Original air date: 10/22/2008
For his birthday, Craig gets $100. Around the same time, Peruvian flute bands start cropping up around town, and the main four (Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman) see it as an opportunity to make money, but they need start-up money to do so. After getting Craig to go along with their scheme, Homeland Security think the flute bands are a threat and order them locked up. This proves not to be a good idea.
Meanwhile, Randy is way too excited about using his video camera to record his family's life.
Tropes for Pandemic:
- Andean Music: The Peruvian flute bands play this.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: South Park is attacked by giant guinea pigs.
- Continuity Nod: Kyle freaks out at the thought of going to Peru, with Stan saying a friend of theirs got raped there. This is referencing the episode The China Probrem, which focused on how Steven Spielberg and George Lucas "raped" Indiana Jones with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which mainly takes place in Peru.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Craig. Two days, including the next episode, but they directly tie into each other.
- Felony Misdemeanor: The pan flutists are treated as a public menace and deported en masse, despite being only mildly annoying at worst.
- Global Ignorance: None of DHS knew where Peruvian flute bands came from before Michael Chertoff pointed out they come from Peru.
- Never My Fault: Craig calls the main boys out for taking his money, blames them for all of them getting arrested and sent to Peru and explains why nobody else at school likes them (or at least this is what Craig claims), even though the boys couldn't have known the results and Craig willingly offered his money to them and joined their plan, without them scamming him or pressuring him whatsoever (except for Cartman who briefly called him an asshole, but it was only Cartman and it was nothing serious). In fact, considering he was skeptical of them before he agreed with the deal, because they didn't talk much to him until that point, he is not blameless in this mess.
- Pinball Protagonist: Deconstructed. The Boys insist to Craig that it's not their fault they always get into situations like these because they don't choose to be in them things always just happen to them. Craig responds by lampshading throughout the episode how they bring these things on themselves by going along with the plot instead of making any attempt to escape it.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Those are actual live action Guinea pigs that were inserted into the show, crossing over into Slurpasaur territory.
- Supernatural Repellent: Turns out the pan flute players are the only thing keeping the giant guinea pigs from attacking.
- Terrifying Pet Store Rat: The giant guinea pigs are treated as horrifying by the characters, yet they do nothing but stand and crawl around.
- Two-Part Episode: This episode and the next — "Pandemic 2."
- Wham Shot: "The pan flute bands are on their way to their deaths, the guinea pigs are rising, and the only person who could have stopped all this... is on his way to the middle of nowhere." We then see what's in the folder the DHS director has — a picture of Craig.
