Over Logging
Encyclopedia
"Over Logging" is the sixth episode of the twelfth season
of the animated series South Park
, and the 173rd episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central
in the United States
on April 16, 2008. In the episode, the Marsh family joins a mass-migration west when internet access starts to "dry up" in Colorado.
The episode was written and directed by series co-founder Trey Parker and co-written by series co-founder Matt Stone, and was rated TV-MA in the United States. The episode parodies John Steinbeck
's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath
(which portrays the plight of the Okies during the Dust Bowl
) and the subsequent film release.
is browsing randomly, Shelley is iChatting
with her online boyfriend Amir from Montana
, and Randy is (discreetly) watching internet porn
. Sharon sends them all to bed for the night, insisting that the internet will still be there the next morning.
However, the next morning they discover that they have no internet connection. They then hastily walk to the Broflovskis' house to use their internet connection, but soon find that the internet does not work there, either. Both families head to Starbucks for free wireless internet, but when they arrive it soon becomes apparent that the entire town's internet connection is down. The TV news, which has nothing to report without the Internet, gives vague rumors of Internet access in Silicon Valley
. After eight days without internet, the Marsh family decides to "head out Californee way
". As they spend the night in a transient camp, a man delivers a monologue that California is so crowded from other travelers that there is "not enough internet to go around."
When the Marshes reach California, they are placed in a Red Cross "Internet refugee camp
" which is so overcrowded that each family is only permitted 40 seconds of Internet access a day, which Randy says is not "even long enough to check Wikipedia
." Shelley is angry that she is unable to communicate with Amir, and subsequently beats up Stan repeatedly out of frustration.
Randy quickly becomes agitated and complains to a guard that he has not jacked off in over two weeks. Randy explains to the guard that he has become so used to being able to find any fetish
he wanted with a click of a mouse that he "can't just go back to Playboy
." Following the guard's refusal to help, Randy encounters a fellow traveler who informs him that many men have come to California because of the same problem. The traveler offers to Randy an "Internet Porn Simulator", a tent with a cardboard computer in which an unseen man displays crudely drawn pictures. Randy leaves disappointed, telling the traveler that it's "just not the same". The man then charges Randy $49, to which Randy replies "Well at least that part's like the internet." Afterwards, the camp's computer is locked inside for the night. Randy decides to sneak in to use it in secrecy, looking up bizarre sexual fetishes such as "Japanese girls puking in mouth", "Brazilian fart porn", and Bestiality. As he masturbates while watching pornography, his loud moans attract attention and he is discovered in front of the computer covered head-to-toe in semen
. He tries to explain that "a spooky ghost" slimed him with ectoplasm
. A guard discovers that Randy has used up the little amount of connection they have left.
Meanwhile, the government has attempted to find a way to fix "the internet," a large machine resembling a giant Linksys wireless router
, which has stopped functioning for an unknown reason. Several fruitless attempts are made to repair it: negotiating with it, communicating with it musically
, and even shooting at it. Acting on a hunch, Kyle disconnects and reconnects its power cord
. The network indicator now glows green to indicate that nationwide Internet access has been re-established, much to everyone's surprise.
Back at the camp, everybody discovers that their laptops are working and rejoice at the return of the Internet
. Shelley, ecstatic that she will now be able to communicate with Amir, suddenly hears a boy call out her name. It is the actual Amir, whose family had also traveled across the country to get Internet. The two are awkward around each other, and make plans to e-mail
each other instead of communicating in-person.
At the end of the episode, Randy delivers a speech wearing a Native American
-esque outfit, warning about overuse of "natural resources". This is a parody of the long monologue speech that Steven Seagal
gives about the environment at the end of On Deadly Ground
. Randy says that people should learn from the experience and stop "over-logging on"
, because they may be unprepared as a result if the Internet is lost permanently. He advises people to stop browsing pointlessly, to only use it when truly necessary and to only view porn
"twice a day... max."
, other works referenced include a parody of Steven Seagal's speech from the ending of On Deadly Ground
, and the five-note musical motif used to communicate with aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
.
There is also a brief scene parodying Steven Spielberg's War Of The Worlds, when the family drives through the mob to StarBucks in a desperate move to attempt to go onto the Internet;, in the film, the scene shows the family driving through a panicking mob a place to take refuge to the aliens.
said that "Ultimately 'Over Logging' attempts to be a satire on our over reliance on and addiction to the Internet. However, it only raises the topic without actually having much to say or jokes to tell" and that "it's all build up with not much pay-off. That's the way much of the episode functions – as if there's a big joke on the way that never really arrives. There's a Close Encounters reference, and the revelation that "The Internet" is just a giant router. Kyle figures out that all you have to do is unplug it and plug it back in – the catch-all solution". Fickett gave the episode 7 out of 10.
Josh Modell of The A.V. Club
gave the episode a "C" grade and noted that "There was one big message–we're overly reliant on the Internet, and we mostly use it for time-wasting bullshit–which was beaten until it wasn't all that funny anymore."
Brad Trechak of TV Squad said of the plot "As someone who works with the Internet for his day job, I had some problems with the simplistic way that it was presented. The Internet is used for much more than shopping or e-mailing (or, indeed, porn). Entire industries rely on it. The only part that struck me as truthful was seeing people live in a Great Depression-type state without the Internet."
South Park (season 12)
Season twelve of South Park, an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, began airing on March 12, 2008. The twelfth season concluded after 14 episodes on November 19, 2008...
of the animated series South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
, and the 173rd episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on April 16, 2008. In the episode, the Marsh family joins a mass-migration west when internet access starts to "dry up" in Colorado.
The episode was written and directed by series co-founder Trey Parker and co-written by series co-founder Matt Stone, and was rated TV-MA in the United States. The episode parodies John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....
(which portrays the plight of the Okies during the Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
) and the subsequent film release.
Plot
The episode begins with the Marsh family performing various online activities: StanStan Marsh
Stanley Randall "Stan" Marsh is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by and loosely based on series co-creator Trey Parker. Stan is one of the show's four central characters, along with his friends Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman...
is browsing randomly, Shelley is iChatting
IChat
iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging...
with her online boyfriend Amir from Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, and Randy is (discreetly) watching internet porn
PORN
Porn is a common short form for pornography. It may also refer to:* Progressive outer retinal necrosis, a disease of the retina* PORN, a French industrial rock band...
. Sharon sends them all to bed for the night, insisting that the internet will still be there the next morning.
However, the next morning they discover that they have no internet connection. They then hastily walk to the Broflovskis' house to use their internet connection, but soon find that the internet does not work there, either. Both families head to Starbucks for free wireless internet, but when they arrive it soon becomes apparent that the entire town's internet connection is down. The TV news, which has nothing to report without the Internet, gives vague rumors of Internet access in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
. After eight days without internet, the Marsh family decides to "head out Californee way
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
". As they spend the night in a transient camp, a man delivers a monologue that California is so crowded from other travelers that there is "not enough internet to go around."
When the Marshes reach California, they are placed in a Red Cross "Internet refugee camp
Refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...
" which is so overcrowded that each family is only permitted 40 seconds of Internet access a day, which Randy says is not "even long enough to check Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
." Shelley is angry that she is unable to communicate with Amir, and subsequently beats up Stan repeatedly out of frustration.
Randy quickly becomes agitated and complains to a guard that he has not jacked off in over two weeks. Randy explains to the guard that he has become so used to being able to find any fetish
Sexual fetishism
Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g...
he wanted with a click of a mouse that he "can't just go back to Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
." Following the guard's refusal to help, Randy encounters a fellow traveler who informs him that many men have come to California because of the same problem. The traveler offers to Randy an "Internet Porn Simulator", a tent with a cardboard computer in which an unseen man displays crudely drawn pictures. Randy leaves disappointed, telling the traveler that it's "just not the same". The man then charges Randy $49, to which Randy replies "Well at least that part's like the internet." Afterwards, the camp's computer is locked inside for the night. Randy decides to sneak in to use it in secrecy, looking up bizarre sexual fetishes such as "Japanese girls puking in mouth", "Brazilian fart porn", and Bestiality. As he masturbates while watching pornography, his loud moans attract attention and he is discovered in front of the computer covered head-to-toe in semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
. He tries to explain that "a spooky ghost" slimed him with ectoplasm
Ectoplasm (paranormal)
Ectoplasm is a term coined by Charles Richet to denote a substance or spiritual energy "exteriorized" by physical mediums...
. A guard discovers that Randy has used up the little amount of connection they have left.
Meanwhile, the government has attempted to find a way to fix "the internet," a large machine resembling a giant Linksys wireless router
Wireless router
A Wireless router is a device that performs the functions of a router but also includes the functions of a wireless access point and a network switch. They are commonly used to allow access to the Internet or a computer network without the need for a cabled connection. It can function in a wired...
, which has stopped functioning for an unknown reason. Several fruitless attempts are made to repair it: negotiating with it, communicating with it musically
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
, and even shooting at it. Acting on a hunch, Kyle disconnects and reconnects its power cord
Power cycling
Power cycling is the act of turning a piece of equipment, usually a computer, off and then on again. Reasons for power cycling include having an electronic device reinitialize its configuration or recover from an unresponsive state of its mission critical functionality, such as in a crash or hang...
. The network indicator now glows green to indicate that nationwide Internet access has been re-established, much to everyone's surprise.
Back at the camp, everybody discovers that their laptops are working and rejoice at the return of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Shelley, ecstatic that she will now be able to communicate with Amir, suddenly hears a boy call out her name. It is the actual Amir, whose family had also traveled across the country to get Internet. The two are awkward around each other, and make plans to e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
each other instead of communicating in-person.
At the end of the episode, Randy delivers a speech wearing a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
-esque outfit, warning about overuse of "natural resources". This is a parody of the long monologue speech that Steven Seagal
Steven Seagal
Steven Frederic Seagal is an American action film star, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. A 7th-dan black belt in Aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an Aikido instructor in Japan...
gives about the environment at the end of On Deadly Ground
On Deadly Ground
On Deadly Ground is a 1994 environmental action-adventure film, co-produced, directed by and starring Steven Seagal, and co-starring in an all-star cast, Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey, Kenji Nakano, and Billy Bob Thornton in one of his early appearances. The film held a...
. Randy says that people should learn from the experience and stop "over-logging on"
Login
Login is the method whereby a user obtains access to a computer system.Login may also refer to:*Magazines:** LOGiN, published by Enterbrain** ;login:, published by USENIX* Login, Carmarthenshire, an hamlet in Carmarthenshire...
, because they may be unprepared as a result if the Internet is lost permanently. He advises people to stop browsing pointlessly, to only use it when truly necessary and to only view porn
PORN
Porn is a common short form for pornography. It may also refer to:* Progressive outer retinal necrosis, a disease of the retina* PORN, a French industrial rock band...
"twice a day... max."
Cultural references
While most of the episode is a parody of The Grapes of WrathThe Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....
, other works referenced include a parody of Steven Seagal's speech from the ending of On Deadly Ground
On Deadly Ground
On Deadly Ground is a 1994 environmental action-adventure film, co-produced, directed by and starring Steven Seagal, and co-starring in an all-star cast, Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey, Kenji Nakano, and Billy Bob Thornton in one of his early appearances. The film held a...
, and the five-note musical motif used to communicate with aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
.
There is also a brief scene parodying Steven Spielberg's War Of The Worlds, when the family drives through the mob to StarBucks in a desperate move to attempt to go onto the Internet;, in the film, the scene shows the family driving through a panicking mob a place to take refuge to the aliens.
Reception
Travis Fickett of IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
said that "Ultimately 'Over Logging' attempts to be a satire on our over reliance on and addiction to the Internet. However, it only raises the topic without actually having much to say or jokes to tell" and that "it's all build up with not much pay-off. That's the way much of the episode functions – as if there's a big joke on the way that never really arrives. There's a Close Encounters reference, and the revelation that "The Internet" is just a giant router. Kyle figures out that all you have to do is unplug it and plug it back in – the catch-all solution". Fickett gave the episode 7 out of 10.
Josh Modell of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
gave the episode a "C" grade and noted that "There was one big message–we're overly reliant on the Internet, and we mostly use it for time-wasting bullshit–which was beaten until it wasn't all that funny anymore."
Brad Trechak of TV Squad said of the plot "As someone who works with the Internet for his day job, I had some problems with the simplistic way that it was presented. The Internet is used for much more than shopping or e-mailing (or, indeed, porn). Entire industries rely on it. The only part that struck me as truthful was seeing people live in a Great Depression-type state without the Internet."
External links
- "Over Logging" Full episode at South Park Studios
- "Over Logging" Episode guide at South Park Studios