Original air date: 11/16/2016
The newly-elected Mr. Garrison relishes his newfound authority by forcing PC Principal and other townspeople to perform fellatio on him as revenge for doubting him. However, as Denmark prepares to unleash their Troll Trace program worldwide, he is called to the Pentagon to manage the global crisis. Meanwhile, Gerald attempts to escape the wrath of being captured by Troll Trace and Cartman and Heidi prepare to go to Mars together.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Butters has either gone back to his usual nice self or he is only pretending. Cartman suspects the latter.
- As Himself: SpaceX founder Elon Musk voiced himself in this episode, poking fun at himself and SpaceX. This is rather rare, as celebrities are often impersonated by Matt, Trey, or, as of late, Bill Hader (as the disclaimer states at the beginning, "poorly").
- Big "WHAT?!": Sheila shouted her trademark "What-What-WHAAAAAAT?!" after she saw Kyle run away from home with Ike.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Gerald framing Ike for internet trolling and acting high-and-mighty when he's caught.
- The Caligula: Mr. Garrison makes it no secret that he's going to have fun launching drone strikes, violently interrogating suspects and forcing people to give him blowjobs. When the British government tries to warn him that he may be under the Member Berries' influence, Garrison burns that bridge.
- Call-Back:
- Inside Tom's Rhinoplasty, there's a large portrait of David Hasselhoff.
- The parody of Cher's "Believe" that was played in "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" plays again in this episode.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Ike's role in Gerald's plot line now comes into full fruition.
- Continuity Snarl: Mr. Garrison shows no signs of being under the control of the Member Berries. It could be, though, that the Member Berry controlling him switched to a more natural tone to avoid suspicion.
- Create Your Own Villain: PC Principal firing Mr. Garrison started the chain of events that resulted in the latter getting elected as president. Mr. Garrison wastes little time reminding him, and completes his payback by forcing him to perform fellatio.
- Dirty Coward: Gerald throws Ike under the bus just to try and cover himself, by making sure that Skankhunt42 is active while he doesn't have access to a computer, thus 'proving' he isn't Skankhunt42.
- Dodgy Toupee: Mr. Garrison's Trump hair, which goes on like Darth Vader's helmet..
- "Eureka!" Moment: Kyle had one upon realizing that his father was Skankhunt42.
- Evil Is Petty: President Garrison briefly returns to South Park so he can intimidate and bully those who angered him in the past.
- Everyone Has Standards: Dildo and the other trolls are absolutely horrified by Gerald framing his toddler son for his own trolling.
- Flashback-Montage Realization: Kyle flashes back to various quotes from throughout the season and deduces that Skankhunt42 is his own father.
- Foreshadowing: The old Member Berry reminds the other berries of Stormtroopers. No, not those ones. The original Stormtroopers
. He then ominously says if people want to 'member, they'll 'member all right. - From Bad to Worse: After Garrison is elected the Member Berries storm the White House with some of them going into the Oval Office, they then prank call Vladimir Putin in an effort to restart the Cold War, then the Don Member Berry comes in, kills their leader and announces that he's going to bring back the Stormtroopers, no, not those Stormtroopers, ACTUAL Stormtroopers...
- Gone Horribly Right: Cartman and Heidi's attempts to stop the gender war ends with Butters coming around, which it turns out isn't what Cartman wants since a nice Butters makes him look bad.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Cartman is deeply irritated and threatened by how well Butters gets along with Heidi.
- Hypocritical Humor: Cartman questions how they're supposed to believe Butters changed from an asshole to a feminist in such a short amount of time when Cartman himself made the same abrupt transition.
- Identity Impersonator: One of the reasons why Gerald had Ike sign in as Skankhunt42 is to make it appear as if he's still active online and that the Danish have captured the wrong person.
- Informed Ability: Heidi being smart and funny is played up more than ever so that Cartman can maintain his nice guy image. Heidi may be good with String Theory, but there's no way she's smart enough to figure out space travel in the space of a few days. Yet two episodes later, it turns out she is.
- Internal Reveal: Kyle figures out that his father is Skankhunt42.
- Irony: Despite the Member Berries trying to unravel society through nostalgia, it's Kyle memorizing everything he knows about Skankhunt42 that helps him figure out who the troll really is.
- Kneel Before Zod: What Mr. Garrison is essentially doing with a twist. Rather than telling his former opponents to bow before him, he wants them to suck his dick. PC Principal was the first critic to get this order.
- Late to the Realization: Only now does Kyle realize Gerald was Skankhunt42.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Cartman says that nobody would believe that Butters had a sincere Heel–Face Turn after his sexist actions in the previous episodes... which is exactly what the fans think about Cartman's own behavior.
- Garrison tells PC Principal that it's his fault that Garrison got elected, referencing the claims made that the obnoxious behavior of SJWs is what led enough moderates to vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
- Sheila's Big "WHAT?!", along with the reference to Cher's song from "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" and Butters singing his apple song while at the SpaceX queue, are deliberate attempts to invoke nostalgia in long-time fans - during a season that's largely about the destructive effects of nostalgia.
- Moral Event Horizon: Gerald crosses this when he sets things up to look like Ike was Skankhunt42 all along. Dildo, at least, seems to think so.
- Moral Myopia: In spite of all the trouble his trolling has caused, Gerald insists he hasn't done anything wrong... then he sets up Ike, his own son, to take the blame for his trolling so he can appear innocent.
- My God, What Have I Done?: PC Principal, upon realizing that firing Garrison in "Where My Country Gone?" for his comment against Canadian immigrants was the ultimate reason Garrison was elected.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By framing Ike, Gerald brought his own downfall upon himself.
- Oh, Crap!: Boris Johnson has one of these after finding out Americans have eaten Member Berries, or as the English call them 'Memberries'.
- Mr Garrison once again realizes he has no idea how to run a country.
- Older Than They Think: In-Universe. Cartman has spent the entire season going on about how women are smart and funny ("Get over it.") but the only example he can come up with is Amy Schumer talking about her vagina. Butters, meanwhile, name-drops older, more well-respected female comedians like Joan Rivers and Lily Tomlin, as well as the classic all-female-led comedy 9 to 5. Of course, Cartman's feminism is heavily implied to be a put on to begin with.
- Orphaned Setup: Heidi tells a joke about a skeleton and a skunk, but we never hear it.
- Parental Betrayal: Gerald betrays his own 5 year old adoptive son, Ike by first using him as a tool for trolling, then framing him for all of the trolling as SkankHunt42, getting some grounded in the process.
- Product Placement: Ike is playing Watch_Dogs 2 on his computer.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Mr. Garrison starts abusing his power by demanding blowjobs from anyone who has ever come into conflict with him. This is a callback to his policy of "Fuck them all to death!", 'member? This is part of his mandate.
- The Scapegoat: Gerald frames Ike for all of Skankhunt42's activity.
- Shout-Out:
- Several references to The Empire Strikes Back are shown, like Mr. Garrison's chamber being designed after Darth Vader's chamber, as well as a mashup of "Hail to the Chief" and "The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" acting as Mr. Garrison's Leitmotif.
- The Member Berries sings Toto's "Africa" while partying at the White House.
- Shown Their Work: Almost everything inside of SpaceX is real, from the assembly lines building Dragon capsules, to Elon Musk's description of the Falcon 9 Full-Thrust. He even mentions the latter's ability to come back and land, which has been successfully demonstrated on many occassions using both a land-based landing pad, and a sea-based droneship.
- Take That!:
- The people visiting SpaceX was a reference to those who threaten to leave the US if Trump is elected President. Among those people include Cher, who stated that she would go to Jupiter if Trump won.
- Elon Musk being depicted as a revolutionary genius, but his contributions to technology are underwhelming, e.g. a computer door that he still has to open manually.
- Garrison's speech to PC Principal is one to the overly PC culture which drove people to vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
- What was the previous disaster the Member Berries caused? Brexit!
- Those Two Guys: Reince Priebus, the White House Chief of Staff, and Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist in the real world, appear at Tom's Rhinoplasty, overseeing Mr. Garrison's transformation into Trump.
- Title Drop: There's a "Members Only" sign at the rear entrance of a private nightclub.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Gerald sinks to a new low by framing his five year old son, Ike, as the troll SkankHunt42. Whether this low sticks or not remains to be seen.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Butters has taken one after being scared shitless hearing Bill Clinton's warning about women enslaving men once Troll Trace goes live, but does genuinely get along with Heidi, much to Cartman's annoyance.
- Unwitting Pawn: Ike. Gerald tricks manipulates Ike into using the skankhunt account to continue trolling as Ike types down whatever Gerald tells him, not knowing what he is actually doing. When Shiela catches Ike in the act, Gerald decides to frame Ike as the troll, getting him grounded in the process.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Denmark plans to use Troll Trace to turn countries against each other, have them destroy each other, and allow Denmark to conquer the world and create a society where everyone is happy and singing.
- Visionary Villain: Denmark.
- Wham Episode:
- Troll Trace turns out to be part of a Danish world domination plot.
- The leader of the Member Berries wants to bring back the Nazis. But was anyone really surprised?
- Wham Line: "'Member storm troopers? Not those stormtroopers... the real old ones. People wanna 'member? They gonna 'member."
- Who's on First?: This exchange.Bouncer: What's the password, 'member?Member Berry #1: Yeah, I 'member.Member Berry #2: You 'member?Bouncer: I 'member.
- Why We're Bummed Communism Fell: When speaking to Putin, the Member Berries say "'Member the Cold War?"
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Cartman asks Heidi to tell a joke, intending to laugh once it's over and prove that he thinks she's really funny. Butters ends up laughing at the set-up because he's such a flake, making it only harm Cartman's cause.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The rocket to Mars is nowhere near complete.
- You Are Grounded!: Ike is grounded after being wrongfully accused of trolling.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The leader of the Member Berries gets shot by the Don Member Berry.
