Image from South Park Studios
South Park is one of those shows that always nails satire and does it almost perfectly every time. This episode decided to go for the Apple phenomenon. Everyone wants an iDevice right now it seems. There are a few that don’t, but hey, to each his own, right?
Anyway, the episode got a few things right. It was funny and pretty much said it the way it is. Let’s take a look at what yesterday’s episode of South Park got right.
Warning, possible spoilers ahead.
1) Everybody’s using them and we take it everywhere
During the opening scenes, Cartman shows off a bit of the elitist attitude that comes from some fanboys. All the kids who own one are playing around with their iPads while those who don’t get laughed at by Cartman.
2) Don’t Read the Terms?
Most of us don’t read the terms when we update iTunes. We don’t even know what we are agreeing to most of the time. Heck, even if we do read it, we have little idea what we are agreeing to because it covers just about everything, even possibilities that the companies haven’t considered yet. You have two choices: Agree to the terms or disagree and be the proud owner of a $500+ paperweight. Still, this shows that reading the terms can mean that you pretty much agreed to anything they feel like doing, even if it’s figuratively feeding you crap you don’t want and having you in turn feed it to someone else.
3) Steve Jobs Keynote
Apple’s keynotes are typically longer than five minutes, but they got the idea down. A crowd of people sits as Steve Jobs walks on stage (though he’s usually not introduced and all he really has to do is walk on stage to get a standing ovation) and he’s actually the CEO of Apple not the president. Still, the keynote was funny, and the mood was about right.
4) Apple store
Yup, it looked like an Apple Store. The brown wooden tables and the Macs everywhere. It was funny, and it reminded us of our trips to the Apple Store. Though that may be partly because of this next one.
5) Genius Bar
The Genius Bar. This was great. The Genius at his bar with his MacBook Pro. “Would you like a refund or exchange” and the whole idea of the replacement friend was funny. Then consulting the other genius and the whole “so should I just offer them an exchange” stuff was great.
6) Apple ID
When they ask for Kyle’s Apple ID is another nice little touch. It seems that Apple knows everything about you with your Apple ID. It truly is the key to all things they know about us, which reminds us.
7) Location Tracking
This one came up last week. Though it’s been said that Apple is not tracking us, this episode of South Park turned it into a bit of a joke with the Apple secret agent-type guys hunting down Kyle. He can’t fight it, because…well, he agreed to the terms. Even the one that says that Apple may attach him to the butt of another person and may attach that person to their butt. But hey, no one reads the terms, right?
Cult Mentality
We like our Apple devices, but some people turn it into an obsession. Sure, the iTruck is taking it a bit far, but sometimes it comes to tattoos and other stuff. Some people’s love for Apple goes way beyond anything we think is healthy. What if you decide you don’t want a Mac later? That Apple logo isn’t easy to take off your arm. Bonus points for Kyle’s dad being a Windows guy and not understanding the whole cult mentality.
9) The “Other” Tablets (sort of)
While Cartman is at Best Buy and trying to buy an iPad (which they actually priced correctly) his mom suggests some of the other tablets. Cartman being the little douchebag that he is, wants the most expensive iPad just to show off to the other kids. He’s that kid who probably doesn’t even know what an iPad is, he just wants it to be part of the in crowd. Funny thing is, nobody cares about those other tablets in this episode. It kinda holds true. While there are plenty of tablets on the way, many don’t get the recognition the iPad does. Though most of those tablets aren’t actually cheaper if they are by a major brand name. They often run the same price.
10) Apple and Best Buy
Apple and Best Buy have some big event going on in this episode near the end. While it’s unlike Steve to present at something like this, it’s known that Apple and Best Buy are like best friends in the retail area. Apple supplies Best Buy with tons of their products, because the retailer is probably one of their biggest sellers.
Other Stuff
This episode was loaded with commentary on Apple’s popularity. It’s worth a few good laughs, and can be watched online at South Park Studios: SouthParkStudios.com. Remember, not safe for work, and not appropriate for younger audiences. You will need Flash player or an iPad (or iPhone) with the Skyfire browser.
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Honestly I thought it was a bad episode. I love southpark, but I thought the functionless centipad was disgusting. Normally disgusting works brilliantly with southpark, but that’s because there’s usually some intelligent point or message behind the joke. The human centipad joke seemed simply for shock value. Plus the episode ended with a bad joke, also uncommon for southpark. It almost felt like or was not written by matt or Trey.
Did you get to watch Human Centipede? It was a gross-out movie they were spoofing. The movie wasn’t that great though, so you’re not missing out if you haven’t seen it.
You’re not alone. Worst episode ever.
if you haven’t seen the human centipede you shouldn’t comment on this. and the theme of the episode is that apple users feed each other their crap and it becomes a reciprocal pattern. this was one of their best satirical episodes, it was just a little more nuanced. impossible to understand if you haven’t seen the human centipede, they nailed everything perfectly.
I really liked the episode. I thought Season 3′s Jackovasaur was the worst one ever.
Definitely this.
Figuratively.. the human centIpad isnt just stupid and for shock value.
“this shows that reading the terms can mean that you pretty much agreed to anything they feel like doing, even if it’s figuratively feeding you crap you don’t want and having you in turn feed it to someone else.”
Have a grosser sense of humor, your pathetic.
The centipad was hilarious. And if your going to come up with an example of what you may be consenting to without your knowledge, you really thing South Park should do something tame?
Disgusting? Huh? Are you new to South Park? This is the show that came up with Mr. Hankey the Christmas poo, a episode where a mouse travels in a man’s bowels, “Creme Fraiche”, and bouncing around on giant testicles as transportation.
It was an ok episode though I disagree with most of the points you made and I’m a Windows user. I still don’t get this elitist stereotype. That must’ve been the case back in the ’90s but not these days. Maybe we run in different circles.
wtf? ipad wasnt out in the 90′s fool
This episode was hilarious. Southpark is the only show on t.v. that is not afraid to make fun of the most powerful and richest organizations on the planet, I F****n love it!
This south park episode got me pretty aroused…
Omg me 2!!
the message is that the apple freak are ready to buy anything apple create, even a human centipad…
I have an iMac, Macbook, iPhone4 and iPad and this was the BEST episode ever. Fn’ hilarious! Sent it to a gazillion friends.
He was probably talking about apple in general.
Yeah if you didn’t see Human Centipede then you won’t really get everything in this episode. I actually hated that i watched that movie cause it was so dumb but this South Park Episode totally made up for it. If you have Netflix you can see that movie.
Watch the Human Centipede if you want to attempt to understand the parody and spoof that they were doing during the episode. They spoofed the movie, which was f’d up and disturbing, and they parodied and satirized Apple and all the Apple users who “feed” each other their crap and “connects” the users together… Great episode if you have decent intelligence and know of the movie the Human Centipede.. If you’re a little pussy with average or low intelligence, then South Park isn’t for you. And only people with extremely LOW IQ’s would bash the show simply because they are unable to understand it.
hated this episode
You forgot the part about the iPhone and iPad tracking your every move.
I loved it, I am a PC and console gamer. I refuse to buy anything Apple puts out, I am currently using the Droid Evo and in August when my contract is up I am getting the Tegra 2 Droid phones. I also build my own rigs, that I know what’s in them and it is nothing but the best, I spare no expense. So yes I love this episode one of their best because it nails that cult following that some of the more extreme MAC users get into. One of my close friends is one of those guys, we argue all the time and he hated this episode.
Wow what happened to my post sorry guys let me correct. I meant to say that way, not just that sorry. If it let me edit I would really fix it.
Once my friend told my about the Human Centipede movie I felt less disgusted about the episode, but overall I do think it was hilarious. Just watched it last night and have been chuckling about it all day. In terms of shock factor, I’ve seen every episode, and showing the centiPad has been the rawest moment by far–for me.
Yea, its a combination of many of the above posts. Human Centipede was a completely and utterly horrible movie, and I think this parody actually even better than the movie, though the gross Xfactor isnt a personal favorite of mine. I also think it was a brilliant way to present how people don’t read the terms like they should, and click accept no matter how many times it re-asks them.
Oh, and the best part of the episode was cartman and his fuck me jokes
exactly….all people do now is just “share” crap with each other. I’m shocked very few were able to notice this.
Yeah watch human centipede before opening your mouth. This episode was brilliant!
I LOVE THIS EPISODE BECAUSE IT REFERENCED STUFF I SEE IN EVERYDAY LIFE. I HAVE APPLE PRODUCTS AND SHOP AT THE APPLE STORE SO IT IS FUNNY TO SEE THEM MENTION APPLE PRODUCTS AND STEVE JOBS AND APPLE STORES. I DONT FIND THINGS FUNNY UNLESS THEY REFERENCE THINGS FROM POPULAR CULTURE. THE FACEBOOK EPISODE WAS AWESOME BECAUSE I USE FACEBOOK TOO. IM GLAD THE SHOW STOPPED TRYING TO BE CLEVER BECAUSE I DONT UNDERSTAND NUANCED INSIGHTS, BUT I DO UNDERSTAND POP CULTURE REFERENCES AND TYPING IN ALL CAPS
Do yourself a favor and return all that garbage and get a pc, a laptop, a droid on virgin mobile, and an android powered tablet. TA-DAHHH! You just saved over $1,000