Original air date: 11/30/2016
Cartman thinks Heidi can solve the problem of them getting to Mars because she's funny. Meanwhile, Gerald tries to save himself by reasoning with the Troll Hunter while Mr. Garrison explores his newfound military power.
Tropes:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Gerald screams and begs the Danes not to kill him and is eventually reduced to sobbing. The other trolls find it pathetic.
- Always Someone Better: Gerald was admired by trolls for his online activities, which mainly consisted of tit jokes, Photoshopping penises in people's mouths, and leading the trolling attack on Denmark. Bedrager, on the other hand, set in motion a plan to troll the entire planet and finds Gerald's actions as a troll to be amateurish.
- Angrish: The angrier Sheila gets, the harder it is to tell what she is saying. By the end her speech is nearly indecipherable.
- Anti-Interference Lock Up: At the end of the episode, Ike and Kyle trick Sheila into running into the pantry and lock her inside so they can use the computer without her screaming at them. This, of course, only makes her more furious.
- As Himself: Once again, Elon Musk voiced himself.
- The Bus Came Back: For Father Maxi, and, even more astonishingly, Mr. Slave, all of whom hadn't had a major role for several seasons.
- Call-Back:
- During their phone conversation, Kyle calls Mr. Garrison a "gay little dipshit puppet who lets his ex-boyfriend manipulate him", which could be referring to Garrison's alter-ego Mr. Hat, who hasn't been seen nor mentioned in the show since "201" (though prior episodes established that Mr. Hat was a separate entity who could do things independently from Garrison).
- Ike calling Sheila a "big fat bitch", which was a song performed by Cartman all the way back in "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", and most prominently featured in the movie.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Heidi has apparently studied Emoji Analysis for so long that she can now see the underlying patterns in everything, thereby tipping her off to the fact that SpaceX made a vital error in their calculations. That, or she's just cracked from the pressure.
- Child Prodigy: Subverted. Despite Cartman's claims of Heidi being smart and funny, it seems even she (at the age of ten) cannot improve the technology for Mars travel. It turns out that she had used String Theory to find some errors after all.
- Cliffhanger Copout: After escaping Sheila last episode, this episode starts with Kyle and Ike back in their house after being somehow brought back home offscreen.
- Clingy Jealous Guy: Cartman still gets mad at Butters for complementing Heidi and thinks that he's trying to steal her from him.
- Continuity Snarl: Randy acts the way he always does, despite having been brainwashed by Member Berries in "Oh, Jeez". It may turn out to be a subversion in that he is the one to suggest going to Mr. Slave for help, and having him use reverse psychology to get Garrison to bomb Denmark.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Gerald is appalled to discover that Bedrager is actually a troll who, via Troll Trace, is instigating the other countries into starting World War III for his own amusement.
- Eviler than Thou: Bedrager is a troll that's willing to instigate the planet into entering World War III out of fun, which Gerald, who lead a trolling attack on Denmark to keep harassing people online, finds excessive. Unlike Gerald, who is in denial about how his trolling hurts people, Bedrager is proud of his trolling and acknowledges the effects it has on people.
- Fake Nationality: In-universe, Lennart Bedrager isn't even Danish.
- For the Evulz: Bedrager's plan, as he wants to troll the world into starting World War III for the sake of comedy.
- Freak Out: After being calm since The Movie, Sheila has well and truly lost it, acting crazier than she ever has before.
- From the Mouths of Babes: Literally, as Ike (a baby) curses out Sheila to her face.
- Hollywood Law: Garrison hasn't been inaugurated yet and he's already been given launch codes.
- I Have a Family: Gerald tries using this so Bedrager will let him go. Bedrager points out that Freja Ollegard had a family too and they're still in grief over her suicide that was caused by Gerald's trolling.
- Informed Attribute: And this time it's gone too far since Cartman thinks Heidi can get them to Mars because she's funny, which has nothing to do with solving the problem of getting to Mars.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Yates points out that Troll Trace only reveals people's internet history if someone adds the person's name and address to the database. So if no one logs in and uses it, the people have nothing to panic about.
- Just Between You and Me: Lennart tells Gerald his whole plan.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Probably more of it in this episode than in the last three combined. Of particular note are Kyle telling the people of South Park that they've dealt with worse crises than this in only a week, and expressing Arc Fatigue at how long they've been dealing with this one storyline.
- Gerald's remarks on satire may also be a commentary on the show and the different views towards it (see Self-Deprecation below).
- Kyle asks Ike who taught him to curse like that and he says "Daddy!" In this season Ike is voiced by Trey Parker's daughter, as you can see here
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- No Indoor Voice: Sheila screams almost every one of her lines in this episode.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Everything you thought you knew about Bedrager, it's all complete crap.
- Oh, Crap!: The trolls along with everyone working at Trolltrace when they realise Bedrager was a troll after he Rick Rolls them.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Done intentionally In-Universe, as Bedrager reveals that he's actually an American when he explains his Evil Plan to Gerald.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Lennart Bedrager, who was willing to start World War III because he thought it would be funny.
- Recycled Plot: A minor example. Bedrager is actually not the first South Park villain that wants to destroy the world as an act of comedy; that would be Funnybot.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: It seems Heidi actually is really smart, but not because she's a girl like Cartman claims.
- Sanity Slippage: Shiela. Since the last episode, she becomes way more unhinged, angry, hysterical, and psychotic over coming to believe that Ike was the troll
- Self-Deprecation:
- Gerald tries to defend himself by claiming he isn't a troll, but a satirist who draws attention to the hypocrisies of American society.
- One of the most common criticisms of the season has been that the plotline made every episode feel the same. Kyle lampshades this by chastising the citizens of South Park for going through the same trolling issues every week instead doing something about it.
- The title "Not Funny" could also refer to how several people think the series is not as funny as it could be since it switched from being a vulgar surreal comedy to a satire of current events.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Cartman states how Butters barely knows Heidi, yet in the episode "Marjorine" he was sent to Heidi's slumber party disguised as a girl to steal a cootie catcher that the boys thought was a future-telling device. Although he was in disguise and neither Heidi nor the rest of the girls knew "she" was Butters, "she" actually was Butters but only Disguised in Drag, so the events of that episode still count and clearly imply that Butters should know who Heidi is. Of course, Cartman is behaving like an average jealous lover and either forgot or is established to believe his own lies.
- Gerald isn't nearly as hairy as he was in "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub". Though he could have started shaving his body hair.
- Shout-Out:
- This episode once again makes a reference to Manohla Dargis's positive review of the all-female Ghostbusters remake in The New York Times; Heidi says "Girls rule. Women are funny. Get over it.", as she tries to search for a solution for SpaceX to get to Mars.
- The conversation at SpaceX between Butters and Cartman mirror those of Peanuts' brick wall conversations.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot:
- Ike had sworn before, but this time it's cranked up to eleven.
- Kyle's conversation on the phone with Mr. Garrison.
- Stranger Behind the Mask: Bedrager's real identity is not J.J. Abrams, or Bill Clinton, or any other character that appeared in this season, or even a pre-existing South Park character. He's just a random (presumably) American troll with no backstory or motives outside of For the Evulz.
- Take That!:
- Officer Yates tells everyone that they have nothing to fear "as long as we believe in the rationality and fundamental decency of the American people." Cue mass panic. Probably the most potent criticism of America ever made.
- Lennart's big reveal has a subtle dig at Donald Trump, namely how he was able to rise to power purely through agitation.
- Title Drop: Gerald says it when Bedrager reveals his master plan.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In the previous episode, Sheila's horror towards thinking Ike was skankhunt42 and grounding him in response was understandable. As of this episode, she's gone into full Control Freak mode, punishes Kyle even though he didn't do anything wrong, and generally acts like her pre-movie self.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Kyle telling the residents of South Park to ask the President for help leads to them getting Mr. Slave to egg Mr. Garrison into bombing Denmark. To Kyle's credit, as soon as he learns of this (and realizes that his father is currently in Denmark), he calls Garrison himself to fix his mistake.
- Butters inadvertently destroys Cartman's unwavering faith in Heidi and turns him against her by the end. While the effects are somewhat minor in the next episode, much of Season 21's Cartman/Heidi plotline, and thus, everything Heidi has to go through, can be traced back to here.
- Wham Episode:
- Lennart Bedrager turns out to be an American troll who wants to destroy the world as the ultimate joke.
- Heidi finds a way to get to Mars.
- Wham Line: More of a Wham Paragraph, really, but how it's revealed that Lennart Bedrager is a troll himself:Lennart: What if you could troll the entire world? Somebody who could rise to political power... through nothing more than pushing people's buttons and getting them all riled up, become the leader of... a Scandinavian country, perhaps, get them to listen to you when, actually... (stops speaking in an accent) you're not even fucking Danish...
- And then:
Gerald: You would deliberately start World War III, let the people of Denmark die, set everyone on Earth against each other? Why?!Lennart: Because it's freakin' hilarious!
