Truth and Advertising – The Battle Against Sentient Ads Begins

Truth and Advertising is an entertaining, story-first follow-up from last week’s Sponsored Content.

In the previous episode, we saw online ads had been evolving, outsmarting ad blocking software, disguising themselves as news articles, and becoming a humanoid artificial intelligence.

Truth and Advertising picks up with Jimmy interrogating Leslie for information about the ads’ plan. I would like to say Jimmy succeeded, but the poor kid was “thinking with his dick.” In a scene reminiscent of Ex Machina, Leslie talks him into helping her escape only to turn on him later in the episode.

Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison, Caitlyn Jenner, and Principal Victoria start their quest to stop the other AI ad, Principal PC. They recruit Randy after showing him numerous other cities that have been gentrified.

When we first saw South Park become gentrified in The City Part of Town, the only family that suffered from the financial strain was Kenny’s family. Now, a few episodes later, the Marsh’s feel the financial squeeze from the expensive grocery stories and high priced restaurants.  Randy suggests they move to a different town, even though he’s the reason there’s a historical district and a Whole Foods.

Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are brought in during this episode as well. They see the school paper, now written and edited by Jimmy’s long-time rival, Nathan, claiming Leslie and Jimmy were sent on a vacation for being model students.

Suspecting something’s up, the boys go to the Internet to find out more on Principal PC. But the ads were one step ahead and managed to derail their efforts twice. Those distractions, or the boys’ lack of concentration, was enough to get them to buy new shoes and go out for ice cream.   They weren’t the only victim’s of the Internet’s devious distractions. Garrison, Jenner, and Victoria fall for it as well.

While those distractions kept both groups from finding info on Principal PC and the ads’ plan to take over the world, they were filled with laughter. While I wouldn’t put much stock into this observation, I want to say that these scenes may be a hint that ads, while absolutely annoying, they can create genuine moments among friends in the real world.

Truth and Advertising is a pure set-up episode with some humor sprinkled throughout. It’s a solid episode that moves the story along nicely.

Here are some of the funnier moments:

• When Jimmy starts to sympathize with Leslie, the news anchors tell him to stop thinking with his dick.
• Stan and Kyle become suspicious of each other. Kyle tells Stan to “quit being Cartman.” Cartman says, “oooh, that’s cold.”
• Caitlyn Jenner beats the hell out of Randy.
• While not funny, Matt Stone and Trey Parker don’t want us to forget that Jenner killed a woman in a car crash. Every time she’s drives, she always runs over someone.