< South Park
South Park/Shout-Out
Season One:
Cartman Gets An Anal Probe
- The 'School Days' song was a hit in 1907 and 1908.
- Stan's humongous smile and floating hearts when he sees Wendy is very reminiscent of Charlie Brown's when he sees the little red-haired girl.
- "Cows on a people train" references an obscure Dr. Seuss book entitled In A People House, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Theo LeSeig"
- The song "I Love to Singa" is from the 1936 Tex Avery cartoon of the same name. One of the characters is a 'tasteless' crooning owl named Owl Jolson, one of four hatchlings born to the parent owls.
- Kyle tells Ike, "Do your impersonation of David Caruso's career" referring to his career after NYPD Blue - it took a dive and has yet to recover. Ike takes a dive head first into the snow.
Weight-Gain 4000
- Mr. Hat's spinning head echoes that from the movie The Exorcist.
- Kathie Lee's song is the one she sang for Carnival Cruise lines. The song is originally from Sweet Charity.
- Garrison and Mr. Hat arguing is a likely parody of the film Magic, where a ventriloquist has multiple personality disorder, and argues with his puppet.
- When Cartman says "Beefcake - beefCAAKE!" it sounds like Torrence from The Shining when he yells "Redrum-redRUUM!"
- Mr. Garrison's "Are you talking to me?" line is from Taxi Driver.
- As Mr. Garrison walks down the street with his new purchase, everyone calls out "Nice gun". This is similar to a scene in Doc Hollywood, in which the title character walks down the street with a new pig given to him as payment for a doctor's visit. Everyone comments, "(that sure is a) Nice pig, Doc" etc.
- "It is…too late for me, young Wendy." was paraphrased from Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.
- An oft-repeated line in Scooby Doo was, "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!" This line was echoed by Garrison/Mr. Hat when he's being arrested.
- Cartman appears on Geraldo.
Volcano
- Cartman's mention of Step by Step could be considered a shout-out.
- The episode as a whole is said to be a rip on the eruption disaster movies that were coming out around that time; specifically Volcano and Dantes Peak.
- Cartman's mention of Danforth could easily be a shout-out to Rambo: First Blood. John Rambo serves with a soldier named Danforth.
- The Lava and You film is a clear parody of 1950s nuclear safety films, which suggested "duck and cover" as an effective tactic when under nuclear attack.
- Scuzzlebutt's sounds exactly like Ludo from Labyrinth when he says, "Friend."
Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride
- "Would you like some toasted cheese sandwiches?" is an homage to one of the Psycho movies; Norman Bates tells Mary Loomis that she smells like the toasted cheese sandwiches his mother used to bring him.
- When Stan and Sparky are leaving Big Gay Al's, Al says "When you get back to town, tell them about us, will you? Tell them there are gay animals here who need homes, desperately." This is the same thing the Winged Lion says about the Misfit Toys to Rudolph and the Dentist Elf, in the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer stop-motion Christmas special, before they leave the Island and return to Santa.
- Big Gay Al's departure is a spoof of Dr. Lao's disappearance at the end of 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.
An Elephant Makes Love To A Pig
- Shelley's particular style of headgear likely comes from the Brazil character of the same name.
- Mephisto and his assistant Kevin are homages to Dr. Moreau and his assistant Majal from the film The Island of Doctor Moreau.
- Pip, who's full name is Philip Pirrup, is from the novel Great Expectations. He quotes the novel and will later star in an episode based on it.
- The part where Terrence yells, "Daddy, Nooooooooo!" when his dad shoots the genetic clone of Stan comes from The Omen. It's the next to last scene in the church when Robert Thorn is going to stab Damien.
- The end line, "That'll do, pig." is a reference to Babe.
Death
- The music played by Grandpa Marsh to show Stan his pain is a clear (or actually, kinda muffled) parody of Enya's Orinoco Flow.
- There are specific mentions of Full House and She's the Sheriff.
Pinkeye
- The whole episode is very Return of the Living Dead, especially doctors describing the symptoms.
- Stan's costume, as mentioned, is Raggedy Andy. Everyone else is Chewbacca from Star Wars, except Garrison who is Princess Leia, and Cartman who is Hitler.
- The doctor's intonation is very like Jimmy Stewart.
- Puffy the Bear, who looks exactly like Smokey Bear.
- Chef trying to explain to the doctor that everyone is turning to zombies could be a reference to the novel, I Am Legend.
- Chef performs a dead-on parody of Thriller.
- Stan faced with having to kill his zombie girlfriend could be a nod to Evil Dead.
- The last shot, with the little bunch of flowers and the arm coming out of the grave was a likely homage to the end of Carrie.
Starvin' Marvin
- Cartman and Wendy quote a passage from A Christmas Carol line for line.
- The canned food drive based on The Cash Grab.
- The end battle spoofs Braveheart.
- Kyle mentions both MacGyver and Full House. (Sally Struthers was actually on All in the Family, a show cited at times to be the original inspiration for Cartman's character.)
Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo
- Stan's speech is directly from A Charlie Brown Christmas, as is the opening of the scene of catching snowflakes; "Try and catch snowflakes on your tongue. It's fun!"
- With his stylized eyes, white gloves, and high voice, Mr. Hanky is reminiscent of Mickey Mouse.
- Mackey calls Kyle a "sick little monkey," an oft-used line from Ren And Stimpy.
- Kyle carrying Mr. Hanky in a box and his initial inactivity in the presence of others causing Kyle to be put in an asylum is similar to plot devices around Michigan J. Frog from One Froggy Evening.
Damien
- The whole episode has myriad references to The Omen, not the least of which is the title character.
- The Megaman toys are based on Power Rangers.
- Stan quotes Star Trek: First Contact; Commander Riker, from the future, has an exchange with Zephram Cochrane in which he says, "Somebody once said, 'Don't try to be a great man, just be a man.'" When Cochrane asked who said that, Riker responds, "You did. Ten years from now."
Tom's Rhinoplasty
- Wendy does herself up like Olivia Newton-John at the end of Grease.
- "We just got a call in the office: your grandma just died." is from Ferris Buellers Day Off, when Ferris gets his girlfriend Sloan out of school.
Mecha-Streisand
- Barbra Streisand's "condo" is modeled after the house (a real one) that Woody Allen goes to in the futuristic movie Sleeper.
- Barbra Streisand's father is said to be an insurance salesman, and her mother a jackal. In The Omen, Damien's mother was a jackal.
- The Japanese princesses in the shell are the ones whom Mothra has to rescue in Tokyo in his first film.
- Barbra Streisand becomes Mecha Barbura Sturaisanda, a reference to Mecha Godzilla
- Leonard Maltin becomes Ultura Lenardu Marutin, referencing Ultraman.
- Sidney Poitier becomes Megara Poatia, his design based on Gamera
- Robert Smith becomes Robartu Smitu, his design based on Mothra.
- And they all have their own song, just as the Japanese monsters do.
- Stan says, "My mom always said there were no monsters, but there are, aren't there, Chef?" - a paraphrase of Newt's comment to Ripley in Aliens.
Cartman's Mom Is A Dirty Slut
- The 'Throbbing Star' song is a parody of My Heart Will Go On from Titanic.
- Cartman's afro is based on Kid from Kid 'n Play. The clock is borrowed from Flavor Flav.
- America's Stupidest Home Videos is an obvious parody of Americas Funniest Home Videos.
Season Two:
Not Without My Anus
- Title is a reference to the film (and book) Not Without My Daughter. In the episode, Terrence needs to rescue his daughter.
- The Canadian love of Kraft Dinner is likely from the Barenaked Ladies song, If I Had a Million Dollars in which the Canadian band says with that kind of money they wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner, but they would.
- Saddam Hussein and Scott paraphrase Darth Vader and Lando in The Empire Strikes Back.(Hussein says, "I changed my mind. Pray that I do not change it any more," to which Scott mutters, "This deal's getting worse all the time." In Empire, Vader says, "I am altering the deal, pray I do not alter it any further." to which Lando mutters the same phrase as Scott, "This deal is getting worse all the time.")
Cartman's Mom Is Still A Dirty Slut
- Chef states he used to watch Quincy.
- Kenny's journey to the 'backup generator' and the mention of 'velociraptors' reference Jurassic Park. A shadow of a dinosaur can be seen on the generator, later.
- Kenny completing the circuit with his hands is similar to current running through Doc in Back to The Future.
- Cannibalism under extreme conditions was the subject of the movie Alive, which also featured the song Ave Maria.
Chickenlover
- The rainbow motif on the Booktastic Bus is likely a reference to Reading Rainbow.
- Barbrady and Cartman are both seen filming episodes of COPS.
Ike's Wee Wee
- Garrison is watching The Teletubbies.
- Mackey is snatched by The A-Team.
- Dr. Schwartz paraphrases Luke from Return of the Jedi when speaking about circumcision in the family.
Conjoined Fetus Lady
- Cartman makes reference to Moby Dick, mentioning Captain Ahab and the pursuit of a whale.
- The picture of conjoined twins is not of conjoined twins, but members of the musical group The Monkees.
- When Pip throws his final throw against the Chinese team, the way he spins, throws the ball, then slowly stops spinning, is reminiscent of the Death Blossom scene in The Last Starfighter.
The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka
- Episode title could easily be based on the Mark Twain short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
- "A question a child might ask, but not a childish question." - Garrison's line comes from a commercial for the History of the Vietnam War book series. In the commercial, a man and his son stand before the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. The son looks up, and asks "Daddy, what's Vietnam?" A voiceover somberly intones "A question a child might ask - but not a childish question."
- "…but Pony Boy was beat up pretty bad. He kept saying, 'stay gold.'" - this is from Chapter 9 of The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton, a short novel about four friends who were in a gang. Only there, it was Ponyboy's friend who was in the hospital, and Ponyboy was visiting him. His friend dies saying these words: "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold."
- Jesus and Pals becomes a parody of Jerry Springer, complete with chanting crowd and manufactured fights. One audience member thinks he's on Montel Williams.
City On The Edge Of Forever
- The little kid who is killed by the monster is a Star Trek Red Shirt. The title of the episode is also from Star Trek.
- The roofies truck driver bears a resemblance to Elvis Presley, who was a truck driver before he became a singer.
- The scene of the bus breaking in half and the boy falling out through the rear window is partially derived from Jurassic Park: The Lost World, when the dinosaurs had pushed the trailers almost over the cliff. The lead actors hold on to the interior of the rear trailer as debris falls past them and out the back window and door. A similar effect is shown in Titanic, when passengers let go of railings and fall to their deaths (note that the bus, like the ship, has split in two.)
- The video made by the parents echoes We Are the World.
Summer Sucks
- Garrison gets a Charlie Brown smile after fantasizing about barbecuing Lamb Chop.
- Uncle Remus is mentioned in place of Uncle Sam.
- Garrison goes to see Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.
- When the boys pick up their instruments and begin playing (as the snake is destroying South Park) is reminiscent of the musicians on the deck of the Titanic.
- Everyone being covered with ash at the end might have been a reference to the final scene of Volcano.
Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls
- Cartman makes mention of The Goonies.
- Mr. Hanky echoes Yoda when he's dying, saying "There is... another... Sky...walker."
- The flashback segment where Kyle remembers all he and Mr. Hanky did together is similar to the one in Frosty the Snowman where the kids remember all that Frosty did with them after Frosty melts away.
- The Mr. Hanky and Me film parodies Philadelphia.
- The segment beginning with the medic who scoops Mr. Hanky up and ending when Mr. Hanky is revived by Chef's chocolate salty balls comes from ET the Extraterrestrial, beginning when Elliott's house is quarantined and ending when Elliott unzips E.T. to find him alive and well.
- "I have had enough of you!" echoes Capt. Kirk's statement to the Klingon commander Kruge when the Genesis planet is about to blow up in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.
- Mr. Hanky working his magic on the town comes from Fantasia's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."
Chickenpox
- Cartman's sleeping bag features Steve Urkel from Family Matters.
Roger Ebert Should Lay Off The Fatty Foods
- Much of this episode is taken from the Star Trek episode, "Dagger Of The Mind". Dr. Tristan Adams, Simon van Gelder, Missy, the uniforms, and the neural neutralizer are all present. There's also a shout-out to Ricardo Montalban, who played Khan.
- The Latin phrase in the planetarium "Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!" roughly translates as "Bring me up, Scotsman," an allusion to the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty".
- The Cheesy Poofs talent search is much like those of Oscar Mayer.
- "Don't pick your nose, hon." - This and Cartman's responses are taken from Monty Python's Life of Brian.
- The poor little girl with the windswept hair at the Cheesy Poof callback auditions is Cosette, from Les Misérables.
Clubhouses
- The opening music is a variation of the theme music from Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. This episode also features the show Fat Abbot.
- Fat Abbott's line "You Punk Ass Blasphemous Dope Fiend Bitch!" is taken from the film New Jack City.
Cow Days
- Cartman's lines as the Vietnamese prostitute Ming Li are from Full Metal Jacket.
Chef Aid
- The way Mr. Twig was boiled comes from the bunny in a boiling pot in Fatal Attraction.
- "And what happened then? Well in South Park they say, that Johnny's Cochran's heart grew three sizes that day." - a near-direct quote from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Spookyfish
- Clear reference to the Star Trek episode Mirror, Mirror, which featured bearded warlike counterparts of the crew. The portal references the episode Assignment: Earth and the fight between the two Cartmans references Whom Gods Destroy, where a shapeshifter takes on Kirk's appearance and Kirk tells Spock he must kill them both. Throughout the episode, the crappy 'split screen' effect can be seen.
- Sharon's reactions to Stan's supposed murder spree references The Bad Seed, in which an eight-year-old girl is a killer. Carol McCormick also has reactions from the film when her son dies.
- Evil Cartman refers to his mom as Mother, as Norman Bates referred to his mom in Psycho.
- The way Stan deals with his spooky goldfish comes from |Poltergeist, when a boy is afraid of a clown doll.
- The spinning Barbra Streisand transitions are a reference to old 1960s hero shows like Batman and Robin.
- The Indian Burial Ground pet store references Pet Sematary, in which pets buried there come back evil.
- Stan's statement, "I never thought it was such a bad little squash, it just needs some tender loving care" is a paraphrase from A Charlie Brown Christmas about the little tree.
Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson
- The theater's name in Its a Wonderful Life is the Bijou, just like South Park's theater.
- 'The Grinchy Poo' is shot for shot How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
- "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!" and the singing of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is straight out of A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Gnomes
- The film Lean On Me had a poster in it that said 'Eastside pride can never be denied.' A similar poster appears in the classroom at South Park Elementary.
- The scene depicted in the Gnomes' underpants mining operation comes from the Merrie Melodies short "Yankee Dood It."
- The Harbucks Rep dresses up like Joe Camel and passes out coffee giving a speech that would be reminiscent of a cigarette ad.
Prehistoric Ice Man
- Cartman's imprecise recap of a movie where a caveman is frozen and these people thaw him out and make him their caveman friend may be referring to the plot of Encino Man.
- Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, is caricatured here.
- Cartman's line, "Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting cwocodiles," parodies Elmer Fudd from classic Looney Tunes.
Season Three:
Rainforest Shmainforest
- Miss Stevens strung up between two trees and the giant Yanogapa rising from the brush is an homage to King Kong.
Spontaneous Combustion
- The two lines spoken right after crucified Cartman is taken out of the church come from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
- "Up your ass with broken glass!" is reminiscent of Welcome Back Kotter, in which one of the characters would often say, "Up your nose with a rubber hose."
- Randy's statue is Michelangelo's David.
- The sequence in which Chef appears to Cartman and tells him the rescue was a dream comes from a scene in The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis, in which Jesus is given a chance on the cross to live the rest of his life. Later, he finds out that it was all a dream and he is still dying on the cross.
- Stan does the vulcan sign with his hand while quoting Spock's, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
- The song You and Me, Girl is reminiscent of The Archies. The visuals are reminiscent of both Archie music videos and Scooby Doo.
The Succubus
- Cartman was called "Piggy" by the Optometrist. In Lord of the Flies, a brilliant but obese orphan boy was called "Piggy" by all of his friends, and he wore glasses. He mentioned how his eyesight was terrible without the glasses.
- Cartman in his glasses is mistaken for Jonathan Lipnicki in Jerry Maguire.
- The wedding of Chef and Veronica is similar to that of Prince Eric and Vanessa (the sea witch Ursula in disguise) in Disney's The Little Mermaid.
- King Jimmy's Buffet. Jimmy Buffett.
Tweek Vs. Craig
- The horn music before the first fight is definite Rocky.
Jakovasaurs
- Junjun talks like a Gungan, but Jakov is just loud. The commentary for this episode states that they were trying to make these characters as annoying as possible, and they still weren't as annoying as Jar Jar.
Sexual Harassment Panda
- Gerald's commercials come straight from the Larry H. Parker commercials seen in Southern California: Bebe's spot comes from the commercial in which this man sits proudly on his motorcycle as he says "Larry H. Parker got me 2.1 million." (These sorts of lawyer commercials can actually be seen all over the country)
- The Island of Misfit Mascots commune is essentially The Island of Misfit Toys.
Cat Orgy
- The obvious reference is to Wild Wild West.
- Another clear shout-out is to Aliens.
- The Wild Animal World segment Kitty watches on TV is the same one used in Natural Born Killers, when Harrelson watches TV in a hotel room. (Note: this may or may not be a stock footage coincidence.)
- "Charade you are!" is from the Pink Floyd song Pigs.
- "Hurry, kitty, you're my only hope." - likely a reference to Leia's plea to Obi-Wan in Star Wars: A New Hope.
Two Guys Naked In A Hot Tub
- There is, of course, Charlies Angels. To make the effect complete, whenever the Angels show up, variations on their theme music is heard.
- The song both the ATF and Mr. Mackey play is a garbled version of Cher's Believe.
Jewbilee
- Elder Schwartz wears a diamond design with a Star of David in it, similar to the Superman emblem.
- Moses' appearance is derived from that of the Master Control Program in Tron.
- "It's a trap!" is generally considered to be Admiral Ackbar's catchphrase; it's possible this phrase appearing is a reference to Star Wars.
Chinpokomon
- The obvious reference is of course to Pokémon (which means 'pocket monster.' Chinpokomon means 'little penis monster.')
- There were reports of a Pokémon episode, Electric Porygon Soldier, causing seizures in some children. As a result, the episode never aired in the United States. Kenny's seizure is a reference to this.
- The scene in which Sharon tells Mr. Garrison to "Get on the wire to every parent around the country and tell them how to bring those sons of bitches down!" is derived from Independence Day.
Starvin Marvin In Space
- The wormhole is right out of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as is the warping movement the Marklar ship experiences in the worm hole. The Marklar ship turns out to have a computer with a female voice, just like the Enterprise ships and Voyager do, and it is armed with photon torpedoes.
- Sally Struthers appears here as Jabba the Hutt with her very own Tiberian Junker, and Kenny is frozen in carbonate.
- The bridge of the Christian Ship resembles that of the Enterprise, but the exterior is more Klingon and Star FOX influenced.
- The appearance of the Marklars is similar to the Kanamits from The Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man.
Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery
- The main homage here is to Scooby Doo, with the Korn guys drawn in the style of Hanna-Barbera, driving the mystery mobile and solving a spooky mystery.
- There is also a reference to the Wonder Twins, who could change their forms. There are some similarities between Nibblet and the Wonder Twins' pet chimp, Gleek.
- Kenny's costume is an Enforcement Droid 209 from RoboCop.
- Cleo Broflovski looks like the corpse of Norman Bates' mother in Psycho.
- The end credits are interrupted by a scene of Kenny's ED-209 being taken down in a fashion similar to the AT-ATs on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.
Hooked On Monkey Fonics
- "You got some kind of John Travolta disease?" references The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. John Travolta played Tod Lubitch, the boy who had a deficient immune system and had to spend his childhood in a hermetically sealed room with clear plastic walls, and thus in a home-school environment.
- The interaction between Kyle and Rebecca, from "Rebecca, don't you ever… look at the town?" to their kiss, mirrors that between Capt. Kirk and Shahna in "The Gamesters of Triskelion". The music comes from a different episode entitled This Side of Paradise.
- Rebecca Cotswolds is based on Rebecca A. Sealfon, a Brooklyn girl who won the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee Championship. Her major quirk was whispering the letters of a word into her hands before saying them aloud.
The Red Badge Of Gayness
- The title is a spoof of a Civil War novelette, The Red Badge of Courage written by Stephen Crane.
Mr. Hanky's Christmas Classics
- The "fight the frizzies" anchorman is a reference to one of the tapes of The Star Wars Holiday Special, which has newscaster Rolland Smith saying that very thing after every commercial break.
- The mailman is derived from Special Delivery Kluger, from Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, who is modeled on and voiced by Fred Astaire.
Are You There, God? It's Me, Jesus
- The title is a reference to the novel, Are You There God Its Me Margaret, which is a coming-of-age story about menstruation.
- Stan dropping the bottle and thunder crashing seems very Jekyll and Hyde.
Worldwide Recorder Concert
- Cartman mentions Chicago Hope.
- Garrison's directions of "Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning." reference the directions to Never Never Land from Peter Pan.
The Movie
Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
- The song Mountain Town contains shots straight out of Beauty and the Beast albeit with more police brutality and dead fetuses.
- Ike being hidden in the attic could be a reference to The Diary of Anne Frank.
- Satan's "Up There" number is thematically similar to and ends with the same shot as Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid.
- The demonstration of the V-chip and the effectiveness of negative association conditioning references A Clockwork Orange.
- Stan's encounter with the clitoris is nearly identical to Atreyu's encounter with the giant turtle Morla in The Neverending Story.
- Cartman's battle with Saddam Hussein parodies Dragonball Z.
- Satan throwing Saddam into the pit of hell mirrors Darth Vader throwing the Emperor into the maintenance shaft in Return of the Jedi.
Season Four:
Tooth Fairy Tats 2000
- Loogie is clearly patterned after Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
- The line, "I want those South Park kids dead, I want their families dead, I want their houses burnt to the ground!" is an Al Capone quote from The Untouchables.
- "Just off Arapahoe road on Emporia street" is the location given in radio commercials for The Shane Company, a diamond store in Denver.
- The computer in the van makes some Star Wars probe droid sounds when Kyle fades away.
- The scene where Kyle's fetus floats against the starry sky comes from the last scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which a Star Child with Mission Commander Dave Bowman's features floats through space.
Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000
- They use music from Oz for the juvenile hall scenes.
- Gruffy Bear is likely another reference to Smokey.
- No. 24601 is the number assigned to Jean Valjean when he arrived at Toulon Prison after being sentenced to five years of hard labor for breaking in and stealing a loaf of bread from a bakery in Les Misérables. (Even though the warden gives this number to Cartman, he wears number 26354 on his orange uniform.)
- The name of Cartman's cell mate, Romper Stomper, is a likely reference to the Australian film Romper Stomper, about hate crime.
- The teardrop tattoo, such as Romper has, is a sign that the inmate has killed someone. Johnny Depp wore one under his left eye in Cry-Baby.
- The televised attempt by Cartman to evade the police in Kenny's Go Go Action Bronco is a parody when O.J. Simpson did the same in a white Bronco.
Timmy 2000
- Phil Collins talks and acts in a manner similar to the Gumbies from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- The song that Phil Collins sings at the opening to the Lalapalalapaza festival is a parody of his 1985 single Sussudio.
- Collins is depicted as perpetually clutching an Oscar. This was in retaliation for Collins' victory in the category for Best Song three weeks prior to this episode's airing. You'll Be in My Heart beat the nominated Blame Canada from South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut.
Quintuplets 2000
- The Cirque du Cheville references Cirque Du Soleil.
- "Poofters" may come from the "Bruce" sketch on Monty Python's Flying Circus. (It's a British term for homosexuals.)
- The storyline references the events surrounding Elián Gonzáles, and the Dionne Quintuplets of Canada.
Cartman Joins NAMBLA
- The nightmare Kenny has about his impending sibling is a spoof on Its Alive, about a mutant baby who goes on a rampage.
- The members of the National Association of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes are (unsurprisingly) nearly all dressed as characters played by Marlon Brando.
- The 'musical rooms' chase through the hallway is reminiscent of those on the Hanna-Barbera cartoons such as Scooby Doo and also appeared in Looney Tunes. The music in the scene is from a poem, Page d'Écriture written by Jacques Prévert.
- The sounds of the screaming people on The John Denver Experience are the screams heard on the computer game Rollercoaster Tycoon.
Cherokee Hair Tampons
- When Cartman refuses to donate a kidney to Kyle, he sings "no" to the tune of Comedy Tonight from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
- The Native American/Mexicans are Cheech and Chong.
- Garrison's book In The Valley Of Penises spoofs Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, the X-rated 1969 movie for which Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay. (Trey didn't much care for Ebert's review of South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut, citing Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls as a reason Ebert should have been more positive in his review.)
- When Cartman wakes up to find his kidney missing, his bed is covered in blood and the Kidney Blocker 2000 ripped off his body. This scene is much like the death of Khartoum in The Godfather.
Chef Goes Nanners
- One KKK member lifts up his robe to reveal a pair of bird feet, similar to that of Big Bird.
- When Wendy kisses Cartman, his reaction is similar to that of Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back after being kissed by Leia. Stan's might be similar to Han Solo's, though his shock goes on a bit longer.
Something You Can Do With Your Finger
- The obvious parody here is of boy bands, particularly N*SYNC and the Backstreet Boys, who were highly popular at the time.
- The boy playing the piano at the auditions is Schroeder, the Beethoven aficionado from Peanuts.
- Randy's fit of rage, ending in him smashing the glass doors of the living room cabinet and shouting "No! Nooo!!" is very similar to a scene in Star Trek: First Contact, where Captain Picard does the same, using a phaser rather than his head to smash a display case. In fact, Randy's voice changes from Parker's to a sampling of Patrick Stewart's voice from the film.
- During Randy's flashback, the manager of his band closely resembles J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man.
Do The Handicapped Go To Hell?
- Guest shown in Hell include Conan O'Brien (who died in The Movie) Jerry Garcia, Gene Siskel, John F. Kennedy and his son JFK Junior, Tiny Tim, Princess Diana, Michael Landon, Mao Tse Tung, Walter Matthau, George Burns, Dean Martin, and Bob Hope
- The 'Hukilau' song is a real Hawaiian song about the traditional event of net-casting.
Probably
- During the ""Previously On..."" recap at the beginning of the episode, a reference is made to the Happy Days episode where Fonzie jumped the shark.
- The repeated line throughout this episode, "Yeah, well, where was I going to go? Detroit?" was from the cult film The Kentucky Fried Movie.
- Schroeder makes another appearance, as the organist for Cartman's church.
Fourth Grade
- "Charade you are!" is from the Pink Floyd song Pigs.
- Timmy's chair not being able to go under 5 or it will explode is a parody of Speed. The defuse that Kenny attempts with the wheeled board is a reference to the scene in which Jack Traven attempts the same with a service cart towed by a preceding truck. The reference is furthered by the woman who rides on Timmy's lap for a short time, who looks much like Sandra Bullock.
- Garrison and Choksondik have an exchange that echoes Luke and Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, when Choksondik proclaims she isn't afraid, and Garrison says, "You will be. You will be." The parallel continues with the large hollow tree used as part of the training, containing only the demons they take in with them.
- The response to Cartman's taunts of "Suck my balls" with "Present them," references a portion of the book Educating Esmé, in which a mentor tells a student to drop his pants after he continually exclaims "suck my dick."
- "Spirit, haunt me no longer!" is a reference to A Christmas Carol, when the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a Christmas from his childhood.
Trapper Keeper
- "Bill Cosby," VSM471, is a compilation of movie references:
- He and his plotline are a spoof on Terminator, with clothing similar to that of Kyle Reese in the first film and a soundalike of the theme from the films plays when Cosby reveals his true nature. His continued pronunciation of human as “hu-mon” is a reference to the Ferengi of Star Trek. The white fluid that comes out of his body is like that of the first Bishop in Alien.
- During the retelling of future events, other than references to the Terminator movies, some of the war machines also resemble the ED-209 from the RoboCop movies. (except with a large Dawsons Creek photo as a torso.)
- The Cartman-shaped bio-mechanical blob monster is a reference to the anime film Akira, as is the fashion in which Rosie O’Donnell is killed. The music playing when the Trapper Keeper moves toward the base resembles the music played when Akira awakens to stop Tetsuo.
- The line "We are Trapper Keeper" is a reference to the Borg of Star Trek.
- When Kyle is sucked into the mutated Cartman, the room where the Trapper Keeper's CPU is located looks exactly like HAL's CPU racks in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Trapper Keeper's dialogue with a Kyle is also taken from the film.
- When Cartman crashes the police cruiser into Cosby, he says "Book 'em, Barbrady," A reference to the line "Book 'em, Danno," of the show Hawaii Five-O
Hellen Keller! The Musical
- The scenes in which Butters runs down the hallway to the auditorium come straight out of The Right Stuff whenever the Russians launched a new rocket.
- Timmy picking out his turkey is like Charlie Brown picking the pathetic little tree in A Charlie Brown Christmas. He took it back to everyone else and they said "What the hell is that?" just like the SP gang did.
- The visions Cartman sees when he closes his eyes are a tribute to A Clockwork Orange when Alex comes home the first night and closes his eyes: 'And oh what lovely pictures I did see.' It is all violent stuff - hangings, explosions, Alex as a Vampire, etc. The Nazi footage is stuff that Alex is forced to watch later in the film.
- The way Timmy abandons his beloved pet turkey is very similar to a scene in Air Bud. In the movie a young boy takes his golden retriever out away from his house and walks away from the dog with tears in his eyes. (According to the commentary, Gobbles was originally a puppy)
- The turkey mass slaughter scene "Our turkeys are killed humanely" comes from Soylent Green.
- Timmy performs a feat right out of In the Line of Fire (and other films) when he dives out of his chair and takes a bullet for Gobbles.
Pip
- Masterpiece Theatre is parodied in this episode. The music playing during those segments is from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons: Spring.
- The basic plot is indeed that of the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations.
- One of the blacksmith's creations is a "metal orange", a nod to Malcolm McDowell ("The Narrator" in this episode), who is most famous for his portrayal of Alex DeLarge in the Stanley Kubrick film, A Clockwork Orange.
- The Genesis Device is lifted from Star Trek II and III, part of the Genesis Project, the device used to bring new Edenic life to an otherwise unsuitable planet.
Fat Camp
- The line "healthy and clean" may be a reference to Pink Floyd's The Wall; "Momma's gonna keep baby healthy and clean."
- James Taylor's Your Smiling Face is parodied.
- Cartman escaping and being returned to camp until he's done his time seems to come from Cool Hand Luke.
- Kenny's stunts are similar to those performed on Jackass and by Tom Green.
- Kenny eating dog crap is a possible reference to the infamous ending of Pink Flamingos.
The Wacky Molestation Adventure
- The song sung by Kyle heard while he writes Castro resembles Blue Christmas, which was the song heard as Santa read a young girl’s letter in The Year Without a Santa Claus. The letter and crayon drawings are also a reference.
- Kyle dancing in his underwear is straight out of Risky Business.
- The scene when the kids were standing in the town alone when they first figured out the parents were all gone comes from The Omega Man, about the man being the last one on earth.
- The town taken over by kids was a reference to Children of the Corn, which features human sacrifice and a couple getting stuck in a town full of sinister children who have killed their parents. The woman is taken hostage and the man called "Outlander," by those holding his girlfriend captive.
- "We already played with our parents. Now we wanna play with you," is a paraphrase of a child in Pet Sematary.
- The splitting into two tribes could be a reference to Lord of the Flies.
- Craig is referred to as Spaceman Spiff, a shout-out to Calvin and Hobbes.
- There are many references to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome in this episode, especially the story told about "the before time."
- The reference to 'Carousel' comes from Logan's Run.
A Very Crappy Christmas
- The Lion King song, The Circle of Life is parodied here, complete with scenery.
- A Charlie Brown Christmas, referenced often in the show, is directly parodied here, with the boys shown watching it.
- Schroeder, from Peanuts, is seen playing the music for the recording of The Spirit of Christmas.
- Even a Miracle Needs a Hand comes from the Rankin/Bass animated TV film, Twas the Night Before Christmas. Mister Hanky's family mirrors the family of mice, with the eldest child questioning the concept of Christmas.
Season Five:
It Hits The Fan
- The show everyone is talking about is likely referencing Chicago Hope, on which a character said, "Shit happens." (It's worth noting that Chicago Hope was not a "Cop Drama," and the commentary incorrectly attributes the uncensored expletive to NYPD Blue.)
- Mr. Garrison's song parodies Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
- The red haired man at Excalibur looked like Eric Idle and the wizard there looked like Tim from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. When the knight died he did that long "ahhhhh", like the inscription on a cave wall in Holy Grail when one of the character dies.
- The dragon, Geldon, bears a certain resemblance to Maleficent of Disney's Sleeping Beauty (who also appears as a villain in Kingdom Hearts.)
Cripple Fight
- The fight between Timmy and Jimmy is nearly shot-for-shot the fight scene between Roddy Piper and Keith David in John Carpenter's They Live!.
- The Mountain Scouts' branding as a hate group is a reference to the Boy Scouts of America v. Dale case in 2000. Steven Spielberg said at the time that he was no longer proud to be a Scout.
- Jimmy's impressions include Jimmy Stewart in Its a Wonderful Life with "Merry christmas movie house" and John Travolta in Welcome Back Kotter with "Oh my God Mr Kotter! Mr Kotter, oh my God!".
Super Best Friends
- The Super Best Friends themselves are an homage to the Justice League of America.
- The boys going door-to-door is very similar to Mormon missionaries in Parker and Stone's film Orgazmo.
- The Blaintology headquarters are modeled after the site of the mass cult suicide in Waco, Texas. The bed covers on the bunks are purple, a possible reference to Heaven's Gate, the cult that committed suicide when the Hale-Bopp comet came around.
Scott Tenorman Must Die
- The plot of this episode contains elements of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. This episode also echoes the story of Thyestes in Greek mythology, whose sons are killed and fed to him by his brother Atreus.
- As in "Cat Orgy" and "4th Grade", Cartman quotes Pink Floyd's song Pigs (Three Different Ones) by taunting "Ha ha, charade you are!"
- Cartman's gathering the other kids in his basement and telling them about his plan to get rid of Scott Tenorman is based on Pee Wee's speech to an uninterested crowd about the theft of his bike in Pee Wees Big Adventure.
- "You may take our pride, but you'll never take my Goddamned sixteen dollars and twelve cents" is a Braveheart paraphrase.
- Kenny dying in this episode is similar to the way the Weasels die in Who Framed Roger Rabbit; laughing so hard they die and then their ghosts rising up laughing as well.
- When Cartman arrives in Ft. Collins a boy delivers a box to him. Cartman opens the box and is horrified to find more pubes. This is a reference to the end of Se7en, when Detective Mills receives a delivery box in the middle of nowhere and opens it to find his murdered wife's head.
- Cartman's "That's all Folks!" parody of Porky Pig at the end of the episode is possibly a reference to an earlier event in the episode in which Cartman gets on his knees and sings "I'm a little piggy, here's my snout..." to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot".
Terrance & Phillip: Behind the Blow
- The most obvious reference is the parody of VH-1's Behind The Music.
- The heads of the Earth Day Brainwashing organization waving their forearms in an arc are a reference to the Jedi masters in the Star Wars movies, who can override a person's intentions with a wave of the arm and a suggestion.
- "Who Farted?" is a spoof of the Abbott and Costello sketch "Who's on First?"
- The Hamlet scene is more or less line-for-line.
- The Terrance & Phillip Saturday morning cartoon is a parody of Star Trek: The Animated Series.
- Kenny being chopped up piece by piece references the decimation of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Cartmanland
- Cartman's rant about lines, lines, lines is almost shot-for-shot from the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas when he rages about noise, noise, noise. The rhythm of his dialogue also mirrors the writing style of Dr. Seuss, with rhyming and a certain amount of nonsense, plus the Dr. Seuss style art with the spotted strawberry, and the Dr. Seuss character playing the bizarre instrument.
Proper Condom Use
- The girls' fortress and the stand-off is a reference to The Road Warrior, with Butters playing The Humungus and Kenny being killed by a bladed boomerang.
Butters: (in a deep, raspy voice through the mike) Just walk away. You can put a stop to all this. Just walk away and we will spare your lives. Just walk away.
Towelie
- The idea of high-tech, important towels seems to reference The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The talking towel concept could be borrowed from Doonesbury comic strips, with characters such as the talking cigarette butt.
- Cartman says a few lines from the movie Sling Blade ("You shouldn't'a done that, he's just a boy," and "poor little feller") with an accent similar to that in the movie, when referring to Stan's mom's tampon he found in the trash. His line about it being "not for usin', it's just for lookin' through" is from The Outlaw Josey Wales.
- The way Towelie says, "Wanna get high?" harkens to the Cheech and Chong movie Up in Smoke, in which Chong is teaching a bird to say the same phrase.
- One of the soldiers wanting to capture Towelie suggests that the four boys "may have a telepathic link with Towelie, like in Steven Spielberg's E.T.
- When Towelie gets high we hear the music played in Popeye when the titular character eats spinach.
- The failed Towelie clone that they discover at the military base is a reference to the failed Ripley Clone from Alien Resurrection.
- Kenny's death by lava and the new, buffed-up Towelie reference Terminator 2. Also, Tynacorp looks like Cyberdyne Systems.
- Kyle reaching for the Game Sphere while hanging above magma is a reference to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which Indie strains to reach the Holy Grail.
- The soldiers in this episode aren't so much a reference to the HECU soldiers from Half-Life as they are completely based off of them in appearance.
Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants
- Cartman makes a reference to "Sand People," though the characters shown are actually closer to Jawas. Both are from Star Wars.
- The majority of the homages in this episode came from old Bugs Bunny cartoons:
- "What's up doc?" and the various Osama/Elmer Fudd take-offs. Both Bugs and Daffy regularly delighted in crossdressing for and kissing their opponents. Cartman's smart-ass Aside Glance to the camera while Bin Laden dined with the camel is something Bugs would do quite often under the direction of Chuck Jones. The signs ("screw-ball", etc) Cartman holds up at one point can be found often in these cartoons, although they never got quite as vulgar. The "Tiny, Isn't It" gag was a standard in director Bob Clampett's cartoons. In a series of MGM cartoons directed by Tex Avery, a wolf would lose control over a sexy redhead and go off in a series of wild poses called "takes". The takes of Bin Laden when he sees a dolled-up Cartman are direct parodies of this.
- Some references to specific WWII-vintage Merrie Melodies in this episode:
- In "Herr Meets Hare" (1945) a Nazi soldier battles Bugs Bunny. At one point Bugs arrives in drag as Brunhilde, riding a horse. Cartman's entrance in drag astride a camel could be a take-off of this. Bugs did the identical gimmick in the "Ride of the Valkyrie" cartoon.
- One gag was taken from a Bob Clampett cartoon titled "Russian Rhapsody", which dealt with Adolf Hitler. In this cartoon, the plane he is piloting is attacked by an army of small Russian gremlins, who proceed to demolish the plane, plummeting Hitler to his grave. His last line in the cartoon is, "Nutzies in de cwaziest people." Bin Laden's last line in this episode is an echo of this.
- Stan putting his jacket around the base of the flag is much like Linus putting his blanket around the bottom of the Christmas tree in the Peanuts Christmas Special.
How To Eat With Your Butt
- The hair sticking up on Butters' head is reminiscent of Alfalfa from The Little Rascals.
The Entity
- The scene with the two old ladies at the Grand Canyon with the narrator asking them how they got there is a reference to Hoveround wheelchair commercials in which two old ladies got to the Grand Canyon with them.
Here Comes The Neighborhood
- Will Smith saying he could finally live like a cowboy was a rip on his film Wild Wild West.
- Aslan is from The Chronicles of Narnia, and his design in this episode is nearly identical to his appearance in the animated adaptation. The way Aslan talked, though, is much like King Moonracer, the ruler of the Island of Misfit Toys from the animated Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Kenny Dies
- "I love Kenny McCormick and... I want you to love him too." refers to a similar line from Brian's Song, "I love Brian Piccolo....and I want you all to love him too."
Butters' Very Own Episode
- The scene at the restaurant, where Simpson, the Ramseys, and Condit start chanting, "One of us, one of us, gooble gobble, gooble gobble", is a homage to a famous scene in the horror film, Freaks.
- The old man that tells Butters about the walk back to South Park is based on old man Jud from Pet Sematary, who explains the history of the path to the Indian burial ground, with notably similar dialogue.
- As Butters begins to walk down the dark road, the trees take on an appearance reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, as facial features appear on them. Butters also encounters a Predator on his way back to South Park.
- The events of the episode parallel the well-publicized case of Susan Smith, who drowned her children and claimed they'd been abducted by a black guy.
Season Six:
Jared Has Aides
- When Jared is fired he's seen walking around town with a parody of Bruce Springstein's Streets of Philadelphia playing in the background, an homage to Philadelphia, in which a man is fired for having HIV.
Asspen
- The "hangout in danger of being closed" scene was lifted from Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. The whole plot of the episode took off on several 80s ski movies such as One Crazy Summer and Better Off Dead.
- The Jud Crandall homage to Pet Sematary makes another appearance.
- The girl who helped the boys out had two dying Kuatos, from Total Recall, under her sweater: In Total Recall Kuato said "Quaid... Start the Reactor..." to make oxygen on Mars.
Freak Strike
- When Cartman is trying to convince his mother to go on the Maury Povich show with him, he says "I have such a pretty mother, such a wonderful mother..." These quotes and this tone were often used by Rhoda, the sadistic little girl in The Bad Seed to win favor from her mother.
- In the crowd of strikers, you can see characters modeled after Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis, the subject of the movie Mask, and Sloth from The Goonies.
- The "True Freak Label" video that the freaks make is a shot-by-shot parody of the 'Look for the Union Label' commercial from the 70s, which showed the International Ladies Garment Workers Union singing.
- When Cartman appears on the Maury show and is arguing with the other out of control child about who's badder, he states he "ran for Congress, won, and then had sex with an intern, killed her, and hid her body." This is a reference to the Gary Condit scandal, referenced in the previous season finale.
- The scene where a man tells Maury that "the ratings have just started to plummet" is a play on Star Trek: The Original Series, where crew members often viewed computer displays in such a way.
Fun With Veal
- Stan's break-in to the veal ranch echoes the |Mission Impossible film, using the appropriate playset.
- Butters says good night to the calves the way The Waltons did to each other in the show of the same name.
- There are parallels between this episode and Dog Day Afternoon, including the airport sequence at the end, and Cartman's talks on the phone with the negotiator.
The New Terrance & Phillip Movie Trailer
- The theme song for Russell Crowe's show is a parody of The Lumberjack Song by Monty Python.
- Shelly Marsh insists on access to the television to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- The Russell Crowe show spoofs Steamboat Willie (Russell spinning the ship's wheel), Crocodile Hunter (as he observed his next fight), Popeye cartoons during the fights, Teletubbies (in its graphics showing rays of sunlight behind a globe), Theodore Tugboat, and Crowe's own controversies.
- The TV robot's laser gun noises (along with the screams that accompany it) are taken from the computer game Empire Earth.
- The TV robot resembles ED-209 from RoboCop, an image used more than once in South Park.
- The torrent of blood flowing out of the door references The Shining.
- The trailer for Asses of Fire II: Attack of the Cramps itself parallels the trailer for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
Professor Chaos
- Butter’s evil alter-ego is similar to the Marvel comics character Doctor Doom and dons a costume akin to X-Men supervillain Magneto. His behavior in class is reminiscent of Calvin's with his Stupendous Man alter ego.
- The song played during the contest is a spoof of the Friends theme.
- The competition used to find a fourth friend and the use of roses to show who stays is a parody of The Bachelor.
Simpsons Already Did It
- In Cartman's "Sea People" song, the castle shown is similar to the castle in Disney's The Little Mermaid. Riding sea horses might also be taken from the Little Mermaid animated series.
- References to The Simpsons:
- Scheme to block out the sun comes from "Who Shot Mr. Burns?"
- Scheme to cut off the head of the town statue comes from "The Telltale Head"
- Scheme to get money for a monorail and the skip town comes from "Marge vs. the Monorail"
- Scheme to start a website that spreads rumors about the townspeople comes from "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"
- Scheme to plant a fake angel skeleton as an artifact comes from "Lisa the Skeptic"
- Scheme to bring the World Cup to South Park so the fans riot comes from "The Cartridge Family"
- Scheme to shake up beer cans as to cause a massive explosion comes from "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"
- Forget world domination and just run away and join the circus - "Homerpalooza" and "Bart Carny."
- Professor Chaos notes this plot was done with the Treehouse of Horror short "The Genesis Tub". Chef acknowledges The Simpsons got that from The Twilight Zone episode "The Little People".
Red Hot Catholic Love
- The 'Catholic Boat' sequence lampoons The Love Boat.
- The name Priest Maxi is a reversal of Maxi Priest, an English reggae singer.
- The great queen spider worshiped by the Catholics is a reference to the 1970s Doctor Who serial Planet of the Spiders.
- The old monk in the St. Peter's catacombs, and especially the line "What is your quest, Father?" is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- Priest Maxi's adventures through the catacombs after the Holy Document is a trip through Pitfall!.
Free Hat
- When George Lucas doesn't give the boys the negative, he says "It is... too late for me, boys." This echoes Darth Vader's words to Luke in Return of the Jedi.
- When Spielberg arrives with his guards, their guns are walkie-talkies. This is because Spielberg really did change the guns in E.T. to walkie-talkies.
- In the fake commercial for the remastered South Park pilot, the Visitor's ship is straight out of the Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- Most of the last six or so minutes of the episode parodies Raiders of the Lost Ark, with many lines being taken almost directly from the movie. The deaths of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola parody those of the three main villains in the film. (Coppola's head shrivels up like Colonel Dietrich, Lucas' head melts down to a bloody skull like Agent Toht, and Spielberg's head explodes like Rene Belloq.)
Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society
- The main plot of this episode parallels the movie Slums of Beverly Hills, in which the protagonist grows breasts and gains a new level of popularity among the male crowd, and attempts to get breast reduction surgery.
- Cartman plays a game called "Lambs" that is simply a scene out of The Silence of the Lambs.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey is parodied while the boys act like cavemen, particularly the scene where Stan discovers a bone can be used as a weapon. Planet of the Apes also gets mention when the space shuttle crashes.
- Stan, while in his caveman persona, calls boobs "ahta", a word meaning "fire" in the language of the characters of Quest for Fire.
- The scene of Bebe's boobs conspiring while she's asleep is a parody of a similar scene involving hands in Quicksilver Highway.
Child Abduction Is Not Funny
- The Ghost of Human Kindness is very like the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol.
- "And I would have gotten with it again if it weren't for you meddling policemen" references the common line in Scooby Doo.
- The ram's horn and the way the children left the town is a bit like the Israelites leaving Egypt in The Ten Commandments.
- The sound effects when the Mongolians are attacking the city wall are the same sounds used when swordsmen attack buildings and walls in Age of Empires II.
- When Mr. Lu Kim pulls out his heat seeker, he says, "Say herro to my ritter friend!" This is a reference to Scarface.
- When the 'Sweet and Sour Pork' falls on top of Mr. Lu Kim from the Trojan Mongolian Horse, he says "I am gonna get you Mongorians, if it's the rast thing I do." This is a reference to Gargamel from The Smurfs cartoon.
- When Stan's father, thinking Stan has forgotten his identity, slowly says to him "Stan, your name is Stan," it is another South Park nod to Star Trek. It parodies a scene from Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, where Kirk tries to get Spock to remember their shared friendship in the past.
- When the Mayor commands Mr. Lu Kim to "tear down this wall", it is a reference to Reagan's challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev.
A Ladder To Heaven
- When Cartman sees things through Kenny's eyes, the scenes are similar to scenes in Being John Malkovich.
- The song being sung by the people gathered around the ladder is strikingly similar to the one sung by the Whos in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
- When the boys build the ladder to reach above the clouds Cartman is annoyed that they haven't seen Cloud City from The Empire Strikes Back yet. Stan mentions the lack of the giant.
The Return of The Fellowship Of The Ring to The Two Towers
- The episode is of course about The Lord of the Rings, but it also pays homage to the film in its plot. As the One Ring must be returned to its place of origin, so must the One Video Tape; it starts out as a game, but the plot eventually parallels. There are specific scenes from the movie that are mirrored throughout:
- To start with, the boys cower under a tree's roots in order to hide from the 6th graders, who try to sniff them out, exactly like the Hobbits’ first encounter with the Ringwraiths in The Fellowship of the Ring.
- In the scene when the 6th graders meet on their bikes, a building in the background can be seen which says “More Doors Doors” (Mordor’s Doors.)
- At Clyde's house, Cartman echoes Gandalf at the Gates of Moria, saying "Mellyn" to make the door open.
- The 'council' in Clyde's back yard mirrors the Council of Elrond at Rivendell. Clyde takes the role of Elrond, the kindergardener takes the role of Gimli, while Craig says the tape cannot be trusted to a dwarf, though he isn't cosplaying an elf. Stan takes the role of Frodo, saying that he will take it; Cartman closes his eyes mournfully in response, in the same way Gandalf did. Kyle is his loyal friend, and likely in the role of Samwise. Throughout the episode, Butters takes on the role of Golumn.
- Though Cartman is dressed as Gandalf, Jimmy is the one to take a stand and speak the famous line, "You shall not pass." The scene leading up to it has echoes of the scenes from Moria, with the conversation about being followed and the ominous, "They are coming."
- Crossing the river to evade the sixth graders is a likely reference to crossing into Rivendell so the ringwraiths are taken out by the spell in the river. (This came before the scenes in Moria.)
- The Butters knowses where the store is, just as the Smegol knowses how to get to Mordor.
- Butters falling down the chute after the tape mirrors Golumn's fall into the Cracks of Doom after the Ring.
- The boys pass by another group of kids who are playing Harry Potter.
The Death Camp Of Tolerance
- The Lemmiwinks subplot is a parody of the animated Hobbit, music and all.
- The death camp of tolerance itself parodies Schindler's List.
- The song Mr. Garrison is humming when he rides in on Mr. Slave is "On The Trail" from the Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofé.
- After Mr. Garrison's angry outburst, a character responds "But the museum tells us to be tolerant." This character and event is a reference to Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Apple."
- There is an actual Museum of Tolerance at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a museum in Los Angeles which focuses "on the dynamics of racism and prejudice in America" (this quote is used in the episode) and the history of the Holocaust.
The Biggest Douche In The Universe
- After Chef's mother exorcises Kenny's soul from Cartman's body, she says "this child is clean." This is a reference to |Poltergeist, in which the house is declared clean after exorcism.
- The Intergalactic BDIU Committee's ship bears a passing resemblance to the Vulcan ship from Star Trek: First Contact.
- The ship where The Biggest Douche in the Universe awards show is held looks strikingly similar to Boddole Zer's command station ship from Super Dimension Fortress Macross.
- The music played just before the Biggest Douche in the Universe Award Ceremony, is a sample played in the Heroes of Might and Magic III computer game.
- The song in the closing credits is a parody of the song played for the winner of the Miss America pageant.
My Future Self 'N' Me
- The electrical storms created for the 'time travel' effect is a probable homage to Terminator, where wind and lightning heralded the arrival of a time travel sphere.
- The montage of young Stan and future Stan doing stuff together spoofs Silver Spoons, in which a 12 year old moves in with his wealthy, childish father after being brought up by his mother and spending time at a military school. The line in the little song, "One of them's messy, the other one clean!" is from The Odd Couple.
Red Sleigh Down
- Santa's Fortress of Solitude is from Superman.
- The title and some of the plot of this episode is from the film, Black Hawk Down.
- The torture scene involving electrodes is a spoof of the torture scene involving Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon, including several of Santa's lines. It also spoofs the torture scene in Three Kings, with the torturer saying "My main man" and pouring oil down his throat.
- The two Iraqi children with large eyes are spoofs on the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials. At the end of the episode, the faces of Stan, Kyle, and Cartman also briefly reflect this style.
Season Seven:
Cancelled
- In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect," the crew realize that they are in a temporal loop. In this episode, the boys had the same sort of realization scenes, especially the "and then you said" part of it.
- The scientist, named Jeff, who helps Chef and the boys looks like a South Park version of Jeff Goldblum. In a reference to Independence Day, when puzzling out alien technology and action, Jeff follows unlikely chains of thought to come to conclusions that, curiously, turn out to be exactly correct. Eventually he gets to a point about uploading a virus to the alien ships, which is pointed out to be ridiculous by Chef.
- The opening of the decrypted alien reality-TV show resembles the initial opening of Star Trek: The Next Generation, that was only used during the first and second season.
- "Reversing the polarity" is a phrase from Doctor Who, said more than once by the Third Doctor. The sound of the power shutting down when Jeff tries to reverse the polarity is the sound of opening and closing doors from Doom.
- Chef driving the boys away from the aliens and performing stunts with his station wagon while an announcer comments on the action is a Dukes of Hazzard reference, complete with the car horn playing 'Dixie.' The alien giving chase impersonates the cackling laugh of Sheriff Coltrane.
- The children wake up aboard the alien ship, sealed into cubicles with a slimy substance. This is likely a reference to the Alien movies. The titular alien also appears for a cameo.
- The alien appearing as Randy references Contact, as pointed out by Cartman.
- The other forms that Najix takes on are: Santa Claus, Michael Jordan (in his Chicago Bulls uniform), Don King, Mr. Roarke and Tattoo of Fantasy Island, George Burns, J.J. Evans of Good Times (complete with "Dy-no-mite!" catchphrase), Saddam Hussein (singing the song from Warner Bros. cartoon One Froggy Evening), Missy Elliott, and finally, Frank Sinatra.
- The clip where people are running scared across a bridge is from the Danish monster horror movie Reptilicus.
- The plot where aliens are using earth as a reality TV show and decide to destroy it in the season finale was previously done in Robert Rankin's Armageddon. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is referenced when the demolition ball arrives to destroy Earth.
- The scene where the Joozians suck on the phallic extensions on their shoulders is a reference to the Mugwumps of the movie Naked Lunch by David Cronenberg, which is based upon the novel of the same name by William S. Burroughs.
Krazy Kripples
- The Legion of Doom was the counter to the Justice League of America, which Superman was of course a member of.
- The appearance of Gene Hackman as Reeve's nemesis was a reference to early Superman films in which he played Lex Luthor.
- The film The Cross and the Switchblade, about a preacher who moves to the ghettos of New York to turn the young members of several gangs away from drugs and violence against each other, has an ending quite similar to the one in this episode: the gangs are about to fight but are persuaded not to by the preacher's sermon.
- The Junkyard Band the gangs form is a Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids reference.
- At the end of the episode, Christopher Reeve is trapped inside the Phantom Zone, a square that is floating in space. This is a reference to the fate of Jor-El's enemies General Zod, Ursa, and Non.
Toilet Paper
- When the boys arrive at Mrs. Dreibel's house, Kyle says "We didn't say nothin' about no kids, man," a reference to Tony Montana in Scarface saying, "I told you, no f*ckin' kids!"
- The scene in which the boys toilet paper Mrs. Dreibel's house while Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber plays in the background is a reference to the film Platoon.
- Josh, locked up for toilet papering houses, talks and behaves like Hannibal Lecter throughout the episode. His dialogue with Barbrady, his restraints, and his escape are all homages to Silence of the Lambs or Red Dragon.
- The boat scenes are homages to the demise of Fredo Corleone in The Godfather II, though Cartman using a bat is more reminiscent of Goodfellas.
- Kyle's nightmares reference Nancy Kerrigan when she's being treated by medics after being attacked in 1994. In the second dream sequence is real footage of the skater crying, "Why!? Why!?"
I'm A Little Bit Country
- The main parody is of the Donny and Marie song A Little Bit Country.
- Skeeter's "Did you forget" part spoofs Have You Forgotten by Darryl Worley.
Fat Butt and Pancake Head
- The character of Ms. Lopez is based on the characters of "Johnny" and "Pedro" in the ventriloquism of Señor Wences.
- The scene at the mall, where Cartman has Ms. Lopez kiss Kyle, is taken directly from the 1979 movie The In-Laws.
- The last spoken line of Cartman's hand ("I wonder, will I dream?") was an homage to Two Thousand Ten the Year We Make Contact, where the two computers HAL-9000 and SAL-9000 pose the same question when facing shutdown.
- The man working with Jennifer Lopez at La Taco is former Latin sensation Gerardo, famous for his hit Rico Suave.
Lil' Crime Stoppers
- Stan's clothing may be a reference to Detective Ray Nicolette from Jackie Brown. Kyle's' clothing may be a reference to Marge Gunderson from Fargo. Cartman's clothing may be a reference to Detective Nicky Dimes from True Romance.
- The scenes playing while the boys discuss the crime scenario reference C.S.I.
- The scenes and music which have the boys interact with the lieutenant and his men are a tribute to The Shield.
- The scene in which the boys go into the strip club and the accompanying music are taken from New Jack City.
- The Peppermint Hippo strip club is a spoof of the Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen's Club, an actual place.
- The term "five-oh" for cops comes from the program Hawaii Five-O.
- Kenny's "Pakew! Pakew!" sound effect is likely a reference to the phasers in Star Trek.
Red Man's Greed
- "You had me at 'free blanket,'" is paraphrased from Jerry Maguire.
- The first time the Chief is moving into the town and the boys standing in his way is a reference to the famous incident in Tiananmen Square, in which one man stood in front of a line of tanks.
- Shock and Awe was a catchphrase used for the strategies employed during the operation to invade Iraq, which had begun when the episode originally aired.
- The main plot is of course an inversion of American history, switching the historical and economic roles of American Indians and European settlers. In history, American Indians were displaced from their homes by the U.S. expansion. In the episode, American Indians own a huge casino, and the superhighway they want to build through South Park is reminiscent of the First Transcontinental Railroad, which was built through Indian lands. The idea of giving the South Park residents S.A.R.S is a reverse of the Native Americans in history catching smallpox from European settlers.
South Park Is Gay
- The makeover scenes mirror the opening credits of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Randy and Cartman both have looks similar to Queer Eye's Kyan.
- Kyle's look after he gets his makeover is very similar to that of recording artist Mick Hucknall of Simply Red.
- The crab people could be based on the huge alien crabs in Doctor Who's "The Macra Terror."
Christian Rock Hard
- Token's bass is fashioned after the bass Rudy played in the Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids series.
- The tour of wealthy musicians is done in a similar style to the tour given Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol. The comment of an island without an owner is a direct paraphrase.
- Cartman on the bus writing lyrics on his palm is taken from Eight Mile. Eminem is shown doing the same thing on his way to a rap-off.
- The Faith Records building matches the Capitol Records building almost exactly; the main change was the cross at the summit.
Grey Dawn
- Cartman says "Mostly hippies go to farmer's markets... mostly". This is a reference to the character Newt from Aliens.
- The title of this episode and many of its scenes are a parody of Red Dawn. Specific examples include the AARP troops parachuting into the town while Mr. Garrison lectures his class on Genghis Khan and sees them outside the window. Also many of the townspeople rounded up and held inside a prison camp, with Stan's dad talking to the boys through the fence and shouting "Avenge me!"
- The scene where an elderly couple kills a fisherman is a parody of Jaws.
- The music that accompanies the cars in the sequence where the boys and Stan's dad try to escape the elderly is a parody of John Carpenter's theme from the film Christine. The episode doubly parodies the film in how the cars are shown slowly approaching head on down a long straight road.
- The scene in the abandoned house, as well as the elderly people's attempts to get into Country Kitchen Buffet, are satires of zombie movies, specifically Night of the Living Dead.
- The topical reference of this show is George Russell Weller's fatal car accident at the Santa Monica farmer's market in July 2003, in which he killed 10 people. The car Weller drove, a Buick LeSabre from 1992, is also featured in the episode, as the car which killed a man who was fishing when the car was driven of a bridge.
Casa Bonita
- "Meteor the size of Wyoming" is a probable reference to Armageddon, in which an "asteroid the size of Texas" is set to hit Earth.
- Zombies/radioactive cannibals seems to have a great deal in common with Twenty Eight Days Later. The homage is strengthened by Butters emerging and not knowing what's going on, much like Jim waking from a coma to devastation.
- Butters' new society is modeled after the one in Road Warrior, complete with headband, shoulder-pads, and Australian Cattle Dog.
- Cartman's dive off the cliff as police are closing in on him pays homage to the dam jump in The Fugitive.
All About Mormons
- Sharon's mention of "Clubber Lange" references Mr. T's character in Rocky III.
- "Alas poor Yorick," is a clear quote from Hamlet.
Butt Out
- The depiction of the workers in the cigarette factory is a reference to Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.
- Rob Reiner tells the tobacco company "You've just been Reiner'd!", a reference to Punk'd.
- Cartman's commercial was a spoof of one starring Yul Brynner, who died from lung cancer. The commercial aired after his death and had this line: "I'm Yul Brynner, and I'm dead now ... 'cause I smoked cigarettes."
- The man who first tells Cartman to eat the cupcake greatly resembles Gríma Wormtongue.
- Reiner's cry of "My goo! My precious goo!" is reminiscent of Oogie Boogie's final words in Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Raisins
- In one scene during the montage of Stan grieving over lost love, he is seen standing on a brick bridge looking into the water below. This resembles a commonly used scenario on Peanuts. This is further reinforced when a child resembling Pig-Pen is seen briefly in the school hall. The scene where a depressed Stan is visited by friends in his bedroom references a similar scene from A Boy Named Charlie Brown where Charlie hides in his bedroom for being a failure at the spelling bee.
- Stan's holding up his boombox while he stands under Wendy's window playing a Peter Gabriel song is from Say Anything (but it's "Shock the Monkey" instead of "In Your Eyes," which is what John Cusack played in the film.) Later, the movie was referenced again when Stan talked to the goths about hanging out with them after losing his girl. John Cusack did much the same with a group of his peers.
- Goth!Stan is seen wearing an Edgar Allan Poe shirt. His Goth name is 'Raven,' clear reference to the famous poem by Poe.
It's Christmas In Canada
- The scenes in Canada closely spoof The Wizard of Oz film, starting with "I don't think we're in America anymore."
- The initial encounter with the Canadians emerging shyly from hiding is very close to Dorothy's first encounter with the Munchkins, and the arrival of Scott garners a similar reaction to the arrival of the wicked witch.
- After this is a song about following the road, closely aping Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
- In Oz a Wicked Witch watched the protagonists with a Crystal Ball, in this episode Scott apparently watched the episode as it aired live on television.
- They sing, 'off to see the Prime Minister' rather than 'off to see the Wizard.'
- As the boys travel through a field they encounter a Mountie, rather than a Scarecrow. Then they encounter a French-Canadian mime, who seems to represent the Tin Woodsman. Traveling through a dark wood they encounter Steve the Newfoundlander rather than the Cowardly Lion.
- The group attempting to wish themselves to Ottawa has a similar feel to Dorothy wishing herself back to Kansas, except that in this case it doesn't work.
- The door guard and the sobbing plea for entry to see the Prime Minister echoes Dorothy's encounter and sadness at the gates of the Emerald City.
- The boys discover that the apparent Wizard/Prime Minister is actually just an illusion being controlled by someone hidden behind a curtain next to where they are standing. In this case, "don't mind that guy hiding in the spider hole" references both the film and the fact that a spider hole is where the US forces found Saddam Hussein in December 2003.
- Ding Dong, They Caught Saddam! is similar to the song Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead!
Season Eight:
Good Times With Weapons
- Amongst the weapons being sold at the weapons stand is a Klingon D'k tagh.
- The boys crying over their "dead parents" could come from the film Millions, in which characters often use their dead mother to get their way.
- The announcer recapping the episode and introducing the next one is a technique utilized in Japanese anime series, particularly Dragonball Z.
- The various designs of the boys' ninja forms are drawn largely from characters of the Street Fighter series of anime and video games. During their ninja battle, Stan does the same stance as Ryu. Kyle's appearance and pose when he first turns into a ninja is based off Fei Long. Cartman's design is based off many Street Fighter characters: his body is similar to E. Honda, his boots look just like Zangief's, his wristbands are similar to Chun-Li's, and his long hair is similar to Blanka's. Kenny's appearance is a combination of Ken, and Raiden from Midway's Mortal Kombat. Butters seems to resemble M. Bison from Street Fighter or Sigma from Mega Man X.
- Cartman refers to Mel Gibson as The Road Warrior.
- As Kyle struggles to throw away his weapons down a well, Cartman attempts to dissuade him and uses the words, "You know this to be true." This echoes Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back when he reveals he is Luke Skywalker's father.
- The idea to take Butters to a blind Veterinarian parodies a similar idea in the movie The Three Fugitives.
- The boys hiding Butters in an abandoned stove is reminiscent of the tv-movie J.T. in which the title character makes a similar home for a stray cat.
- The anime-styled scenes with the characters seen as shadows against a monochrome background may come from the opening credits of Fist of the North Star.
- This episode aired a month and a half after Janet Jackson's "Wardrobe Malfunction" at Super Bowl XXXVIII. At the end of the episode, the townspeople are enraged that their children saw Cartman naked, rather than being angry at Butters having a shuriken lodged in his eye.
Up The Down Steroid
- The title is a play on Up the Down Staircase, a novel that was made into a film of the same name.
- Jimmy's storyline parallels A Body to Die For: the Aaron Henry Story, a tv movie in which a high school kid wants to be popular and play football, but doesn't have strength, size, or stamina. A guy at the gym "hooks him up" with steroids and, in ten weeks he's buff and angry, smacking around his girlfriend and yelling at his mom. He attempted suicide and suffered two heart attacks, bleeding kidneys, and kidney stones.
- When Jimmy beats up his mother and girlfriend, it plays "Adagio for Strings" then goes to a shot where he punches his wall, falls to the ground, and the camera zooms away in a spiral shot. This is taken from the film Lorenzo's Oil in which Francesco hits his mother, played by Susan Surandon, after taking steroids for a rare neurological disease.
- Cartman working on his handicapped act at the Special Olympics uses Push it to the Limit, the montage song from Scarface. The competition montage uses a remixed version of the same song.
- The scene when Jimmy's father asks Jimmy if he was masturbating is reminiscent of a scene in the comedy film, American Pie, when one of the main character's father asks his son a similar question.
- Note: Cartman's storyline could appear to be an homage to The Ringer, but this episode aired more than a year before the release of that film.
The Passion Of The Jew
- The boys play Star Trek, and Kyle wears vulcan ears.
- The clearest Shout-Out is to The Passion of the Christ.
- Mel Gibson says several lines from various movies he's been in:
- "Two days ago, I saw a vehicle that would haul that tanker. You want to get out of here? You talk to me." is a quote from The Road Warrior. (The truck that Mel Gibson is driving in when chasing after Stan and Kenny is also from The Road Warrior.)
- When the boys find Gibson's wallet, he is heard to yell "Freedom!" offscreen while looking for them - a reference to Braveheart.
- Gibson is heard saying "Gimme back my money", which is a reference to an often-used quote from the movie Ransom where Mel Gibson's character is heard screaming "Gimme back my son!" into a phone.
- Gibson's blocking of doorways in different costumes and jumping around is reminiscent of a classic Daffy Duck cartoon titled Yankee Doodle Daffy.
- The eagle symbol that Cartman uses for his podium is the same one the US censors used to cover swastikas in the NES game Bionic Commando.
- Mel Gibson shouts the Klingon battle cry "Qapla'!" several times as he chases Stan and Kenny.
You Got F'ed in the A
- This episode lampoons the 2004 movie, You Got Served, as well as elements of Save The Last Dance (Butters quitting dancing because of the accident he caused, like Julia Stiles' character quitting ballet because her mom died in a car crash)
- When the Goths dance, it's just a slower version of the dance one of the Peanuts characters does in A Charlie Brown Christmas.
- The name of the arcade, Flynn's Sinistarcade references Tron and a video game called Sinistar.
- The 'something in my front pocket' song bears a resemblance to the thermos song Steve Martin sings in The Jerk.
- The deaths in Butters' flashback are similar to the deaths shown in several films: |Ghost Ship (the couple cut in half by a swift-falling cable), Saving Private Ryan (the bisected man collecting his organs as he bleeds to death), Final Destination (the man getting crushed by the stage light and the woman getting impaled by the rafters), and Carrie (the woman getting electrocuted by the stage light that fell on her husband, everyone running and screaming out of the auditorium, a man getting trampled as everyone evacuates, and Butters standing in the center of the stage covered in blood.)
- The song the farmer sings to his duck is a parody of The Crawdad Song.
- The final lines of the episode where Butters is screaming "No, no...!" whilst being praised, is similar to the final scene in Evil Dead II, complete with the "Raimi-Cam" shot into Butters' mouth.
AWESOM-O
- The 'Robot Pal' song is a play on the theme to The Courtship of Eddie's Father.
- Cartman/Awesom-o being taken by the government and Butters crying out after them is similar to E.T.
- "Program the memories of some eight-year-old boy who doesn't exist, and make the robot think he's real!" is a reference to Blade Runner, in which an android was implanted with the memories of an 8 year old girl and thinks she's real.
- The scene in which "robot"-Cartman, bound to an upright operating table, asserts to the military that he is human is reminiscent of a similar scene involving the Puppet Master from the film Ghost in the Shell.
The Jeffersons
- Cartman's reference to not wanting any Austrians in town could well be a reference to The Sound of Music, in which an Austrian Captain refuses to join Hitler's army.
- Mr. 'Jefferson' sings two songs to the tune of actual Michael Jackson songs: the song about the Wishing Tree borrows its tune from Childhood off the HIStory album, and the song about the power of change borrows its tune from Heal the World from the Dangerous album.
- The train and other rides in the backyard are taken directly from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. Dangling Blanket out the window is also directly from an incident in which Michael Jackson yelled at reporters out a window with his infant son hanging precariously from his arm.
- Mr. Jefferson is seen at the end of the episode wearing a red jacket, shambling, with plastic surgery falling off his face: a nod to Zombie!Michael Jackson from the Thriller video.
Goobacks
- The appearance of the "time border" with the lighting storm immediately before its appearance and the growing sphere closely resemble the special effects used to show characters arriving from the future in the Terminator series.
- A reference is made to the film Timerider, in which a young man goes back in time through no discernible method.
- When the "time border" gets wider and many "time immigrants" come through, it resembles a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- The hovercar looks Back to The Future-esque.
Douche and Turd
- Stan placed, bound and battered with a bucket over his head, on a mule and sent off into the wilderness like a scapegoat, is a pastiche of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
- The PETA Animal Sanctuary has some resemblance to Jurassic Park.
- The accented line, "Open the gate!" comes from Arthur, King of the Britons in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- The hybrid child of a person and an ostrich says "Kill me." This is a nod to a similar scene in the movie Alien: Resurrection when the mutated Ripley/Queen fetus says the same thing.
Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes
- In the movie Something Wicked This Way Comes, an evil carnival comes to a small town, tempts the plain townsfolk with its delights, and is seen magically assembling itself rapidly in the night. Two young boys discover its evil secret.
- When the Wall-Mart is "talking" to Cartman, there's a box of 'golden ticket' chocolate bars in front of him, a reference to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
- When the boys infiltrate the Wall-Mart to get to the heart, Stan's father approaches the boys with an ax to show them the bargain price of it. This shot of Randy is reminiscent of Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.
- The confrontation with the Wall-Mart mirrors Neo's confrontation with the Architect in the second Matrix film.
- The way the Wall-Mart collapses in on itself is taken from the movie |Poltergeist. As is the way the greeter says "All are welcome, all are welcome."
- When the people find out Wall-Mart's weak point, Chef says, "Spread the word to other towns" to a telegraph operator in a parody of the end of Independence Day.
Preschool
- Little Butters carries a blue blankie, a likely reference to Linus from Peanuts, never seen without his blue security blanket.
- The 'playing firemen' scene in which Miss Claridge gets burned is likely a reference to a horror film called The Burning, where a janitor at summer camp is horrifically burned in a prank that goes wrong.
- Trent Boyett's release from prison mimics Joliet Jake Blues' release from prison in The Blues Brothers, specifically the mentioning of items returned to him.
- Trent's character and quest for revenge are references to the film Cape Fear. He may also have a reference to The Punisher in his skull tattoo.
- Miss Claridge's condition and wheelchair are based on that of the character Christopher Pike from the Star Trek episode, "The Menagerie."
- In order to make the photograph of breasts, the boys consult Sex by Madonna.
- The "Little Gas Shack" into which Miss Claridge's out-of-control wheelchair crashes sells "Propane and Propane Accessories", a reference to Hank Hill's job at Strickland Propane in the animated series King of the Hill.
Quest For Ratings
- The music in Craig's show is a variation of the one used in The Benny Hill Show, Yakety Sax by Boots Randolph.
- Parts of the boys' trip scene, especially the fish-eye lens and distorted music, are an homage to the film Easy Rider.
- The monsters Stan sees in his cough syrup trip include Frank from Donnie Darko and Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars.
Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset
- While Butters digs the coal mine, he's singing a song that resembles Sixteen Tons, using a combination of the original lyrics and his own. ("You work eighteen hours/What do you get?/Your parents sell you/to Paris Hilton.")
- The Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset is made by Letcher-Price, a play on Fisher-Price.
- The four girls pictured on the box of the Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset are similar to the Bratz dolls.
Cartman's Incredible Gift
- The Greek myth of Icarus is mentioned by Cartman before he attempts to fly, and Butters makes an additional reference to Kyle, telling him not to fly too high or his wings will melt off.
- Cartman having an accident, waking from a coma with psychic powers, walking around in a long coat/robe with a cane, and assisting the police with investigations comes from The Dead Zone.
- The crime scene with Mrs. Crabtree's body looks like a scene in Hero and Terror. The quick flashes of the scene may be referencing C.S.I.
- Cartman and the other psychics mimic the music accompanying the use of powers in the movie Firestarter.
- The killer kidnapping Cartman, tying him to a wheelchair, making him watch slideshow, and the line "Do you see!?!?" all come from Red Dragon.
- The character design of the killer, Mr. Deets, is based on Ed Gein, who collected body parts from his victims. His reference to his mother and having her corpse comes from Psycho. His yellow raincoat was an additional nod to The Dead Zone; Frank Dodd wore a yellow slicker when he killed. Other elements of his appearance, character, and death come from Manhunter and Red Dragon.
- The police montage with techno music directly parodies C.S.I.
- Kyle blowing out the lights with his anger is a likely reference to Carrie.
Woodland Critter Christmas
- The voiceovers are written in the style of Dr. Seuss, closely resembling How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
- The premise is said in the commentary to be based on John Denver's Critter Christmas.
- Mousey Mouse comes directly from Twas the Night Before Christmas.
- The death of the mountain lion echoes that of Mufasa after Scar throws him to his death in The Lion King.
- The Jungle Book's Mowgli is called man-cub by Baloo and the other animals. The lion cubs call Stan man-boy.
- When the animals use their Satanic powers, Ave Satani from The Omen plays in the background.
- When Santa Claus draws a shotgun and begins firing on the critters, the music of "Adrenaline Horror" from the Half-Life soundtrack plays.
Season Nine:
Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina
- "Jews can't play basketball!" could be a reference to White Men Can't Jump. (could also just be Cartman ripping on Kyle again.)
- After becoming a woman, Mrs. Garrison flashes the cameras from the Girls Gone Wild pornography franchise.
- The song played when Mrs. Garrison and Kyle's dad are searching for Kyle is called Hunter Incoming, a track off the Metroid Prime Hunters soundtrack.
- Dr. Biber's name is a reference to Stanley Biber, a pioneer of sex reassignment surgery, who in 1954 was working at the United Mine Workers clinic in Trinidad, Colorado. His more ridiculous traits may be a reference to Dr. John Ronald Brown, who performed several slapdash sex changes.
Die Hippie, Die
- Cartman's hippy-busting gear resembles the gear worn by the characters in Ghostbusters.
- "Did you eat their brownies? DID YOU EAT THEIR BROWNIES?!" is a direct reference to Twenty Eight Days Later, featuring a similarly frantic question; "Did their blood get in your mouth? DID THEIR BLOOD GET IN YOUR MOUTH?!"
- Cartman barging in on a council meeting to talk about the hippie problem references The Day After Tomorrow with the line, "2 hippies are coming here every second" echoing "The temperature drops 10 degrees every second."
- The scenes involving the plan constructed by Cartman to use a drill to reach the center of the music festival is a parody on the film style of The Core and Armageddon. Both films have numerous references throughout the episode, such as the uniforms worn by the team, the drilling through the layers of hippies to reach the 'core' of the festival, which was the stage, the mention of nuclear weapons, and someone having to climb outside to fix the equipment.
- The drill machine itself bears strong resemblance to the Gotengo warship from the Japanese movies Atragon, The War in Space, and Godzilla: Final Wars.
- The term "little Eichmanns," which the neo-hippies often use in the episode, is a reference to the controversy over University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill's article titled "Some People Push Back" in which Churchill referred to the people who worked at the World Trade Center in New York City as "little Eichmanns."
Wing
- The Chinese Mafia leader bears a strong resemblance to Kenji Kasen, from Grand Theft Auto III.
- There are several references to Scarface in the latter part of the episode. The entrance to the Chinese Mafia's mansion resembles the Coral Gables mansion that Tony Montana resides in. When Kenny dies, Kyle holds him and comforts him, much as Montana does his sister after she is shot. Cartman says, "You want to play rough? Okay..." which, in the film, precedes the famous line, "Say hello to my little friend".
Best Friends Forever
- The premise of a video game being used as a training device for a battle is very reminiscent of The Last Starfighter. The game being used to command the armies could be a reference to the novel Ender's Game.
- The line, "Open the gate!" is said when reinforcements arrive at Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings.
- The line, "Basically, Kenny, you... are Keanu Reeves." references the back-to-back messianic roles Reeves had played, especially his role in Constantine, in which his character battles the demons of hell.
- "No, there is another," is said by Yoda in Star Wars when it's said that Luke was the last hope.
- Kevin, the hooded, hissing figure advising (and apparently dating) Satan bore a strong resemblance to both Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, and Grima Wormtongue, Saruman's right hand in The Lord of the Rings. The army of demons is very orkish and their preparation for war comes nearly shot-for-shot from Saruman's army of uruk-hai before setting out for Helm's Deep. Satan is also seen consulting a Seeing Stone, or Palantir. They go ahead and throw a lampshade on the homage when they have Michael compare what he's seeing on the battlefield with the epic battles in The Lord of the Rings films.
- There are also some parallels with Kevin Smith's Dogma, in which a coma keeps a soul (in that case, God) trapped on Earth and unable to save the universe.
- Heaven's army celebrates winning the war by cheering in a manner not unlike the moment of "much rejoicing" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- The story parallels a high-profile case of a feeding tube being pulled from a vegetative woman named Terri Schaivo, who was almost entirely braindead. Her parents opposed her husband in taking her off life support, claiming she was aware, and President Bush signed legislation designed to keep her alive, hence Kevin's whispering to him in this episode.
The Losing Edge
- The song playing during the playoffs is Joe Esposito's You're The Best from The Karate Kid. This is also the song Randy is singing in falsetto as he goes after Bat Dad in the South Park bullpen in Coors Field.
- There are numerous references to the Rocky films in Randy's storyline. Some scenes are shot-for-shot: getting up early and cracking eggs into a glass, and agonizing about not being sure he can go through with the fight. This culminates with a shot of Rocky Balboa's manager Micky urging him to get up and keep fighting near the end, followed by an utterance of the line, "I didn't hear no bell." Music from the films is used during and after the big fight against Bat Dad, who parodies at least two opponents from the film franchise.
- In the scene where Randy wakes up early and has some eggs (scrambled rather than raw, as Rocky drank them) the appearance of his alarm clock, the time shown on it and the commentary of the newspeople are a parody of Groundhog Day.
- The pitcher on the Denver team (with the mustache) resembles Danny Almonte, the fourteen year old kid who pitched a perfect Little League game (and was found to be too old to play in Little League.)
The Death Of Eric Cartman
- The first part of this episode bears a resemblance to The Twilight Zone episode entitled "The Hunt," in which a man wakes up a ghost, invisible to friends and family.
- When Butters begins to believe he sees dead people, he is cowering under the kitchen sink with a flashlight. This is inspired by a scene from the movie The Sixth Sense, where the kid hides from ghosts in a tent with a flashlight.
- Much of the plot could have been based on the film Once Upon A Scoundrel. In the film, a cruel land owner gets fed a sleeping potion and is then ignored by the villagers as revenge for his cruelty. He thinks that he is a ghost and that he has to do good deeds in order to go to heaven.
- The scene where Butters and Cartman go to the fortune-teller and the psychic freaks out, realizing she can see him, is a reference to Ghost.
- The scene where Cartman walks into the fields to "Rest in peace" is a reference to Field of Dreams.
Erection Day
- "Have you seen this? Have you heard about this?" - Questions Jay Leno always asks when presenting a news item to lampoon in his monologues.
- "Like a white Hitch." references the film starring Will Smith as a 'date doctor.'
- When Jimmy imagines everyone laughing at him on stage, the kaleidoscopic views resemble the scene in Carrie where she is being laughed at onstage.
- The establishing scene at Colfax Point alludes to Hookers at the Point, a documentary about prostitutes working the streets of Hunt's Point in the Bronx.
- "Let's get to r-r-rammin'!" is a line directly from the Prince song, You've Got The Look.
- For the talent show, Cartman does a select reading from Scarface, quoting the lines, "You know what you are? You're all a bunch of f*ckin' cock-a-roaches. You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your f*ckin' fingers, and say 'that's the bad guy.' So say goodnight to the bad guy."
- The song playing when Jimmy takes Nut Gobbler to the Ho-Tel room is Joe Cocker's Up Where We Belong. The scene comes from An Officer and a Gentleman.
Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow
- The title and plot of the episode lampoons the film The Day After Tomorrow.
- The townspeople running from Global Warming (especially when the doors to the gym are closed as the camera approaches) is a reference to the scene where the superfreezing followed characters through the city, into the library and was stopped by the doors being closed.
- Stan calling his father on the phone while the water level rises is a reference to a similar scene where Sam calls his father while trying to outlast the fatal coldness.
- The jammed road leading out of the town while people try to evacuate is highly reminiscent of Independence Day.
- The scene where Cartman forces Kyle to hand over his "Jew-gold" at gunpoint is very similar to the finale of Marathon Man.
- The final scene where everyone says "I broke the dam" is likely a reference to Spartacus where the title character comes forward as Spartacus, and the slave-crowd all claim to be Spartacus in an effort to protect him.
- There are several references to the response to Hurricane Katrina, particularly the various ad hoc explanations for the increased level of suffering from the hurricane and its aftermath and the anger and unwillingness to negotiate between all the parties in the Katrina relief effort, the media coverage that occurred during the hurricane's aftermath, and the Houston mass evacuation during Hurricane Rita.
- When the people conclude that George Bush was the cause of the beaver dam being broken, someone says "George Bush doesn't care about beavers!" in a parody of Kanye West's quote, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."
- The man with the shopping cart full of beer is a parody of the man seen wading through the flood after Hurricane Katrina with a bucket full of beer. He's known as the "Beer Looter Dude" and the "Looter Guy, Hurricane Hero."
- The giant penis Randy Marsh draws on the map of America is most likely based on a real National Weather Service wind distribution map for Hurricane Rita, which bore a resemblance to a giant penis.
- During the evacuation, only white people are rescued, while a black man can be seen left stranded. This references the accusations of selectively racist rescue efforts and media coverage during the Hurricane Katrina crisis.
Marjorine
- Reference is made to the film Juwanna Mann, in which an NBA player cut from his team dresses in drag to join the WNBA.
- The scene with hazardous material suits and the quarantine shower spoofs E.T.
- Much of the storyline involving the Stotches is a reference to Pet Sematary, with the character of Jud Crandall warning about the Indian Burial Ground bringing things back to life after a man has lost his son.
- The scene when Butters comes to his parent's door after he gets the device is an allusion to a part in a short story called The Monkeys Paw, in which a couple's wish for their dead son to return is granted, but they're terrified when he actually knocks on the door. They also refer to their son as an "it".
- The last scene when Butters's parents lure a woman to the basement and hit her with a shovel to kill her, and then giving her corpse to Butters to feed him is directly inspired by the cult horror movie Hellraiser.
Follow That Egg
- The song Mrs. Garrison sings on love near the beginning of the show sounds very similar to Love Changes Everything, the theme song from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Aspects of Love.
- When Stan is sitting at the coffee table and then at the kitchen table, his arms are drawn similarly to those of Linus and Charlie Brown from Peanuts; he has large forearms, with fingers splayed. At the kitchen table, one arm is resting on the table and his other hand on the side of his face, a pose often assumed by Peanuts characters.
- The scene in which Kyle reveals he had hidden the real egg and replaces the one "killed" by the assassin references Star Trek. Kyle asks Stan if he really thinks his hat is stupid (a comment made by Stan over the phone earlier in the episode). Stan approaches Kyle, and says: "As a matter of fact, I think it is the nicest hat I have ever known." Stan uses the exact same intonation and style of Captain Picard in Star Trek: First Contact, when he apologizes to Mr. Worf after calling him a coward by saying: "As a matter of fact, you are the bravest man I have ever known".
Ginger Kids
- "Daywalker" is a term used in Blade to describe Blade himself, who had the powers of a vampire with the ability to walk in the sunlight.
- The entire ginger convention in the Sunset Room at the Airport Hilton was a reference to the Roald Dahl book The Witches. In the book, the witches were working on a plan for exterminating children in a hotel convention room.
- The scene with Stan and Kyle are in the barn is an homage to Night of the Living Dead, in which people barricade themselves in a house against a wave of attacking zombies. The "breaking-in" scene has since become a staple of zombie films.
- The scene in which the ginger kids abduct non-gingers is a parody of a scene found in the mini-series Salems Lot.
- When the little ginger girl is standing outside another child's house, she is singing the opening theme of The Amityville Horror.
Trapped In The Closet
- The "alien souls" seen in Xenu's brainwash cycle resemble the Tholian race from Star Trek.
- John Travolta's voice is in the style of his character from Welcome Back Kotter.
- Trapped in the Closet is the title of an R. Kelly 'hip-hopera' in which he describes events in detail; the device of R. Kelly singing the events is used throughout the episode.
Free Willzyx
- The episode's title and general concept are a parody of Free Willy.
- There's a reference to singer Lance Bass, who was in the news as training for a trip to space at the time. He didn't end up going.
Bloody Mary
- The main point of this episode is to compare twelve step programs to cults and religions, and to state that alcoholism isn't a disease. Penn & Teller have made a similar point in their show, Bullshit! including the point about cancer being a disease and consuming alcohol being a choice.
- In the dojo, Cartman is wearing a Japanese 'rising sun' bandana, similar to Daniel-san's in The Karate Kid.
- The sound effects used as the Pope inches closer to the bleeding statue and his Aside Glance are definitely from Looney Tunes.
Season Ten:
The Return Of Chef
- When the boys learn that Chef has been brainwashed by The Super Adventure Club, the chords that play are sampled from the Heroes of Might and Magic III computer game, in which the same music sequence is used when a battle starts.
- The decor of the Super Adventure Club headquarters seems to be based on Disney World's Adventurer's Club, a club with a 1937 safari setting (L. Ron Hubbard once belonged to the Adventurer's Club).
- The scene in which Chef gets killed resembles the rope bridge scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
- The rebirth of Chef into Darth Chef is a parody of Darth Vader's transformation at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
Smug Alert
- The smug cloud from Clooney's Oscar speech entering Arizona is much like the clouds rolling into Area 51 in Independence Day.
- Stan's song, People Now is reminiscent of Get Together, an oft-recorded protest song from the sixties. The most well-known version is by The Youngbloods.
- The appearance of a radio DJ as a mouth and jaw may be a reference to The Warriors, where a DJ is seen as solely a mouth.
- The concept of storms colliding is taken from the movie The Perfect Storm (starring George Clooney) in which a group of fishermen from Maine get caught in a thunderstorm created from the combining of three smaller storm systems.
Cartoon Wars Part I
- The end of Kyle's dream is similar to Sarah Connor's dream in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
- The big wheel chase scene contains elements similar to the freeway chase scene in The Matrix Reloaded.
- Burying one's head in the sand is a behavior commonly attributed to the ostrich while feeding, and is typically used as a metaphor for hiding from reality.
Cartoon Wars Part II
- Cartman's "Let this be our final battle" line to Kyle before their fight references Masters of the Universe, in which Skeletor says the same thing to He-Man.
- During Cartman and Kyle's fight, they pass a sign for Cold Age: The Smackdown, a parody of FOX's Ice Age: The Meltdown, which was #1 at the box office at the time. Fox had placed static ads for the movie into their shows.
- The kid Cartman encounters at Fox studios is Bart Simpson, who tells the story of stealing the head off a statue from The Simpsons episode, The Tell-Tale Head.
- When about to pull the episode, the network president begins his approval code with, "Zero, zero, destruct." This is a portion of Captain Kirk's self-destruct code for the Enterprise in the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."
A Million Little Fibers
- Part of this episode addresses a controversy over a book titled A Million Little Pieces, which was found to be part biographical and part fictional exaggeration.
- The voices of Mingey and Gary can be compared to certain voices commonly used by Terry Jones and Eric Idle of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- Geraldo Rivera falsely reporting from Afghanistan is briefly lampooned here.
manbearpig
- The music played when Al Gore approaches the children dressed as ManBearPig is from Halloween.
- Gore frequently exits scenes exclaiming "Excelsior!" in reference to Stan Lee using it at the end of every "Bullpen Bulletins" column in the Marvel Comics.
Tsst!
- Cartman's statement that he is "sorry he chained Billy Turner's ankle to a flag pole, told Billy his lunch milk had been poisoned, then gave him a hacksaw and told him that the only way he could reach the antidote in time would be to cut through his ankle," is likely a reference to the Saw film franchise. (It could also be a possible reference to the Mad Max line, "You have a choice, hack through the metal or through your leg. Through your leg is faster.")
- The shows lampooning of Nanny 911 shows a flash of 'Nanny Skeksis,' referencing The Dark Crystal. This scene is complete with the sound of the Skeksis Chamberlin's whimper.
- Cartman's line "Yes! Let the anger come! Strike me down while you can!" is a paraphrase of Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi.
- The first part of the transformation Cartman goes through, where ghost-like images of his face appear and say his next line before he does, is a reference to Contact. The following transformations closely resemble the final scene in Altered States, in which Dr. Jessup fights off an "altered state" of physical being. During this struggle, he repeatedly throws himself back and forth between the walls of a hallway while his shape changes. Both Cartman and Dr. Jessup appear to have changing appearances resembling the static from a TV without a signal.
- The camera slowly zooming into Cartman's smiling face while the song Ave Satani plays is directly from the last scene of The Omen.
Make Love, Not Warcraft
- The French phrase Cartman throws at Clyde is directly from the song, Lady Marmalade.
- Clyde reading from a Playboy magazine and Cartman reporting that they've lost Clyde comes from Dr. Strangelove.
- When Randy carjacks a passerby, it is choreographed similarly to the carjacking animation from Grand Theft Auto III.
- The in-game scenes were all shot in game. The Sword of a Thousand Truths is an item in the game called the Sword of the Hungering Cold.
Mystery Of The Urinal Deuce
- The Hardly Boys are a spoof on the Hardy Boys, a pair of detectives whose exploits were shown in the Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew mystery novels and TV series.
- The conspiracy theorist has some |8x10 color glossy photos with circles and arrows. (...and a paragraph on the back of each one?)
- "He died like a pig" is a line from The Untouchables.
- The Chicago scene was reminiscent of a scene in the 1989 movie The Wizard (film).
- Cheney's lousy marksmanship is a probable reference to a hunting accident he had, in which he shot someone in the face with buckshot.
Miss Teacher Bangs A Boy
- The song Cartman sings when he becomes "Dawg the Hallway Monitor" is a similar theme song with similar lyrics to the opening credits of Dog the Bounty Hunter, which Dawg is basing himself on. The appearance of Beth, Leroy, and Earl are similar to the appearance of Dog's teammates.
- "The Mel Gibson defense" - the defense that people often say things they don't mean or do things they don't normally do while drunk. Miss Stevenson says as much moments later. In Mel Gibson's case, it was for saying seemingly anti-Semitic things when arrested for driving drunk in the early morning of July 28, 2006.
- The premise was based on some high-profile cases of blonde, female teachers sleeping with their teenage students. The most likely candidates are Debra Lafave, Mary Kay LeTourneau, and Cara Dickey.
- Debra Lafave blamed bipolar disorder for her behavior, much as Miss Stephenson claimed alcohol was to blame.
- Mary Kay LeTourneau attempted to skip the country with the boy she'd had an affair with but was caught by the police; they were married when she got out of prison.
- Cara Dickey allegedly had a suicide pact with the student she had been accused of sleeping with, though neither of them carried it out.
Hell On Earth 2006
- Satan's giant floating head appears to his minions much as the holographic wizard in The Wizard of Oz.
- Satan's behavior was, as stated, based on the girls from My Super Sweet Sixteen.
- The interactions and title card 'Three Murderers' was an homage to The Three Stooges, with Ted Bundy in the role of Moe, Jeffry Dahmer in the role of Larry, and John Wayne Gacy in the role of Curly.
Go God Go
- Freezing Cartman bears a certain resemblance to Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
- The Flying Spaghetti Monster started as a statement that there was as much validity in "intelligent design" as there was in saying that everything was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster, and that if one was going to be taught in school, the other should be as well.
- The opening credits to Buck Rogers in the 25th Century are copied to transition Cartman to the future.
- The machine visible screen left when Cartman is revived bears a resemblance to Max from Flight of the Navigator.
- When Cartman is unfrozen, one of the people is hovering upside down. In Back to The Future, Part 2, an old man hovers upside-down because of a back problem.
- The conversation between Richard Dawkins and Mrs. Garrison about changing the future is almost identical in terms of music and style to the mental-conversations between Baltar and Number Six in the new series of Battlestar Galactica.
- The crates in the battle between the UAL and the UAA seem to come straight out of the DOOM games, and the laser gunfight seems to come out of the opening shootout from Star Wars: A New Hope, between the Rebel and the Imperial forces.
- "So, it begins." is from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Theoden says it at the beginning of the Battle of Helm's Deep.
- The various fronts such as the Unified Atheist Alliance, Allied Atheist Allegiance and so on, which should really be on the same side, are reminiscent of the warring rebellious fronts in Monty Python's Life of Brian, such as People's Front of Judea and Judean People's Front.
Go God Go XII
- The opening credits spoof Buck Rogers once again.
- The army of ostrich-riding otters, along with the horn-blast music, references the ape cavalry in Planet of the Apes. This is also similar to the Ostrich Horses used by Earthbenders in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- The New New Hampshire Museum of Technology resembles the ruined Delphi Museum in the Battlestar Galactica episode "Kobol's Last Gleaming."
- The uniform Cartman wears while stealing the Crank Prank Time-Phone resembles the uniform worn by the electrical engineers in the sci-fi movie Brazil.
- The use of the timephone, and the effect that shows its impact on the future, is strikingly similar to Frequency.
- Some of the evolved sea otters are seen in hovering thrones resembling those of the Halo series' High Prophets; the Wise One's headdress also resembles that of the High Prophets in Halo 2. Otters are also seen with M41A Pulse rifles from Aliens.
- Doctor Who had a robotic dog called K-9 in certain runs of the show. The actual design of Cartman's robot, however, is closer to that of Twiki from Buck Rogers.
Stanley's Cup
- This episode parodies The Mighty Ducks and The Bad News Bears.
- The outfits that Stan and Adams County Team's coach wear, as well as the hair styles, are reminiscent of the outfits of the "Miracle on Ice" coaches Herb Brooks and Viktor Tikhonov at the time of the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Season Eleven:
With Apologies To Jesse Jackson
- The way in which Michael Richards scolds Randy about being "just another damn nigger guy" is a reference to a scene from the movie Glory.
- Cartman wanting the dwarf to say "Carol Anne, don't go into the light!" is a reference to |Poltergeist.
- The comedy club in this episode, The Laugh Factory, is the same place where Michael Richards made his infamous racial slur.
Cartman Sucks
- Bradley, Butters' accountabilibuddy, resembles Billy Bibbit from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, played by Brad Dourif.
- A homosexual re-education camp with clearly homosexual camp councilors is the setting of But I'm a Cheerleader.
- The suicides at the camp may have been a reference to Stuart Matis, instructed by his church to undergo 'reparative therapy' for his homosexuality. His suicide note said he hoped the Church of Latter Day Saints would learn to accept homosexuals.
Lice Capades
- Travis running through the forest of hair may be a reference to Apocalypto, especially considering the soundtrack.
- Travis' attempts to warn the other lice is similar to Dennis Quaid's character in The Day After Tomorrow. They both warn a vice president, who ignores their warning until things go wrong.
- The initial scenes with the shampoo are highly reminiscent of Volcano.
- The half-dissolved louse falling on Travis and begging for help is directly from RoboCop, in which a man bathed in toxic waste makes an identical plea.
- The "Forbidden Zone" is a reference to Planet of the Apes, where a similar desolate area exists beyond a civilization.
- While performing his test for lice, Cartman wears a jacket similar to the one worn by the character R.J. MacReady in The Thing.
- "If we find anything, we'll try to send help for the rest of you." is a line from The Poseidon Adventure.
- It is initially implied that Kenny will be punished by a soap and sock beating, an allusion to Full Metal Jacket, in which an underperforming soldier receives such a beating. In the episode, Kenny is washed instead.
- The scene in which Travis is rescued by the fly is a direct parody of a scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, in which Frodo and Sam are carried off of Mount Doom by the Eagles.
The Snuke
- This episode is a direct parody of the show Twenty Four, with Cartman playing the role of Jack Bauer and Kyle the role of Chloe O'Brian. The ticking clock and ring tones throughout are directly from 24, as is some of the jittery camera work and the frames of multiple people on screen. Suitcase nukes were widely used in 24's sixth season.
Fantastic Easter Special
- Stan discovering his father wearing bunny ears is a parody of the scene in Teen Wolf in which Scott Howard discovers his father is a werewolf.
- The episode parodies The Da Vinci Code throughout.
- The Hare Club for Men is a parody of the secret society Priory of Sion.
- Professor Teabag is a parody of Sir Leigh Teabing, and the way he introduces the conspiracy of St. Peter is very similar to the way The Last Supper is presented in both the film and book versions of The Da Vinci Code.
- When the ninjas are seen breaking into Professor Teabag's mansion, it is most likely a parody of Silas, who breaks into Sir Leigh Teabing's mansion.
- The scene where the ninjas attack Snowball resembles a similar strike against Katsumoto in The Last Samurai.
- When the rabbits are captured, the scene in which Randy asks another rabbit how he is comes from part of the opening scene in 3 Skulls Of The Toltecs.
- The scene in which Professor Teabag watches his "bomb" detonate, as well as the manner in which the detonation is shown, is a direct parody of the beginning of the The X-Files, in which a man from the bomb squad sits and allows a bomb to explode, blowing him backwards.
- A microwave is used as a bomb in Under Siege.
- Jesus's escape from prison by resurrecting elsewhere after Kyle reluctantly kills him is similar to the episode "Rapture" from Battlestar Galactica Reimagined, in which Sharon Agathon, a Cylon capable of being reborn in a new body upon death, convinces her hesitant husband to kill her so she can resurrect on a Cylon ship where their daughter is being held.
- The weapon that Jesus throws at Donohue is a reference to the Glaive weapon from Krull. The pose he does afterwards was from Blade: Trinity. The slow-motion sequence of Donohue's death is a parody of slow-motion sequences in Three Hundred, with each droplet of Donohue's off-focus, stylized blood shown spraying out.
- The pseudo-Latin hymn the Hares sing is a loose, faux-Latin translation of Here Comes Peter Cottontail.
D-Yikes!
- Garrison uses the insult, "Sugar tits," referencing Mel Gibson's arrest and comment to a female police officer.
- The bar's street number is 13280 which is "lezbo" in Leet Lingo.
- The conversation between Garrison and Allison in the bathroom references The L Word. The same reference is echoed later between Garrison and Xerxes.
- This episode heavily parodies Three Hundred:
- During the first parley, Mrs. Garrison echoes the lines and actions of King Leonidas. Mrs. Garrison says, "Choose your next words wisely, Persian", to which the persian replies "This is crazy!", which is then followed by "No, this isn't crazy. This! Is! Les Bos!" She then kicks the Persian messenger — though, instead of kicking him in the chest as Leonidas does in the movie, Garrison kicks the messenger in the groin.
- Many scenes alternate between slow-motion and speed-up action, accompanied with heavy rock music. A narrative voice describes the current action.
- Sepia-toned cloudy skies hover over the Les Bos bar, defended by 30 lesbians; the Hot Gates were defended by 300 Spartans.
- The character of Club Owner Xerxes was lifted from 300's Emperor Xerxes with similar mannerisms, appearance, androgyny, deep god-like voice, extreme height, and excessive amounts of gold jewelry. Both make use of lavish transportation, and use servants to step down from their thrones.
- In Les Bos, Mrs. Garrison can be seen sitting and thinking in the same style King Leonidas does in 300.
- Towards the end, Mrs. Garrison and Xerxes have one final parley. Like the movie, Xerxes places his hands on Mrs. Garrison's shoulders while offering riches in exchange for surrender.
- The film 300 was criticized for the depiction of Persians. In mocking fashion, this episode stereotypes Persians for wearing gold chains, hair gel, silk shirts, tons of cologne, designer clothing and Gucci accessories, and other stuff "only a Persian would think is cool."
Night Of The Living Homeless
- A good deal of this episode has been credited to the remake of Dawn of the Dead. The homeless closing in on the townspeople who take refuge on a roof is a staple in several zombie movies, one of which is Dawn of the Dead. The bus as a distraction was a reference to the modified buses in the film.
- The basement lab of the town's homeless expert is reminiscent of Dr. Logan's zombie experiment lab in Day of the Dead.
Le Petite Tourette
- Cartman sings, "I've got a golden ticket! I've got a golden twinkle in my eye!" which are lyrics from a song in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
- When Kyle is forced to apologize to Cartman. Cartman cocks his head and blinks his eyes (with accompanying sound effects) in a manner similar to Bugs Bunny.
- The tics of the spokesman for Tourette's might be taken from the internet's Tourettes Guy.
More Crap
- This episode takes story elements from the docudrama The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters where an underdog, Steve Wiebe, tries to defeat the record holder Billy Mitchell in Donkey Kong. Wiebe beats the record but is told that his machine may be faulty/rigged and that he must do it live. He beats the record live but then is trumped by a mysterious tape sent in by Mitchell.
- When Bono answers the phone, he sings, "Hello! Hello!" in a manner identical to the chorus of the U2 song, Vertigo.
- The "bitty" reference was based on the British sketch comedy show Little Britain, in which a full grown man is breast-fed by his mother and refers to it as bitty.
Imaginationland
- A Long List could be made of all the Imaginary characters alone.[1]
- The Mayor is based on Dreamfinder from EPCOT's Imagination pavilion.
- The scene in which Stan is crouched under the giant mushroom is an almost shot-by-shot recreation of a scene from Saving Private Ryan, in which Stan plays the part of Captain John Miller during the landing at Omaha Beach. The scene is spoofed right down to Ronald McDonald re-enacting the infamous shot of a man picking up his own dismembered arm.
- The mountain constantly in view is crooked in an identical manner to Gandalf's hat.
- "They are coming." was a statement of doom in a journal of Moria in Lord of the Rings. Gandalf's dramatic reading of the line seems to be referenced here.
- The last scene before the credits was from Rambo: First Blood, with Cartman dressed as Rambo.
Imaginationland Part II
- The Mayor is obviously attacked by Alien. Butters narrowly escapes Predator and an army of Stormtroopers.
- Cartman's description of his dream is reminiscent of Sarah Connor's description of hers in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The dream itself has a similar feel to a dream sequence in Gladiator.
- The Mayor's line about Butters tapping his heels together three times is from The Wizard of Oz.
- The imagination doorway is a Stargate. Kurt Russell is included with the troop of soldiers going through it to complete the effect.
- The path through the gumdrop forest looks like the board for Candy Land.
- Castle Sunshine is Rivendell.
- Cartman reviving Kyle is the resuscitation scene in The Abyss, shot-for-shot.
- The way the evil imaginary characters of Imaginationland poked out Strawberry Shortcake's eye with a machete is just like a scene in the horror movie Hostel, where an Asian girl got her eye poked out with a knife by a torturer.
Imaginationland Part III
- Aslan's speech is similar to King Theoden's in Lord of the Rings.
- The scene in which Kyle is sitting in front of the Lincoln memorial questioning his ability to stop the military from nuking Imaginationland is an allusion to a similar scene from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
- Perseus, Zeus, and Icarus are modeled after their characters in God of War II.
Guitar Queer-O
- Charles Kincaid, the manager for Stan and Kyle bears a rather striking resemblance to Reuben Kincaid, the manager of The Partridge Family band on the TV series of the same name.
- Thad sings "I quit. I quit, I quit, I quit." similar to Jonathan Schaech's character in That Thing You Do when he quits The Wonders.
- The "sex and coke" party scene is a reference to "The Real Party" at Don Roritor's house in The Kids in The Hall movie Brain Candy.
- The owner of the bowling alley, Mick, bears a strong similarity to the Coach from the Rocky movies.
The List
- There are numerous "ugly duckling" movies that have a girl get a makeover and become a total babe; the first step is usually to get rid of her glasses. Notably, The Princess Diaries features a girl with dark-rimmed glasses and fluffy hair. She's All That has a similar plot. It didn't work as well in this episode, of course.
Season Twelve:
Tonsil Trouble
- Cartman's outfit after he's diagnosed with HIV comes from Philadelphia.
- "Two brave little buddies who against all odds have journeyed across America to find a cure for AIDS; all they have is each other in a race against time." is an allusion to the 1995 Brad Renfro film, The Cure.
Britney's New Look
- Some of the plot of this episode comes from the short story, The Lottery. There is an old man who says that in his time people were picked by lottery and stoned to death, and his line, "Sacrifice in March, corn have plenty starch" is a parody of a line said in the story: "Sacrifice in June, corn be heavy soon."
- When the boys are attempting to sneak Britney Spears away from the paparazzi at the hospital, one reporter emits a piercing scream while pointing at them, identical to the behavior of the pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
- The episode alludes to the animated television special Frosty the Snowman when Kyle and Stan buy train tickets to the North Pole in an effort to save Britney Spears. This includes a bit of Jimmy Durante-esque narration.
- The haunting melodic chant sung by the Britney stalkers is similar to Ave Satani from Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-winning score to the 1976 film The Omen.
- There was once a chicken who survived without much of its head, similar to the Britney Spears character here.
Major Boobage
- This episode draws heavy inspiration from Heavy Metal in the animation style and action of the fantasy sequences:
- The songs Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride) by Don Felder, Heavy Metal by Sammy Hagar, and Radar Rider by Riggs are played when Kenny and Gerald are high. These songs were all on the soundtrack to the movie.
- Kenny drives a car in a barren landscape just as the astronaut does in the film's opening credits sequence.
- The bird-like creature that Kenny rides during his second hallucination is modeled after Taarna's mount, and the girl (and her outfit) has a certain resemblance to Taarna herself.
- The B-17 flying fortress that Gerald is flying is reminiscent of that in the film.
- A statue supporting the breasts of the girl that Kenny and Gerald are fighting for is referred to as the Loc-Nar, the same name as the green stone that plays a role in each of the segments in the film.
- The original film had numerous hidden breasts drawn into scenery like clouds. This episode satirizes this by having virtually all of the structures, inhabitants, and geography of the fantasy world sport breasts.
- Cartman hiding Mister Kitty in his attic references The Diary of Anne Frank. (Anne's diary entries were addressed to 'Kitty.') The sanctuary for multiple cats is a reference to Schindler's List; when he goes to rescue Rufus and his kittens, he's dressed as Oskar Schindler.
- Gerald taking part in a practice that he was publicly fighting against, followed by his sorrowful speech with his annoyed wife at his side, is a reference to disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. During his time as New York's Attorney General Spitzer openly and vehemently fought against prostitution rings; in 2008, it was discovered that Spitzer himself was a client of such a ring.
Canada On Strike
- Some Oompa-Loompas can be seen in the maple syrup factory during the strike song.
- All the 'internet stars' were based on actual internet stars:
- Butters' video was a parody of a real What What (In the Butt) song on youtube.
- Tay Zonday, the Chocolate Rain guy. His youtube channel remains fairly popular.
- Gary Brolsma, the Numa Numa Guy. He's attempted to replicate his success with similar videos of lip-synchs, but Dragostea Din Tei remains his best-known.
- Ghyslain Raza, the Star Wars Kid, one of the first youtube videos to go viral. The attention and bullying that resulted reportedly landed Ghyslain in psychiatric care for a time, but he recovered and became a lawyer.
- Cute Laughing Baby, from a youtube video called Hahaha that has nearly 200 million views.
- The sneezing baby panda video has more than 100 million views. In the video, the sneeze is high-pitched and quite loud to come out of such a tiny creature; the audio for this episode was a generic sneeze.
- Chris Crocker, best known for his Leave Britney Alone!! rant on his vlog.
- The dramatic look gopher video looks exactly as it's portrayed in the episode.
- Jay Maynard, the Tron Guy. His video talking about the meme his costume created has itself become a meme, with 4.5 million views.
- Afro Ninja, in which a man with an afro attempts a backflip, lands on his face, and stumbles around twirling nunchaku, was replicated faithfully in this episode.
- The Chinese Backstreet Boys and lonelygirl15 are visible in the background.
Eek! A Penis!
- Cartman's story is taken from Stand and Deliver. The school he goes to teach at is Jim Davis High School. Jim Davis writes Garfield, and the school Jaime Escalante went to teach at is Garfield High School in Boyle Heights. (In the movie, the students were accused of cheating and had to take the test again to prove that they didn't cheat the first time.)
- The body parts grown on mice is a reference to a picture on the Internet of a mouse with an ear on its back. The photo was a fake.
- References to Bill Belichick and the Patriots are from an actual cheating scandal that year; the Patriots were found to have videotaped signals of another team.
- The character of Melita has a tattoo of Betty Boop.
- The sketch of Garrison's penis by the police is a drawing of Mickey Mouse circa 1920s with a large erection.
- The duet between mouse and penis is a parody of a scene in An American Tail where two mice separated by distance sing Somewhere Out There.
Over Logging
- The Marsh family's drive to "Californee," shown in black and white and accompanied by banjo music, the transient camp, and the song Randy sings all reference The Grapes of Wrath film. The mention of Silicon Valley evokes the burst of the Internet bubble in 2001, which raised fears about another Great Depression.
- The first reveal of the Internet is a reference to the shot in Independence Day when they show the alien ship for the first time.
- The scientist trying to communicate with the Internet via music keyboard takes the tonal communication sequence from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- The end speech by Randy is inspired by the one Steven Seagal delivered about oil usage at the end of On Deadly Ground.
Super Fun Time
- The robbers are all characters from Die Hard, most notably Frans, who is a reference to Hans Gruber.
- The logo and decor of Super Phun Thyme is much like Nickelodeon slime; it may be fashioned after the Nickelodeon Blast Zone at Universal Studios Hollywood.
- Cartman's song is a version of Sigue Sigue Sputnik's Love Missile F1-11 with different lyrics. The song was featured in Ferris Buellers Day Off; Cartman and Butters' entire adventure in Super Phun Thyme could be a reference to that film.
- When Cartman tells Butters he has to chill, it's an homage to one of the most popular quotations from Ferris Buellers Day Off.
- When Cartman and Butters are riding the motorcycle ride in the Super Phun Thyme it mimics the way Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh ride a motorcycle whilst handcuffed in Tomorrow Never Dies.
- When the park intercom system comes on with an announcement, the opening jingle is the popular 3 toned jingle from NBC.
The China Probrem
- Cartman's dream reproduces part of the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Beijing.
- The scenes in which Indiana Jones is raped reference Boys Don't Cry, The Accused, and Deliverance, respectively.
- The episode repeatedly references Mystic River in which a group of children are traumatized and confused by a rape they have witnessed.
Breast Cancer Show Ever
- Many details leading up to the fight, including Wendy's intimidation of Cartman, the focus on the clock, and Cartman's efforts to avoid the fight are references to the movie Three O'Clock High.
- The music in the fight scene between Wendy and Cartman is taken directly from Snatch, as is the freeze-frame moment. Wendy's line at the end of the fight references There Will Be Blood.
Pandemic
- The Florida internment camp is drawn from a setting in Scarface.
- The monsters destroying the city is a reference to Cloverfield. The shaky cam technique is also likely a reference, though there are times when it's also reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, especially when Randy is running and breathing hard, and when he says, "I'm..so...startled," to the camera.
- The Director of Homeland Security says, "I really thought you had me at Miami," a quote from Jerry Maguire.
Pandemic 2: The Startling
- The two pilots who fly the boys to Peru bear a striking resemblance to Maverick and Goose in Top Gun.
- The temple with rope bridges and waterfalls is similar to settings in Tomb Raider games. The music in the scene is also similar to the game.
- When Randy and the survivors are in the grocery store, this references the film The Mist, based on a novella by Stephen King.
- The drawing on the cave wall of Craig parodies the film Damien: Omen II.
About Last Night
- When the McCain supporters are reacting to his loss, Mr. Mackey paraphrases a line from Aliens: "Game over man, mmkay!"
- The heist plot and characterizations are similar to Oceans Eleven. Music from the film is used towards the end.
- McCain supporters rioting for a place in a bunker alludes to The Twilight Zone episode "The Shelter."
- The speeches for this episode are pulled exactly from actual speeches from election night, 23 hours prior to the episode's airing.
- The identification pages for the candidates that Ike marks as "Deceased" are identical to those appearing in RoboCop
Elementary School Musical
- The obvious parody of this episode is of High School Musical:
- The character of Bridon is modeled on Troy Bolton from the films.
- The song the boys find the school singing when they arrive is a parody of We're All In This Together.
- The intro to the song that Stan demands not be sung when he starts wondering whether he will lose Wendy is the same intro to What I've Been Looking For.
- Kyle's hair near the end of the episode is same style as Corbin Bleu's.
- The film has a song called Stick to the Status Quo, paralleled here with Go With the Status Quo.
The Ungroundable
- The game the class is playing as Mr. Mackey gives them unrelated directions is Call of Duty 5: World at War.
- The poem Vampir is reading is "The Vampyre" by John Stagg.
- One of the vampire kids claims to be like Bella from Twilight (likely the main culprit in the vampire craze.)
- Butters yells "The power of Christ compels you!" at the vampire kids, a famous line from The Exorcist.
- Some elements of the plot are references to Stephen King's vampire novel and the film Salems Lot. In the film, the Marsten House is burned down, while in the episode it's Hot Topic.
Season Thirteen:
The Ring
- Obviously, The Jonas Brothers and the Disney marketing of them is heavily parodied here.
- "The Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Spectacular!" is a reference to the Jonas Brothers film, 3D Concert Experience. The scenes of foam being shot onto the crowd come from this film.
- There's a mention of Mickey Mouse feeding and slumbering in Valhalla, a reference to Norse Mythology.
- "Now we know." "And knowing is half the battle." is a reference to G.I. Joe and their educational shorts.
The Coon
- The opening shots of this episode are directly from Watchmen, with Cartman's voiceover similar to that of Rorchach.
- "The city calls out for me to save her," is likely from The Spirit.
- There are numerous references to The Dark Knight Saga. These include the phrase "Hero this town needs", Mysterion and The Coon's gruff voices, and the threat to blow up a hospital.
- The fight at the construction building is similar to Spider-Man 3 in which Spider-Man fights Venom and the Sandman before Harry Osborn comes to his aid.
- The man with the gold teeth and blue hat comes from a news report of a leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama. He's shown saying, "To me, it looked like a leprechaun to me. Who else seen the leprechaun? Say yeah!"
Margaritaville
- The scene of multiple preachers in the town square is reminiscent of Monty Python's Life of Brian.
- Kyle is portrayed as a Jesus-like savior who makes a tremendous sacrifice to save the economy and pay off everyone's debt. A dinner he has with his friends is portrayed as the Last Supper. Cartman takes on the role of Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, while some of the South Park residents form a council.
- When Randy's group wants to get the "Jew," Cartman scratches the chalkboard much like the shark catcher, played by Robert Shaw, in Jaws.
Eat, Pray, Queef
- The title and design of the Queef Sisters' book is taken from Eat Pray Love, a memoir published in 2006.
- The "Road Warrior" queef is indeed almost directly from the film.
- The vineyard tour Terrance & Phillip take with the Queef sisters is reminiscent of Sideways.
- The song 'Queef Free' parodies Born Free and I Am Woman.
Fishsticks
- The whiteboard Kanye used for analysis is easily a House reference.
- Talk show hosts Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, and Ellen DeGeneres were featured in the episode.
- Carlos Mencia's death scene, as well as his claims that he uses a catheter to relieve himself, are a reference to Lalin, a character in the crime film, Carlitos Way. There were some accusations at the time that Mencia plagiarized jokes for his show.
- Cartman's fantasy sequence involves him turning into the Human Torch of Fantastic Four fame.
- The Gay Fish song is a parody of the Kanye West song, Heartless.
Pinewood Derby
- While stealing the superconducting magnet, Randy dresses like Princess Leia Organa from the Star Wars films (specifically, her look in the first one.)
- A reporter wonders whether the first contact with alien life forms will be like the films Star Trek: First Contact or Contact.
- Baby Fark McGee-zax talks in a similar way to Edward G. Robinson, an actor known for such 1930s and 1940s gangster films as Little Caesar and Key Largo.
- The planet encased in a cube refers to Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Encounter at Farpoint," where Q put his alien shining grid around the Enterprise.
Fat Beard
- Many times throughout the episode, Cartman can be heard imitating Robert Newton, who played Long John Silver in the film Treasure Island.
- Ike indicates he will vomit if he has to hear more about Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer who gained worldwide attention around the time of the episode for her performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables on Britains Got Talent.
- When they decide to become pirates, Ike can be seen to be wearing the same outfit Jack Sparrow did in Pirates of the Caribbean. Much of the décor and music in the episode is influenced by the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride and associated film franchise.
- Kevin wields a toy lightsaber.
- The main plot is based on real-life piracy in Somalia, which began receiving increasing international media attention in 2008. The ending, in which the pirates are each shot to death by American snipers, reflects the resolution of the pirate hijacking of the MV Maersk Alabama in April 2009, where U.S. Navy SEALs rescued the captain after three snipers simultaneously killed three pirates with one shot each.
Dead Celebrities
- Ike's scene in the psychiatrist's office and his whispered confession of seeing dead celebrities is an allusion to The Sixth Sense.
- The Ghost Hunters make an appearance.
- Dr. Tangina Phillips is a direct parody of Tangina Barrons from |Poltergeist.
- The description of limbo referenced an incident when a plane sat on the tarmac for more than a day, not taking off and not allowing anyone to leave.
- Michael Jackson!Ike sings a song to the tune of Jackson's You Are Not Alone.
Butters' Bottom Bitch
- The pimp convention includes references to Pimps Up, Ho's Down, an HBO documentary about the pimping lifestyle, featuring real-life pimps. The scene in which the lieutenant calls his john a "nasty fucker" during sex, mirrored a scene from the documentary, Hookers at the Point.
- The Player's Ball has been a Chicago tradition since 1974, when it was first held as a birthday party for Don Juan, now known as Bishop Don Magic Juan. He is represented here by a pimp Butters talks to - the pimp's belt buckle reads "BISHOP."
WTF
- Various aspects of WWE are featured in this episode. John Cena and Edge, professional wrestlers who both work for the WWE, appear in a match against each other for the opening scene. The boys host a "W.T.F. Smackdown" event, a reference to the WWE Smackdown television program.
- Token's W.T.F attire is resembled to the attire of WWE wrestler R-Truth. Cartman's Rad Russian could be a take on the Mad Russian, who turned face later on and became the Happy Russion. Stan's costume resembles that of Stone Cold Steve Austin, and there is a wrestler called Stan the Man. Kyle's costuming is similar to Batista. Butters is costumed as The Miz. Jimmy takes after Mankind. Kenny, opting for a Mexican mask, is modeled after Rey Mysterio, Jr..
- The wrestling try-out resembles scenes from the Broadway musical A Chorus Line. One of the people trying out sings a musical number about why he wants to be a wrestler, which parodies the song "Nothing" from A Chorus Line. There are also likely references to the musical Fame, and the film Waiting for Guffman.
Whale Whores
- Whale Wars
- During one scene, Stan frightens off a group of Japanese whalers by uncovering a large statue of Godzilla.
- Cartman sings a Lady Gaga song.
The F Word
- Featured in the episode is Emmanuel Lewis, an actor who is portrayed as the head editor of the dictionary. This is a reference to Webster's Dictionary and Lewis' most famous role, the title character in the sitcom, Webster.
- The music during Butters' speech comes from the film Glory.
- During one scene, a television reporter repeatedly refers to a Harley biker as a "fag" until he attacks the camera. This is a reference to an on-air confrontation between NFL quarterback Jim Everett and sports talk show host Jim Rome, whom Everett attacked for calling him 'Chris.'
- Father Maxi holding up a poster saying "GOD HATES FAGS" is a reference to Fred Phelps and his GOD HATES FAGS campaign.
Dances With Smurfs
- Casey Miller and the way he speaks is a reference to Casey Kasem, a radio host of America's Top Forty.
- Of course, The Smurfs is referenced. Oh, and Dances With Smurfs, itself.
- The video announcements that Cartman makes in the morning have an identical opening to the Glenn Beck Show. Also, the way Cartman explains his point on the chalk board is exactly the way Glenn Beck does.
- When Wendy resigns as student body president, she announces the publication of her book, Going Rogue on the Smurfs. This is a reference to Going Rogue: An American Life, the autobiography of former United States Vice President candidate Sarah Palin, who had recently announced her resignation as Governor of Alaska.
Pee
- Much of the plot satirizes Two Thousand Twelve, in which much of the world is flooded.
- The Abyss comment is referring to the climax of the film, in which a diver breathes liquid oxygen to prevent his lungs from collapsing under the pressure of the deep cavern he must venture into.
- Randy holding a red shoe while coming to rescue Stan in the helicopter is a reference to Alive: The Miracle of the Andes. In the movie, a rescuer in a helicopter holds up a child's red shoe. A survivor on the ground holds up the matching shoe.
Season Fourteen:
Sexual Healing
- Specific celebrities undergoing "sexual addiction" therapy:
- Tiger Woods
- David Duchovny
- Bill Clinton
- Charlie Sheen
- David Letterman
- Ben Roethlisberger
- Kobe Bryant
- Eliot Spitzer
- Michael Douglas
- Billy Bob Thornton
- Michael Jordan
The Tale Of Scrotie McBoogerballs
- Shout-outs and references to the controversial novel, The Catcher in The Rye.
Medicinal Fried Chicken
- Cartman's plotline heavily references the plot of Scarface, including reproductions of scenes such as a man being hung from a helicopter.
- Randy gives a shout-out to the Battlestar Galactica Reimagined prequel series Caprica.
- Cartman's references to the Pope come from then-recent reports that a priest who had molested 200 deaf boys was given sanctuary by the vatican.
- Jamie Oliver is a chef and TV personality who is now campaigning for healthier food choices in schools in his show, Food Revolution.
- The song playing whilst the group of men bounce around on their enlarged testicles is Chicken on the Rocks, by Jean Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman.
You Have 0 Friends
- Cartman's podcast, Mad Friends, is a parody of a segment from the financial show Mad Money hosted by Jim Cramer.
- Kip Drordy bears a certain resemblance to Rocky from Mask.
- When Stan attempts to delete his profile, it responds, "I'm afraid I can't let you do that Stan Marsh," and that it is "going to have to put you on the game grid"; both lines are direct references to sentient computer programs HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the Master Control Program from Tron, respectively.
- The world of Facebook Stan is sucked into is a replica of the inner computer world of Tron.
200
- Mecha Streisand's new look mirrors the second rebuilt Mecha Godzilla.
201
- The scenes between Cartman and Scott Tenorman closely mirror a scene in the Joker's lair from the 1988 graphic novel The Killing Joke.
- The "stage Jesus built" is Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Crippled Summer
- The opening and title cards throughout the episode directly parody Intervention, as do the interviews with Towelie's friends, and of course the intervention itself.
- Are you ready for the good times? is from the movie Meatballs.
- Many of the campers at Lake Tardicaca are parodies of characters from the cartoon series Looney Tunes. Nathan and Mimsy are strongly influenced by Rocky and Mugsy, with Nathan taking on the role of the diminutive mastermind who is constantly thwarted by his large but dim-witted accomplice. Other characters from the summer camp in the episode resemble the characters Elmer Fudd, Pete Puma, Droopy, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, and Beaky Buzzard.
- The ukulele sequence, in which a potential victim's failure to set off an explosive musical instrument infuriates his enemy into showing him how to play it, thus setting off the explosion himself is a variation of a sequence seen in several Warner Brothers cartoons, usually involving a Xylophone Gag and the song Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms.
- The episode ends with a reference to 'Restore Stephen Baldwin,' a real-life website seeking to restore actor Stephen Baldwin's career and solicit donations to repay his $2.3 million debt. The joke compares Towelie's addiction and rehabilitation to that of Baldwin, who had a history of drug abuse before becoming a born-again Christian.
It's A Jersey Thing
- Characters in this episode are based off Real Housewives of New Jersey and Jersey Shore.
- Kyle's transformation to becoming a Jerseyite is a reference to Teen Wolf.
Insheeption
- This episode begins as a spoof of Hoarding: Buried Alive.
- The plot of extracting ideas/memories, the multiple dream levels, and many of the characters are based off Inception.
- Randy Marsh becoming a butterfly is a reference to the anime film Paprika.
- The scene in which Freddy Krueger is visited by Dr. Chinstrap at his cabin is a parody of a similar scene from X Men Origins Wolverine. Krueger comes from the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, in which he kills victims in their dreams.
Coon 2: Hindsight
- The Coon's slow-motion attack on members of his gang to the Overture of the Thieving Magpie is straight out of A Clockwork Orange.
- Cthulhu and the other monstrous abominations are drawn from the works of horror/science fiction author H.P. Lovecraft.
Mysterion Rises
- The question marks flitting around and the appearance of the episode title is a direct homage to the opening credits of Batman Begins.
- Like Cthulhu, the Necronomicon is from the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
- The reference to a "retroactive spider" contributing to Captain Hindsight's powers is a shout-out to Spider-Man and his radioactive spider bite.
- The interaction between the Coon and Cthulhu in which Cartman climbs up a sleeping Cthulhu's belly and talks to him is a shot-for-shot reference to My Neighbor Totoro. Their song is also a direct reference to the anime.
- The name "Mysterion" may be a reference to the 1968 marionette TV series Captain Scarlet, as that show's lead character is immortal; though he is killed in many episodes, he repeatedly returns to life, a power he has gained from the Mysterons, an alien race.
- The Coon riding a flying Cthulhu with both arms over his head mirrors Bastion riding Falcor in The Neverending Story.
- The 'What Should I Do?' sequence is a direct parody of a Nike commercial starring LeBron James.
Coon vs. Coon and Friends
- There's a minor shout-out to the Double Rainbow viral video meme.
- Cartman kneading Cthulhu's back comes from Marc Antony the dog and Pussyfoot the cat from Feed the Kitty, a Looney Tunes short in which the tiny kitten Pussyfoot would knead Marc Antony's back, and Marc would grin and let Pussyfoot sleep there.
- Mintberry Crunch's origin bears a strong resemblance to that of Superman.
Creme Fraiche
- The theme song to Randy's cooking show is a parody of the Trololo song performed by Eduard Khil.
- The scene with Sharon and the Shake Weight sitting on beach chairs bears a striking resemblance to a series of Corona commercials.
- Cooking shows referenced include, Good Eats, Hells Kitchen, Paula's Home Cooking, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Iron Chef.
- The commentary mentions Michael Landon during the final scene where Shake Weight says goodbye, likely a reference to his part in Highway to Heaven.
Season Fifteen:
Humancentipad
- The hideous contraption Kyle is made part of is a direct reference to The Human Centipede.
- The Genius' 'Quickening' comes from Highlander.
- The Apple genius' line "Kali fi!" comes from the Star Trek episode "Amok Time."
- "I've even been to me" refers to the song Never Been To Me, by Charlene.
Funnybot
- Funnybot shares several characteristics with the Daleks, a villain species from the long-running BBC television series Doctor Who: in addition to a similar body shape, Funnybot also possesses a plunger-like apparatus similar to that of the Daleks, as well as the staccato delivery, harsh tone, and rising inflection of the Dalek voice. At one point in the episode, Funnybot delivers the Dalek catchphrase, "Ex-term-i-nate!" in the same frantic electronic voice.
- Funnybot is also partially based on the space probe called Nomad from Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Changeling", to which the episode contains other references, such as the manner in which the boys finally dispose of the robot, (confusing it with a Logic Bomb) and its frequent use of the phrases "I am Funnybot" ("I am Nomad") and "non sequiter."
- Funnybot's search mode for picking audience members to target resembles that of the Terminator.
- Bits of funnybot also come from Star Wars, specifically the appendage used to plug in to the computer coming directly from R2-D2, and the shape of the head bearing quite a resemblance to the interrogation droid seen advancing on Princess Leia in A New Hope.
- Funnybot playing all the roles in a family is a reference to Eddie Murphy's The Klumps.
- Tyler Perry spends the majority of the episode in his Madea character.
- Charlie Sheen's predicament is referenced with a poster outside Funnybot's dressing room for One And A Half Men.
Royal Pudding
- The song in Garrison's math lesson is Bibbiti-Bobbiti-Boo from Disney's Cinderella.
- The tiny mushroom people of Novia Scotia are reminiscent of Toad from the Super Mario Bros. games. Tooth Decay also resembles Bowser, and the castle resembles one from the original Super Mario Bros.
- The play bears an uncanny resemblance to Bert's Tooth Decay from Sesame Street.
- Ugly Bob's hideousness turning the monster to stone comes from the myth of Medusa.
T.M.I.
- T.M.I. spoofs B.M.I. or body Mass Index, which has a semi-complicated formula. (This may also be a reference to the complex and nonsensical formula used by Harold Camping to predict the rapture.)
- In the beginning of the episode Butters is talking about the new Terminator movie, involving a child of the Terminator, born ten years ago, and the ensuing battle with "Skeletor." This is a reference to the recent events surrounding Arnold Schwarzenegger, his extra-marital lovechild, and Maria Shriver.
- The full name of a minor character named "Leroy" was revealed to be Leeroy Jenkins.
Crack Baby Athletic Association
- The Sarah McLachlan commercials for crack babies are a direct reference to ASPCA commercials with her song Angel playing in the background, and a personal plea from the artist to adopt an abandoned animal.
- Cartman's scheming is a nod to Wall Street.
- Cartman giving his middle initial as 'P' (when his middle name is Theodore) is a likely nod to The Dukes of Hazzard's Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane.
- Cartman in a hot tub of gravy, eating his french fry, is reminiscent of Tony Montana in a hot tub smoking his cigar.
- The ending is a direct parody of the end of Miracle On Thirty Fourth Street.
City Sushi
- One of the lines Dr. Janus spouts is from The Outlaw Josey Wales; "The horned toad says we should go to Mexico."
- The name of Dr. Janus himself comes from the Roman deity Janus Bifrons, most often depicted with two faces or heads. Other depictions of this sort are called 'Janus figures.' While the symbology is of looking towards the future and the past at once, it's also come to represent two-facedness or multiple personalities.
- The time-lapse tape Butters sets up looks very similar to something from Paranormal Activity, which is lampshaded.
- The "wouldn't even hurt a fly" ending is a direct reference to the ending of Psycho.
You're Getting Old
- Stevie Nicks gets a namedrop, and her song Landslide is used at the end.
- The arcade game Custer's Revenge is in the bowling alley where Randy performs.
Ass Burgers
- Terra Nova is lampooned in a preview for "Jurassic Park and Lost in the same TV show!"
- Cartman sings Heart Light by Neil Diamond.
- The Secret Society of Cynics has several expies from The Matrix, with the most obvious being the leader, who looks and explains the situation like Morpheus, and one woman who looks exactly like Trinity. (To go back into the 'matrix' world they knew, they drink whiskey rather than plug into a machine.)
- The fighting to reveal the illusion of "alien brainwaves" to everyone could come from They Live!.
- Stan goes to see Adam Sandler's Jack and Jill.
- The mention of "rock creatures" is a likely reference to RuneScape.
- The annoying morning DJs talk about the new season of Two and A Half Men.
The Last of the Meheecans
- The episode title, and its appearance in the episode, was of course a nod to The Last of the Mohicans.
- Randy's Big No was a soundbite lifted from Star Wars.
- Butters waking up naked, throwing the wooden doors open, and being greeted by an unexpected crowd of admirers was a shot-for-shot scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian.
- The scenes at the border were a riff on Border Wars, especially the voiceover sequence.
- The chase commentary on the radio was done in the style of a soccer (or, as they would call it, 'futball') match.
- When Cartman joins the border patrol in Texas, he refers to himself as "Eric T. Cartman"
- It should be noted that his (longstanding) full name is Eric Theodore Cartman, so the name in and of itself may not be a shout-out.
Bass to Mouth
- The Eavesdropper website and the drama it causes in the school is basically the plot of Gossip Girl, and "Bass to Mouth" could be a reference to GG character Chuck Bass.
- The rat, Wikileaks, has hair resembling Julian Assange's.
- The return of Lemmiwinks means a return of music akin to the animated The Hobbit.
- Minor references are made to Twitter, a recent phone-hacking scandal, and reports of suicides resulting from bullying behavior.
- The two rodents in a Cain and Abel situation, as well as as the pressure from the other talking animal characters, has led to some comparisons to be made with The Secret of NIMH 2; considering that the evil brother in both cases is pretty much Stupid Evil...
- Wikileaks is referring to wikileaks and the giant scandal behind that where American secrets were published.
Broadway Bro Down
- Broadway shows seen or mentioned by Randy and Sharon include Wicked, Jersey Boys, South Pacific, Cats, Anything Goes, Godspell, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Sunday in The Park With George, Lion King, and Mamma Mia! Parker and Stone's Tony-winning The Book of Mormon gets a tiny ad at the end of the episode, after Randy and Sharon discuss musicals coming to Denver next. (The national tour of Book of Mormon is set to launch in Denver in 2012)
- Shelley and Larry play Settlers of Catan on X-Box.
- Andrew Lloyd Webber actually has a musical entitled The Woman in White.
- Randy "putting an end to Broadway" in a Spider-Man costume is a rip on Turn Off the Dark, which suffered from injuries, citations for safety violations, budget overruns, and poor reviews before finally opening to some success. (Parker and Stone stated in an interview on The Daily Show that they had early fears of losing a Tony to Bono, and were glad the fears were ultimately unfounded.)
1%
- Muscleman Mark bears a striking resemblance to fashion designer Marc Jacobs. (check for the Rumpertumpkin and Clyde Frog tattoos on Mark's arm.)
- The 99% vs 1% protest storyline is a Ripped from the Headlines take on the Occupy Wall Street movement.
- Muscleman Mark boiling on the stove recreates the famous scene from Fatal Attraction.
- The multiple personalities, ventriloquism, and violence could be drawn from the film Magic.
- The line, "Say hello to the sunrise for me" could be a reference to The Lady from Shanghai, which contains a similar line, as well as a statement that "killing you is killing myself."
A History Channel Thanksgiving
- The beginning of this episode heavily lampoons The History Channel running programs like Ancient Aliens and Monster Quest.
- The main parody running through the Miles Standish storyline is of Thor, though his comment about whoever controls the stuffing controling the universe alludes to Dune.
- Nobody really cares about the Green Lantern Planet.
The Poor Kid
- White Trash in Trouble parodies programs like COPS and Campus PD
Season Sixteen:
Reverse Cowgirl
- The scene where workers are quietly telling Betsy Donovan's husband that releasing her will kill her is reminiscent of Signs, where the truck is the only thing holding the woman's organs in place.
- Ghosts being summoned in court? Sounds more than a little bit Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney-esque.
Cash for Gold
- Stan telling Home Shopping people to kill themselves is reminescent of what Bill Hicks used to say about advertisers.
- In a pile of gold ready to be melted down, there's an Oscar for Sean Penn's role in Milk.
Faith Hilling
- Faith Hill (and the football song she sang to the tune of Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself for Loving You")
- Taylor Swift
- The "Oh Long Johnson" cat.
Jewpacabra
- Cartman's creature is based partly on legends of the Chupacabra. Of course, it goes from drinking goat blood to child blood fairly quickly in his rendition.
- The "bigfoot hunters" are a parody of Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot team.
- Cartman's hallucination stems from Exodus in The Bible.
Butterballs
- There's at least some commentary about the 2012 documentary entitled Bully (most notably, the question of "why not put it on the internet?" after the film had problems with the "R" rating blocking their target audience.)
- Stan's video is a likely take-off on Lip Dub videos some High Schools and Universities have created to promote their schools. This one in particular.
- Butters flips out on The Doctor Oz Show.
- Stan's nude dance in San Diego references Kony 2012 director Jason Russell pacing naked in the street and muttering. (though not, according to video of the event, "jacking it")
I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining
- The premise is a parody of I Shouldn't Be Alive, including the narrator from the show, and a crappy reenactment of events.
- Medical animations were once a staple on House.
- As well on 1000 Ways to Die.
Cartman Finds Love
- Mr. Garrison has a lesson on the history of Westoros.
- ↑ (such a list is in the works)
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