I just have to take a moment to complain about South Park’s 2006 episode “Smug Alert!” which was re-airing last night.

The comedy is there. People farting into wine glasses, then greedily smelling the odor, is perhaps one of the best sight gags ever created. But the episode itself is, how can I say it, a little… smug.

Now, we’re all used to self-righteous South Park episodes which make fun of people who pretend to have “the answer” (mainly religious and Hollywood-types), while suggesting that their own “answer” is the best. But this episode may be the Creme de la Creme of smug anti-smugginess.

It concerns, mainly, the purchase of Hybrid cars and the air of “smug self-satisfaction” which will surely encompass its owners. Hybrids are singled out as the only vehicle which causes this, as if owners of convertibles, Jeeps, Hummers, Pick-up trucks, SUVs, and everything else don’t have the exact same attitudes about their new car. They also go after San Francisco for being “smug” about their liberal culture, as if Texans aren’t proud of being slack-jawed hicks and New Yorkers aren’t proud of being razor-sharp culture-ridden assholes.

I like South Park, and I know I’m falling into the trap of being upset because they singled out one topic to make fun of for one show, when really they’ve attacked everyone in their history. But I’ve never seen an anti-Christian episode that climaxed with massive Bible burning, as this one did with Hybrid cars.

And of course, it was George Clooney’s Oscar acceptance speech for that year which spawned the whole “The West Coast is worse than everywhere else, that’s why we live here” bullshit from Parker and Stone. Clooney’s speech was indeed smug, but no more than hundreds of speeches given annually at everything from Rotary Clubs to corporate quarterly conferences. You have to ask yourself, which is more smug: that Clooney would take his moment of success and turn it into a preachy, glad-handing moment for Hollywood’s progressive style, or that some people would rather he be reserved and “politically correct,” because we feel it’s our right to watch their award ceremony live?

As for Parker and Stone, they have their answer: when it comes to preaching and patting yourself on the back, there’s no better time than after obtaining success, and a captive audience.

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

• Cartoon Wars
• My Favorite Scene in Jurassic Park
• Heaven in a Bright Orange Wrapper
• The Simpsons Movie
• Plot Holes in Star Trek and, Why Not, Jurassic Park