History Recap / SouthParkS23E01MexicanJoker

* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: The ICE officers are full swing with this in this episode

** It somehow gets WORSE [[Recap/SouthParkS23E6SeasonFinale next time we see Jeff and the Center]]

* KnightTemplar: Jeff Corrigan spends the entire episode becoming more and more "corrective", going to such lengths as to stop a couple of the other guards from using electroshock therapy on any child who might be Mexican Joker ''because only the military can help him'' with "traumatic" experiences, killing three guards that he's been working with because he wants to stop any more busloads of immigrant children from coming in and being accommodated, and leaves Kyle, Cartman and the other kids locked in the cell to find Mexican Joker in a different "flashback" and get him to safety, all while shooting any random guard he can find. Yeah, he's definitely not following orders anymore...

* BrokenAesop: Jeff's puppet play to teach the children at the center about "forgiveness". Puppet Mexican Joker didn't learned forgiveness, and he himself wasn't forgiven for his actions either, despite Jeff acknowledged that Mexican Joker WAS wronged.
** It's even worst when considering that in the end, Jeff's overall message was to not seek [[MisplacedRetribution unfair punishment of others]], while [[HypocrisyNod justifying Mexican Joker's unfair punishment that created him]].
* BrutalHonesty: Kyle asks the officers at the Detention Center that if they knew that their actions on the children there are traumatizing them and teaching them to fear the government. The warden says [[ArmorPiercingResponse "Correct"]][[ButForMeItWasTuesday with a smile on his face]].

** Jeff Corrigen also gets away with shooting his co-workers and leaving all the children locked in the detention center.

* PoliceAreUseless: The ICE officers are portrayed as blissfully ignorant of the implications of their own actions, [[InsaneTrollLogic misinterpreting Kyle's logic to outlandish extremes]] (thinking that there is a "Mexican Joker" when Kyle tried using Joker as an analogy) and doing everything ''but'' the right thing (trying to dissuade their child-prisoners from being vengeful instead of just returning them to their homes).

* OhCrap: The ICE people have this reaction when they find out that Cartman ratted all the kids out and that they weren't intended to be there.

* JerkassHasAPoint: When Randy insists growing pot was his idea, Stephen points out it was most definitely not something he started.

** The title refers to ''Film/{{Joker|2019}}'', where the maniac clown is played by Creator/JoaquinPhoenix, who’s not Mexican but was born in Puerto Rico.

** Kyle also states that no one at the center knows where Ike is.

** A security officer at the center is constantly seen with his hand on his gun holster whenever he is around the migrant children.

** It somehow gets WORSE [[SouthParkS23E6SeasonFinale next time we see Jeff and the Center]]

* BrokenAesop: In an attempt to stop "Mexican Joker", Officer Jeff teaches the children the lesson of "forgiveness" onto them so they won't become villains who hurt people... despite the fact that [[HypocrisyNod he and his fellow officers]] are "punishing" them [[MisplacedRetribution keeping them in the center]].

** One of the security officers at the center always ready to pull out his gun when he is around the migrant children

*** And remember: Kyle was able to standout in the center

* FridgeHorror: While the entirety of the Broflovskis are American citizens, Ike however IS a Canadian citizen. And with that line from Kyle about how ICE Officers don't seem to know where Ike is, there is a good chance he was sent back to Canada alone for about 2 weeks!

* TranquilFury: {{Downplayed}}. Kyle's does show being furious at Cartman, but he is clearly showing every possible restraint to keep him from murdering Cartman right on the spot when he’s sent to the same detention center he’s at.

* TranquilFury: Kyle is clearly showing every possible restraint to keep him from murdering Cartman right on the spot when he’s sent to the same detention center he’s at.

* AmbiguousSituation: At the end of the last season, President Garrison was seen in handcuffs. It's never stated who the current president is, whether Garrison escaped custody and returned to Washington to continue his reign of terror, if Caitlyn Jenner is acting president, or if Matt and Trey decided to say "fuck it" and outright have Donald Trump as the president. After all, somebody has to be ordering these child separations. [[spoiler:It's revealed later in [[Recap/SouthParkS23E6SeasonFinale "Season Finale"]] that President Garrison has indeed escaped custody and returned to Washington to continue his reign of terror, so he might be the cause of these child separations.]]

* BittersweetEnding: Kyle and Cartman manage to help free all the children who were sent the ICE detention center [[spoiler: and are seen in the next episode getting off the bus from there]], but Randy gets away with blowing up all the home-grown weed gardens, killing numerous people along the way and it's heavily implied that Randy is going to get worse over the course of the season.

* {{Cliffhanger}}: The episode ends with Kyle and Cartman still stuck in the detention camp. It's unknown if their plot will continue throughout the season, or a CliffhangerCopout will happen and they will be back in South Park by the next episode. [[spoiler:It's revealed in the next episode that a CliffhangerCopout did happen and an ICE bus returns Kyle and Cartman to South Park after their plan to free the immigrant children there succeeded.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Cartman has a moment of this when he realizes why being sent to a detention center might be an especially sore spot to a Jewish person. It might have sounded sarcastic at first, but looking back at Season 16, Cartman did get over his Anti-Semetic views ever since "Jewpacabra" and even brought himself to accept and become one of the Jewish, so he might have been genuinely remorseful.

** To the ICE officers, is the fear of creating a Mexican Joker.

* TakeThat: Towards ICE for their over-zealousness in arresting undocumented immigrants and poor treatment of children. Most of [[FatBastard them are portrayed with a noticable gut]].

* CreateYourOwnVillain: Kyle references this trope when he tells the ICE people that separating kids from their families will [[StartOfDarkness traumatize them and eventually turn them into a]] [[TitleDrop Mexican]] ComicBook/{{Joker}}, like in superhero movies.

* AmbiguousSituation: At the end of the last season, President Garrison was seen in handcuffs. It's never stated who the current president is, whether Garrison escaped custody and returned to Washington to continue his reign of terror, if Caitlyn Jenner is acting president, or if Matt and Trey decided to say "fuck it" and outright have Donald Trump as the president. After all, somebody has to be ordering these child separations.

* {{Cliffhanger}}: The episode ends with Kyle and Cartman still stuck in the detention camp. It's unknown if their plot will continue throughout the season, or a CliffhangerCopout will happen and they will be back in South Park by the next episode.

* DownerEnding: Kyle and Cartman are still trapped in the ICE detention center, while Randy gets away with blowing up all the home-grown weed gardens, killing numerous people along the way and it's heavily implied that Randy is going to get worse over the course of the season.

* VariationsOnAThemeSong: The ''Tegridy Farms'' theme plays at the beginning instead of the regular theme song, but is to the tune of said theme.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Cartman has a moment of this when he realizes why being sent to a detention center might be an especially sore spot to a Jewish person, though this could've easily been done in sarcasm.[[note]]Of course, Cartman did get over his Anti-Semetic views ever since "Jewpacabra" and even brought himself to accept the Jewish, so he might have been genuinely remorseful.[[/note]]