In this special Valentine's Day episode, Cartman notices that Stan is jealous of Kyle and Tolkien's friendship after the two start making TikTok videos. He’s determined to do something about it and make Stan and Kyle friends again.
Tropes
- Adults Are Useless:
- Randy believes Cartman's rumor that Kyle runs Hollywood.
- At the end, the crowd of adults want Kyle to run Hollywood, despite him not wanting to.
- An Aesop:
- People should be aware of the lies they're hearing and where the conspiracies come from.
- Ethnic stereotypes that don't seem as negative as others are still harmful and need to be treated as such before they lead to more damaging consequences for the group and individuals in question.
- Ambiguous Situation: The whole situation with Cupid Ye can be best described as a Calvin and Hobbes scenario. When Tolkien's father Steve walks in on Cupid Ye whispering antisemitic conspiracies in a sleeping Tolkien's ear, he only sees a shadowed Cartman hastily escaping through the window. Otherwise, all the children can perceive and react to Cupid Ye's rampage of arrow fire in the climax, while Mr. Mackey announces a warning of a giant bee running rampant.
- Analogy Backfire: When Tolkien tells Kyle he shouldn't take the rumor he runs Hollywood so seriously, Kyle asks Tolkien how he would feel if everyone started talking about how black people like him run the NBA. Tolkien reminds him black people don't run the NBA, as most of the people in charge are white.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- When Randy visits Gerald, it initially seems like he wants to discuss how Kyle's growing distance from Stan is affecting him. Then it turns out Randy believes the rumor Kyle runs Hollywood and wants to give his thoughts on the current state of the industry.
- A talk show host introduces a "world famous rapper and artist who claims the Jews run Hollywood". Cut to said guest being Cartman, with his face obscured.
- Bittersweet Ending: Cartman force-feeds Cupid Ye his medication, resulting in the latter returning to his original self and rids the school kids of their anti-semitism, while Kyle reconciles with Tolkien and Stan after the two apologize to Kyle for their behavior. However, when Kyle tries persuading to the public about not stereotyping Jewish people of running Hollywood, they all misread Kyle's speech and declare that he should run Hollywood, much to Kyle's dismay.
- The Bus Came Back: Mr. Romero, the music teacher who only appeared in two early episodes, returns.
- Character Development: Apparently, Heidi has learn from her past relationship with Cartman not to take anything he or any other bigots say seriously. Case in point when Heidi notices Cartman making anti-semitic remarks Heidi disregards them, simply leaving Cartman's vicinity once band class is over. Then when Cupid Ye starts infecting children with anti-semitism, Heidi is noticeably absent from the crowd preparing to attack Kyle.
- Comically Missing the Point: At the end, Kyle presents a speech to an auditorium of people deconstructing the notion that Hollywood, a collaboration of many kinds of people, is solely controlled by one group. He explains how the Jewish community got a jumpstart in the industry, because it was also marginalized then, and how even that's less significant in the present because of the aforementioned diversity. He warns that if people hear any such claims that they should exercise the due diligence of examining it critically to find the truth. His audience is impressed, so impressed they begin cheering that Kyle should be put in charge of Hollywood.
- Continuity Nod:
- Two from "Cartman Finds Love": Cartman hides in the bushes while reacting joyously (this time to a confrontation between Kyle and Tolkien instead of Tolkien and Nichole falling in love), and Cupid Ye once again manipulates Cartman.
- This is now the second time Cartman spews anti-Semitic remarks about Kyle in front of Heidi.
- After Randy returned to geology, he once again wears his geologist outfit.
- The Corrupter: Cupid Ye uses his arrows to corrupt the school kids into becoming anti-semites.
- Credits Gag: Matt Stone is billed as the sole creator and executive producer, as well as writer/director (referring to the chant "Let the Jew run it!" playing over them and Stone's Jewish heritage), and Trey Parker is billed as "Assistant to Mr. Stone".
- Even Evil Has Standards: Cartman of all people thinks Cupid Ye is going too far when the latter suggests that Hitler and the Nazis were good guys. Yes, the same Cartman who, nearly 20 years before, dressed like Hitler as part of his plan to exterminate Jews. Either Character Development is finally starting to affect Cartman (which he generally has been consistent with most of the time post-Jewpacabra) and for the better, or the fatass just doesn't want to admit that someone could be more antisemitic than him.
- Eviler than Thou: Cupid Ye proves to be an even bigger anti-semite than Cartman, to the point that it shocks the latter.
- Former Bigot: Heidi seems to have gotten rid of the anti-semitism she had inherited from Cartman. When Cartman spews anti-Semitic remarks about Kyle in front of Heidi, she pays no attention to them other than stare at him for making them in the first place. Also, when Cupid Ye brainwashes the kids into becoming Anti-semitic Heidi is not among the crowd.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Cartman notices Stan's jealousy over Kyle and Tolkien's friendship, which kicks off the plot. Stan admits his jealousy to Tolkien and Kyle when Cupid Ye attacks the school.
- Hate Plague: In the third act, Cupid Ye constructs arrows that causes whoever they hit to experience mindless antisemitic hatred and mob Kyle.
- Hassle-Free Hotwire: Cupid Ye hot wiring a getaway car when Cartman tries to stop him.
- Logging onto the Fourth Wall: Kyle and Tolkien's TikTok account, kyletolkien23
, is real and officially made by the South Park staff. You can watch one of the videos that Kyle and Tolkien record during the episode. It got over a million views just a day after the episode premiered. - Misery Poker: Tolkien is initially dismissive towards Kyle's complaints about the rumor because he doesn't think the "Jews run Hollywood" stereotype is as harmful as the ones he and other African-Americans have to deal with. He later realizes this attitude is wrong when he witnesses the mob of students ganging up on Kyle and apologizes to him.
- No Medication for Me: Cupid Ye is Cupid Me off his meds, which leads to him making antisemitic conspiracy theories.
- "Open!" Says Me: Since Cupid Ye had locked himself inside the school bathroom, Kenny kicks the door open.
- Pet the Dog:
- While Cartman takes a very bigoted approach here, he seems genuinely motivated to making Stan feel better upon witnessing him feeling jealous over Kyle's friendship with Tolkien.
- PC Principal actually sides with Kyle this time and threatens to give Cartman two months of detention if he continues to spew anti-semitic nonsense. This is a contrast to how PC Principal had constantly attacked Kyle throughout season 19. Additionally, PC Principal merely threatens Cartman with detention for making genuinely offensive comments in this episode, which is much more reasonable than he was back in Season 19 when he beat Cartman to a pulp just for saying "spokesman" instead of "spokesperson".
- Heidi doesn't listen to Cartman's anti-semitic remarks about Kyle nor does she join the rest of the kids to attack Kyle when Cupid Ye brainwashes the entire student-body with anti-semitism. This is a great contrast to Heidi’s actions in season 21 where she called Kyle a dirty jew before dumping him and continue to insult him after becoming Cartman's Distaff Counterpart.
- Real After All: Much of the episode points to the idea that Cupid Ye is just a figment of Cartman's imagination. Then at the end, everyone seems to see and react to him as if he is real.
- Shout-Out: Kyle and Tolkien dance to several popular TikTok songs in their videos, including "Pretty Girls Walk" and the "Mommy! What is it, Caillou?" rap.
- Take That!:
- Plenty of barbs are delivered at Kanye West and his support of antisemitism and neo-Nazism throughout the episode, with Cupid Me filling in for West by adopting West's hip-hop fashion style and changing his name to "Cupid Ye", mirroring West's name change to simply "Ye" in 2021.note Cartman saying that Cupid Ye's claim that Hitler wasn't a bad guy is going too far during his interview also mirrors infamous political commentator Alex Jones condemning West's neo-Nazism, with the set modeled after the one formerly used on Jones' show, and Cartman's bizarre disguise being based on what Kanye actually wore during that interview.
- Cartman also trying to excuse Cupid Ye's Hitler claim with "He's just trying to be shocking" mocks Kanye's fans making similar claims to defend him, ignoring that Kanye has made it clear this is actually how he feels.
- TikTok gets one courtesy of Stan, Cartman, and Kenny's perplexed reactions to Kyle and Tolkien's latest video on the app:Cartman: What the fuck is this? Seriously, what the fuck is this?
- During his conversation with Gerald (due to believing Cartman's rumor of Kyle running Hollywood), Randy speaks out against entertainment more focused on preaching than actually entertaining people, points out the declining box office and ratings, and says that this is what "killed" the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This can also be taken as a jab at the vocal "anti-woke" crowd itself given Randy is standing in for the kinds of people who take antisemitic conspiracy theories seriously, as well as the people claiming the MCU is dying despite the franchise still doing relatively fine critically and commercially.
- Randy delivers another, blunt jab in that same scene: "I'm just gonna say it out loud: Avatar 2 sucked."
- After Cupid Ye hits several of the kids with arrows that turn them into anti-semites, they angrily confront Kyle about Hollywood creating The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, more superhero content, and the then-unreleased The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
- Plenty of barbs are delivered at Kanye West and his support of antisemitism and neo-Nazism throughout the episode, with Cupid Me filling in for West by adopting West's hip-hop fashion style and changing his name to "Cupid Ye", mirroring West's name change to simply "Ye" in 2021.note Cartman saying that Cupid Ye's claim that Hitler wasn't a bad guy is going too far during his interview also mirrors infamous political commentator Alex Jones condemning West's neo-Nazism, with the set modeled after the one formerly used on Jones' show, and Cartman's bizarre disguise being based on what Kanye actually wore during that interview.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Cupid Ye makes antisemitic statements, casually praises Hitler, and decorates the school bathroom in Nazi imagery.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Witnessing Stan's jealousy over Kyle and Tolkien's closeness, Cartman secretly spreads antisemitic rumors about Kyle throughout the school to try and sabotage their friendship.
- Valentine's Day Episode: This episode takes place on the week of Valentine's Day, with the final act taking place on the holiday itself. Notably the first Valentine's Day episode since "Tom's Rhinoplasty", all the way back in season one.
- Valentine's Day Violence: Cupid Ye turns the entire school into antisemitic zombies on Valentine's Day.
