Pop culture is rife with parody material! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for “South Park’s” most memorable pot shots at all things pop culture.
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00:00 "Now of course we only take Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency because, you know, it's the future."
00:05 "We've all decided centralized banking is rigged so we trust more in fly-by-night Ponzi schemes."
00:09 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for South Park's most memorable potshots at all things pop culture.
00:17 "Luckily I came out of it okay. I got this little miniature donkey with a lit up sombrero."
00:26 "Maybe some people enjoy nostalgia and going back to what feels comfortable."
00:31 Season 20 of South Park was one long serialized story about internet trolling and the 2016 American presidential race.
00:38 It did, however, introduce us to member berries.
00:41 Playing off the word "remember," these little fruit snacks were constantly providing a source of nostalgia for anyone who would listen.
00:48 "Docker?"
00:49 "Yeah, and member addicts?"
00:52 "Member?"
00:53 "Hey, hey, member ghostbusters?"
00:56 The entire concept was essentially a recurring gag poking fun at film and television reboots.
01:02 [All talking at once]
01:07 The show even treats us to J.J. Abrams, who rebooted Star Wars and Star Trek, rebooting the national anthem.
01:14 "For our national anthem, we now ask you all in solidarity to please rise, or sit, or take a knee."
01:23 "In order to honor America."
01:25 Number 9. Facebook.
01:27 Do you remember a time when social media wasn't a thing?
01:31 Prior to the world of Instagram and TikTok, the biggest thing in social media was something called Facebook.
01:36 Sharing photos and status updates with your friends and family seemed like the coolest thing to ever hit the web.
01:42 "Stan, why won't you be friends with grandma?"
01:46 "Uh, dad, I just really don't want to pay attention to this thing."
01:48 "Grandma is in the hospital, and you won't even be friends with her."
01:51 So when the obsession hit South Park, Stan didn't want anything to do with it, and insisted he was...
01:56 "Not getting sucked into that!"
01:58 Well, he did, literally.
02:00 And in doing so, we were given a fantastic ode to the movie Tron,
02:04 and a message about how online friends shouldn't be seen as some kind of status within our society.
02:09 "Friends shouldn't be some kind of commodity for a person's status!"
02:12 Number 8. Internet and media obsessiveness.
02:16 Simply put, South Park's fish sticks episode was clearly made to poke fun at Kanye West.
02:21 "You're a rapper."
02:22 "Yes."
02:23 "An entrepreneur."
02:24 "Yes."
02:25 "And you like fish sticks."
02:27 "Yes."
02:27 "You're a gay fish."
02:29 "No, I am not no gay fish!"
02:31 But that's not the only thing being made fun of here.
02:34 Cartman and Jimmy's joke becomes a national sensation, popping up everywhere.
02:38 "The fish sticks joke crosses all borders, all races, all ages and ethnic groups, and is slowly uniting our country."
02:44 Ye's obsession with dissecting the joke to an extreme degree can also be seen as a reflection of internet culture.
02:51 Online communities often obsess over screen grabs from television and movies,
02:55 and insist that tiny pieces of dialogue hide much bigger truths than what appear on the surface.
03:01 It's a very subtle but effective jab at obsessive culture.
03:04 "Because I am a genius, I have ascertained that fish have gills."
03:10 "Doctor, do I have gills?"
03:14 "He does not have gills."
03:17 Number 7. The Lord of the Rings.
03:20 "Uh, boys, Butters' parents want to borrow the Lord of the Rings video we rented. Could you take it over to them?"
03:24 "You're sending us on a quest? You ask of us to take the one video to the house of Butters?"
03:30 "Yeah, whatever."
03:31 Another great aspect to the show South Park is how it often can both pay tribute to and mock something all in the same episode.
03:38 Such was the case with this memorable season six gem.
03:41 The target? The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
03:44 The four boys set out on a quest to return a videotape to the rental store when things go a little awry.
03:50 Several boys essentially portray the lead characters from the famous saga,
03:54 all while Butters becomes a hilarious version of Gollum.
03:57 "My movie! My awesome cool movie! My... precious."
04:05 Sure, the adult film bit is certainly new, but between the costumes,
04:08 the questing, and Jimmy's Gandalf impression, there's plenty here to see.
04:12 "You shall not...
04:13 [Groaning]
04:17 "You shall not...
04:18 [Groaning]
04:24 "You shall not...
04:25 [Groaning]
04:28 Number 6. Black Friday.
04:30 In season 17, South Park released a trilogy of episodes all focused around the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday.
04:38 The storyline involved all the kids in town having been split into two factions
04:42 over whether to buy the new Xbox or PlayStation.
04:44 "Everyone who wants to get PS4 is joined with us."
04:47 "No, we can't divide like this!"
04:49 "Stan, you're on our side, right?"
04:58 "I like the PS4's controller better."
05:02 The entire thing played out while relentlessly mocking all things Game of Thrones and Black Friday.
05:07 "You're doing this to try and get to the front of the line on Black Friday, aren't you?"
05:11 "Nobody else has thought of it, Sharon."
05:15 From the ridiculous need to go on garden walks, obsessions with nudity, and far more,
05:21 the episodes perfectly dialed into everyone's obsession with the era-set drama.
05:25 The episodes even included a fantastic parody of George R.R. Martin himself.
05:30 "It's the Red Wedding, isn't it? You hate how I killed everyone off!"
05:33 Number 5. Disney and the Jonas Brothers.
05:36 "Hello, sir. How was your trip?"
05:38 "What's all this I'm hearing about not wearing the parody rings?"
05:41 If anyone ever had any doubts on what the creators of South Park think of Disney,
05:46 all they had to do was watch this one episode.
05:49 The show pokes fun at the nature of the Jonas Brothers and their relationship with the House of Mouse.
05:53 They take the very G-rated nature of the band and spin it in a very R-friendly manner.
05:58 To push the narrative even further,
06:00 Mickey Mouse is depicted as an angry boss who puts his staff through the ringer.
06:04 This culminates at the end when Mickey becomes a Godzilla-like monster and wreaks havoc.
06:09 "Vengeance is mine! You're all ants and I'm your destroyer!"
06:14 It wouldn't be the last time the show would mock Disney,
06:17 but it was certainly a memorable first outing.
06:20 "Who else wants to go to China and get some of their money?"
06:23 "Oh, for crying out loud."
06:26 Number 4. The media's obsession with celebrities.
06:29 "It's Britney Watch, keeping you up to date with all your Britney Spears news.
06:34 Oh boy, what's she done now?"
06:37 Long before people were obsessed with what the Kardashians were up to,
06:40 the paparazzi were picking apart anything and everything related to Britney Spears.
06:45 At one time, it seemed that everything from who she was dating to what she had for lunch
06:49 was being scrutinized by everyone.
06:51 South Park highlighted the ridiculousness of the media by parodying their addiction to Spears.
06:56 "Britney, over here!"
06:58 Showing how they care far more about her exterior image than her mental health.
07:04 It's the boys who truly sympathize and go to extreme lengths to help her.
07:09 "Excuse me, is this really what you think she should be doing right now?"
07:11 Number 3. Video game addiction.
07:14 While Butter's virtual reality experience in Grounded Vendaloop was a hilarious spoof,
07:19 one of the best episodes in the show's history, Make Love Not Warcraft,
07:22 is a stunning example of how to mock video games while simultaneously embracing them.
07:27 With the help of the folks over at Blizzard,
07:29 South Park seamlessly integrated real game footage of World of Warcraft into the episode.
07:34 "In the outside world, I'm a simple geologist.
07:37 But in here, I am Falcorn, Defender of the Alliance."
07:42 That alone would have been amazing.
07:44 But when you have game makers openly mocking those who play their biggest hit
07:48 all within the episode, you can't help but be impressed.
07:51 "Whoever this person is, he has played World of Warcraft nearly every hour of every day
07:56 for the past year and a half.
07:58 Gentlemen, we are dealing with someone here who has absolutely no life."
08:04 "How do you kill that which has no life?"
08:10 Additionally, we get to see the end result of the boys having played World of Warcraft
08:14 non-stop for months.
08:16 It's a perfect combination of satire and great storytelling.
08:19 "I can't believe it's all over.
08:21 What do we do now?"
08:22 "What do you mean?
08:25 Now we can finally play the game."
08:28 "Oh yeah."
08:29 Number 2 - Streaming Companies
08:31 "We're about to start our very own streaming service."
08:35 There was a time when Netflix was the only player in town when it came to online streaming services.
08:40 Thanks to their large catalog, they faced virtually no competition.
08:44 But that was then and this is now.
08:46 From Amazon Prime to Disney Plus,
08:49 there's now no shortage of streaming services taking a piece of the pie that once belonged to Netflix.
08:54 "What is going on?"
08:55 "Oh nothing, your son and his friends just made exclusive deals for multiple streaming services."
09:00 Playing on the word streaming,
09:03 South Park gave us a story that was a literal battle over a stream of water.
09:07 It mocks the current online video market by the name alone,
09:11 but the streaming war specials were filled with countless jabs and nods to the real thing.
09:15 "Do you know what an exclusive deal is?"
09:18 "Yes, I know what an exclusive deal is."
09:20 "So if you make an exclusive deal with a streaming service,
09:23 you can't make an exclusive deal with another streaming service, can you?"
09:26 "It's not our fault that the streaming wars happened."
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09:44 Number 1 - The Pokemon Fad
09:46 Pokemon has been around for a long time and continues to be quite popular today.
09:51 But early in the show's run, it seemed everywhere you turned,
09:55 you would see something about Pokemon. Kids loved it and parents didn't understand it.
09:59 "Honestly, I don't see what they find so amusing about those things."
10:03 "They're so strange. Where are they from?"
10:05 This is what made it perfect fodder for a show like South Park.
10:08 The episode Shin Pokemon ruthlessly mocked how confusing aspects of the Pokemon world
10:13 were to people who weren't a part of it.
10:14 "This doesn't make sense. Are those stupid things supposed to be animals or robots or what?"
10:18 "I don't know, but I suddenly kind of want to own them all."
10:21 Throw in light-speed spoken dialogue and all together,
10:24 it made for the single best parody South Park may have ever done.
10:28 "Now we're gonna try this again until we get it right. What is 6 times 3?"
10:32 "No, goddammit, it's 18!"
10:37 "18 is 18, Garrison-san."
10:38 "For the last time, my name is not Garrison-san, all right? And this is not Hat-san.
10:43 And you all better start talking in a manner that I can understand."
10:46 Have you ever laughed out loud at one of South Park's parodies?
10:49 Tell us about it in the comments below.
10:51 "It's like a witch pursuit thingy."
10:53 "A witch, uh..."
10:55 "It's a witch chase and shoot 'em up!"
10:57 "Yeah, that's what it is."
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