Follow TV Tropes

Following

Recap / South Park S 19 E 8 Sponsored Content

Go To

Original air date: 11/18/2015

Jimmy's integrity as a newsman conflicts with PC Principal's ideology.

Sponsored Content contains examples of:

  • Arc Words: "There's a war coming."
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Jimmy delivers several of these to PC Principal when the latter tries to explain why using the word "retarded" is wrong.
  • Big Damn Hero: Barbrady saves Jimmy from being killed by the GEICO Representative.
  • Boom, Headshot!: How the GEICO representative gets killed by Barbrady.
  • Break the Haughty: PC Principal gradually becomes more unhinged as the episode goes on.
  • The Bus Came Back: Mr. Garrison appears for the first time since "Where My Country Gone" and Principal Victoria appears for the first time since being fired offscreen before the season began.
  • Call-Back: Jimmy's concern for ethical journalism comes from all the way back in season 8's "Quest for Ratings," when he was the only one at Sexy Action News who cared about it more than ratings.
  • Category Traitor: The PC Bros rationalize Jimmy's disagreeing with them as him being one.
    PC Principal: This kid just needs to be shown that he's being an "Uncle Able".
  • Clickbait Gag: Stephen Stotch, reading an elementary school newspaper, is shocked to find news and to not be sucked into clickable slideshows and top 10 lists. Remembering looking for news online, he imagines himself running in a void, being bombarded with Buzzfeed articles, GEICO advertisements, and vague titles that promise that you will react emotionally.
  • Come with Me If You Want to Live: Line said by Barbrady to Jimmy when the latter's life is threatened at his home.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Randy's response to Sharon's "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    Randy: "He or she" is an agenderphobic microaggression, Sharon. You are a bigot.
  • Continuity Nod: Stephen reads about the police beating up homeless people in the school newspaper.
    • When told about a huge threat to the world, Jimmy mentions ISIS and ninjas.
  • Do You Want to Copulate?: Played for laughs when the frats ask affirmative consent. PC Principal even demands documented proof that the lady read and signed permission to get their Pussy Crushed.
  • Evolutionary Levels/A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Ads are brought up as constantly evolving and changing, bypassing and tricking people trying to see news into looking at them due to the greed of the companies that made them. Jimmy is able to tell what is an ad and what isn't just from a glimpse. It's revealed that they've evolved into living people.
  • "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: The GEICO representative is threatening to shoot Jimmy for not wanting to put their ad in his paper. Jimmy tells him to screw off. If not for Barbrady's Big Damn Hero moment he probably would have been killed.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: The ads and news articles shown to Jimmy on his test have links to articles with comically generic titles.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Jimmy throws back what PC Principal has been preaching since he first arrived, and PC Principal knows there is nothing he can do about it.
  • Innocent Bigot: When Jimmy first suggests that PC Principal feels uncomfortable around the handicapped, he adds, "It's okay, lots of people are." Of course, for someone who sees himself as the exemplar of political correctness it's quite a blow.
  • It's All About Me: The PC Fraternity rationalizes Jimmy's correct statement about them being PC for the sake of "Pussy Crushing" as being an attack against them for being a minority.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: When Sharon sees the news and believes that the PC Fraternity is just a group made for "Crushing Pussy", Randy points out that most of the members are straight out of college.
  • Loophole Abuse: PC Principal says that, from now on, contents in school newspapers has to be approved by him as long as it's distributed inside the school. Jimmy bypasses this by distributing the newspaper outside the school.
  • Noodle Incident: When Principal Victoria reappears, she's walking with a cane for unspecified reasons.
  • No-Sell: All of PC Principal's tactics have no effect against Jimmy.
  • N-Word Privileges: The episode largely focuses on PC Principal not knowing how to deal with Jimmy using the word "retarded", a slur against mentally disabled people. Jimmy also claims that Nathan, who has Down's syndrome, uses it "400 times per day."
  • Oh, Crap!: PC Principal begins the episode on a rampage, saying that he'll "break the fucking legs" of whoever's in charge of the paper. Then he finds out that it's Jimmy.
  • Once an Episode: Randy once again mentions the town having a Whole Foods.
  • Only Sane Man: Downplayed, since it's still PC Principal, but he is the only one in the frat who understands using their PC-ness to get laid is wrong.
  • Periphery Demographic: In-Universe, Super School News becomes very popular with adults, some of whom don't even seem to have kids in the school.
  • Pet the Dog: For as comically over-the-top he is in preaching the standards of political correctness, PC Principal makes it a point that his fraternity not use their status as a means of getting laid, and goes above and beyond to ensure that even the members who do only want sex establish full consent with the women they approach. It's the closest he comes to rational.
  • Playing the Victim Card: After spending the first half of the season viciously attacking any person who's viewpoints are different from theirs, the PC bros throw a fit about "being victimized" when Jimmy publishes a negative article about them in his newspaper.
  • Political Overcorrectness:
    • PC Principal threatens to break the legs of the person that used the word "retarded" in the newspaper, until he sees that said person is Jimmy.
    • Randy calls Sharon a bigot for saying "he or she" instead of "they" during her speech.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sharon gives a short one in regards to Randy and his PC bullshit.
    Sharon: All I know is that you've changed. Ever since you joined this PC thing, you just bully people and wait for people to say anything improper so that you can jump down their throats for whatever words he or she used.
  • The Reveal: The picture of PC Principal and Leslie from last week turns out to be an advertisement for State Farm, with the two actually being (or appear to be) living ads who are unaware of who they really are.
  • Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Jimmy doesn't even seem slightly tempted by the $26 million he would get for selling out—the one moment where he seems flustered by it turns out to just be his usual stutter as he tells the guy off.
  • Shout-Out: The Reveal at the end is similar to part of the plot of Screamers. And also a little similar to Blade Runner. Let's just say that The Reveal must have been written by a Philip K. Dick fan.
  • School Clubs Are Serious Business: Jimmy admits that he is this with the school newspaper, to the point of turning down 26 million dollars just so he can keep his role.
  • Suddenly Voiced: Leslie, the girl who disrupts PC Principal's assemblies throughout the season, has her first speaking role.
  • Take That!:
    • Once again this show points out the hypocrisy of PC (specifically the white male SJWs who put all other white men under the bus, makes their actions seem like they desperately want asspattings from female SJWs).
    • It also shows off how overused Playing the Victim Card is.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: The episode ends with PC Principal discovering that he's an advertisement, much to his confusion.
  • Wham Episode: It is revealed that PC Principal and Leslie are/appear to be actually living ads, which are trying to take over the world. Standing against them are Jimmy, Barbrady, the newsmen, Principal Victoria, Mr. Garrison and Caitlyn Jenner.
  • Wham Line: "DOES SHE KNOW THAT SHE'S AN AD?!"
    • Principal Victoria: I wasn't fired, I was replaced.
  • Wham Shot: The picture from last week's reveal is shown again. This time revealing that PC Principal and Leslie are/appear to be living ads.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Sharon finally calls Randy out for his jerkass behavior this season.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The PC Bros make a huge stink about being victimized after Jimmy's newspaper features an article calling them womanizers. They almost sound excited about it!

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Another Slideshow

Stephen Stotch monologues about his experience of reading news online where he gets constantly sucked into clickable slideshows and top 10 lists.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (8 votes)

Example of:

Main / ClickbaitGag

Media sources:

Report