NEW YORK — Bill Cosby probably wasn’t happy with Wednesday night’s “South Park.”
For that matter, neither were police officers, the Washington Redskins and mindless tweeters.
The long-running animated show’s season finale, featuring a holiday special called “The Washington Redskins Go F*** Yourself Holiday Special,” managed to work in the cultural and pop-cultural obsessions of 2014 in a kitchen-sink approach.
The episode ostensibly revolved around a generation gap between TV-watching “grandpas” (that is, anybody not glued to his or her own portable screen) and the hashtag-, YouTube-obsessed younger generation, typified by Kyle Broflovski’s little brother, Ike — but that was just an excuse to let loose on everyone.
For example, there was the South Park police force, which doesn’t seem to know how to handle African-Americans. Upon being notified that there’s a black man in the police station, the officers’ first reaction is to laugh, as if it’s a setup for a joke. Then they get serious.
“Did you choke him?” asks Sgt. Yates. “Did you shoot him?”
The joke was later repeated.
Kyle has a gentle hashtag, “#savethelivingroom,” hijacked by television executives, thanks to a visit by Cosby, who tells him about a TV special that’s being put together. The special turns out to be part of a nefarious plot to get everybody across generations watching TV — zombified by the old electronic hearth.
Few things escaped “South Park’s” scorn. Iggy Azalea’s buttocks spoke. A Kurt Cobain hologram sang with a shotgun. Tweets filled the bottom of the screen, some wondering the point of the episode.
And Cosby sang a version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with Taylor Swift, offering her a drink, a reference to the Cosby rape allegations.
In the end, as a commentating Cartman threatened to take over the world, the gang turned to Ike and his youthful friends, who sounded distinctly like the “Peanuts” crew in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” With the help of a new hashtag, #webelieveinyou, and the real-life YouTube star PewDiePie, everything was returned to normal by the end.
Few viewers, obviously aware of “South Park’s” bent, took offense. In fact, many approved.
“I think we take for granted how Trey Parker can jam a heap of current issues into a storyline thats a smart and funny #SouthPark episode,” wrote Brent Veale.
“I love #southpark for ripping on the police for their mistreatment of black people,” tweeted Dalyxman’s World.
“Oh Lorde, CartmanBrah, dead celebrity holograms, murdering cops, this #SouthPark episode is certainly making #SaveTheLivingRoom happen,” added Brett Pender.
Well, there’s nothing like bringing the Internet together.
