"The Coon" is such an entertaining and excellent spoof of comic book movies, more specifically The Dark Knight which was all the rage (and still is to some extent) when it was first released in 2008. When a show goes on for as long as South Park has, it should be a welcoming refreshment to have an episode that is as atmospherically distinctive as "The Coon". None of this is to say that South Park feels recycled by this point because it doesn't but rather that "The Coon" is ever more so a uniquely entertaining episode of this show.
Cartman dresses up as a superhero and calls himself 'Coon' as he attempts to bring South Park's escalating 'crime' rate down but his time in the spotlight may be taken over by another masked superhero who calls himself Mysterion. This enrages Cartman who learns that Mysterion is one of his classmates.
"The Coon" is so visually spectacular that it completely nails the style and atmosphere of comic book movies, then and today, and more importantly, precisely captures the atmosphere of The Dark Knight as a parody. The visual of a silhouetted Cartman as Coon is one of my absolute favourite visuals of the show and the slithering manner in which he moves around is yet another excellent visual joke int he episode.
Some of my favourite elements of the episode include the broad parody of The Dark Knight and not just in terms of visuals, music and overall atmosphere but also in terms of the episode's 'commentary' of the Coon, whether or not he is a hero or a vigilante. Of course no one else besides Cartman services this parody and that's exactly why it works. After a night of saving the town of the degradation of society and its underbelly, Cartman is excited to spread the 'rumour' of Coon, the town's own personal superhero, and the awkwardly stiff manner in which he attempts to engage his friends into a political discussion was priceless. This is a great vocal performance by Trey Parker and I feel the need to say it simply because I have found his performance in the past couple of seasons a little more inconsistent but here, he's spot on.
We also get to welcome back Professor Chaos, his ally General Disarray and even the Police Chief character among others all of whom are appropriately used. There's hardly a wasted moment in this episode and that's why it works so well because of the ever present sense of urgency and momentum. It's a non-stop laugh riot that works because South Park as a series has a tremendously fleshed out world that even the broadest of parodies of a movie, nothing more, can feel genuine and even palpable.
All in all, "The Coon" is an excellent, imaginative and precise parody of The Dark Knight that puts some of its beloved characters into new and interesting territory.
