Original air date: 3/16/2022
It's Saint Patrick's Day in South Park and Butters winds up in trouble due to a holiday tradition while Randy's attempt to sell a Saint Patrick's Day Special does not work out the way he hoped.
Tropes
- All for Nothing:
- Randy's attempts to sell his weed and ruin Steve are worthless. At the episode's end, the people of South Park are so disgusted at St. Patrick's awful behavior that they cancel the holiday altogether and throw out his St. Patrick's Day special. While Towelie did manage to sell everything... at half price... to Steve (his competitor), which enrages Randy.
- As for Butters, St. Patrick not only further damaged his reputation, but made things even worse and got him sentenced to five years of community service.
- Bait-and-Switch: At first, it seems that Butters was arrested because the St. Patrick's Day pinching tradition is now treated as sexual assault due to Political Overcorrectness. While that is the case in South Park as seen with the lawyer and the policeman later on, Sgt. Yates reveals to Butters the issue is that the girl he pinched actually was wearing green (she had green socks), so he didn't have that justification. Had Butters been correct, there would be no problem.
- Broken Pedestal: By the end of the episode, the townspeople lose all respect for St. Patrick and cancel the holiday, due to his behavior. Butters in particular is hit hard by this, as following St. Patrick's day's traditions is what got him labeled as a sexual predator and earned him five years of community service, all just for pinching.
- Butt-Monkey: Once again, Butters. This time he's been arrested just for pinching one of his classmates, gets slapped repeatedly by his lawyer, tased by the cops, later nearly gunned down by them, and is forced to do community service for five years.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Randy rips the bars out and starts shooting rainbows out of his hands, the news focuses exclusively on Butters escaping with him.
- Continuity Nod:
- Stan and Randy have begun pronouncing Tolkien's name with an emphasis on the "l".
- Freeman's Tacos can be seen towards the end when the truck is seen cleaning the streets.
- The bartender tells Steve his customers need weed to take the edge off before they start doing cocaine, Randy got cocaine legalized in "Christmas Snow".
- Crappy Holidays: For whatever reason, Cartman dislikes St. Patrick's Day and gives a half-hearted, monotone response whenever it's brought up.
- Depraved Bisexual: St. Patrick himself claims to be this when he is accused of homophobia. It's revealed that he invented the tradition of pinching people who aren't wearing green solely as an excuse to sexually assault both men and women on the holiday.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Poor Butters gets arrested, slapped, tasered, nearly gunned down, deemed a sexual predator and forced into five years of community service just for pinching a classmate.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Butters is given a very attractive defense attorney and is incapable of fighting his urge to pinch her for not wearing green.
- Downer Ending: This episode (and by extension, Season 25) ends on a low note. St. Patrick's Day is cancelled, Butters is forced into community service over pinching for the next five years, and Randy's weed is either thrown out or sold by Steve under his name. The only person who came out okay, in the end, was Steve. He managed to rake in some profits and learned that he shouldn't have let the holidays get to his head.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: In keeping with his ignorance of Irish history and culture, Randy refuses to believe St. Patrick was a slave.Randy: White people were slaves in history? Nuh-uh.
- Everybody Must Get Stoned: After Randy and Butters break out of jail using Randy's leprechaun powers, a news report states that the cops where too high on weed to stop them. This would normally imply that they were merely imagining Randy's superpowers... except that the security footage confirms Randy having those powers.
- Everyone Has Standards: South Park is a town in which nearly all the adult population drinks and consumes drugs on a regular basis, but even they are disgusted with St. Patrick's behavior.
- Everything Is Racist: Randy accuses Steve of cultural appropriation for selling a Saint Patrick's Day special even though he's only 10% Irish and never cared about that part of his heritage before.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Butters is arrested for sexual assault after he pinches a girl for (supposedly) not wearing green.
- Hate Sink: Randy is arguably at his worst in this episode as he acts like a jerk to almost everyone; he yells at his family, crumples Towelie into a ball, and starts a fight with Steve when he starts to drum out more customers than him. The misfortunes he endures here are certainly well-deserved.
- Hello, Attorney!: The public defender assigned to defend Butters is quite an attractive woman, wearing a low-cut shirt that reveals her ample cleavage and a short skirt that exposes her long legs.
- Heritage Disconnect: Even though Randy is quick to mention he's partially of Irish descent, he clearly knows very little about Irish culture and history. He doesn't even know the story of St. Patrick's life and finds the idea of him being a slave to be outlandish.
- Hypocrite: Randy yells that Mr. Black's promotional Leprechaun outfit is offensive and he is practicing cultural appropriation. Of course, Randy is only 10% Irish himself and his outfit is even more outlandishly stereotypical.
- It's All About Me: Randy, as expected, doesn't care for St. Patrick's Day's cultural appropriation. He selfishly wants people to smoke his weed special instead of Steve's and uses it as a shield to persuade people to do so... with no success.
- When Randy discovers Towelie sold all of their St. Patrick's Day special to Steve, he's angry. You'd think Randy would be glad they sold all their stock even if it is at half-price. Instead, he's more concerned that everyone is smoking his weed without them knowing. While the viewer shouldn't be surprised, it shows how selfish and self-centered he is.
- Jail Bake: The Boys sneak Randy's weed to him in jail by baking it into a St. Patrick's Day cake. At first, he doesn't realize it and lashes out at Stan until he finally gets the hint.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After Randy gets arrested, Towelie decides to cut his losses and at least make some profit by selling their entire stock of St. Patrick's Day special to Steve at half price.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Randy's attempt at raking in cash failed, as his St. Patrick's Day special was sold under Credigree Farms or thrown out. Considering that he acted like a greedy jerk and caused a needless fight with Steve that landed him in jail, he deserved it.
- St. Patrick ends up with some of this too. While he manages to evade arrest from the cops, with Butters taking all of the heat, his holiday is canceled due to the disgust brought about by his drunken and perverted antics.
- Leprechaun: Subverted. While in jail, Butters doesn't recognize Randy and assumes him to be a leprechaun since he's dressed as one.
- Limited Wardrobe: Kyle isn't wearing any new clothes for St. Patrick's day, as his regular clothes already have green colors on them.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The episode never clarifies whether Randy suddenly gaining St. Patrick's day powers actually happened or was just a hallucination. While both the Cops and Randy were high during the event, the security footage did show Randy clearly having powers.
- No Sympathy: Despite being well aware of the St. Patrick's Day pinching tradition, Sgt. Yates is unsympathetic to Butters making an honest mistake about whether Kelly-Ann Barlow was wearing green and calls him a sexual predator.
- Non-Standard Character Design: St. Patrick himself is animated very differently from the other characters, looking like he came out of a Monty Python production.
- Not Helping Your Case: After Butters is arrested for pinching a girl who he thought wasn't wearing green (and it turns out she was), he tries to explain himself to the police. This is what he says (which just makes him sound even more guilty of being a sexual predator):Butters: She had it coming on account of the way she was dressed!
South Park Police: (disgusted) Ohhhh!
Officer Johnson: Wow, kid. Wow! - Out of Focus: The Boys take another back seat in this installment, though they still appear in some parts. Instead, this episode focuses on Butters and Randy.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Sgt. Yates is painted in a slightly more understanding light in this episode. He initially cuts Butters some slack and understands he pinched Kelly-Ann Barlow for not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day. However, Sgt. Yates's pity vanishes when he shows Butters the issue is that the girl he pinched was wearing green; green socks, to be precise.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Several background tracks from The Stick of Truth are reused in this episode.
- The Rival: A one-sided example. We've thought the Marsh and Black family became bitter foes at the end of "The Big Fix" or at least between Randy and Steve considering the former's mistreatment of the latter is what caused him to start Credigree Weed. This episode shows it's entirely wrong. Stan, Tolkien, and the rest of the family members go about their days regularly. In reality, Randy is the one who starts things out of a selfish want to be the sole weed farm in South Park. As for Steve, he doesn't seem to care about living next door to another farm and just wants to do his own business. On top of that, Randy's business partner, Towelie, has no issue selling Steve all their St. Patrick's Day special... at half-price, no less.
- Season Finale: This episode marks the end of the 25th season of South Park...Then they released another special on Paramount Plus.
- Sequel Episode: This episode continues Randy's feud with Steven that was left off in "The Big Fix".
- Serious Business: Pinching someone is treated as worth arresting for sexual assault, to the point where a cop, after being pinched, expresses his level of violation. It also gets Butters slapped, tasered, and nearly gunned down in this episode.
- Skewed Priorities: Rather than the news and police being worried about Randy suddenly gaining magical powers and breaking out of jail, they focus more on the 9-year-old child Butters accompanying him who only pinched people at worst.
- Sudden Name Change: Kelly-Ann was previously called "Annie" in "Butters Bottom Bitch", though it is possible that Annie is a nickname.
- St. Patrick's Day Episode: The episode centers around Butters and Randy's antics during the holiday.
- Take That!:
- The episode mocks the general populace for celebrating Saint Patrick's Day, which is meant to honor the life of the Catholic saint, by getting wasted on alcohol.
- Randy claiming it's okay for him to sell the special because he has 10% Irish ancestry is one to "Plastic Paddies", a.k.a. Americans who use similar justifications for gatekeeping Irish/Irish American culture even if they are completely disconnected from it and don't acknowledge or celebrate their roots outside of the holiday.
- Butters' adventure throughout the episode is a shot at how today's generation has become so touchy (no pun intended) to harmless things by seeing "pinching" as sexual harassment when it's just gentle teasing.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Kelly-Ann Barlow, the girl who wore green socks on St. Patrick's Day, the day in which it's tradition to pinch somebody who's not shown wearing green. Because Butters genuinely didn't realize she was wearing green because it wasn't more obvious, he gets in trouble for pinching her (which he almost certainly wouldn't have done if Kelly-Ann had worn green clothes that were actually visible).
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: One of Butters' cellmates is shown vomiting from drinking too much.
- Would Hurt a Child: Butters is slapped repeatedly by his lawyer and tased by police after pinching them. Later in the episode, he was nearly gunned down by the latter.
