Top 10 Moments From South Park The Streaming Wars
#10: Pi-Pi’s Return
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In the finale for Season 13, we are introduced to a one-off joke character: a water park owner who emphasizes the filthy needs for his water park perhaps a little too proudly. This character’s name was Pi-Pi. “South Park” has brought in many one-off characters over its decades-long run, and of them all, Pi-Pi was one we had never anticipated returning. But from the intro of the special onwards, it’s clear that Pi-Pi is going to be a crucial part of the plot, especially in how the special leaves things open for a second part.
#9: The “Not Kewl” Number
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One of the best aspects of “South Park” are all the ridiculous songs we’ve heard Eric Cartman sing. For as great as “Sea People and Me” and “I Love You, Social Distancing” were, we can throw the song from “Streaming Wars” right onto his metaphorical Greatest Hits album. In addition to singing about his feelings, Cartman manages to rhyme his pronunciation of the word “cool” with other words and even breaks off to lecture in song to his mother. Honestly, the special would have been remiss if we didn’t get a special song from the brat.
#8: A Slap of a Reference
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Back in March 2022, the world seemed to have stopped after Will Smith assaulted Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards. Nobody could stop talking about it - not even us! The folks at South Park Studios clearly haven’t forgotten about it as they slipped in a small reference to the moment early on in the special. When an inspector shows up to Tegridy Farms and Credigree Weed, Tolkien’s dad introduces Randy as “Karen”, to which Stan’s dad replies with, [show the line]. Those were almost the same exact words Smith said to Rock after the incident, and it has become a meme ever since.
#7: Karen Marsh
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Speaking of Karens, this was a riot of a running gag throughout the special! Various scenes show Randy complaining to other characters over petty things, particularly things about Tolkien and his parents. Clearly, this has gotten out of hand as almost everyone in town has resorted to calling him Karen. His son, his wife, the cops, even an online news site refer to him as “Karen”. Though Randy claims he knows the joke behind his new name, he just doesn’t seem to realize just how childish he is behaving over super minute things. You know, just like a Karen.
#6: Tegridy Farms vs. Cessler Industries
The “Streaming Wars” special held a lot of commentary about the nature of the entertainment business and society’s shift to streaming services. We’ll get to many of them soon, but this one was incredibly blatant. In the last third of the special, Randy sends his Tegridy Farms boat down the stream only to be quickly ambushed by a wave of boats from Cessler Industries. Interpret it as you will, the scene shows a harsh truth of the modern world in an albeit hilarious way. Quality products released at a slower pace are often drowned out by floods of cheaper, sometimes shoddy products, and this is especially true in the age of subscriptions, social media, and streaming.
#5: Mr. Black’s Hike
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Another glimpse at the real world was when Mr. Black took a hike up the Colorado River stream and was met with a disturbing look at the future. All along the summit of one of the mountains lay signs for sold property along with a couple of real estate agents frozen on the ground. In addition to mirroring the alarmingly hostile growth of various entertainment companies, the scene also parallels a crisis in the United States’s housing market where wealthy individuals are buying up homes left and right. States like Florida are seeing homes purchased less than twenty-four hours after listing, and more cities like Sarasota are becoming more heavily populated, prompting the housing and construction markets to tear down more environments for the sake of suburban living.
#4: The First “Streaming Service”
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Excess is certainly the theme of “The Streaming Wars”, and it makes that very clear during a montage. As Stan and Tolkien follow their first boat down the Colorado river stream, Tolkien’s dad gives a presentation on his streaming service, explaining pricing, plans, and more. One of these shots shows just how out of control his service is, going so far as to lock water molecules behind a paywall and make the highest tier the only commercial-free package. It also paints a dark future in how every trivial facet of life has become heavily monetized today from dating to healthcare to even having clean water.
#3: The Boys Unite
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Those familiar with the ongoings of the streaming wars will notice the parallels in this part of the special. With more offers coming in than they can handle, Stan and Tolkien tell Kyle and Kenny about their new venture, explaining how these new streaming services are paying boatloads of cash just for them to have the same products. This mirrors the way certain distributors are signing off on exclusivity deals and licensing agreements. How many times have we seen the same groups of movies and TV shows get delisted from one platform just to get relisted on another? Well, the special says more about these practices in another scene we’ll get to shortly.
#2: Stan Gets an Earful
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With Stan and the boys making the same popsicle stick boat for all of the streaming services, it isn’t long until Randy finds out what his son has been doing. Stan gets yelled at by his dad for helping his competitors, and for those familiar with how South Park Studios handles their own real world dilemmas, one can tell this was a direct jab at their distributor, Paramount. See, “South Park” is in a weird spot right now, having sold an exclusivity deal with HBO for the platform to stream all twenty-five seasons. Paramount, the owners of MTV and Comedy Central whom South Park Studios works with, must not have been too happy about the deal. Could this scene have been based on an angry phone call from Paramount? Probably.
#1: The Boat Crafting Scene
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If there was one scene that defined the problems of streaming services, it was this genius scene where Cartman makes a crummier boat than the rest. Him and Kyle get into a small dispute about whether the quality of the boat matters when the streaming services are paying them for massive quantities of boats. This prompts a sugar-fueled Butters to go on a rant about how the business model of streaming services only encourages more greed at a faster rate at the expense of quality. How so? Because no one cares. Perhaps the popsicles speak more truth than Kyle gives them credit for?
