*2104: Franchise Prequel* Post-Air Discussion

[nall]

Now, you try and block me!

[SouthAl93]

Captain Diabetes nor Call Girl don't show up but I hope they do next week.

[SouthAl93]

Heidi Turner appears in tonight's episode but not Wendy Testaburger.

[Sgt. Sarge]

Haha, great use of tie-in material. I think the Puttin joke in the end was a little forced but over-all we got a lot of great pieces.

The Zuckerburge bits were fun for somebody like me who doesn't follow him and the quest for money really as a reason to start a team perfectly relates to the real world quest to make movie franchises.

I liked how Jimmy wouldn't quit when being stumped by fake news and the Heidi interruption was golden.

[SouthAl93]

Haha, great use of tie-in material. I think the Puttin joke in the end was a little forced but over-all we got a lot of great pieces.

The Zuckerburge bits were fun for somebody like me who doesn't follow him and the quest for money really as a reason to start a team perfectly relates to the real world quest to make movie franchises.

I liked how Jimmy wouldn't quit when being stumped by fake news and the Heidi interruption was golden.

What did you thought of the absence of Call Girl and Captain Diabetes?

[Sgt. Sarge]

Haha, great use of tie-in material. I think the Puttin joke in the end was a little forced but over-all we got a lot of great pieces.

The Zuckerburge bits were fun for somebody like me who doesn't follow him and the quest for money really as a reason to start a team perfectly relates to the real world quest to make movie franchises.

I liked how Jimmy wouldn't quit when being stumped by fake news and the Heidi interruption was golden.

What did you thought of the absence of Call Girl and Captain Diabetes?

Call Girl looks like she will make her introduction in the Game along with Captain Diabetes recruitment. Frankly because it's a show, you can't just have a bunch of characters who only fill up space. Games allow for a completely different way to structure a team and portion their roles, I hope we see a lot of character based missions that flesh out each hero's role better in the game coming out next week.

Wow look at me, my shilling is really working over time today. ;P

[SouthAl93]

Haha, great use of tie-in material. I think the Puttin joke in the end was a little forced but over-all we got a lot of great pieces.

The Zuckerburge bits were fun for somebody like me who doesn't follow him and the quest for money really as a reason to start a team perfectly relates to the real world quest to make movie franchises.

I liked how Jimmy wouldn't quit when being stumped by fake news and the Heidi interruption was golden.

What did you thought of the absence of Call Girl and Captain Diabetes?

Call Girl looks like she will make her introduction in the Game along with Captain Diabetes recruitment. Frankly because it's a show, you can't just have a bunch of characters who only fill up space. Games allow for a completely different way to structure a team and portion their roles, I hope we see a lot of character based missions that flesh out each hero's role better in the game coming out next week.

Wow look at me, my shilling is really working over time today. ;P

But what about what happen to Wendy and Stan last season?

[JamesPolo]

I liked the episode but it felt a little boring for me. I’ll watch it again when I’m not as distracted with stuff.

I liked the intro with Jimmy’s backstory. I think it would have been more fun that the kid’s superpowers were shown to be real and not like how they did it, with them just playing pretend.

I liked Butters this episode, he showed some balls for once and the kids were afraid to fight him. His old Circuit City base was cool. Liked how the henchmen get job training.

Zuckerberg was kind of weak at times and boring. I think it may have been his weird voice. I think he usually sounds like a pussy not a penis. Him making sound effects and play fighting people was fun but got old. The episode seemed to have some time gaps to fill so some boring parts were written in of too much Zuckerberg f*cking around.

I liked the part that had Zuckerberg standup to the kids as Butters paid for Facebook security, it was creative.

Does Zuckerberg really say “What’s your style” all the time?

I liked that Zuckerberg got his ass kicked a little. I think it would have been more fun to have taken some time out of the Zuckerberg bothering everyone to lengthen Zuckerberg fighting the kids. It would have been to show the added time as they imagined they were when they fight.

The end with butters dad forcing him to say sorry in front of Putin was good and Putin said sorry too. I guess Butters is just so Russian.

[SouthAl93]

I liked the episode but it felt a little boring for me. I’ll watch it again when I’m not as distracted with stuff.

I liked the intro with Jimmy’s backstory. I think it would have been more fun that the kid’s superpowers were shown to be real and not like how they did it, with them just playing pretend.

I liked Butters this episode, he showed some balls for once and the kids were afraid to fight him. His old Circuit City base was cool. Liked how the henchmen get job training.

Zuckerberg was kind of weak at times and boring. I think it may have been his weird voice. I think he usually sounds like a pussy not a penis. Him making sound effects and play fighting people was fun but got old. The episode seemed to have some time gaps to fill so some boring parts were written in of too much Zuckerberg f*cking around.

I liked the part that had Zuckerberg standup to the kids as Butters paid for Facebook security, it was creative.

Does Zuckerberg really say “What’s your style” all the time?

I liked that Zuckerberg got his ass kicked a little. I think it would have been more fun to have taken some time out of the Zuckerberg bothering everyone to lengthen Zuckerberg fighting the kids. It would have been to show the added time as they imagined they were when they fight.

The end with butters dad forcing him to say sorry in front of Putin was good and Putin said sorry too. I guess Butters is just so Russian.

Too bad three members of Coon and Friends didn't show up.

[JamesPolo]

Mark Zuckerberg's voice was a dubbing. I get it now. It was an Asian joke on him for having a Chinese or whatever wife. So they had him have a dubbed voice like in Kung Fu movies. That relates to the "What's your style" line as like a karate guy asking another one before a fight. I swear though that Zuckerberg had said that in some recording once.

[nall]

Episode is now available onsite.

[JVM]

Re: Call Girl
It's abundantly clear in previews that Call Girl is working independently for at least the beginning of South Park: The Fractured But Whole and is not a part of Coon and Friends. I'd still have loved to see Wendy, but it made sense for her alter-ego not to be in this episode.

...

So, decent episode. A lot of fans boarded a hype train and seem disappointed, but it was about what I expected.

The boys never quite get enough time to each of themselves, but the subtle focus on Jimmy as Fastpass actually works really well. It was cool to see a little of his past, obviously with an application of 'Rule of Funny', and then to see him audition and join the team, which made for a subtle but effective 'bridge' to the previous Coon and Friends stories. His parents get just a bit more to them in he process, in subtle touches. Super Craig plays a small but crucial role, and Wonder Tweek appears briefly as well, but the focus is still on the original Coon and Friends, at least.

Unlike Peter Galtman last week, the 'Fake News' satire here felt a lot more efficiently handled, and I loved it. I thought there was a lot of story potential for examining the very nature of such an operation, and while the show didn't exactly dig into Butters' henchman as characters, it definitely felt nice to see the concept tackled properly rather than as a minor gag, and it was played as an actual threat, which I really appreciated. I thought the subtle and measured handling of the rumors about the kids, brought up almost casually by the adults, was a really good way of showing the influence of fake news stories without getting heavy-handed about it as well. So the satire felt pretty on-point.

I've read all the stuff about Zuckerberg's Puerto Rico video, but I still feel like I was missing the joke somehow - the use of 'shtyle' and 'pew pew' video game references all felt like they had to be digging for something a little deeper to me, maybe relating to the Puerto Rico video to something else. I don't think it's a very effective joke on the celebrity himself, but like Al Gore and Mel Gibson, the jokes they do use with him are funny enough on their own to make him an amusing character in and of himself.

Maybe Zuckerberg deleting Facebook helps justify FBW's focus on Coonstagram? Facebook friends don't matter anymore, now you gotta get all the same friends on a new social media platform! Shouldn't be a problem, right?

Notes/Trivia
- I've brought this up before, but even in the game tie-in episode, we see buildings on both sides of main street, including Tele's, even though the video game and cutscenes only show one row, due to the perceived limitations of the show's animation style.
- The Tweek family kitchen retained it's green and colorful color scheme through "Tweek x Craig", which re-designed the rest of their house, but we can confirm now that yeah, they have a boring realistic kitchen now, just as the Marshes were updated with.
- Mrs. Tweek also no longer wears her apron all the time.
- I need to rewatch, but the Marshes, Stotches, Tuckers, Blacks, Valmers were at the parents' meeting, and I'm pretty sure the McCormicks were not. (Speaking: Randy, Sharon, Stephen, Linda, Steve, Ryan, both Tweeks) This is Steve's first lines in around five years, I think.
- The Blacks both use their up-dated looks again in this episode. Even this season, they still switch a lot between the newer and older looks.
- "Sarah" is re-affirmed in dialogue as Mrs. Valmer's name, a decade and a half later. She has no lines though.
- Mr. Valmer has an atypical body type when we see him in his pajamas.
- Barkley and Foley are the two main officers in this episode, besides Det. Yates of course.
- Many have noticed the absences of Captain Diabetes and Call Girl, but some are missing that neither Iron Maiden nor Professor Timothy appear. I wonder if the game will address the transition?
- This was implied previously but totally confirmed now that Cartman is back on Facebook and social media after S20, and he doesn't want to hang out with Heidi at the Park, where they started their relationship after exiting. Maybe Heidi should break his stuff to get his attention back

Preview Contrasts:
- The scene in Butters' room is shortened and streamlined a little, but the main joke is fully intact.
- The preview image of the boys in Butters' window is MIA.

A lot of fans seemed upset the final scene was sort of lifted, but there's some differences:
- "Kenny's Netflix series" is now a game, not sure if this reflects the episode's focus on Netflix, the upcoming game or what. It's all kind of ironic, since the MCU/DCEU/etc situations have mostly ignored games. (Reasonably, imo)
- They removed the TFA "Okay, J. J. Abrams" exchange between Stan and Kyle.
- Some of the lines around Tupperware shift although it's the same point.
- The Chaos Squad bit can still be seen in the original video, so that was more than a joke for the one episode

[Big-Will]

Maybe Zuckerberg deleting Facebook helps justify FBW's focus on Coonstagram?

Since he owns both FB and IG, deleting FB would mean probably deleting IG too, and Cartman making his own social media platform - Coonstagram.

[Stanluv25]

Decent enough episode. Superhero episodes are hit or miss with SP. It was fun to see Coon and Friends working together with little to no arguing, as if they really were one unit. Nice to see Butters having some balls as someone above mentioned. I didn't quite get the Zuckerburg jokes. As usual, something relevant flies over my head. It was cool to see Jimmy's set up in the beginning too. I had to lol at the parents once again being oblivious as to who the super heroes were. Not even the Blacks thought Tupperware could be their kid even though Token is the only black boy in town. Overall, refreshing to watch an episode were little current events tied in with the story. Although I didn't quite understand the ending with Putin...

Does this mean there will be more Coon and Friends episodes? If so it would be fun to see 'origins' of the other kids' identities too. Or just their quest to have a Netflix show that will eventually lead into a successful franchise.

[Big-Will]

Although I didn't quite understand the ending with Putin...

Putin getting grounded just like Butters. It's been in the news that lots of fake news stories on FB over the past year came from Russian accounts, and they targeted Hillary Clinton and favored Donald Trump, which explains in part why Trump became President. Butters had his minions plant fake stories about Coon & Friends just like the Russians planted fake stories about Hillary. Once the parallels were drawn, it was simply a matter of putting Chaos and Putin together in the same room and grounding them.