Eighteen seasons in, South Park digs deep into the wellspring of pop culture in order to skew current-day issues. The result is often tack-sharp satire but can easily swerve into senseless, humorless pastiche. “Handicar” lies somewhere in the middle with an extended send-up of Wacky Races, the 1968 animated series featuring Dastardly and Muttley, and a take on the current ride share “controversy,” pitting tech startups like Uber and Lyft against the staid taxi industry.
This week's South Park was bogged down with repetitive non-jokes from Nathan and Mimsy, who meekly returned to prominence in "Handicar." While the Wacky Races send-up offered a few humorous moments, Timmy's ridesharing service and all other car-related references fell pretty flat. It also didn't help that none of the boys were in this episode at all.