Some of the show's choice of targets puts itself in a position of punching down, using society's marginalized-sex workers, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, etc.-for a joke's payoff because it's easier. The Fractured But Whole's politics are a larger identity crisis for modern South Park, where the show's no longer a unruly fuck you to a stubborn status quo it is the status quo. The punchline is that the police are racist! The Fractured But Whole, much like modern South Park, often feels like "well-meaning" people desperately holding onto an ability to laugh at shitty jokes made at the expense of people who don't deserve it, even though they know better.
It gets even better when one of the main missions has players invading the homes of innocent black people and helping the police arrest them.
The joke, of course, is "coon" is also a racial slur for black people. This is a game where one of the main characters, Cartman, dresses up as a Racoon-themed superhero and calls himself The Coon. Nostalgia and references were enough to propel me through The Stick of Truth, but while playing the sequel, The Fractured But Whole, rose-tinted glasses haven't been enough, my nervous chuckles replaced with sighs. And yet, it was also a sobering trip down memory lane, a reminder of how much we change over the years, including our sense of humor and what (and who) we find ourselves chuckling at. Functioning both as a greatest hits tour of South Park's most popular and enduring bits, and a remarkably on-point sendup of video game tropes, it felt remarkably… earnest? There was a profound novelty in controlling the characters of South Park, turning the game into an unaired, interactive episode. And so, a confession: In 2014, I laughed at South Park: The Stick of Truth way more than I expected.
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