YMMV / South Park S 7 E 13 Butt Out

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: A number of viewers questioned the episode's portrayal of tobacco executives as completely well-meaning people who have done nothing wrong, while Rob Reiner and his group are portrayed as cartoonishly evil people who would kill a child to make a point. However, some viewers felt that rather than actually defending the tobacco industry, the episode was instead making a point about the kind of Black-and-White Morality anti-smoking PSAs often rely on, by using the same style to present the opposite message of what you would expect.
• Anvilicious: The episode is just as heavy-handed with its message as most anti-smoking films, with characters constantly stating and restating the intended moral.
• Broken Base: Some feel the episode makes good points about smoking and find the portrayal of Rob Reiner hilarious. Others feel that it's a full-on whitewashing of the tobacco industry and that it uses Reiner as a strawman.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The episode completely flips the message of anti-smoking films right on its head by not only portraying the tobacco executives as ridiculously nice people (complete with a Disney-esque Job Song), but also portraying the anti-smoking people as cartoonish villains akin to the workers of the Ministry of Truth in 1984 as well, complete with a vampire-like worker who tries to poison Cartman.
• Shallow Parody: Trey Parker and Matt Stone stated in the audio commentary for the episode that the episode was more of a jab at Rob Reiner's then recent anti-smoking lobbying in California than an actual commentary on smoking laws or the tobacco industry, since Matt and Trey aren't smokers themselves. Matt even jokingly acknowledged that the only real point they made in the episode was to call Reiner "fat".
• Unintentional Period Piece: At the time the episode aired, Rob Reiner was notable for anti-smoking lobbying in California. More recent viewers who aren't familiar with this are sometimes confused about why the episode went after him.

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