South Park returned with a new title and anthem Wednesday for Season 29 with ‘South American Biker Gangs,’ where the cartoon show takes a shot at the country’s parental paranoia, immigration and the e-bike craze.
Following the purchase of three e-bikes from a Chinese store for $200 by the boys Kenny, Cartman, and Stan in a secret move, parents begin to complain about the bikes’ prices, restrictions and dangers – including a 92 per cent chance of them blowing up.
The boys proceed to form an e-bike gang in the newly named “South America” despite their parents’ disapproval.
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The children soon drive their e-bikes through the town, causing a rage in the neighbourhood dads, who label them as a bunch of dangerous bikers that hide behind the masks and powerful motors.
Their speech is intentionally made in the language of immigration control with the anti-e-bike campaign led by dads being one of the main jokes in the episode.
The situation escalates even more when the dads meet the owner of the bikes, Mr. Kim, accusing him of providing unsafe and inexpensive goods to the market. Calling them “Chinese shitty e-bikes” several times during the process, the fathers bring out an obvious example of parents’ fears of cheap consumer items and the exaggeration of the situation to the level of cultural war.
While the episode clearly refers to the American political climate, it doesn’t contain any direct references to Donald Trump, who was a frequent target in the previous seasons. Instead of that, the creators decide to mock the people and institutions who are ready to bend to political influence as well as the liberals who expect midterms to stop the chaos in the country.
In the central joke of the episode, local authorities suggest that the situation could be bettered in November as the much-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be released that day. The joke shows that the only thing that is capable of uniting the Americans is entertainment and the release date of a video game.
At the same time, the show’s e-bike craze reflects the new name of the show. As a response to the efforts of the Trump administration to change geographical names, including the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, the creators announced the name change of their show ahead of Season 29.
As ‘South American Biker Gangs’ includes e-bike craze fears, anti-Chinese consumer products stereotype, immigration talk, parental paranoia, satirical attacks on the Trump era, and expectation for GTA VI, it becomes obvious that the episode is intentionally messy. Parker and Stone didn’t try to find a connection between these topics but piled all these absurdities on each other until the outrage of the town became impossible to distinguish from the behaviour of the children.
