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= A Crossface Carol = "A Crossface Carol" is the first episode of the twenty-fourth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 306th episode of the series overall, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on September 23, 2020.

Plot
Stan, Cartman, Kyle, Kenny, Token, Butters, Craig, Tweek, and Jimmy are watching WrestleMania at Token's house, and all three seem heavily-invested in the main event of the night. Stan's father Randy Marsh comes to the house to pick his son up, and when passing through, notices the show playing out. While the children seem entertained by it, Randy scoffs at the entire thing. When questioned as to why, Randy compares the product to what it was like when he was younger. He points out the smaller size of the wrestlers onscreen, the lack of charisma held by many, and the "indierific spot fest" matches as being inferior to the wrestling of his youth, when wrestlers were much larger in stature and had more charisma. However, the kids fight back at this, citing the many pitfalls of the industry when things were less regulated, and that much of what Randy loved about that era were harmful to the wrestlers themselves. Randy continues dismissing their points, and instead takes Stan home to watch "real wrestling".

That night, Randy complains to his wife Sharon about what the kids have been watching, although she sees no issue with it. Again in shock that someone isn't seeing what he's seeing, he shrugs her off and goes to sleep. He's awoken by a loud crash however, and exits the bedroom to investigate. As he looks around the house, he finds the pills in the medical cabinet rummaged through. As he heads downstairs, rifle in-hand, he's confronted by the ghost of Brian Pillman. While Randy is overjoyed at the sight of Pillman, though initially thrown off by the fact that he was dead, Pillman explains to Randy that he will be visited by three more ghosts that night, of Wrestling Past, Present and Future. Randy is confused, and Pillman hits him with an Air Pillman from the kitchen table, knocking Randy into a seemingly-endless black void, which ends once Randy lands in a wrestling arena.

Randy notices the merchandise and hairstyles of the audience, and picks up on the fact that he's been sent back to the 90's, specifically at a WCW Monday Nitro taping. Further evidencing this is when Chris Benoit approaches him in the crowd, of which Randy is conflicted by. However, he brushes aside the elephant in the room and goes right to fanboying over Benoit. Benoit asks Randy if he wants to see him wrestle, and Randy can't help but say yes. Randy is whisked around the world as Benoit wrestles over the course of his career, bumping his head significantly in each match. The two even do drugs together, Randy smoking marijuana and Benoit sticking to steroids. As their travels go on however, Randy grows uncomfortable with Benoit's behavior becoming more outwardly morbid and almost zombie-like. This all culminates when Benoit asks Randy to attend Vengeance: Night of Champions, as Benoit is wrestling against CM Punk that night for the ECW World Championship, which Benoit is slated to win. When they arrive at Benoit's home for the weekend before the event, however, Randy is awoken by Benoit, who wants to show Randy something. He exits the room to find another Benoit murdering his wife Nancy and son Daniel (though the murders themselves happens offscreen). Randy runs out of the house in a panic, and Benoit decides to go to the basement to "cool off".

Randy's run concludes when he falls through bushes into a locker room. A panicked Randy is calmed down by Bryan Danielson, who is readying to wrestle a main event match against KENTA. Over the course of Randy and Danielson's talk, Randy can't help but condescend towards him for embodying all of what he feels makes up a "vanilla midget". Danielson invites Randy to view his match that night, and Randy accepts. Though he goes in with a dismissive attitude, he is blown away by the match as it goes on, and by the end, Randy sees the appeal, especially once fellow fans begin comparing him to Benoit. He becomes an all-out Danielson enthusiast, and apologizes for his earlier behavior. Danielson accepts this, and lets Randy know he's been signed to a WWE contract, and is changing his name to Daniel Bryan. Randy is there to support Bryan throughout, even being in attendance for the WrestleMania XXX main event when Bryan won the world titles. However, the enthusiasm deflates when Bryan discloses to Randy that injury has rendered Bryan unable to compete any further, which throws Randy for a loop. Bryan's explanations of his condition begin to remind Randy of Benoit, and as the realization dawns on him, Bryan becomes zombieesque in appearance, and his voice begins to become Benoit's.

A startled Randy again runs, and he eventually finds shelter in a cemetery. His calm is broken once he realizes he's at Benoit's grave. Upon backing up, he's greeted by the headstones of hundreds of wrestler, including Eddie Guerrero, Curt Hennig, and Miss Elizabeth. Death then confronts Randy, saying that the demands of him and many others have been responsible for countless deaths and tragedies. Death even cites Bryan as nearly suffering the same fate, though the fact that he bounced back is a relief for Randy. Death takes Randy to see a wrestling show in the afterlife, and what he finds is a wrestling ring set up in a cornfield, where wrestlers zombified by the damage to their bodies and brains put on horrible matches (the setup of the ring is a reference to the 1989 film Field of Dreams). When Randy asks what he can do to prevent this, Death says to embrace the changes being made, and not to dwell too much on how things once were. Randy, having learned his lesson, wakes up, believing it all to be a dream.

When he gets downstairs, he is ready to apologize to Stan before he notices him watching the Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega match from AEW Full Gear. Randy questions Stan why he's watching it, and Stan says that the brutality and danger Randy talked up could actually be pretty cool. Randy then argues against it, which Stan notices was his stance in their first discussion. Stan calls out Randy for his turn, and Randy can only answer: "Son, I'm a wrestling fan. I don't know what I want."

Reception
Jesse Schedeen from IGN gave the episode a 9.7 of out 10, stating in his review: "South Park may not be as consistent as it once was, but the series can still deliver episodes that rival the best of its golden years. By combining a classic format with hilarious wrestling insider jokes and the most bizarrely entrancing A Christmas Carol parody imaginable, this episode hits all the right notes."

Joe Matar of Den of Geek gave the episode 3 stars out of 5, stating: “It's not a particularly bad episode. In fact, in what has been a largely boring, unfunny last few years, it's probably the best one so far. Still, in the end, like so many South Park episodes, how much you enjoy yourself will depend on how much you're into the running gags that get repeated again and again throughout. For me, this stuff had diminishing returns. I'd rate 'A Crossface Carol' somewhere between 'meh' and 'fine.'"