Naughty Ninjas Review

South Park’s “Naught Ninjas” was the show’s take on the recent police-related events.

The show used two storylines to come to one conclusion, while at the same time, setting up a more “sinister” plot.

“Naught Ninjas” stats off with South Park PD showing up to an “emergency” Principal PC called in. The police responded with every officer, including the out of place Officer Barbrady, converging on the school auditorium.

Barbrady, the nervous wreck that he was, fumbled around with his handgun and shot one of the school’s few minority kids.

This sets one event starts both stories. Barbrady was immediately fired by the mayor. The rest of South Park’s police department goes on a non-official strike, as they don’t think they can do their job anymore.

This causes a huge homeless problem at the town’s failed Sodosopa development (Kenny’s house). To run then off, the boys use the derelict buildings as a ninja base.

While the boys are playing ninja, anyone who sees them automatically thinks an ISIS faction has come town.

Cartman, who earlier in the episode called playing ninja “gay” spends the entire time trying to convince the guys that Kyle said it and needed to be kicked out of the group.

But Cartman can never figure out who he’s talking to. The boys look the same in the ninja outfits.  Each time he realized he fucked up, he would claim to be someone else.  Funny? No, but still entertaining.

The homeless, having been driven of SodoSopa, take up residence outside the Whole Foods. The town’s people go to the police for help, only to be turned away.

This is also when we find out the cops, other than Barbrady, get a kick out of harassing minorities while on the job.

Desperate, the mayor and others turn to and reinstate Barbrady to deal with the ISIS faction at SodoSopa, so the homeless will migrate back to the shitty part of town.

And so we have a repeat of the earlier scene. Barbrady, nervous and fumbling around with his gun, aiming it at kids.

Earlier in the episode, Randy Marsh finally realizes that the ISIS group is just the kids playing ninja. He rushes to Barbrady to stop him, but accidentally knocks the nervous cop over, causing the gun to go off and hits another kid.

This prompts another conversation between the Mayor and Barbrady. This time, instead of firing him again, they order an investigation into the incident.  Flash forward to an interrogation room with a nervous Barbrady at a table.

The nameless investigator tells Barbrady of a sinister plot to destroy South Park and shares a picture of Principal PC pushing Leslie, the girl he’s always yelling at, on a swing.

This episode does a good job pointing or that some police shootings are accidents made by honest cops. Barbrady is the perfect example.  He’s on edge in potential life or death situations.  In both situations, his gun was fired by accident.

We see that Barbrady is an honest cop with a sad home life,  living in a run-down apartment with an elderly, sick dog.  The town turned on him, even refusing to hire him for fast food jobs.  It’s one of the more honest and scenes we’ve seen this season.

But South Park doesn’t sugar coat the issue either. There are racist cops. In this case, the rest of the SPPD. But they’re still employed not because they should be, but because they weren’t directly involved with either shooting.

The recent police-related shootings are hot button topic. South Park has never shied away from a topic. “Naught Ninjas” doesn’t take anyone’s side on this issue, but reminds us there are good cops, bad cops and accidents. That clear lack of opinion keeps the episode from being the best it could be, but it’s an entertaining episode nonetheless. B