Original air date: 4/23/2008
A class field trip to a frontier park turns into a hostage situation when a group of robbers use the park to evade the police, but the park employees won't help resolve the situation because they won't get out of character.
"Super Fun Time" contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Pioneer Paul and the other employees are absolutely no help to the students, even willing to risk their lives just to prevent themselves from breaking character. When Pioneer Paul had the chance to free the students and other hostages, he instead shoots his co-worker dead for breaking character. It's not until after the catastrophe is over that Pioneer Paul gives away some helpful information.
- A-Team Firing: When the criminals actually start shooting at the main characters and the police, they can't hit a single one of them, but they do manage to hit everything around them.
- Bad Boss: Pioneer Paul. He is willing to murder an employee if they break character, no matter the circumstances.Pioneer Paul: What he meant to say, kids, is that we ain't never heard o' no fancy door code 'cause in our time, we gots to rely on wood locks and sich.
Franz: Goddammit! You people are fucking insane! - Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Pioneer Paul seems like a decent guy at first, but he later proves himself to have no qualms against murdering an employee simply for breaking character — something that even shocks the terrorists.
- Comically Serious: The criminals.
- Continuity Nod:
- Curbstomp Battle: The police utterly waste the robbers in their gun fight, suffering no casualties while leaving only Franz alive.
- Determinator:
- Butters refuses to let go of Cartman's hand no matter what.
- The pioneers will never break character neither.
- Dirty Coward: Mr. Garrison willingly throws the kids' lives under the bus to save himself.Mr. Garrison: Please, if you must take anyone, don't take me. These kids are worth more to you!
- Disproportionate Retribution: Pioneer Paul shoots a fellow co-worker dead all because he caved to the robbers and broke character.
- The Dog Bites Back: For everything Cartman put Butters through, the latter uses the former as a club against one of the criminals.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Look at Franz's face when Pioneer Paul shoots his co-worker who broke character.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: For Butters, breaking Mr. Garrison's rule of holding onto everyone's hand and to the employees, breaking character.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Not only did the criminals hold kids hostage, kill several people, and nearly kill a child, but they also robbed a Burger King.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: By the time the hostage situation is over, three of the townspeople have been killed, one by Pioneer Paul. When the work shift is over, none of the other workers care about them; they act as if nothing out of the ordinary happened at work today, and are just happy that they can now break character.
- Good-Times Montage: Cartman and Butters' time at Super Phun Thyme, complete with the former singing, and Butters holding Cartman's hand the whole time, looking unhappy throughout the montage.
- Heroic Sacrifice: A non lethal example and a parodic one. Stan states he does what he considers the "ultimate sacrifice" to save Kenny from being killed by the terrorists, said sacrifice being to talk like a pioneer so that the staff who stubbornly insist to not break character, thus acting as if they are unable to understand the terrorists' modern way of speaking, thus not giving them the vault code they asked for. Stan considers this to be the ultimate sacrifice, because this made him look like a fool in front of his love interest Wendy. Even though the sacrifice isn't as dramatic as it might've sound at first, it is still extremely impressive for Stan considering how much he adores Wendy and he stayed calm even when the terrorists pointed their guns at him, meaning that he knowingly risked his life.
- Hostage Situation: Plot A with the Burger King robbers taking the fourth graders and the cast members hostage.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Stan disguises himself a new employee, one of the Pioneer Village employees says, "Finally, a fella that talks some sense." It's especially ironic considering none of the employees were being sensible up until that point.
- Karma Houdini: Pioneer Paul, who shot and killed his coworker for breaking character, departs without detainment at closing time with the other surviving employees of the park.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: A Pioneer Village employee is killed by his co-worker, Pioneer Paul, before he can give the code to the armed robbers who want access to a safe.
- Lost in Character: A voluntary example: the employees refuse to break character, even if they die. The only one who doesn't conform is shot by Pioneer Paul.
- Mistaken for Gay: Cartman insists he and Butters will be seen that way if Butters keeps holding his hand, and Butters finds that preferable to breaking Mr. Garrison's rules. The ticket lady soon proves this theory right.
- Offering Another in Your Stead: When the fourth-grade class is taken hostage, Mr. Garrison tells the robbers, "Please, if you must take anyone... don't take me. These kids are worth more to you!"
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Stan eventually gets the access code to the back door by pretending to be a new employee. His "pioneer" outfit is simply taking off his coat and covering his face with dirt—he doesn't even remove his iconic red and blue knit cap. It's a possible subversion, though, as the employees may have realized it was him and simply went along with the disguise because it was the only way they could reveal the code without breaking character.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": It turns out that the password to the locked back entrance is 1864—the same year that every single employee has repeatedly mentioned during the field trip.
- Pet the Dog: As mentioned above, Kenny, who has the ability to come back to life and has died numerous painful deaths, did not suffer such a fate this time thanks to his friend Stan saving him at the last moment.
- Principles Zealot: The pioneers will do anything to not break character — including dying, allowing children to die, and killing each other.
- Serious Business:
- The criminals (equipped with Sat-phones, Automatic Rifles, and Silenced Pistols) robbed a Burger King. At one point one of them asks for their "cut", and flips through the ingredients of a burger like a stack of bills. Meanwhile, the police treat them as the most dangerous criminals and wipe out all but the leader.
- The pioneers never break character at all. Not even when their lives are at stake, and when one of them finally does, he's shot dead by Pioneer Paul for doing so.
- Butters will not let go of Cartman's hand under any circumstance, because Mr. Garrison said not to until they were back on the bus. Even when he's battered and Cartman is unconscious after an explosion, Butters drags his body back to the bus, fainting afterwards.
- Downplayed compared to the rest of the examples, but Stan treats being a dork in front of Wendy to be a horrible sin and when he decides to role-play as a pioneer to save Kenny, he tells her to look away. Wendy appreciates his attitude and doesn't mind it much when he does act like a dork.
- Shout-Out: Super Phun Thyme is based on the Celebrity Sports Center
in Denver, Colorado. - Skewed Priorities: The Pioneer Village employees care more about not breaking character than the fact they are in a hostage situation where workers are getting killed and children are being put in mortal danger. Pioneer Paul even shoots an employee dead for breaking character when he tries to give the terrorists the code to the back door, rather than shooting the terrorists to free him and the other hostages.
- Spanner in the Works: Cartman and Butters unwittingly prevent the robbers from escaping by running into one of them and causing a commotion that alerts the others, creating a window for the police to save the hostages and eliminate the criminals.
- Spoof Aesop: The people back in the pioneer times lacked many of the luxuries that is afforded by modern society and we should be thankful to live in a world with such conveniences. This is delivered by Franz after a whole episode of showing just how ridiculous the Pioneer Village employees are for refusing to break character just to enforce this moral.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Kyle and the police operator who answers his 911 call.Operator: Nine one one, what's your emergency?Kyle: There's some terrorists or bank robbers or something that have taken our class hostage!Operator: Taken hostage where?Kyle: The old Pioneer Village off of Kipling.Operator: You mean that annoying place where employees won't break character?Kyle: Sister, you don't know the half of it!
- Sudden Name Change: At one point the actor playing Smitty the Blacksmith is referred to as Chad by Pioneer Paul. When he's being interrogated by Franz, it's revealed that his name is David Palmer.
- Take That!: The Pioneer Village actors are this to historical reenactors who take their jobs too seriously.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Hysterically subverted; after failed attempt to get the code by killing employees, Franz and his gang decide to start threatening the kids, starting with Kenny. Stan manages to save him at the last minute by finding a way to get the employees to reveal the code without breaking character.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Pioneer Village employees refuse to break character even when they are being threatened at gunpoint by the terrorists. When one of them does break character to save himself, Pioneer Paul kills him for it. Of course, when their shift is over, they all act as if nothing happened.
- Took a Third Option: Stan figures out a way to reveal the passcode without the employees breaking character, by phrasing it in a manner regarding constructing a safe the way one would in the 1860s.
- Uninhibited Muscle Power: The self-admittedly unathletic Butters pulls this off by managing to pull Cartman over a lamp post with little effort, then using him as a living flail after they re-enter the park—having the right amount of muscle memory as he and Cartman were forced to be swung daintily around the post like rocking chairs put some good spring in his step.
- Villainous Breakdown: Franz becomes more and more unhinged as the park employees refuse to break character.
- Villainous Rescue: When Franz has his back turned, Stan convinces the actor playing the town criminal Murderin' Murphy to tackle the former down and manages to leave an opening for the police to free the hostages. While the actor playing Murderin' Murphy is far from evil, he is a pretty bad actor with Skewed Priorities.
- Whole-Plot Reference:
- A-Plot to Die Hard (though with fewer casualties among the criminals).
- B-Plot to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Super Phun Thyme.
- You're Insane!: The criminals' reaction to seeing one of the workers shoot and kill another to keep him from breaking character.
