Original air date: 10/2/2013
A nerdy kid in school does an oral report about Investigation Discovery's programming, which has come under fire for airing shows that sexualize spousal abuse and murder. After a horrific incident that sees a kid's mother brutally stabbed to death, the kids are prompted to block the channel with a security question about Minecraft. The parents are taught the game and become obsessed with it while regaining their murder porn, forcing the kids to confront the kid who taught them and the cable company.
This episode contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Subverted: Corey Lanskin uses this to try and trick Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny. Doesn't work on Cartman, though.
- Art Shift: Near the end, there's a scene where we see Randy and Sharon's Minecraft avatars, which is animated in the game's style.
- Blatant Lies: While he's being dragged to the police car nude, Mr. Hagan claims that a black burglar broke into his house and murdered his wife... while he's covered in her blood.
- Call-Back: The entire episode is a spiritual sequel to the Season One episode "Death," where the plot revolved around the parents of South Park protesting Terrance and Phillip's content, despite finding it funny themselves and avoiding answering Stan's uncomfortable question on euthanasia. Here, the roles are reversed, with the kids being concerned over what their parents are watching, namely "murder porn" in fears that they will act it out. Kyle even takes charge to find a solution (much like his mother would). Butters ends up even poking fun at the moral regarding parents having the ultimate say:Butters: They told me if I didn't want my parents watching, I should spend more time with them! Like it's my fault!
- Eskimos Aren't Real: Cartman calls Wendy out on her report about Syrian refugees because he thinks "refugees" aren't real.
- Eye Scream: When Mrs. Hagan's corpse is wheeled out of her house, it's revealed her husband stabbed her in the eye with a knife.
- Fake Brit: In-universe: Corey Lanskin puts on a Cockney accent when teaching the adults Minecraft.
- Harmful to Minors: Poor, Aaron Hagan...
- Jerkass Has a Point: Cartman points out that the guy who killed his wife probably didn't do it because of murder porn, but because they probably had some other major issues. Subverted when Cartman is shown evidence to confirm that, yes, the adults in town really are so stupid they're easily influenced by whatever media they consume after discovering Stephen Stotch built a castle out of cardboard boxes.
- Just the Introduction to the Opposites: The kids are driven to believe that I.D. channel is corrupting their parents rather than the usual "Parents protest against whatever popular TV show is allegedly corrupting their children" plot that South Park did before on season one's "Death." As Refuge in Audacity shows, only somewhere like in South Park could something like this happen.
- Kinky Role-Playing: At the end of the episode, Randy and Sharon arouse each other by playing out murder fantasies on Minecraft.
- Not Helping Your Case:
- When Mr. Hagan is being arrested for killing his wife, he tries to cover it up by saying a black guy killed "that nagging bitch" while still covered in her blood.
- Also Randy's defense on why he wouldn't kill Stan's mom involves him stating it'd be too hard to do and listing all the things he'd have to do to get away with it if he were to do it hypothetically.
- The Operators Must Be Crazy: The Get Cable! guys are shown to enjoy mocking their customers and giving them a hard time, which even gives them sexual pleasure while they rub their nipples and they all have flaps in their shirts where their nipples are that they fold open while doing so. Their sense of sadistic pleasure is the only reason the kids are able to block I.D.; an offhand comment makes them realize they'd be able to deny the parents of South Park of something they want and would bum them out.President: Because here at your local cable company, the customer is always... our bitch.
- Player Killing: This is how the parents end up getting their murder porn in the end.
- Refuge in Audacity:
- The entire episode runs on this. It's a reversal of roles as seen in the Season 1 episode "Death"; the children are concerned about the content that their parents are watching and thus coming together to try and get their parents to stop. What makes this work is the fact that this is South Park, a show and place where the adults are in fact, more than a little unhinged. The comments the parents make as noted in Not Helping Your Case just makes things worse.
- Really cementing this is when Cartman brings up the point that perhaps the Murder Porn had nothing to do with the murder from days ago and that was just a one-off case (though his concerns was more based on the annoyance that their plan to block their parents backfired since it led to them invading Minecraft). Both Wendy and Stan agree with him, with Stan telling Kyle they should just trust their parents won't act out. Seconds later, the police arrive at the community center, the kids coming out with their hands in the air. It's revealed that Mr. Stotch has built a Minecraft styled castle made of cardboard boxes on the public center. Topping it off, Randy comes by and criticizes his castle, followed up by Mr. Stotch even calling him a griefer in response.
- Heck, earlier in the episode, the police approached Randy about whether he noticed anything odd (reports of someone digging to make a structure and someone else punching trees came in, showing adults were already imitating the game). It makes the kids' preoccupations actually justified.Cartman: All right, we gotta do something.
- Running Gag:
- Cartman booing Wendy Testaburger whenever she speaks. Even when she's agreeing with him on something.
- Also, the cable guys speaking in a mocking tone while rubbing their nipples.
- And Randy wishing Jaden Smith was his son.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The boys try to stop their parents from watching murder porn. Subverted as though the parents no longer can consider watching murder porn (due to the cable company bundling it with an inane package) and turn to Minecraft to kill each other for sexual pleasure.
- Take That!:
- At the I.D. channel (Investigation Discovery) for airing shows that sexualize spousal abuse and murder.
- The Get Cable! cable company is a big jab at Time Warner Cable (now called Spectrum) and their policies. Indeed, the Get Cable logo even briefly changes to the actual TWC logo if you look closely.
- This entire episode is a jab at Moral Guardians that claim children will develop violent behavior by playing video games and mimic the violence seen in games like Grand Theft Auto, with the adults copying Minecraft to a T showing how ridiculous the notion is.
- The Tetris Effect: The TV blocker's unlock code is "How do you tame a horse in Minecraft?" Wanting to watch their shows, the adults end up getting hooked on Minecraft and start punching trees and making castles out of blocks of junk in real life.
- That's What I Would Do: How Cartman realizes that Corey Lanskin is the one teaching the adults how to play Minecraft; when they question him, he puts on Crocodile Tears and a naïve persona, but what he says tips Cartman off, stating that if he would've been caught, that's exactly what he would say.
