Line #20 Recap/SouthParkS8E6TheJeffersons


1	'''Original air date:''' 4/21/2004
2
3	A little boy named Blanket moves to South Park with his father [[Music/MichaelJackson Martin Jefferson]], a wealthy and fun-loving man whose home full of toys and rides charms the local children. However, [[ManChild his behavior]] makes many consider him to be a creepy and [[ParentalNeglect unfit parent]].
4
5	!!"The Jeffersons" contains examples of:
6	* AnAesop: If you want to live in a [[ManChild perpetual state of childhood as an adult]], fine, that's your business, but if you become a parent, you have to grow up.
7	* BigBrotherInstinct:
8	** Kyle develops one toward Blanket when he starts to realize Mr. Jefferson is too irresponsible to be a parent, and even works with Stan and Kenny to get Blanket away from his father.
9	** A more subtle example with Stan putting a coat on Kenny's back when they were disguising the latter as Blanket.
10	* CatapultNightmare: Stan jumps up from his sleep-in horror after Cartman and Mr. Jefferson get a bit too HomoeroticSubtext in his dream.
11	* CharacterizationClickMoment: After being introduced last season, this episode would establish Sergeant Yates (and the rest of the police force by extension) as being incredibly racist.
12	* ContinuityNod: Wendy and Token are still together, as shown on the Ferris wheel in the background, after Wendy dumped Stan in the previous season.
13	* CrazyJealousGuy: A platonic example (supposedly). Cartman becomes incredibly irrational whenever he sees other people hanging out with Mr. Jefferson.
14	* DirtyCop: South Park's entire police force puts all their resources into framing rich black people for crimes.
15	* EarlyBirdCameo: In the HD remaster, Scott Malkinson can be seen in line for cotton candy in the playroom.
16	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Yates will go to Hell and back to convict an innocent person just for being rich and black, but he is so horrified at the prospect of falsely arresting a rich white person that he vomits and falls into a VillainousBSOD. When Mr. Jefferson intends to part with his wealth, Mr. Yates decides to leave him alone.
17	* EveryoneHasStandards: Randy may be impulsive, but he is mortified by Mr. Jefferson's behavior as any parent would be and forbids his kids from going near him.
18	* EverybodyDoTheEndlessLoop: Pip is seen on a trampoline with two other kids in the Jeffersons' backyard; he's one of the two kids on either side of a third, and the animation for them just alternates between frames of the kid in the middle going up on the trampoline and Pip and the other kid alongside going down, and vice versa.
19	* FacialHorror: Mr. Jefferson's nose gets pulled off. Later, the rest of his face falls apart and he ends up looking like a zombie.
20	* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Cartman defends Mr. Jefferson's behavior throughout the episode, and at the end, argues that he's not hurting anyone and just wants to enjoy the life full of childhood innocence that he didn't get to have in his youth. Kyle admits that perhaps there ''isn't'' anything wrong with that, but rightfully points out that Mr. Jefferson is in no position to act like a child because he's a parent who has to focus on raising one instead.
21	* FriendToAllChildren: Deconstructed. Mr. Jefferson is depicted as being kind and loving to children, but his behavior comes across as creepy and inappropriate, people widely assume he's a pedophile, and he's so focused on befriending all the local kids that he fails to give his own son the parental attention he needs.
22	* HeelRealization: Kyle's speech at the end makes Mr. Jefferson realize that he really hasn't been a good parental figure for Blanket, and he vows from that point on to focus on being more of a father.
23	* {{Irony}}: Cartman mentions despising UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}ns, despite having previously shown admiration for UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, who was an Austrian.
24	* ItsAllAboutMe: From the moment he's introduced, Mr. Jefferson co-opts Blanket's new friends, ignores him while playing, and makes their playtime all about him. Even when the boys try to invite just Blanket to come with them, Jefferson insists they come into his house; they all play together. At the end, he realizes it's time to grow up and decides to focus on Blanket.
25	* KarmaHoudini:
26	** The corruption of Yates and the entire police force is never exposed, and they never pay for all their attempts to frame Mr. Jefferson for crimes he didn't commit (and for all the other frame-ups they implicitly did in the past). They just decide to drop their vendetta against him because he no longer plans to be rich.
27	** Mr. Jefferson ''kills'' Kenny at the end of the episode ([[TheyKilledKennyAgain that bastard]]), but doesn't get so much as a slap on the wrist, which is ironic because the entire police force were trying their damnedest to arrest him for anything ''they'' could pin on him. {{Justified\|Trope}} considering nobody ever remembers Kenny's deaths and he always comes back in the next episode. Also, to Mr. Jefferson's credit, he didn't [[AccidentalMurder mean]] to kill Kenny.
28	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: When Kenny proves to be reluctant to pose as Blanket, Stan reassures him by saying that at least he's "finally [gets] to do something", referencing the fact that Kenny was largely OutOfFocus after being brought back in the season six finale.
29	* ManChild: Mr. Jefferson, to the point where he dresses up as Literature/PeterPan. It's problematic, as it leads to him neglecting his son, Blanket.
30	* MistakenForPedophile: The parents assume this of Mr. Jefferson, since he prefers the companionship of children rather than adults.
31	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mr. Jefferson is obviously an alias, but that's all he is ever referred to in this episode.
32	* OnlySixFaces: Due to the show's constant reuse of character designs, it's easy for viewers to not realize the blonde boy taking the place of Blanket is in fact Kenny without his usual orange parka and muffled speech. It doesn't help that he's not referred to by name until he dies and Stan and Kyle perform [[TheyKilledKennyAgain the standard routine]].
33	* OutOfCharacterMoment: When the boys try to sneak Blanket out of his neglectful house, they use [[TheFaceless Kenny]] as a disguise. He's not wearing his usual coat and speaks clearly.
34	* PaperThinDisguise: The only thing Mr. Jefferson wears to hide his identity is a fake mustache, and not even all the time. Hilariously, no one ever really (apparently) puts two and two together.
35	* ParentalNeglect: Mr. Jefferson is more interested in playing with the children of South Park than paying attention to his own son.
36	* ParentsAsPeople: Mr. Jefferson tries to be this fun guy, but he ends up ignoring his own son's needs. At the end of the episode, Mr. Jefferson realizes he can't keep behaving like this and promises to shape up.
37	* ProperlyParanoid: Mr. Jefferson thinks another black celebrity is being railroaded by the system for being black. This is [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight the one thing he is actually correct about]]: the South Park police, and all other police, institutionally devote much of their time and energy into framing rich black people for crimes they didn't commit.
38	* RunningGag: Mr. Jefferson keeps breaking into song.
39	* TakeThat: The episode repeatedly implies that the child molestation accusations against Music/MichaelJackson are almost entirely the result of anti-Black racism. Jackson himself is not left off the hook either, with the episode depicting him as dangerously naïve, neglectful of his son due to his obsession with living out the childhood he never had, and so obsessed with plastic surgery that it caused him to literally start falling apart.
40	* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Mr. Jefferson mistakes Kenny for Blanket and kills him when he throws him into the ceiling.
41	* VillainousBSOD: After nearly arresting a man he thought was rich and white, Yates falls into a depression and nearly quits the police force.
42	* VillainyFreeVillain: Mr. Jefferson isn't a creep or a felon, but he still is a man-child who attempts to befriend all the kids in town, dangerously neglects his own child, and is antisocial towards adults. For this reason, the boys try and get Blanket away from his own father and later call him out for his irresponsibility. To his credit, he does promise to shape up and do better.

Context Recap / SouthParkS8E6TheJeffersons