History Recap / SouthParkS21E2PutItDown

** Cartman tells Craig that relationships aren't black and white and can be manuevered around, every relationship needs one person who has the balls to take control, and one person to keep themselves under control (regarding Tweek)...right up until Heidi comes up to him, after he had lied to the other guys about breaking up with her, causing him to inflate the issue into distracted driving and trying to "compete with" it. Is Cartman just bullshitting his way through an attention-seeking campaign and nothing more, or is he, via InsaneTrollLogic, [[CasualCompetitiveConflict explicitly treating it like a game that needs to be treated casually because he views the distracted driving victims as people that were randomly decided upon to be tools to something that people can just memorialize at any time]]? He even holds a "suicide prevention pot luck" and explicitly talks about how much better his memorial is going to be than some random kids' since he'll have ''facepainting and ''games'', [[SarcasmMode ooh-la-la]].

** Cartman tells Craig that relations aren't black and white and can be manuevered around, every relationship needs one person who has the balls to take control, and one person to keep themselves under control (regarding Tweek)...right up until Heidi comes up to him, after he had lied to the other guys about breaking up with her, causing him to inflate the issue into distracted driving and trying to "compete with" it. Is Cartman just bullshitting his way through an attention-seeking campaign and nothing more, or is he, via InsaneTrollLogic, [[CasualCompetitiveConflict explicitly treating it like a game that needs to be treated casually because he views the distracted driving victims as people that were randomly decided upon to be tools to something that people can just memorialize at any time]]? He even holds a "suicide prevention pot luck" and explicitly talks about how much better his memorial is going to be than some random kids' since he'll have ''facepainting and ''games'', [[SarcasmMode ooh-la-la]].

* DudeNotFunny: Hilariously inverted. ''Everyone'' that finds out about Cartman's voicemail to Heidi finds it so laughably pathetic that it's hilarious, while Cartman is, predictably, the only one who finds the implications of the message totally serious and not something that should be made fun of.

* CallAndResponseSong: Parodied with Cartman's attention-seeking anti-suicide song "Eric, We Don't Want You to Die".
He complains about his life and declares his intent to commit suicide. He thinks everyone will be begging him not to do it, so the chorus consists of pre-recorded kids' voices saying "Eric, we don't want you to die! / Eric, give life a try! / Eric, oh God no, Eric!" In practice, ''nobody'' sings along and just stares at him blankly.

* CallAndResponseSong: Parodied with Cartman's attention-seeking anti-suicide song "Eric, We Don't Want You to Die". He complains about his life and declares his intent to commit suicide. He thinks everyone will be begging him not to do it, so the chorus consists of pre-recorded kids' voices saying "Eric, we don't want you to die! / Eric, give life a try! / Eric, oh God no, Eric!" In practice, ''nobody'' sings along and just stares at him blankly.

** When Cartman hears that actual suicidal youngsters have come forward because of his campaign, he is irate that they're "trying to get attention", even though that's exactly what he is doing.

%% ** To Trump's deliberate brinkmanship, the clickbait "news" sites that report on it, and the people who are expecting the worst from it.
%% ** To those who who blame Donald Trump for things he's not even at fault for. Mr. Garrison is blamed at the end for the distracted drivers hitting people rather than, the people who can't stay off their phone and watch the road.
%% ** To how much Trump tweets.

%% ** To people trying to argue or 'reason' someone out of anxiety or depression.

* CharacterDevelopment: While PC Principal used to bend over backwards in order to make Cartman feel better, here he's shown to be [[Smartball somewhat fed up with his complaints]] and only [[WhiteAndGreyMorality offers a few reasonable resources instead of the extravagant props Cartman wants for his show]].

* CharacterDevelopment: While PC Principal used to bend over backwards in order to make Cartman feel better, here he's shown to be somewhat fed up with his complaints and only offers a few reasonable resources instead of the extravagant props Cartman wants for his show.

* AnAesop: When a person you care about is suffering emotionally, trying to distract them from their problems isn't always the right way to go about it. All you need to do is be there for them while they process their grief.

** While Mr. Garrison never appears in person nor has any lines, it's his tweets that drive the whole plot of this episode.

* AnAesop: When a person you care about is suffering emotionally, trying to distract them from their problems isn't the right way to go about it. All you need to do is be there for them while they process their grief.

** Several of Garrison's tweets exceeds the then-140 character limit on Twitter posts.

* FerrisWheelDateMoment: Craig tries to do this when Tweek says his favorite ride is the ferris wheel, but Tweek is too distracted to enjoy it.
* {{Foil}}: Cartman and Heidi serve as this to Tweek and Craig. Cartman only cares about himself and uses suicide threats to keep from losing his (unhealthy) relationship with Heidi, while Craig is genuinely trying to help Tweek overcome his panic and is unsuccessful only because he's not sure how to do it.

* LoggingOntoTheFourthWall: Before the episode's release, ericdontdoit.com was published -- while the URL isn't seen in the episode, Cartman's hashtag is "#EricDontDoIt". Viewers were invited to show their support and stop Cartman from committing suicide by signing their email. As of May 2022, you can still see the site, but the campaign is over.

** To those who who blame Donald Trump for things he's not even at fault for. Mr. Garrison is blamed at the end for the distracted drivers hitting people rather than, the people who can't stay off their phone and watch the road.

!This episode contains examples of:

** Hillary Clinton is among those who take the pledge not to use Twitter if elected, to which the background music chants "NO ONE CARES".

* LethallyStupid: The adults who end up having ''countless'' children killed due to looking at their phones ''while driving''. Of course, at the end, [[NeverMyFault they all blame the president for this]].

* LethallyStupid: The adults who end up having ''countless'' children killed due to looking at their phones ''while driving''. Of course, at the end, [[NeverMyFault they all blame the president]].

* NeverMyFault: The adults -- unsurprisingly -- blame President Garrison for the deaths of the children they ran over instead of taking into account that they shouldn't use their phones while driving.

* NeverMyFault: The adults -- unsurprisingly -- blame President Garrison for the deaths of the children they ran over instead of realizing they shouldn't use their phones while driving.

** To Trump's deliberate brinkmanship, the clickbait "news" sites that report on it, and the people who are expecting the worst from it.

** To how much Trump tweets.

** To people trying to argue or 'reason' someone out of anxiety or depression.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Kids getting run over by cars driven by distracted drivers? Horrifying. Kids getting run over by ''bumper cars'' driven by distracted drivers? Hilarious.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Tweek and Craig are the subject of the A-Plot.