Original air date: 11/13/2019
The Annual Strong Woman Competition pushes everyone to their limits. An even stronger "woman", Heather Swanson, causes big problems for PC Principal and his family. Cartman, Stan, and the rest of the boys meet their match when some of the girls join their board gamers club.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Excluding people based on gender (and also them being better than you) is not okay, but neither is letting people have a competitive advantage because it's politically correct to do so.
- Artistic License – Sports:
- Boxing is included in the Strong Woman Competition, even though it isn't a strength event. Its inclusion may be a reference to transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox, who severely injured a female opponent in a bout, just as Heather Swanson does.
- Most levels of athletic competition actually exclude trans women who haven't gone through reassignment surgery, or at least spent significant time on hormone therapy to reduce any testosterone advantages that would cause the exact situation this episode brings up. This is intentionally ignored to heighten the absurdity of the plot.
- Author Appeal: Trey Parker and his wife are both professed lovers of boardgames, hence the obscure references to the different genres and aspects of them in the b-plot.
- Badass Adorable: The 4th grade girls are very cute, and they metaphorically kick Heather Swanson's ass in countless board games.
- Boring, but Practical: What infuriates Cartman when playing board games with the girls. Unlike him and the boys, the girls aren't interested in the flashy themes and stories of the games. Instead, they just read rule books and uses the knowledge that they gain from them to beat the boys in every game.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Suggested when Cartman states that to him, games are merely escapist fun rather than something to take too seriously; however, he then goes the sexism route instead, not that it would be out of character since he is the He-Man Woman Hater.
- Breather Episode: This is the first episode of Season 23 not to involve Tegridy Farms. Instead, the A-plot picks up on the PC Babies plot thread of Season 22.
- The Bully: Heather Swanson's entire characterization is using "her" masculine prowess to beat women in sports competition, sometimes even beating up women in competitions and rub "her" victories in their faces, while also insulting them and anyone else who tries to stand up to "her".
- Call-Back:
- In PC Principal and Strong Woman's house, there are pictures of when they spent time together with the PC Babies in Buddha Box.
- Butters replaces Leslie Meyers as the kid who's called out by PC Principal for talking during assemblies.
- Character Development: Through his experience with Heather, PC Principal becomes more conflicted about his insistence on political correctness, gradually learning that being politically correct should not be used as an excuse to abuse and belittle others. The PC Babies are also able to understand the nuance of the situation and aren't upset with their father over it, allowing him to realise that he can disapprove of Heather without being labelled as a transphobe.
- Did Not Think This Through: Cartman doesn't like the girls around because they know how to play the games better than him, so his plan to get rid of the girls is to have them play a board game that's too complicated for them which doesn't work because the girls know how to play the games better than him.
- Dumb Muscle: Heather is accustomed to winning over "her" opponents through strength alone. "She" doesn't even bother to learn the rules of the board game and is absolutely blindsided when the girls soundly defeat "her".
- Elephant in the Room: It's blatantly obvious to everyone that Heather is lying about being transgender in order to take advantage of the trans rights movement and easily win women's sports events. However, no one wants to do anything about it because they're afraid of being labeled as transphobic and suffering public backlash.
- Everybody Has Standards: PC Principal wants to be supportive of trans rights and he overall is. However, he is very uncomfortable about the incredibly muscular and masculine Heather taking advantage of those rights to easily win women's sporting competitions, especially because it's clear that Heather is only pretending to be a trans woman.
- Everything Is Racist: Or, rather, transphobic. Heather takes advantage of "her" status as a trans woman to accuse PC Principal of transphobia every time he tries to confront "her".
- Evil Counterpart: While in Season 19 PC Principal was overly sensitive to the point of extreme aggression, his pursuit of political correctness was genuinely well-meaning, albeit incredibly misguided. Heather, on the other hand, is a self-centred brute that abuses PC culture to get what "she" wants while dismissing anyone who disapproves of "her" actions as bigots and transphobes.
- Expy: Heather Swanson to Macho Man Randy Savage.
- Given Name Reveal:
- In the online article about PC Principal getting in hot water over his confrontation with Heather Swanson, it is revealed that the PC stands for Peter Charles.
- Doubles as a Stealth Pun for "Peter Principle", the tendency to promote successful people until they stop being successful.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: When Strong Woman explains to PC Principal that Heather (formerly Blade) is actually a sexist bully taking advantage of transgender issues in order to take out a personal vendetta against Strong Woman, and the female gender in general, PC can barely comprehend that someone would be so cruel and petty.PC Principal:(stunned) "I didn't even know people like that existed."
- Hate Sink: Heather Swanson (fka. Blade Jaggart), an obnoxious Jerk Jock who declared "herself" transgender (when "she" clearly isn't) purely so "she" could compete in women's sports and get away with beating them up, as well as getting back at "her" ex, Strong Woman, out of petty jealousy. If anyone tries to point this out, Heather accuses them of being transphobic and has them publicly vilified. This includes PC Principal, who is not only the epitome of political correctness, but also the father of Strong Woman's children, who Heather pulls a blatant Wounded Gazelle Gambit on. Never mind that Heather made no attempt at getting a sex change before competing, which meant "she" had an unfair advantage over the other women. When "she's" beaten by some 10-year-old girls at board games, Heather cries about how "she" was at a disadvantage due to being born a boy, showing that "she's" selective when it comes to "her" assumed identity.
- Hypocrite: Heather competes in women's athletic competitions despite having an unfair physical advantage as a very muscular adult male (who, as PC Principal points out, went through full puberty), but complains that "her" loss against the girls in the board game is unfair because the girls put the effort into reading the rule books — something, that unlike the women competing with "her" in the athletics, "she" was fully capable of choosing to do so (not to mention that it's made obvious that Heather isn't really transgender).
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- After Cartman convinces Congress to not allow girls in Dice Studz, they end up starting their own board game club that is vastly superior to the boys' club, with Mr. Mackey informing him and the other Dice Studz members that said ruling prevents them from being in the club room.
- After Heather Swanson unfairly beats women in numerous sports competitions, Heather "herself" is beaten by 4th grade girls in numerous board games.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Stan has no idea why he's not allowed to play in the girls' club, not having joined the other members in the guys' club in creating the rule.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: "Heather" looks and sounds exactly like Randy Savage, right down to the mannerisms.
- Only Sane Man: Stan, as usual. He was the only one who had no problem with girls being in Dice Studz, and badly wanted to join Board Girls when it proved to be superior. Sadly, though, the blatant sexism of the other boys in Dice Studz (explained above) means he's stuck in the boring club.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The fact that the PC Babies remain silent and don't cry when Heather claims "she's" being discriminated against indicates that even they're not falling for it.
- Precision F-Strike: Nichole swears while challenging Heather to a series of board games.Nichole: "Okay, so then let's do it, bitch."
- Psychopathic Manchild: Heather brags about beating women in sports competitions in a very immature manner and later throws a tantrum after being beaten at board games by elementary school girls.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Cartman does technically get what he wants, having successfully getting the girls banned from his club. Though the girls start their own club that's vastly superior to his, much to his envy, especially since he isn't allowed to join.
- Shout-Out: Heather Swanson is based on the late Macho Man Randy Savage.
- Shown Their Work: Many of the board games mentioned or featured in the episode are actual games, with Wizards of the Coast getting a "special thanks" credit at the end. It helps that Trey Parker is a huge fan of board games (there's even a picture on Twitter of Matt and Trey playing Blood and Plunder, which was featured on the game's website).
- Special Edition Title: The South Park theme song still hasn't played this season, despite Tegridy Farms having their season finale, as this episode features the intro to PC Babies instead. Strangely, the end credits are still in the Tegridy Farms variation.
- The Sociopath: Heather takes advantage of the politically correct culture by saying "she" identifies as female to use it to beat up women and manipulates the crowd into making PC Principal come off as transphobic, as well as to get back at Strong Woman, whom "she" dated in the past. "She's" also a massive Sore Winner AND a Sore Loser.
- Sore Loser: Both Heather and Cartman don't take losing to the girls at board games well at all.
- Take That!:
- The main one is aimed at womens' sports organizations that seem to be more concerned about looking progressive than being competitively fair.
- One jab is delivered at the gatekeeping nature of fandoms. Cartman tries to complaint about the "unfairness" of the female players without admitting his unwillingness to read the rules or improve.
- Heather Swanson taking off "her" pants and revealing a tight G-string at an elementary school mirrors a then-recent incident of a drag queen who stripped to a group of children at a library.
- The PC Babies are used again for cheap, but funny, jokes about overly PC People. "You can't worry about what the PC Babies think."
- Testosterone Poisoning: Despite allegedly identifying as a woman, Heather Swanson is one of the manliest-looking characters ever seen on South Park.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: See Precision F-Strike above.
- Title Drop: Board Girls is the name of the club the girls form when Cartman manages to forbid girls from entering Dice Studz.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Despite PC Principal's fears about alienating them, the PC Babies embrace him at the end of the episode and don't consider him a transphobe.
- Villainous Breakdown: Heather Swanson has one when the Board Girls defeat "her" at every single board game.
- Women Are Wiser: The girls are way better than the boys at every board game they play because they bother to learn the rules.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When PC Principal pushes "her" during an on-air confrontation, Heather overplays the incident and throws "herself" through a table in order to make PC Principal come off as a transphobe. Doubles as
Genius Bonus; Heather is based on pro wrestler Randy Savage and after being pushed by PC Principal, "she" is able to take a small shove and make it look it an assault that put "her" through a table. It's a quintessential WWF/WWE move, and it makes PC Principal look like a violent transphobe.
