Original air date: 11/3/1999
The boys become fascinated with the latest fad from Japan, which turns out to be an insidious plot to have American children brainwashed into overthrowing the U.S. government.
This episode provides the following:
- Animesque: The kids' craze over Chinpokomon turns their eyes into arches when they smile and causes them to speak in Japanese with glee. Bonus points: Trey Parker speaks Japanese as he studied it in college, so it's actually authentic.
- The Alcoholic: Alabama Man. "He can bowl, he can drink, he can drink some more, he's Alabama Man!"
- Appeal to Flattery: The Japanese creators of Chinpokomon successfully lull critics by praising the American penis size.
- Art Shift: The focus group toy commercials are filmed in live-action.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The main four are shown a commercial for a toy called Wild Wacky Action Bike. As repeatedly mentioned in the ear worm of a song, it's hard to ride this bike, defeating the purpose of getting a bike in the first place.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Japanese term chinpoko (ちんぽこ) means 'small penis'. The entire phrase "Chinpokomon" means "penis [pocket] monster" in Japanese. The word Poké is short for pocket in Japanese, which is where the word "poko" comes from.
- Children chant Owatta Beikoku (終わった米国) "the U.S. is finished" while marching.
- The billboard written by Japanese, 眠気スッキリ (Nemuke sukkiri) means "keeping awake and refreshing".
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The kids are brainwashed into becoming anti-American Japanese soldiers.
- Domestic Abuse: One of the kids playing with Alabama Man has him smack his wife with his bowling ball.
- Dope Slap: The assistant receives one after telling Sharon she has a big penis.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In the HD remaster, Lola (a background character commonly seen in the later seasons) can be seen during the scenes where the kids are in the crowd.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Several instances throughout the episode. Notably, what's spoken is actual Japanese (in which Trey Parker is fluent), as opposed to foreign-sounding gibberish.
- Intentional Engrish for Funny: The Chinpokomon anime characters speak in comedically broken English.
- It Will Never Catch On: It's easy to tell that this episode was made at a time when Pokémon was seen as a passing craze that would likely be over in a few years. The idea that it would become a franchise with enormous staying power— to the point that the anime has been on the air for as long as South Park has— clearly never crossed the writers' minds. In fact as of 2021, Pokémon is the highest grossing media franchise of all time.
- Made of Explodium: Mercilessly parodied during the "Wild Wacky Action Bike" commercial, where the bike crashes into a truck and it's the child riding it who ends up exploding.
- Merchandise-Driven: The Chinpokomon TV show as a tool to sell merch.
- Motor Mouth: The characters in Chinpokomon speak in a speed that rivals Speed Racer.
- Now, Buy the Merchandise: In the Chinpokomon cartoon, instead of trying to catch the eponymous Mons, the characters are actually trying to buy them (which, given how heavily merchandised Pokemon and other children's anime are, isn't completely inaccurate).
- Offhand Backhand: How Alabama Man smacks his wife around.
- Parody Commercial: We get two mock advertisements. The first was the "Wild Wacky Action Bike", a bicycle with both front and rear handlebars, advertised as "almost impossible to steer". The second product was the "Alabama Man", an action figure of a stereotypical redneck who spends his time drinking beer, bowling, chewing tobacco, and beating his wife ("When Wife asks him where he's been, just use the action button and Alabama Man busts her lip open! 'Shut up, bitch!'"). After a focus group consisting of Cartman, Stan and Kyle dismiss both as "gay", the researcher says, "Oh, dear. Well, let's keep trying. How about this?" Cut to real commercials.
- Phonýmon: The Chinpokomon, which were meant to control the minds of American children so America would be vulnerable to a Japanese attack.
- Revenge: The basic gist of the Japanese's plan. They want revenge for World War II by attacking Pearl Harbor and eventually overthrowing the United States government.
- Refuge in Audacity: The Alabama Man figure. Not too often you see domestic abuse being advertised as a plus.
- Running Gag:
- Whenever Kyle tries to join in on a fad, his friends have already moved on to the next one. This ends up backfiring when Kyle is still completely willing to carry out the bombing himself, and Stan's first attempt to calm him down (giving him an Aesop that sometimes it's better not to Follow the Leader with trends) only succeeds in convincing Kyle to double down on doing so (not wanting to be made fun of yet again for being behind the crowd), with Stan only talking him down by deliberately confusing him with the Broken Aesop.
- The Chinpokomon makers address the adults' concerns about their plot by complimenting the American penis size.
- Shout-Out:
- When Randy and Sharon are watching Chinpokomon, whenever the scene shows them rather than Chinpokomon, music from Doom can be heard in the background.
- Sharon Marsh's line, "Get on the line, tell everyone how to bring these sons of bitches down!" is a reference to Independence Day as is Mr. Garrison's use of the telegraph in order to spread Sharon's message covertly.
- Shown Their Work: All of the Japanese, with the possible exception of "Garrison-san", is correct Japanese. Trey Parker studied Japanese in college and speaks it fluently.
- Take That!:
- At the Pokémon franchise and the massive fandom it amassed, which was skyrocketing in popularity at the time of the airing.
- Sharon convinces Randy that the stupidity of Chinpokmon could be damaging to a kid's mind by comparing it to Battle of the Network Stars.note
- Teeny Weenie: The Japanese creators keep talking about how small their penises are as opposed to the well-endowed Americans. Sharon calls them out on this, saying that they're only saying this to distract the male Americans. While this is true, one of the creators proves that he's not lying about the size of his penis, either. One of said creators also uses the "your penis so big" line on a woman, causing the other creator to smack him upside the head for the screw-up.
- Totally Radical: Exploited by the parents when they discover that the surefire way to get their children to abandon the fad is to make a show of feigned, stilted enthusiasm for it.
- Trend Aesop: Deconstructed by showing in a realistic matter exactly how such an aesop could backfire. Early on, Gerald tries to convince Kyle not to keep up with fads and assert his individuality, only for Kyle to tell him that he'll get bullied if he doesn't participate in the latest fads. This ends up blowing up in their faces when the parents had no idea of Kyle's moral dilemma and are thus shocked when he was completely willing to carry out the bombing himself. Stan tries to tell Kyle that they only liked Chinpokomon because of group mentality, and it's time to move on, attempting an Aesop of being an individual and not following the leader. Kyle, being burnt one-too-many times for being behind trends, refuses to do so, since he considers quitting Chinpokomon as following the group, and wants to express his individuality by staying with the dying fad. Stan ends up having to contradict himself by saying following the group is good, before Kyle simply gives up out of confusion.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Kenny dies from a seizure he gets from playing the Chinpokomon video game, though it's not entirely clear when he actually dies as he's still fully mobile (though speechless) until the end of the episode, when rats subsequently surround him, before they come out of his body. At one point earlier in the episode, the rats, believing that Kenny was already dead, start gnawing on him, but Cartman swats them away; its possible that one of the rats managed to get inside his body. Stan and Kyle don't say their usual catchphrase, they just laugh.Cartman: [swatting rats away from Kenny] Get off of him, he's not dead yet!
- Unreadable Disclaimer: A verbal example. The "Alabama Man" commercial ends with the announcer saying very quickly "Not all people from Alabama are wife-beaters" in a hushed voice.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: We never learn what the adults planned to win back their children until it successfully pays off at the end.
