So I decided to rewatch one of my favourite South Park episodes, "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods", which is famous for being a parody of a classic Star Trek story, "Dagger of the Mind". After finishing my rewatch, I decided to finally see the episode being spoofed here, and I do have some thoughts.
For starters, both "Roger Ebert Should..." and "Dagger of the Mind" are both really entertaining episodes that successfully pull off what they set out to do, with the latter being a pretty stimulating look at a mind control form of prison therapy, and the former being an entertaining screed against planetariums and how no-one wants to go to one in an age of technological advances (the 1990s). However, what took me by surprise is how Trey Parker and Matt Stone effectively lifted the entire plot of "Dagger" and plopped it into the absurdist black comedy world of South Park; entire lines are lifted wholesale, the planetarium bares the same name as the penal colony, Adams is still the bad guy, and The Boys more than fill their role as stand-ins for Kirk, Spock and one-off character Helen, with Kyle even uttering a Kirk-like soliloquy once Adams gets his just deserts in "Roger Ebert Should...".
"Roger Ebert Should..." is very much a love letter from Trey and Matt to Star Trek, and how it manages to fit the plot of "Dagger" into the 22-minute format and adult situation comedy of South Park is honestly astounding now that I've seen both back-to-back.
For starters, both "Roger Ebert Should..." and "Dagger of the Mind" are both really entertaining episodes that successfully pull off what they set out to do, with the latter being a pretty stimulating look at a mind control form of prison therapy, and the former being an entertaining screed against planetariums and how no-one wants to go to one in an age of technological advances (the 1990s). However, what took me by surprise is how Trey Parker and Matt Stone effectively lifted the entire plot of "Dagger" and plopped it into the absurdist black comedy world of South Park; entire lines are lifted wholesale, the planetarium bares the same name as the penal colony, Adams is still the bad guy, and The Boys more than fill their role as stand-ins for Kirk, Spock and one-off character Helen, with Kyle even uttering a Kirk-like soliloquy once Adams gets his just deserts in "Roger Ebert Should...".
"Roger Ebert Should..." is very much a love letter from Trey and Matt to Star Trek, and how it manages to fit the plot of "Dagger" into the 22-minute format and adult situation comedy of South Park is honestly astounding now that I've seen both back-to-back.
