Original air date: 10/29/2014
Cartman and Butters obtain a drone and take it for a spin around the neighborhood.
"The Magic Bush" contains the following examples:
- Acting Unnatural: When Stephen tries to return his drone and tells the clerk at the hobby shop that it has been flying itself, as he found the battery mysteriously drained to half life and the SD card erased, Butters starts holding his arms very stiffly at his sides and looking back and forth. He uses the same body language when Stephen tells Randy about his drone's odd behaviour. Fortunately for Butters, Stephen doesn't notice his son's failed attempts to look innocent.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Stephen would ground Butters at the drop of a hat, yet is so thoroughly convinced that Butters would never disobey him that he completely rules out the simplest solution to how his drone was flown without his knowledge.
- Blatant Lies: The adults of South Park - including the kids' parents and the South Park Police - consistently deny having watched the video of Laura's bush, but their thorough knowledge of its contents makes it obvious that every single one of them has seen it, and they're too embarrassed to admit it.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: The morning after Cartman, Butters, and Kenny's drone escapades, Cartman tells Kenny that they absolutely must keep the video they shot a secret. Stan and Kyle show up...and Cartman lasts about five seconds before blurting out that "someone" took pictures of Craig's mom (much to Kenny's frustration).
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Just to be sure we understand the parallels between the standoff between the police drones and the civilian drones and the protests that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri after the shooting of Mike Brown in August 2014, the news report about the shooting down of Randy's drone points out that a police drone shot down an unarmed black drone.
- Ear Worm: Good luck getting "Craig's Mom's Bush" out of your head.
- "Fawlty Towers" Plot: The morning after shooting the video of Laura, Cartman can't resist showing it to Stan (Kyle refuses to look since it was shot without Laura's permission), but when Stan asks how he got the video, he claims to have downloaded it from the Internet. To maintain this lie, he uploads the video to YouTube. A furious Butters confronts him over uploading the video, a conversation Kyle overhears. Since Kyle only knows that Cartman uploaded a video of Laura's bush, he creates and uploads a music video using the footage and starring himself and Butters so that he can pretend that was the video he and Butters were arguing over. Though Kyle remains suspicious, none of the South Park adults - not even Stephen - suspect a thing.
- Freudian Slip: The adults of South Park claim not to have seen the video of Laura's bush, but the fact that Randy says they could be "up to our navels in bush" instead of "up to our necks in trouble" regarding the drone plague makes it obvious that he's seen it.
- Funny Background Event: Also a Meaningful Background Event - the day the video gets uploaded online, while the other students are teasing Craig about it at school, an infuriated Butters can be seen coming in from offscreen, sprinting across the hallway and tackling Cartman into the bathroom before the story cuts to their conversation.
- Hypocrite: Kyle learns that it was Cartman and Kenny who posted the video online while they were in the bathroom. Cartman then accuses Kyle of being a "spying dick" with zero irony to the situation.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Butters first arrives at Cartman's house, Eric won't let him in until he swears that he hasn't told a soul about their plan to use the drone...and then immediately reveals that he blabbed to Kenny and called him over so he could play with them.
- The morning after the drone flight, Cartman reminds Kenny that they have to keep the photos they took a secret. As soon as Stan and Kyle show up, he starts frantically telling them about the footage.
- Idiot Ball: Butters' father blindly believes Randy's and Butters' lies about not taking the video even though all evidence stacks to them lying about it.
- Karma Houdini: Butters, Kenny, and Cartman never receive karma for posting a nude video of Craig's mom. In a twist, Butter is despondent of this, as he believes that all three of them deserve punishment. Oddly enough, in Butters's case, this is one of the few times Stephen would be completely justified in grounding him.
- Know When to Fold Them: At the end, when Cartman claims everything worked out, Butters notes that Craig's mom isn't very happy. Cartman then starts coming up with a plan to fix this, but Butters, knowing that it'll just lead to more trouble, tells Cartman that it's fine and he doesn't need any more help.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Butters lies, saying he didn't uses his dad's drone and record Craig's nude mom; instead of grounding him (which he likely would have done even if Butters hadn't been a part of recording Craig's mom), he completely believes Butters' story.
- Never My Fault: Cartman, as usual. He claims that Butters and Kenny are "just as responsible" as him for shooting the drone footage—despite Eric being the one who stole the drone, flew it, and filmed the video in the first place (over Butters's desperate protests).
- Pet the Dog: Cartman's genuine friendship with Kenny, who is often his Morality Pet, shows up the beginning of the episode. He swears Butters to secrecy about borrowing Stephen's drone, but happily tells Kenny all about it and invites him to play with the drone, too. He also never once thinks of using him or Butters as scapegoats for the whole ordeal, instead going out of his way to twist his stories in order to get them all off the hook.Cartman: Kenny's here, I told him all about it.Butters: WHAT? You said nobody would know!Cartman: It's just Kenny! Like we're not gonna tell Kenny we having a fucking drone? Come on, Butters!
- Ripped from the Headlines: This episode is a combination of the nude celebrity pics posted in late 2014, and, later on, the Mike Brown case.
- Seriously Scruffy: As Stephen becomes more paranoid over the thought that his drone is flying itself, his clothes become more unkempt and he stops shaving, ending up with a full beard (with visible grey patches) by the episode's climax.
- Take That!: To drones in general and the people who use them:Butters: My dad said it's not for spying on people!Cartman: Butters, that's all drones are for.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Kyle chews out Cartman and Kenny for recording Craig's mom naked without her consent.
