Piece of the Puzzle: South Park S18 E2 - Gluten Free Ebola

In which I review the latest episode of South Park.

After last week's failed business venture, Eric, Stan, Kyle and Kenny dejectedly return to school, only to find that everyone is mad at them for how they told them off when they left.  In order to win everybody back over to their side, they promise to host the greatest party in history: with pizza, cake and Lorde.  But when Mr. Mackey convinces everybody that gluten is poison, the USDA begins quarantining those exposed to it, threatening the lives of everybody in South Park.

"We're the USDA.  Without us, people would be eating dirt and... chairs!"

It's utterly staggering to me how certain health circles insist that Gluten causes seemingly every malady in the 21st century.  Gluten causes intestinal trauma.  Gluten causes ADHD.  Gluten causes Type 1 Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Schizophrenia, Epilepsy and Autism.  When droves of parents inexplicably believe that an ex-Playboy Bunny with absolutely no medical training cured her son's Autism by putting him on a Gluten-free diet, you know that something's gone terrible wrong in the American eduction system.

When the Onion was awarded the 2009 Peabody Award, it was noted that their parodies were "not infrequently hard to distinguish from the real thing."  It could have just as easily been applied to South Park's parodic brand of comedy.  When Gluten is labeled as some form of hyper-toxin that causes every medical affliction known to man, is it really so far-fetched that it could make your dick fly off?

Yes, your dick.

South Park took public ignorance and paranoia toward Gluten to what is sadly its most logical extreme.  Gluten is a disease for which there is no cure.  It must be contained at all costs.  Concerned citizens must inform the authorities of suspected Gluten users.  Those who have been exposed to the "toxin" must be indefinitely quarantined to prevent its spread.

Gluten Free Ebola is an excellent follow-up to last week's season premiere, taking on another social concern with the same irreverent audacity as it did crowd sourcing and the Washington Redskins.  While every joke may not have been a success (such as Randy singing in drag while pretening to be Lorde), the central parody is spot on.  The episode exposes the absurdity of the USDA's constantly-changing dietary standards and the public's slavish devotion to them regardless of what common sense dictates.  I give the episode an 8 out of 10 and eagerly look forward to what in-the-news topic the series will lampoon next week.

"Chicken nuggets... breading.  Burritoes... full of wheat.
Ice cream... no Gluten.  Ice cream's healthy!

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