MagneticMediaFed

Really?

30 Rock might be the smartest and funniest comedy currently on television. It’s certainly in the top three. That being said, can we really heap upon it praise after praise when it consistently delivers the most uninspired B-stories this side of Full House. For as sharp as this show’s writing can be, I simply don’t understand why every episode tends to have a secondary arc (usually involving Pete) rife with cliché. I mean, really? Pete get’s his hand stuck in a vending machine?

This has made me realize that 30 Rock is perhaps too tight for its own good. Take away these completely idiotic and disjointed B-stories and do you know what you’re left with? A fifteen minute show. They might as well cut it down and just put it on after Aqua Teen on Adult Swim (making it without a doubt the most expensive 15 minutes on television).

Though perhaps the lameness of these stories is the joke. Maybe they’re a parody of the type of sitcom fare that usually gets an audience to respond. That has to be the case, right? A show this funny wouldn’t produce material so tepid otherwise, right?

I’m not usually a South Park watcher, not because I have anything against the show but because it’s one of those programs that is just never really on my radar. Still, every now and then someone says to me, “Hey, try to see last night’s South Park” and I usually will make the effort. This week was one of those times. I’m glad I pulled it up. The title, “Canada On Strike,” kind of sums up the plot: Canada goes on strike in an attempt to get “some of that internet money.” Canada is, of course, a stand-in for the writer’s guild. Over the course of the episode Canada’s initial, simple plan for more cash is thwarted when they realize they don’t really have any leverage — and then their people start starving to death, buddy. The B-Story involves the boys trying to get some money to pay Canada so as to end the reruns of Terrance and Philip. Their plan involves posting a viral video and ultimately squaring off against the Star Wars Kid, Chris Crocker and a sneezing panda.

The episode was seldom LOL-funny, but it was extremely sharp in its satire. South Park has the enviable position of being the one narrative program on television that can actually remain somewhat current because their typical episode production schedule is something like six days. This is in comparison to The Simpsons where an episode takes six months. By the time they get their strike response on the air next October, I’m sure the laughs will be bigger, but the points will be far less piercing.

This would also be a good time to point out that a new website, South Park Zone, offers every single episode of South Park ever produced for free… and legal.

Watch Canada on Strike.