Original air date: 10/12/2011
What starts as an innocent game escalates into Cartman joining the border patrol to stop Mexicans from crossing the border.
"The Last of the Meheecans" contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Economics: The episode is premised on the idea that low-income Mexican immigrants in the USA (and particularly around South Park) want to return to Mexico because it's better there. In truth, the annual median income for a worker in Mexico (adjusted for cost of living and then converted to US currency) is less than $6,000
, meaning even a two-earner household where both are earning Colorado's minimum wage of $12/hour would be significantly better off. Most Mexican immigrants in the USA make well over minimum wage,note and furthermore most of them made substantially less than the median income back in Mexico as a large portion of them were dispossessed farmers. - Bait-and-Switch: The wealthy couple who take in Butters bring him to their guest room, decorated with inspirational Christian quotes. It appears they are letting him stay with them out of compassion, but then they make him start cleaning the windows in the room, beginning his life as an indentured servant.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- "Mantequilla" is Spanish for "Butter".
- Most of the Spanish is subtitled and spoken correctly if you are familiar with the language. The episode has many Spanish speakers in the credits.
- The radio announcer narrating Mantequilla's run to the border is not subtitled, but is accurate (for the most part, see below).
- Book Ends: The episode begins and ends with the boys having a pizza party.
- Break Them by Talking: Kyle's strategy to win uses this perfectly. He taunts Cartman over his weight, the ensuing argument distracting all of the Texans and allowing most of the Mexicans to cross. When Cartman berates his teammates, Kyle sneaks through. The game would have been over right there is not for Butters...
- Breather Episode: After the last two emotionally-charged episodes, this episode is much sillier.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Butters piñata shown briefly in the Mexican celebration is used at the climax as a decoy to trick Cartman while Butters makes it across the border.
- Condescending Compassion: The wealthy couple who take in Butters genuinely believe they are helping him by making him their servant. When he states he wants to go home, they drop him off at an El Pollo Loco staffed by Mexicans believing they are bringing him home to his people.
- The Determinator: Cartman is so fixated with winning the Texans vs Mexicans game, he joins the real Border Patrol to stop Butters from getting back to the U.S.
- Electrified Bathtub: A variation used by Cartman. He stops a group of Mexicans trying to return to their home country by using a water tank to soak the ground, then throws his shock stick in the water. It's unclear if he killed them, but based on the looks on their faces they won't be doing much moving for a while.
- El Spanish "-o": As noted above, the Spanish in the episode is correct, but when Butters crosses the border, the radio announcer yells "Base-o" over and over again. It's done for humor, but it's even funnier because the word is
the same in both languages. - Lazy Bum: The American economy starts tanking because Mexican immigrants start returning to Mexico, and white Americans are too lazy to do menial tasks themselves. Eventually, Border Patrol starts stopping Mexicans from returning to their home country and ordering them to get back to work.
- Mistaken Ethnicity: Butters dresses up like a Mexican for a border-themed Cowboys and Indians kind of game. He gets hit by a car, and due to him still playing the game, the couple thinks the white boy actually is Mexican and tries to "return" him to the real Mexican border. The actual Mexicans working at El Pollo Loco are fully aware that Butters is a white kid, but misunderstood when Butters wanted to get across the "border" in Cartman's backyard to see his "amigos" as Butters wanting to cross the actual border into Mexico, and bring him with them.
- Mythology Gag: While narrating the chase between Cartman and Butters, the radio announcer refers to Cartman as "chico gordo" which translates to "fat boy,” a common insult thrown Cartman's way.
- Rules Lawyer: Cartman, who uses his discovery that Butters is missing not to alert an adult and help find his friend, but instead restart the game because the Mexican team didn't all cross the border.
- Serious Business: At first it appears that only Cartman takes the game seriously. But when he discovers Butters hasn't returned and wakes everyone up in the middle of the night, the other boys go right back to playing. Even the usually Only Sane Man Kyle puts his fake mustache back on and joins without a fight.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is a parody of the film Last of the Mohicans, complete with a matching title card and a musical theme that evokes Trevor Jones' soundtrack for that film, modified so that the trumpet is playing in a Mariachi style.
- The scene with Butters waking up in a Mexican town is a reference to Monty Python's Life of Brian.
- Randy's Big "NO!" when he realizes he has to rake the leaves himself is that of Darth Vader's from Revenge of the Sith.
- Sore Loser: Cartman of course.
