For all its scatological nastiness and misanthropic apathy, South Park can be sincerely sweet when necessary. Butters, as a character, has all kinds of psychological, even physical torture inflicted upon him by Cartman throughout the series, but his contagious optimism and childhood innocence anchor and counterbalance the mean spirited farce. Nowhere is this more apparent than in "Cartman Sucks" which sees the titular troublemaker verging on his pettiest stunt yet, and certainly his gayest one. I expected, based off the title, that this would be a capital-c Cartman-centric episode (like Cartmanland or Scott Tenorman), but what made the biggest impression on me was Butters' b-plot. Matt and Trey are good satirists because they're hilarious in spite of missing the mark like 40-50% of the time, but their parody of gay conversion camps is an unabashed indictment of American evangelism and homophobia (especially inflicted upon impressionable, confused kids). Butters' final speech marks an important step in maturity for the series, its legitimately sweet and precedes a memorably hilarious final moment with Cartman. An all around wonderful piece of TV.
Review of Cartman Sucks
