people who are completely depressed by the result or the people jubilant of it.

However, what this episode is mostly about is a satire of Barack Obama and the other significant members of the 2008 presidential campaign including Senator McCane and Sarah Palin. And that's probably the weakest part of this episode too.

When compared to many of the show's most memorable and brilliant satires of celebrity figures, namely Mel Gibson in "The Passion of the Jew", Rob Reiner in "Butt-Out" and Tom Cruise in "Trapped in the Closet", this episode feels somewhat pathetic. There is literally nothing of substance here in the satire of Obama and wife Michelle being actors pretending to be married and their ambition in life being pulling off successful jewel capers. As far as biting satire and mockery is concerned, this episode truly feels very tame compared to some of the show's achievements and even taking into consideration on its own, feels very weak.

In this respect, the final five minutes is far and away the worst part of the episode as Obama having successfully pulled off the caper bids his farewells to his team and decides to try a term in office. It's extremely weak and ineffectual writing and as I was watching the episode, I assumed the episode would take a direction in the story where Obama and his crew fail their heist and he is ultimately forced into having to run office. That could have been a much stronger note to end the episode and could have made way for some great continuity material down the road. Anyways, "About Last Night..." decides to instead have Obama humbly accept victory and accept the challenge of trying a new life as the president of the US.

I find that angle extremely weak but what I do find moderately entertaining here is the angle of the actual heist itself which while lacking substance feels entertaining on a very superficial level. What I do absolutely love abotu this episode is Randy and the crazy shenanigans he gets up to as he celebrates Obama's victory. To a lesser extent, I also enjoy the angle of Matt & Trey satirizing the public's reaction to the news in the immediate aftermath and how both sides, the victorious and the defeated, are portrayed.

Randy makes me laugh really hard and he saves this episode from the same fate that was much closer to being an actuality in "Pandemic 2: The Startling". In both episodes, he is the strongest positive and one of (or the only in the former's case) the only enjoyable angles to an otherwise bad episode. "About Last Night..." is stupid, shallow, lacks the real bite of South Park at its finest and yet, I gain a moderate level of enjoyment about this episode.

We have two plots, certainly everything is about the 2008 Presidential Election of the US then in one hand we have what is happening in South Park once Barack Obama was announced as the winner of the Election and in the other hand we watch what both Obama and John McCain are doing after giving their respective speech (once again with that the Trey, Matt and pals show how they work in a very short time). About Last Night could have been a much better episode however I liked it a lot, in resume it has a nice beginning for both plots and nothing really great happens to end with a terrific conclusion. Well things happens in the middle of both plots however everything goes straight, there you have that Obama and McCain are actually long time pals and long time thieves and now that one of the two is the President of the US their biggest plan is about to be a really successful one, their plan is to steal Hope Diamond (Sarah Palin, Obama's wife and someone from South Park are also part of the team) then we have our heist picture, funny yet not hilarious and it gets a little tired but it ends in a brilliant way. And in the other subplot we have the reactions of the Democrats (including Randy Marsh) and of the Republicans (including Butters' parents) so is as simple as one side have party and the other only laments. Again nothing really happens (apart of the situation with Ike) but we have a brilliant conclusion also. Is so great and clever because all happens in one single night, we have the Republicans thinking in the upcoming change so themselves creates a panic situation. The father of Butters owns a bunker that will protect them of the destruction that Obama will bring but the bunker is not enough for all the Republicans then the problems begins and is great when one character says something like "Obama just won and quickly we have a messy situation!" They created their own messy situation so when they realize that their place is still the same they begin to think that maybe with Obama things will be fine. The Democrats were partying all night, here we see the specific case of Randy who also overreacted when Obama won, he overreacted so bad that he practically began to change during the same night however his change was just to be now an asshole with his boss for example, now since it's a new chapter he can say "f*** you a**f***" to his boss. Certainly the next day Randy has not only a hangover but also he lost his job and his TV was stole (Cartman also won!) so then he blame Obama! "I should have voted for McCain" he says. The overreaction is perfectly represented, the ones of the red side overreacted so badly that they believed that it was the end of the world and the one of the blue side overreacted so badly that they ended ruining their night, now red is blue and blue is read! Oh and the other brilliant conclusion is brilliant because we watch a classic ending but now is about being President or not so Obama's last lines are so damn great since he is like "well I'm going to give a chance to the Presidency maybe I do can change something". You should watch this episode!

Of course whenever South Park does a topical issue that would get old and irrelevant within months, you can't expect the episode to be very good.

I was expecting SOMETHING in this episode... but they just did something that struck me as completely without purpose, and perhaps a failed attempt to make "Boom, baby" some kind of seasonal catchphrase like "How can I reech these keeeds?!" or "I'm not your buddy, friend! I'm not your friend, guy! He's not your guy, friend!" Instead we get an episode as easily interchangeable with an Obama victory as with a McCain victory. There's no satire or even farce, or even a lame attempt at mediocre jokes at either candidate's expense.

Instead, it gives us this incredibly ridiculous and incredibly stale plot in which McCain and Obama and Michelle and Sarah are jewel thieves who masterminded this multi-million dollar election scam to get one of them in the White House just to access an underground tunnel to steal a diamond in the Smithsonian only worth 200 million dollars.

Consider how much money Obama and McCain earned in campaign fundrasing. They could have stolen all that money and run off. Consider how much money Obama or McCain could steal straight from the taxpayers with corruption or the like, and then run off with BILLIONS.

I thought the joke would have been them settling for a piddling 200 million dollars, but that was only mentioned once.

Barack and Michelle aren't really married, but pretending to be. Sarah Palin is really a British dominatrix who pretends to be retarded. Ike Broflovski is also involved.

Then it ends with Obama deciding to give the presidency a shot with Michelle.

Not even the minor chuckles derived from Randy cursing out his boss, or greeting Obama supporters with "Change!" could save this episode from being a shitheap.