South Park’s Epic Story Arc Combines Console Wars and Game of Thrones
“Black Friday” “A Song of Ass and Fire” “Red (Robin) Wedding”
South Park could not have picked a better time to release a story line quite like the epic multi-part arc in it’s parody of Game of Thrones. He uses the oncoming of Black Friday to pit Kenny as the leader of the PlayStation 4 crew against Cartman and his team of unfocused Xbox One troops. The main focus of the plot is definitely the console wars, but come on GoT takes itself very seriously where the stakes are constantly high, people lie, kill, betray – this was the perfect (and hysterical) vehicle to begin the holiday season and give us some of the best South Park episodes ever!
My favorite parts
There was a brilliant listing of features throughout each episode, but my favorite was the boys tearful exchange in the first episode, “Black Friday,” with the best line being Cartman’s, “Come on Kyle, Let these Sony f***s wallow in their limited voice control functionality.” And come on Bill Gates as Evil Gates, juxtaposed with his real-world philanthropy is amazing.
But, what really shone through in these episodes was the abundant references to Game of Thrones. The whole school dividing into two teams based on their console loyalties with the frequently used line, “Winter is coming,” reflecting the upcoming date of Black Friday. Both George R.R. Martin’s “The pizzas are coming” metaphor for the dragons and delay of Black Friday until November can only remind you of the huge gaps between each book coming out and the huge potential that he actually just has writer’s block!
Surely there is a lot to say about the Anime Princess Kenny ethereal song and dance, but all I’ve got is — Wow, that was really cute!? I mean My Little Pony even. This was my favorite part of the series and if you don’t believe me, just watch this little clip.
South Park GoT Parody Highlights:
The number of important characters grows until the very end of the last episode so fast that you can sometimes get distracted by their hilariousness when the central plot is thrown back into view. The multi-episodes allowed each of the characters to be developed and thought out.
The Garden of Betrayal
The recurring joke of Cartman in the garden of betrayal is on point with the Old Man’s yells capturing exactly what they want you take away from each scene in the garden from, “I’m sick of you kids dressing’ up and having talks of betrayal in it!” to “Haha! Now who’s walking who through the betrayal garden!” and to finally his laugh and, “Whose betrayal is this?”
The Lannister Lovers
The unexpected reveal of the incestual relationship between the brother and sister news anchors was a hilarious nod to the Jamie and Cersei Lannister controversy. The anchor who catches them stays in character no matter where he is in the movie keeping his random appearances fresh.
The Night’s Watch & The White Walkers
On the pretense of needing extra money for the holidays, Randy joins the local malls’ fearless Black Friday security guards and must face the zombie-like shoppers. It was quite funny to see his “mentor” handing down to him a prosthetic eye scar as a sort of “passing of the torch” scene.
The GoT Theme Song
Butters has always had an obsession with wieners, lest we not forget the epic “What, what in my butt” song, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This time he wants to know why there are so many [wieners] in Game of Thrones. This lands him in George R.R. Martin’s office with a choir singing the word on repeat to the tune of the GoT theme song. I did not think this was nearly as funny probably because I am not a teenage boy.
Game of Thrones Spoilers:
George R.R. Martin did let out a minor, pretty obvious spoiler in his rant to Butters in his office.
Cleverly combining elements of the Next-Gen Console War with HBO’s Game of Thrones, “Black Friday,” “A Song of Ass and Fire,” and “Red (Robin) Wedding” was easily one of the funniest combinations of two major pop culture references threaded into one storyline and without a doubt the funniest South Park has been in a long time.
The only way this could have ended better would be if Cartman faked his own death and ends up a lumberjack.
