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Quick capsule review: too much going on.

Yes, I know that was the point, to make it as convoluted and overly complex as possible, to mimic Inception. But it's still not interesting to watch.

I mean...I thought Inception sucked too (and I hate how idiots think it's genius because they don't get it..."wow I didn't get what was going on, it must be genius!"), and I appreciated all the jabs M&T took at those sort of films (The Matrix included).

But there were far too many plots intertwined in this and it became a tangled mess.

The episode is a slight improvement from the last two...but then again, the last two were ATROCIOUS, so this is nothing to write home about.

The things I liked: the sheep hoarder/herder joke (though it didn't warrant repeating...eye roll). Freddy Krueger's appearance (I liked the idea of the police using him to infiltrate dreams and linking that with Inception).

I also laughed when it was revealed Krueger killed the teenagers in the Elm's Street movies to protect Americans from the Russians and that he's a nice guy.

But the biggest problem with the episode: it was caught between two ideas. It started off satirizing society's hypochondria (we think EVERYTHING is hoarding...even normal things), and then went into some Inception bashing. Next time they should pick one topic to use as a framework, then STICK with it.

Edit: after reading this thread, I realize now that the fact that the plot was a tangled mess was not only an attack on Inception, but a symbol of hoarding. That makes the episode better for me, and better conceived than I originally thought. I gotta give M&T props for that,at least. The metaphor went over my head.

It might be that my standards for South Park have lowered or something, but... that was pretty damn great. I was having SUCH a bad day until I watched the episode. I never saw Inception so I don't know if there was any in-joke I missed, but... oh, god, that was good. Mackey and his Lite Brite cracked me up so hard (anything with Mr. Mackey makes me happy, really). And Randy as a butterfly is now my desktop wallpaper. That was just... Randy is my hero forever. And HOLY sh*t, when I was a kid I was actually deathly afraid of Woodsy. This was like my childhood nightmares manifest! I was waiting for his death with glee during the episode.

So yeah. Good episode. Hooray!

After thinking about it some more, here's how I woulda done it:

First they hire the "world's #1 dream infiltrator," Freddy, but he gets killed almost immediately because Woodsy's evil is much stronger.

So they approach the World's #2 Dream Infiltrator, J-Lo, but Woodsy turns her into a giant hard-boiled egg that (naturally) gets sliced up by a giant glass egg-slicer a la The Cell. (Or, J-Lo simply refuses to take the job after they accidentally insult her with a "tacos inside tacos" reference: "You people can tell that fat little pendejo I'm not a f*ckin' Mexican!")

Next they try the World's 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Greatest Dream Infiltrators, namely the farm hands and Professor Marvel from The Wizard of Oz, but Woodsy uses his powers to conjure up a bunch of crap-throwing flying monkeys.

Things continue in this vein -- with Christopher Walken from Brainstorm, the autistic kid who dreamed all six seasons of St. Elsewhere, the Maxfield Parrish Chick On a Swing from that "Nestle's Sweet Dreams" commercial in the '80s, and various random others who all fail to beat Woodsy -- until they get to the World's 16th Greatest Dream Infiltrator, Naked Brett Favre. (DREAM EXPERT: "Wait a sec, whose dreams does Naked Brett Favre invade?" [Leo DiCaprio, Sharon Marsh, and one of the firemen suddenly look very guilty...])

Finally, after Favre is also killed, Stan decides it's up to him to save the day, but Woodsy quickly overpowers him and starts singing "I've Got Something in My Front Pocket".

Things look very bad for Stan, when suddenly the Freddy glove punches through Woodsy's chest, as in the actual episode -- but the glove is worn by Young Mr. Mackie, who has temporarily grown a spine, m'kay?

No matter what, it definitely shoulda been Young Mr. Mackie who defeats the Big Boss!

EDIT: I just remembered that Seanbaby on cracked.com did an "Evil Smokey the Bear" column only a week or two ago... hmmm.

i watched it at 10:15 p.m. last night on here. IT WAS f*ckin AWESOME!! "no im really a sheep herder" "no its pronounced hoarder i think u should talk to the counselor about tht" hahaha i couldnt stop lafing when i watched it!

Hahaha! I have to say, I enjoyed this 30 mins South Park episode way more than the nearly 3 hr Inception film.

"Its like a taco, within a taco, inside a Taco Bell, that's in a KFC, that's inside a mall, that's within YOUR DREAM!" Haha!

Now if you all will excuse me, I'm gonna go find some butterfly poon.

"Are you here to help me?"

"ah.. i was.. but oh! this is fun!. im going to go get some butterfly poon!"

I'm rewatching the episode online right now, and I just noticed something.

Inside Mr. Mackey's room, watch Stan's hands after he says, "Mr. Mackey, I realize that his might be fun for you, but it totally isn't for me." He wasn't wearing his gloves, but after he says that they suddenly appear on his hands.

It doesn't mean anything, and it isn't important at all, but it still bugs me.

That episode was really good. And it was really funny too. One of the best this season. this episode is probably my 3rd or 2nd favorite from this season. Anyways great episode

9.5/10

I felt nostalgic at first when I saw the kids see Woodsy Owl at the national park (although this was the mid '70's, I remember seeing the '70's-era ads on TV as a kid in the mid '80's when I came home from school to watch cartoons on my local TV UHF station WLVITV56 (now CW56), plus I was born 9/8/79, same birthdate as Pink), then disturbed when the man in the costume was a pedophile (i.e. raping lil' Mr. Mackey, thus the cause of his hoarding problem)

I was lucky not to get into that mess where someone dressed like Smokey the Bear or Woodsy Owl would ask you to go into the boys' room with him.

I liked it, definetly better than the Jersey thing episode, but right after it was over I watched "ManBearPig" and instantly started missing the old south park. The two didn't even compare. I hope whenever Matt and Trey end the show, they trace back to they're roots and decide to go out with some grace.

Randy the Butterfly was pretty good though.

LOVED IT 9/10! it was so funny to see stan react over how much things he had. im glad wendy and the girls had a small part. every falling asleep was so funny. the funniest part was when randy was a butterfly lamo! mr mackie getting beaten up by those bullies was so funny! that owl was trying to rape mr mackie? wtf? i loved it when they had the guy for night mare on elm street come on and kill the owl. that guy making those sounds was just annoying though. i lamoed when mr mackie flipped out when stan was gonna throw out his milk carton. too many funny moments! so much better than 1409 totally.

The episode was okay, It wasn't really anything special in my opinion. It had some funny moments, but nothing really hilarious.

I thought this was a decent episode, not great, but a big improvement from the past 3. The storyline was pretty interesting (Mackey's flashback) though overly complicated - I have not seen 'Inception', in fact I've never even heard of it. I'm pretty out of touch with popular media. I thought it was just a parody of the 'Matrix' (and 'nightmare on elm street') but there were a lot of references I didn't understand. Maybe if I watch the movie I'll appreciate this episode more?
Randy the butterfly was very amusing - got a laugh out of that.

8/10.

I wrestled for a while on whether it was 7.5 or 8 and went with my gut in the end. It started off very well and with a better third act it would have been great, but the third act was terrible.

The basic idea has so much room to expand upon that forcing the Inception parody down my throat and including Freddy when the scene that introduced him was decidely unfunny was very unwelcome.

I also think people who are saying the fact that the episode was packed full of too much is done on purpose as a metaphor for hoarding are giving the episode entirely too much credit. Many South Park episodes have had as much stuff go on- were they symbolic of hoarding too? No. Indecisive and directionless writing is the reason, not an overarching metaphor that we want to see in order to justify failings.

And that is sad because the ideas are good, the first act was extremely well done, and it still had hope of being great after two acts.