Recap / South Park The Coon And Friends Trilogy

Original air date:

"Coon 2: Hindsight" - 10/27/2010

"Mysterion Rises" - 11/3/2010

"Coon Vs. Coon And Friends" - 11/10/2010

These three episodes make up "The Coon and Friends Trilogy." The episodes focus on Cartman and his friends dressing up as superheroes and trying to stop catastrophes, but they're upstaged by a superhero named "Captain Hindsight." Cartman tries to blackmail him to get him on their side. Meanwhile, the BP oil company causes an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. After apologizing and changing their name to DP Oil, they attempt to drill a second hole and accidentally rip a hole into another dimension, unleashing a horde of eldritch creatures that start attacking people. In an effort to fix this latest disaster, DP's executives decide to drill a hole on the moon, but all this does is cause the Great Old One Cthulhu to emerge from his aeons-long slumber. And Cartman teams up with Cthulhu to get revenge on his friends who kicked him out of "Coon and Friends", while we learn about why Kenny can never die.

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Tropes:

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Bradley to Henrietta.
• Artifact Title: After the Coon gets kicked out, the group doesn't change its name. This is lampshaded in the scene where the young heroes are raising money selling lemon bars.
  Toolshed: Mysterion, if Cartman's gone, why are we still calling ourselves Coon and Friends?
  Mysterion: Because it pisses Cartman off beyond belief, and I find that extremely funny.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • A man appears in a glowing hologram and seemingly informs Kenny that he was sent from another planet and has powers. Then he names Mintberry Crunch and continues the conversation from there.
  • Mosquito is implied to be Kyle and Human Kite to be Clyde. Note how Mosquito argues with Cartman in the same vein as Kyle. Both heroes disguise their voices when in character, but the truth is revealed when Human Kite drops his hero voice to tell Mysterion (Kenny) to take it easy.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Cartman and Cthulhu.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: In the beginning Splash Panel in "Coon Vs Coon and Friends", Cartman calls Stan and Kyle "manipulative, uncaring vagina faces".
• Blatant Lies:
  • Cartman spends the Events of "Mysterion Rises" and "Coon Vs Coon and Friends" telling everyone that he is working with Cthulhu in an Enemy Mine that will make the world a better place; absolutely no one is convinced.
  • Mintberry Crunch's narration isn't any better.
• Blessed with Suck: Hindsight sees his powers as a curse. Since having superhuman Hindsight means the moment something bad happens he knows exactly how it could have been avoided.
• Bookends: Early in "Coon vs. Coon and Friends", Mysterion kills himself via a bullet to the brain to see if his friends will remember his death after he resurrects, which they don't. The episode ends with Mysterion killing himself with the same method, this time just to get back home quickly.
• Butt-Monkey: Butters, in his guise as Professor Chaos, is locked in a cage in Cartman's basement. He's apparently been caged there for four days, and when he complains that his poop bucket is full and he has no food, Cartman apathetically replies "You got poop, don't you?". They also force him to dress as Courtney Love and pretend to have sex with a homeless man so they can blackmail Captain Hindsight.
• Call-Back:
  • When DP starts drilling on the moon, the corpses of the killer whale from 'Free Willzyx' and Tom Cruise from '201' are still on the surface.
  • Kenny's mom gives birth to a new iteration of Kenny, who quickly grows up to his normal age, like in "Cartman Joins NAMBLA".
• Cassandra Truth: Kenny repeatedly tries to explain to Stan and Kyle the nature of his powers, even shooting himself in the head and performing Heroic Sacrifices. A frustrated Kenny laments to Captain Hindsight that they don't even remember him dying or the many sacrifices he's made.
• Cerebus Retcon: We learn how it feels to be on the other side of the They Killed Kenny Again gag:
  Mysterion/Kenny: I've experienced death, countless times. Sometimes, I see a bright light. Sometimes, I see Heaven, or Hell. But eventually, no matter what, I wake up in my bed, wearing my same old clothes. (voice cracks) And the worst part? Nobody even remembers me dying! I go to school the next day, and everyone is just like, "Oh, hey, Kenny." Even if they had seen me get decapitated with their own eyes. You wanna whine about curses, Hindsight? You're talking to the wrong fucking cowboy.
• Continuity Snarl: The explanation of Kenny's immortality creates a lot of these, such as him simply phasing back into existence in "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", the many episodes where he stays dead for longer than a day (including Bigger, Longer, & Uncut, where his death is a central plot point), the fact that other characters have occasionally shown awareness of his repeated deaths (most obviously in "Cartmanland", where Cartman outright says "He dies all the time!") and, most obviously, the fact that Kenny stayed dead throughout Season 6, which even had a subplot about Cartman getting possessed by him.
• Conviction by Contradiction: Implied; a literal hole in Tony Hayward's alibi of the spill being "accidental" is one worker sheepishly mentioning that marine oil spills have happened on their part before, and Tony Hayward outright saying "We no longer fuck the Earth, we DP it" (referring to changing their name to Dependable Petroleum). While not directly responsible for it, this hints that he just encourages the workers to drill in obviously dangerous spots, and the workers are slowly catching on.
• A Day in the Limelight: Bradley Biggle (as Mintberry Crunch) has a much larger role throughout the trilogy than the rest of the show. Especially in the third episode, where he gets his own narration, a backstory, and manages to defeat Cthulhu with his powers.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Kenny flat out calls Cthulhu a pussy and a wuss. Provides the page quote.
• Dug Too Deep: BP/DP accidentally unleashes a horde of eldritch monsters and then Cthulhu himself by drilling too deep in the Gulf of Mexico and then on the moon.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Instead of being a Professor X parody, as seen in Fractured but Whole, Timmy's superhero persona is the Iron Maiden, which is just him wearing a suit of metal and blades.
• Epic Fail: BP causing an oil spill by incompetently drilling too deep in the wrong place is one thing. The fact that they screwed up so badly they released Cthulhu is another level of pure failure on their part.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Cartman/Coon. Despite teaming up with Cthulhu, betraying his friends and banishing them to another dimension, then murdering hundreds of innocent people, he still insists that he is the good guy. Even when the others spell out that he is the real villain, Cartman refuses to accept it.
  Cartman: It's not my fault you guys turned evil, Kenny!
  Kenny: You are the bad guy, fat boy! YOU!
  Cartman: I'm going around making the world a better place!
  Kenny: For you! You're making it a better place for you!
  Cartman: Right, that's what superheroes do!
• Evolving Credits: After Kenny is revealed to be Mysterion, the opening sequence changes ever-so-subtly: Mysterion is one of the hundreds of characters waving to the audience. When Kenny pops up from behind the South Park sign, the Mysterion figure is quickly revealed to be a cardboard cutout, which falls over.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Mintberry Crunch apparently has this power, judging by how his alien father claims that the power of mint and berry was collided to blast away the "mint hunters of Kogenrah [that] got word of them".
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Mintberry Crunch's power of "Mint and berries yet with a satisfying tasty crunch" turns out to defeat Cthulhu.
• Hijacking Cthulhu: The page image. Cartman befriends Cthulhu and basically takes control of him, telling him to destroy Burning Man, Whole Foods, synagogues, hippies, San Francisco, and Justin Bieber.
• Immortality Hurts: Because of the many violent and painful experiences along the way. Not to mention how none of his friends remember his deaths and act like nothing happened, which adds to the mental stress this all causes. As Kenny says, "It's not 'pretty cool,' Kyle; IT FUCKING HURTS!"
• Just Here for the Free Snacks: Ten years ago, Kenny's parents were members of the cult of Cthulhu, but they tell Mysterion that they only joined to get wasted on the free beer they offered at the cult meetings. This does not surprise Kenny in the slightest.
• Kick the Dog: Cartman randomly beats up a little girl at the airport simply for asking him about Mintberry Crunch rather than The Coon. Unlike the rest of his disproportionate campaigning in this special, this doesn't even aid him in any way.
• Laser-Guided Karma: At the end of the trilogy, Cartman gets locked in the same cell as Butters. When he angrily complains about the smell from Butters' poop bucket and having nothing to eat, Stan quotes his own words back at him, "You got poop, don't you?"
• Mundane Utility: In the end Kenny decides to shoot himself in the head to save time on having to go home and go to bed (and possibly punish his friends for not remembering).
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The Coon utterly beats the shit out of Mosquito (for challenging the Coon's authority) and Mintberry Crunch (for trying to intervene). The rest of the group is understandably frightened by this.
• Origins Episode: The origins of Kenny's Resurrective Immortality are explained, kind of...
• Public Relations Ad: Parodied in a commercial where Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, wants everyone affected by the oil spill to know that they're deeply sorry, especially since he says it repeatedly across different scenic (and increasingly erotic) backgrounds.
• Resurrection Teleportation: Since Kenny always winds up back in his bed after he dies, he deliberately kills himself to teleport himself out of the dark dimension and find a way to free the others.
• Scare 'Em Straight: It's demonstrated that Kenny has previously used his heroic alter-ego to scare his parents into treating his siblings better.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At the end of the trilogy, Mysterion pulls this by shooting himself in the head, knowing that he'll just respawn at his house.
• Series Continuity Error: Justin Bieber is a Canadian in Real Life, though isn’t designed to look like a Canadian in the traditional South Park style.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Mosquito attempts to lead Coon and Friends, the resulting slow-motion attack scene is taken directly from A Clockwork Orange, including the classical music and The Coon's reassertion of his leadership (right-right).
  • Mintberry Crunch's origin mirrors Superman. Mainly him being a superpowered Human Alien who was sent to Earth as a baby and adopted by Muggle Foster Parents.
  • The bit with Cartman kneading his claws on Cthulhu's back and falling asleep is reminiscent of the Looney Tunes short Feed the Kitty starring Marc Antony and Pussyfoot. Elements of their interactions mirror My Neighbor Totoro, as well.
• Take That!:
  • Cartman convinces Cthulhu to kill Justin Bieber. While Cartman's rampage as a whole is portrayed as unjust, Bieber is depicted as a talentless Asshole Victim who strokes his crotch on stage in front of a crowd of preteen girls while singing a one-word song in a squeaky high voice.
  • BP are treated as Lethally Stupid, knowingly drilling into portals to Eldritch Locations, being incapable of coming up with ideas that don't involve drilling, and only being able to send out lame apology videos instead of doing anything to help the crisis they cause.
  • The "What should I do?" bit is a spoof of LeBron James' infamous commercial dealing with the fallout of his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat. It's even called the LeBron James technique by Cartman.
• Tautological Templar: Cartman hits peak Moral Myopia here. He flat-out calls anyone he doesn't like — his former friends, Burning Man, Whole Foods and Justin Bieber — as "evil", frames himself as the guy who tried to calmly and compassionately reason with them and they are the ill-tempered abusive monsters, claims that him teaming up with an evil god to wreak destruction upon the Earth is somehow a heroic thing to do and it just escalates from there. No matter how hard the others spell it out for him, he simply refuses to see that he's the Big Bad of this scenario.
  Cartman: It isn't just Cthulhu, Mr. Reporter. He's merely a small piece of Coon and Friends who will continue to fight for good and justice.
  Mr. Reporter: [Beat] "Good and justice"? Justin Bieber and most of his fans have just been massacred!
  Cartman: Yes, Coon and Friends are happy to help. We do not want thanks for our deeds. We do not want gifts. All we want... is for people to buy our Coon and Friends t-shirts for $14.95.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Deconstructed. Kenny dies by suicide multiple times throughout the trilogy, as we learn that since his parents joined a Cthulhu meeting when his mom was pregnant with him, he's cursed with a power to never die. This isn't as good as it seems, as it turns out dying over and over again and having to go through pain so many times put a real strain on Kenny's mental health, as he's no longer afraid of anything and is willing to sacrifice himself to Cthulhu to take his curse away. Further deconstructing this is, when Kenny normally dies, the other kids treat it as a minor event, whereas in this trilogy, blowing his brains out in front of his friends horrifies them.
  • Also, Kenny is killed three times in "Coon vs. Coon & Friends," all by suicide. The episode ties with "Pinkeye" for the most amount of Kenny deaths in one episode (though two of his deaths in that episode were in his zombified form).
• Villainous Valour: Cartman/The Coon shows a surprising amount of this here, climbing up the collapsing support beams of a burning rollercoaster to get to Cthulhu and confronting Mysterion face-to-face a couple of times. Extra valor points go to confronting an eldritch being and trying to sway him to his side, which is shown to be about as risky as one would expect.
• Wall Glower: Parodied. A bunch of people are shown enjoying a fun day at the Burning Man festival, until the camera does a sudden quick dolly to the right to show an angry-looking Cthulhu under dark clouds, about to go on his first rampage.
• Wham Episode: Mysterion is revealed to be Kenny, and his Resurrective Immortality is finally given a definitive explanation.
• Wham Line:
  • Mysterion's true identity is revealed.
    Mysterion: Then do it. Pull the trigger, Hindsight. If you don't believe us then you don't have a choice! Pull the trigger, you pussy.
    [Stunned Silence]
    Human Kite: Dude, Kenny, chill out.
  • Followed soon after by Kenny's admission that "I. CAN'T. DIE."
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: The only thing Captain Hindsight can do is show up at a crisis and tell everyone what they should have done differently. (He can also fly, not that it ever occurs to him or anyone else to do anything with it.)
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: DP Oil keeps trying to fix the problems they've caused by drilling new holes, even when it clearly isn't going to help.
• YouTuber Apology Parody: Tony Hayward apologizes for an oil spill by saying "we're sorry" in different scenic (and increasingly erotic) environments.

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