Good lord, is nothing sacred in South Park? Well, duh! The titular special episode from Trey Stone and Matt Parker's whacked-out series pointedly pokes, jabs, and gouges fun at Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. After Cartman and Kyle continue their endless bickering about Kyle's Jewish heritage (with Cartman drawing ammunition from his 30-plus viewings of Gibson's film), a pushed-to-the-edge Kyle finally watches the film, and after cringing, crying, and vomiting the entire time, guiltily concedes to Cartman. Taking on an anti-Semitic Hitler-like persona, Cartman gathers the masses in support of Gibson and his “vision” (referencing various disturbing illusions to the “final solution” and “extermination”), while Kyle goes to synagogue and suggests to an outraged congregation that they should all apologize for what they did to Jesus. Culminating in a showdown between Passion-lovers, Jews, and Gibson (in an insane subplot, after Stan and Kenny see the film and think it sucks, they travel to L.A. to get--and eventually steal--a refund from Mel, who follows them back to South Park for his $18), this wacky, timely episode is accompanied on DVD by three other religiously contentious episodes: “Christian Rock Hard” (Cartman, Butters, and Token try to break into the biz with their Christian band's music--revamping crappy love songs by changing “Baby” to “Jesus") and “Red Hot Catholic Love” (SP's Priest Maxi wants to stop the sexual abuse from priests, but finds out he's the only father who's not trying to keep boys from talking--even when he goes to the Vatican!). Definitely twisted, and sure to be popular, this is recommended. (J. Williams-Wood)
South Park: The Passion of the Jew
Paramount, 66 min., not rated, DVD: $19.99 November 29, 2004
South Park: The Passion of the Jew
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