'South Park' Season 16, Episode 11 Recap - 'Going Native'

Like last week's episode, this week's "South Park" centered on a pretty specific issue that made it tough to get into the idea of the episode. Once we did, though, it was about as good as this show's satire gets.

The premise is this: the normally complacent Butters is acting out at school and generally being angry all the time, and it turns out that it's because it's time for Butters to embark on a walkabout to his homeland... of Hawaii.

You see, Butters and his parents are "natives" of Hawaii, which means that they pronounce it "Heveh-ee" and are generally annoying about it. As the episode continues, we see Butters taken in by the other "natives," who lives in the Regency Residences and use their Mahalo Rewards Cards to show that they're natives of the island.

But Butters' initiation ceremony (which involves drinking some chi-chi, which is vodka, pineapple juice and coconut water) is interrupted by terrible news: the Haole (non-natives) are eliminating the Mahalo Rewards Card program, making their way of life all but extinct.

They fight back the only way they know how: by hitting golf balls at cruise ships and, later, the Coast Guard. Meanwhile, Kenny (who has traveled along with Butters for loosely justified reasons) goes to the old Coco Palms, sees the ghost of Elvis, and paddle boards back with a barge full of vodka at the last moment.

The message here is pretty easy to understand, even if you're not up to speed on the intricate racial and class tensions in Hawaii: there are a bunch of white douchebags who like to call themselves native Hawaiians when they live there only two months out of the year in a time share that they got nine months ago, and are generally repressed, angry people who suppress their anger through alcohol and take out their aggression through golf.

You have to wonder where this came up for Trey and Matt. Did they see "The Descendants" late and get the idea? Or did it all just start with Butters being mad at Ben Affleck for being so successful AND having Jennifer Lopez (he finds out later that Affleck is married to Jennifer Garner now and feels much better about things), and it just snowballed from there?

Or, is the whole thing a metaphor for the general American disposition, as we're a country of immigrants who now claim we have our own specific culture and who try to turn away new immigrants from coming here and becoming part of the melting pot?

Either way, it was all worth it for this: "On the morrow? What the f*ck is wrong with Kenny?"

What They're Trying to Tell Us: Your angry white guy problems can be treated with booze and golf. Also, don't try to call yourself a native Hawaiian if you're a white dude from Ohio.