Review: South Park – Season 21 Premiere – ‘White People Renovating Houses’

South Park pokes fun at personal assistant devices like Alexa and confronts white supremacists in their 21st season premiere, ‘White People Renovating Houses.’ Cartman turns to Alexa, the only female he wants to listen to, and she gives him the courage to end his relationship that was a key part in Season 20’s plot.

Cartman’s scenes, and all of the school children really, take a back seat to the adult world in this episode, as South Park wastes no time tackling adult issues. Randy learns what it means to be white in America when he and Sharon develop their television show White People Renovating Houses. They soon find themselves at odds with the town’s white supremacists, taking them to court for defaming ‘white people’ and the show’s reputation. South Park continues to take its strong stance on issues like this, managing to get some good natured laughs out of the fact that white nationalism is still a thing all the while making it clear that these people are morons.

The white supremacists take Alexa to task for stealing their jobs (because, of course they would.) In turn, the white trash are then made to do Alexa’s job, with the town foregoing Alexa and other assistant devices and giving their menial tasks to the local idiots. Darryl Weathers, the leader of the ‘They Took Our Jobs’ movement, becomes Randy’s assistant, and he quickly gets fed up of having to keep Randy’s shopping list for the home renovation show. Randy then goes on a hilarious (and accurate) tirade about how maybe assistants like Alexa were doing jobs that the white people who complain all the time about them didn’t even want to do in the first place. South Park isn’t known for its subtlety, and matters like this certainly don’t require an indirect approach.

With ‘White People Renovating Houses,’ South Park starts its 21st season off with a politically charged bang. The show manages to strike a good balance between its more serious issues and the more frivolous, fun ones. (All scenes with Cartman and Alexa are asinine, but boy are they in good fun.) South Park‘s bold start to the season is also extremely promising. As a show that reaches the masses, South Park is more than a comedy show, and it has a wide audience that it seems unafraid to be vocal with. Whether or not you agree with all of South Park‘s political views, the show certainly gets people talking. And dialogue like that, especially one that can find middle ground through humor, certainly leads to progress and change.