Honestly, after taking another look at Put It Down, I can’t credit it as a bad episode. The A plot and B plot tied together perfectly in such a South Park fashion that I’m once again excited for this season.
Matt and Trey have had enough time with the continuity formula that they can pull off some great episodes in comfort. Season 21 was a flop because Trump’s victory fucked up their entire storyline (should’ve had a back up plan but I digress) but they’re getting back to making some great episodes. Put it Down was a prime example of this.
First we have Tweek freaking out about North Korea missiles and then we have a seemingly irrelevant plot about Cartman and Heidi’s train wreck of a relationship.
Tweek is upset at Craig because Craig isn’t offering him the comfort he needs to calm down. Cartman is upset that people are paying attention to people who are already dead instead of paying attention to his suicide threats.
And while we’re at it, I know people are upset about Cartman acting like a shit after being nice for so long, but I’m ultimately VERY happy. Because this IS Cartman. This is the Cartman formula.
Cartman begrudgingly (even though it was out of desperation) goes back to Heidi, and to save his ego, he says he’s only doing it because Heidi is threatening to kill herself if he doesn’t. Which turns out to be projection when Stan finds out that Cartman was threatening to kill HIMSELF.
Fake or not, having all his friends laugh at him is a serious blow to Cartman’s ego, and like he always used to do, our boy does some serious tryhard shit in order to twist the situation in his favor.
Did it work? It’s debatable. It certainly got people to stop laughing at him and instead be annoyed by his presence, and ultimately he was allowed to perform as a bridge in the school’s production. I think that’s enough for his delusional little kid head.
But the point is that’s exactly what he does in this situation. And I’m frankly glad to have the OG back.
Back on track, even though to some extent Cartman’s argument makes sense, save the people that are still alive, not people who are dead, he’s not accounting for the fact that the awareness of what’s causing the accidents can prevent further deaths as well.
But the heart of his argument is “They’re already dead, don’t waste time on them.”
It’s logical. The same way Craig is logical about everything, but being logical does nothing for emotions.
The way they were able to tie these two plots together in a single sentence by Heidi, in a very well placed scene in a cafeteria, ugh, that’s perfect.
The best part is, Plot A and Plot B are both starkly different relationship problems. But it doesn’t bash you over the head with the whole “Craig’s a better boyfriend than Cartman” concept. That would’ve been so fucking easy, and to do that for a whole episode would be so yawnworthy.
Instead they tie the subplot’s SUBPLOTS together, NK is scary, Suicides > Death, in such an intricate way that you don’t even see the theme solidify as related until Heidi says those words.
It’s not like it’s obvious, but it’s very subtly there. If you’re an incredibly observant person you might be able to see it through all the mania going on in the episode, but I sure didn’t until the very end. I literally went “OHHHH” when the theme was verbally stated and was ashamed that I hadn’t seen it sooner.
That’s good writing.
Tweek and Craig’s relationship is fucking beautiful by the way. I fucking love that this isn’t a touchy feely relationship.
Near the end where Tweek felt so incredibly thankful and comforted by Craig Matt and Trey had every chance to do the “-music swell- and then they run up and share an EPIC HUG and the camera pans around them from all different angles” but they didn’t. It doesn’t suit any of their characters to do this. Tweek is too anxious to do anything of the sort, and Craig is practically robotic. This does some real justice to their characters and I’m very thankful that Matt and Trey aren’t hamming this up. Show’s the care they put into these two and this episode.
Holy shit Cartman was insufferable this episode. Even Kyle saw past his fake suicidal shit. Heidi, why are you entertaining this? Your ex calls you begging you to take him back or he’ll kill himself? Clearly a cry for attention and evidence that he’s having so many emotional problems right now that he should be totally ignored and monitored by professionals in a hospital. Heidi, come on.
Cartman was going to his principal threatening to kill himself. He’s a child. Why was he not placed in a hospital under suicide watch? God. I hate South Park’s adults.
However, that being said, I love how the KIDS were ignoring Cartman’s cry for attention because they’re used to his shit. Only at the very end did they let him do his thing in his song letting him be Eminem and get his attention so he’d finally shut the fuck up. I really hope Cartman doesn’t make threatening to kill himself to get what he wants out of people a thing. Because in a way, people still enabled him to get what he wanted in the end.
Also, those poor fucking kids. God. That was graphic. Also I’m concerned about Cartmans lack of reaction to death right in front of him. That’s some disassociation shit. Concerning.
Cartman… Has some serious mental issues. I’ve said it before and said it again. He shouldn’t be in a relationship with anyone he should be figuring himself out and getting serious therapy.
I love the message to the president. That was funny. The depiction of his tweets was a bit exaggerated but I loved it. It made me snort at one point.
I was initially mad that the boys were making fun of Cartmans suicide. Initially Stan looked concerned and I think he was when Heidi told him Cartman was suicidal. But when they heard how over the top and pathetic and desperate he sounded they knew he was faking. Kyle calling him a dying pig had me rollin. I love that Kyman.
CREEEEKKKKK ahhhh I LOVED that. Craig and Tweek have a great dynamic. They compliment each other and I don’t think there’s any doubt that they’re a genuine couple now. It’s obvious that they really care about each other and let’s be real , it’s fucking adorable. Congrats Creek shippers. I’m with you on this boat. ❤
Also nice voice Craig. Tweek too. Kyle and Stan are so cute in their choir robes. I was kind of disappointed in them not killing Kenny.
Anyway, that’s all I got this episode. Das it.
I was half cringing half laughing my ass off at Cartman’s episode long performance. But hey, that’s Cartman.
Honestly though, I’m happy that he’s going through this crap shoot of a relationship. Maybe he’ll learn something. This is still a really watered down Cartman compared to what he used to be so I can’t really find myself that upset at him.
He’s being a little shit right now but he used to go on slaughtering rampages. So. Bit of a downgrade, bit of an upgrade.
What I got from it is that he used Alexa to regain the lack of control he had in his relationship. Whenever he was with Heidi he knew he didn’t wanna be with her but didn’t want to say it.
He knew he was complacent with his relationship status wise, but he was completely unsatisfied with it functionally. He was still in the mindset that he had last season. “I must say this in order to maintain having a girlfriend. There’s a script I must follow. That script is fail safe.”
This episode was him FINALLY breaking out of that submissive mindset by reminding himself that having control over something, anything, is what made him feel less stress. Because he had absolutely no comprehension of how to handle the relationship he was in. He had so little control that he was panicked, and stressed, and he rooted it to her.
That’s why he called her abusive – because whenever he was around her, he was stressed. He in his little child brain figured that it HAD to be her, because he doesn’t get complex emotions like that.
Because for two whole seasons he was brainwashed into being PC, he had to think about it in a PC term. He had to think of a way to break up with her without disagreeing with her and make himself the victim. That’s the way he could justify it in his brain.
But at the same time I think this is Cartman’s reawakening, by reminding himself that he doesn’t like being submissive, that he likes being dominant in some form, he’s finally able to free himself from the stressful guilt trip that became his relationship.
Really, you two, do you think this about Cartman and his feelings?
Heidi does value Eric. She may not love him because she’s a fucking kid. Cartman is not faking, butters made him believe a false idealization of women. is which is why he is distant.
Because he does not want to take her out of his life, but he resents, because he thinks that she’s lying. And it is logical that Cartman thinks this way, because the girls always move away from him.
But in reality heidi is the only person who has given him affection and appreciation, something that even Kyle hasn’t done.
And clarifying one thing. The attraction of cartman towards kyle if it is loneliness and despair. Just remember those episodes where Eric sought to express his feelings desperately and Kyle just got mad at him and left. It is true that he comes to appreciate Cartman in moments, but never showing an interest beyond friendship.
I’m kyman shipper but we also have to be realistic with that.
This has nothing to do with kyman. I do believe Cartman felt genuinely happy with Heidi, but it was only because she validated him when everyone else pronounced him dead. The same goes for Heidi. The only substance to their relationship is Cartmans compliments.
And in this sense Cartman IS lying. He actively edited his language to suit her needs. He lied to people and himself that she was funny. He lied to her that (continuity error because Heidi should have expected this from him) he never said anything bad about women’s sense of humor. Heidi didn’t love Cartman, she loved the script he was following.
And you can say that Butters tricked him into fearing or despising women, but in reality, Cartman was simply reminded of his original plan. From the beginning he was sucking up to women because he feared a gender war. He just ended up tricking himself into believing his own lies.
He may have been afraid of a gender war in the beginning, but then what was going on in Oh, Jeez? When he went to Butters’ house and asked him to cover up for him, or when he defended her after Butters called her bitchy? Why didn’t he realize then that Heidi wasn’t as good as he thought? Why did he not leave her to die before SpaceX blew up? What were the Mars visions about before he went to SpaceX, assuming they weren’t a metaphor for his relationship with Heidi? He got ANGRY at Butters for being misogynistic, and pretending to have changed. How do we know his opinion didn’t change on women’s comedy? He saw the movie apparently a while ago, he could’ve had a change of heart. For evidence that he had something resembling a change of heart, he never refers to Kyle by his religion or Token by his race.
He stopped caring about that when Butters and a group of men destroyed his connection to the rest of the world. He stopped caring about anything, really. And then somebody comes in, gives him something resembling respect, doesn’t try to make fun of him, and picks him up in a non-condescending way when he’s put down. He could trust Heidi more than Liane, who openly sided with the worst person in Eric’s life that explicitly made him very unhappy, and to Cartman, that meant he could not depend on his mother as a source of emotional stability, which left him with none and caused the long and detailed history of horrible acts. He was willing to go to Mars, with only Heidi; not Liane, no Cheesy Poofs, no KFC, no cats, not Fluffy, JUST Heidi. If he really didn’t love her he wouldn’t be able to even think of not having luxuries like those.
It is Butters’ fault. Don’t try to absolve him of any blame; it is. He did not tell Cartman WHY women would want to absolve all males of anything resembling rights (because of horrible internet histories of all men, according to Bill Clinton). He was manipulating him the same way he himself got manipulated many times in days long past: getting him on the same page, and having coincidences play a factor in the manipulation. Heidi was too busy to think of a joke and had just finished creating a device to take people to Mars. Butters was able to push enough of Cartman’s buttons to convince him that women were just evil (and not humorous). Butters was able to get Cartman to forget that MEN were the leading factors in his hardships (Kyle is the king of them, causing a significant amount of insecurity and emotional [and sometimes physical] abuse that lead to the both of them making attempts to kill the other, but the entire male body of South Park despises him, his father abandoned him, and then he killed his dad to get revenge on some kid, also male, he lost his major father figure to the Super Adventure Club, all males, (and Isaac Hayes having to leave because of a stroke, yes, but that’s real life), and he’s been mostly sexually harassed and assaulted by males.) and that he should be angry at MEN for causing almost all the troubles in his life, because he appealed to Cartman’s weak logic;’Butters has had two girlfriends he lost, therefore he’s had 3 women in his life, therefore he knows more about them than I do, so I guess he’s right and women will kill our rights.’
In summary, him never loving Heidi causes several plot holes, he was willing to give up luxuries in his life for her, and Butters really did trick him.
He may have been afraid of a gender war in the beginning, but then what was going on in Oh, Jeez? When he went to Butters’ house and asked him to cover up for him, or when he defended her after Butters called her bitchy? ….
Like I said at the end of my previous post, he tricked himself into believing his own lies. He also did this in Fishsticks. Mental Gymnastics to protect themselves to believe their own lies, in order to protect themselves. That’s exactly what he did. Because Heidi genuinely made him happy and that was all that mattered.
He didn’t cling to Heidi because he was attracted to her personality, or because she was a woman. He clung to Heidi because like you said,
The whole relationship was cute, but founded under false pretenses. Their attraction to each other, both of them, is purely out of loneliness and desperation. It’s pretty common knowledge that all of Wendy’s group finds Cartman extremely unattractive.
He stopped caring about that when Butters and a group of men destroyed his connection to the rest of the world. He stopped caring about anything, really. And then somebody comes in, gives him something resembling respect, doesn’t try to make fun of him, and picks him up in a non-condescending way when he’s put down.
at the time, he literally had nothing else. Everything was taken away from him.
Yes, Heidi was the only one who showed him respect and reached out to him, props to her for that, but that does not equivocate to love. Eric was a broken man, and Heidi was the only option he had for social interaction. Ultimately, what we saw from Eric Cartman to Heidi was obedience and fear.
He was not confident in the idea that Heidi would look past the fact that he spoke badly of women, because deep down, he still feared that disobedience would lead to him being fucked over again in some way or the other. At the very least, Heidi would abandon him, and Eric, as her codependent dog who consistently put himself down to elevate her, could not handle that.
In Summary: Heidi is a great person who did great things and gave Eric a second chance. But that doesn’t mean that what was between Eric and Heidi was love.
yummykyman 