The fifth Paramount+ special follows Eric Cartman having a nightmare about the end of the world as he knows it, as the adults of South Park grapple with AI.
South Park: Joining the Panderverse provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: In the Panderverse, Stephen Stotch is just as horrible to Butters as he is in the main timeline. She tells her that while she's grounded she can't have any fun and orders her to be more miserable!
- Adaptational Attractiveness:
- The Panderverse version of Cartman is an older black woman who is mocked for being fat despite at worse having a slightly curvier figure. This is a joke based on both Hollywood Beauty Standards and how Cartman is heavily defined by being an obnoxious Fat Bastard that doesn't really work when you change things around.
- Basically all of the Panderverse versions of characters are given this trope to some extent, as they're almost all portrayed as being at worst perfectly attractive women with unique and detailed designs in the place of the original versions' flatter and more copy-paste designs carried over from the earlier seasons. In the Panderverse Kenny is given particular attention, as she doesn't have her face hidden and is arguably the most sexually provocative member of the cast.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Though the gender of the characters is flipped in the Panderverse, the gender they're attracted to doesn't seem to be, as both Kennys have crushes on the same girl.
- Aesop Amnesia: Randy and the rest of the white collar workers realize that their reliance on technology caused them to not be able to fix things. However, they get over this initially by using Kathleen Kennedy as a scapegoat, and then by bringing an infinite number of handymen from different universes.
- Age Lift: The South Park Elementary kids aren't just Race Lifted and Gender Flipped like the rest of the Panderverse, they are also randomly turned into twenty-somethings...who are still attending elementary school, in another joke at how silly pandering would be, putting older, Disney-esque teen girl stars as replacements for Elementary School characters.
- Allegorical Character: Kathleen Kennedy is used as a representative for all of Disney and pretty much Hollywood in general (since that's how people treat her), the amount of control she has over the company being ridiculously exaggerated (Bob Iger, who also appears in this episode, is actually in charge at Disney, Kennedy only manages the Lucasfilm properties) and Cartman represents all obnoxious fans who do nothing but complain about the things they allegedly love and insist that "wokeness is ruining movies", he was said to have been single-handedly responsible for every piece of hate mail Kennedy received. The Big Bad was a fusion of the two to demonstrate the bitter cycle of doubling down the two create.
- All for Nothing: The white-collar college-educated men pay a handyman $20,000 to assemble a catapult to throw rocks at their college as a protest for their degrees having gone obsolete due to AI, only for the college to pay a rival handyman to repair their windows.
- All Gays are Promiscuous: All the Panderverse version of Kenny talks about is how great Tammy Mullin's breasts are, saying they "hypnotized" her into warning Tammy about being farted on twice.
- Ambiguous Gender: Every Panderverse character is portrayed as a biological female, but they constantly refer to each other with masculine pronouns and other ambiguous syntax. It's unclear if biological males even exist in said universe. Further muddying the waters, they clearly know what biological males are, as they recognize Cartman as one, the Panderverse version of Cartman isn't freaked by being in their presence, and the Panderverse version of Garrison explains the day's lesson involves the patriarchy. This is lampshaded by Stan, who goes through a multitude of pronouns on how to refer to the Panderverse version of Cartman.
- Apathy Killed the Cat: PC Principal, Sheila Broflovski and Randy Marsh just accept that Cartman is suddenly a black woman and don't question it.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Stan, Kenny, and especially Kyle refused to believe in the concept of the multiverse for much of the special, despite all the insane supernatural things that have happened over the years. They also specifically dealt with parallel universe craziness in Spookyfish. Justified in Kyle's case, as it's implied to be a Berserk Button for him since it apparently has to involve his mom and her credit card.
- Artistic License: Stan tells the Panderverse version of Cartman she shouldn't be surprised Baldur's Gate III saves don't transfer between dimensions, because they don't transfer between PC and PS5. This is incorrect and developer Larian Studios tweeted a tongue-in-cheek clarification
. - Bait-and-Switch:
- Randy wakes up his two children early in the morning, scolding them for having no practical skills and making it seem like he's going to show them how to fix something... until he pulls out his phone and calls a handyman.
- The boys (and the audience) are treated to a montage of a gaming computer being installed, and are led to believe that the Panderverse version of Cartman has a solution on how to get things back to normal. After the Internet speed is resolved, the Panderverse version of Cartman finally gets ready... to play Baldur's Gate III. Kyle is furious, and Stan lampshades "Wow. That really is Cartman."
- Beyond the Impossible:
- Kennedy sends her linguini and clams back to the kitchen, telling the waiter she wants the chef to add "A chick and make her gay" to the dish. The waiter is unsure how this can be done, but takes the plate regardless. One can only imagine how this was resolved.
- Every time Disney released a movie or tv show Cartman hated, he managed to personally send Kathleen Kennedy ten to thirteen thousand pieces of hate mail, as in physical letters, not spam e-mails sent through an automatic program. When Kennedy finds out she is incredulous at how this is even possible.
- Big Bad: Kennedy is the main antagonist in this episode, where it's revealed that she trapped the real Kathleen Kennedy in the Panderverse before taking her place where Kennedy's actions have negative consequences to Disney's box office sales and the Multiverse as a whole.
- Big "NO!":
- Cartman utters one when he sees the real Kathleen Kennedy.
- the Panderverse version of Cartman yells a similar NOOOOO after she learns she can't save her Baldur's Gate III gameplay between universes.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The special's two central characters: Eric Cartman and Kathleen Kennedy, are both portrayed as very flawed and going about the wrong way to deliver/deal with criticism. Cartman mostly wrote out of hateful bigotry with very little constructive criticism. Meanwhile Kennedy responded impulsively to Cartman's hate mail instead of ignoring it and ends up taking the easy solution of using the Panderstone. After an argument between the two, they eventually concede that, despite their errors, both of them had a point. Cartman, after learning that his actions only worsened things, admits that it was wrong and lazy of him to deliver purely vitriolic and hateful feedback rather than any helpful criticism. Kennedy learns that progress should be fought the hard way without shortcuts and that work's quality and writing should not suffer for the sake of inclusion and diversity. By the episode's end, the two are on friendly terms.
- Breaking Old Trends: Unlike the previous 1-hour specials that have a Story Arc that lasts throughout multiple specials, this special serves as a complete standalone story that gets resolved in one special.
- Butt-Monkey: Unsurprisingly, Kyle gets put through the wringer in this episode: the Panderverse version of Cartman farts on him, calls his mom a fat, stupid bitch several times, steals the latter's credit card, and by the end of that he's forced to participate in the merging of the Panderverse anyway, even though it's the Cartmans' (and Randy's) problem.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes the Panderverse Cartman when she tells Stan, Kyle, and Kenny that she's Cartman. Ditto for our Cartman when he tries telling the Panderverse Stan, Kyle, and Kenny that he comes from another dimension. Stan is finally convinced after she uses Kyle's mom's credit card to obtain a gaming computer to play Baldur's Gate III.
- Catapult Nightmare: Cartman has one when he wakes up from the Panderverse nightmare. Kennedy does this at the end.
- Chekhov's Gun: As it turns out, the best way to use the Panderstone involves a broken door, which Randy happen to have with his oven door that he's been trying to get fixed the whole episode.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Both the original Kenny and his Panderverse counterpart think their Tammy Mullin have great knockers, but they also prevented her from being farted on by Clyde.
- Comically Small Bribe: Invoked by the white-collar workers who can't afford the Handyman's rates.
- When Cleetus declines to continue repairing Randy's oven door in favor of a client who is offering much higher pay, Randy tries to get him to stay with a six-pack of beer. Cleetus lashes out at him for how cheap his bribe was.
- Multiple college-educated men wait around at Home Depot looking for some illegal immigrant to come do repair services for them in exchange not for money but for expertise in their college studies that can still be provided for free by the Internet such as insurance brokerage, accounting, screenwriting, news reporting and geology.
- Comically Small Demand: A repair business owner drives up to the white-collar men at Home Depot willing to pay them very well if they know how to work a power saw. He finds none of them know how to and is forced to drive off.
- Composite Character: The Big Bad combines all the aspects of Kathleen Kennedy and Eric Cartman, having the former's gender, hair, and obsession with works pandering to everyone at the cost of their quality and originality, while having the latter's short obese stature and volatile personality.
- A Degree in Useless: Parodied. Because smartphones in general and AI specifically provides unlimited information and an app for any issue, many degreed professionals are finding their career path irrelevant. The people who are thriving are tradesmen who can charge whatever they want because of how incompetent society has become at basic household repairs. Thus half the adult population of South Park are waiting outside Home Depot trying to attract illegal immigrants to repair things at cheap rates, holding signs saying they will exchange their educational knowledge for a handyman. They eventually get fed up and blamed college for not preparing them for this situation, but they didn't know how to put together the catapult they ordered.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- The adults receive a catapult to use against the college... which comes in a box and has to be assembled, forcing them to use the handymen.
- The Panderverse version of Cartman wants to continue playing Baldur's Gate III, but it doesn't occur to her that she won't be able to play the game from the point she saved it back in her universe and will need to start over from the beginning.Stan: Saved games don't even cross between PCs and PS5s. Why would they cross between multiple universes?
- Distaff Counterpart:
- There's a whole universe consisting of adult female versions of the boys and everyone in South Park as a whole. Among them includes a black woman as Eric Cartman.
- There is also another female version of Eric Cartman who invades the main universe and takes Kathleen Kennedy's identity and occupation.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Panderstone is analogous to A.I. in that it generates all the content that studio executives are too lazy and impatient to trust to human artists, with the products being increasingly cliche and dull since there's no human element to connect with. All it took was one use of the Panderstone to make Kathleen Kennedy addicted to it.
- Eat the Rich: Randy ends up going down this path, deciding capitalism and billionaire handymen are to blame for his problems because he never learned how to do basic household repairs.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Kathleen Kennedy was shown the closely guarded secret to Disney, the Panderstone, which allows them to make things that appeal to everyone. While okay when used sparingly, she started turning to it every time which created diminishing results. Her desperation to get ahead of Cartman's complaints resulted in her switching universes with a multiverse version of herself that resembles Cartman.
- Fatal Flaw: Pretty much everyone succumbs to Sloth. The men all let their homes fall into disrepair because they can't be bothered learning how to perform DIY maintenance. Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of Disney Studios would rather recycle their greatest hits, and their attempts to promote diversity come across and ham-fisted and patronizing. Stan, Kyle and Kenny deliberately avoid doing anything related to the plot because of how much Kyle hates the multiverse gimmick. Ironically enough, both Cartmans are actually quite proactive.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- The Disney executives' mugs feature the "D" symbol from Walt Disney World's 1971–1996 logo.
- Many items from Disney films can be seen in the interiors of the Disney headquarters (e.g. Snow White's dress, Cinderella's glass slipper, and a Stormtrooper helmet).
- While Kathleen is chasing Cartman through the Panderverse!South Park town square, Panderverse versions of characters like Mr. Mackey and Dr. Mephesto can be spotted.
- Gainax Ending: The special ends with Kathleen Kennedy waking up from her nightmare as an alien version of Liane comes in and gives her a bowl of cereal, with all the cereal pieces being tiny Kyles.
- Gender-Blender Name: It's implied all the male characters' Panderverse counterparts have the exact same name regardless of how masculine they are.
- Girls with Moustaches: Yates' Panderverse counterpart still has his mustache. The KFC logo in the Panderverse also depicts the female Colonel with his trademark goatee.
- Greater-Scope Villain:
- While Cartman isn't the Big Bad actively driving the conflict, it's revealed that he was the one who indirectly started the whole plot for the special in the first place by sending thousands of hate mails to Kathleen Kennedy, resulting in Kennedy continuously abusing the Panderstone's power until Kennedy arrives in Kennedy's universe and takes her place.
- Mickey Mouse could be considered the unseen overarching villain in this episode. While Mickey himself makes no appearance here aside from a portrait of him, it is his company that has the Panderstone and his executives abuse the Panderstone to make more movies, resulting in the plot happening.
- Hartman Hips: In addition to being the tallest, the Panderverse version of Stan is noticeably curvier than the other "boys", highlighted by how she almost always keeps her hands near her thighs. Made funnier by an earlier episode having Wendy mention that Stan supposedly has short legs.
- Heel Realization:
- Cartman of all people has one, when he realizes that sending thousands of hate letters to Kathleen Kennedy wasn't contributive and even apologizes to her, saying that whining about "woke" stuff was a waste of time.
- Kathleen Kennedy also has one, realizing that she responded reactively to hate mail and should instead be focusing on producing decent content.
- Informed Flaw: Invoked. The Panderverse version of Cartman is repeatedly called fat despite only having a slightly broad figure. This is part of the show's satire of Race Lifted characters, in this case demonstrating that Cartman's appearance is integral to his character and changing it for the sake of diversity does not work for the show's humor.(Regular) Cartman [responding to Kyle]: Goddammit, I'm not fat, I'm just shamed for my body in a world where white men decide what's beautiful—[covers his mouth] What the fuck was that?! Why would I say that, I don't say that!
- In Name Only: The story shows the insanity of randomly switching around character traits. The kids are flustered when PC Principal tells them they have to accept Cartman is now an older black woman. This is also despite the fact the Panderverse version of Cartman otherwise talks and behaves exactly like the main Cartman.
- Insane Troll Logic: PC Principal's response to Cartman being replaced with his older, Black, female counterpart is to just accept it as a natural part of life, as if Cartman had changed by losing weight. He even turns the Boys' bafflement at the situation as sign they are bigoted and threatens them with three weeks detention if they don't help her out. Naturally, the Panderverse version of Cartman takes full advantage of the situation just like her male counterpart would.
- Ironic Hell: Eric Cartman is a misogynistic racist who sends thousands of bigoted hate mail to Kathleen Kenedy for making Disney movies for everyone, so it's ironic that the Multiverse decides to send Cartman to the Panderverse, which consists of diverse women, and trap him there, much to Cartman's horror. If Kenny were trapped in an all-female universe, he'd probably be in heaven.
- Job-Stealing Robot: Parodied. Every white collar job is instantly replaced by A.I. and none of the South Park adults knows how to change a lightbulb anymore. Handymen are suddenly able to charge massive rates and become billionaires practically overnight.
- Laborious Laziness:
- The adults can't be bothered to learn how to fix appliances for themselves...so they offer the handymen lessons in their various college degrees as payment, band together and wait for a giant catapult to be built (by another handyman, no less) in order to destroy UC Boulder for not teaching them basic craftsmanship, and devise a plan to stalk Kathleen Kennedy so they can guess how to fix things across multiple universes.
- Cartman tries countering what he considers lazy writing by fighting it with even more lazy writing via tens of thousands of hate mail letters to Kathleen Kennedy.
- Lady Land: The Panderverse seems to consist entirely of women, although they do at least seem to be aware of what males are.
- Larynx Dissonance: the Panderverse version of Yates still has the same male voice as her regular counterpart.
- MacGuffin: The Panderstone, which the Disney execs attempt to use to get the multiverse back to normal.
- Manipulative Bastard: The Panderverse version of Cartman is just as manipulative as the original, and arguably more effective. She successfully gets Kyle's mother to upgrade her internet speed to avoid identity theft, despite the Panderverse version of Cartman being the one who used her credit card. She also convinces the boys to get her a computer presumably to get back to her universe when she just wanted to play Baldur's Gate III.
- Medium Blending: The images of Kathleen Kennedy taken a few months ago are actually footage of her at the world premiere of The Force Awakens.
- Not So Above It All: Kyle was really banking on Clyde successfully farting on Tammy Mullin.
- Palette Swap: The Multiverse Handymen are all recolors of Cleetus with his pre-billionaire clothes.
- Parental Hypocrisy: Randy wakes up Stan and Shelley early, telling them their generation is lazy and doesn't know how to fix anything, so he's going to show them how to fix the broken door on his oven. He turns out to be just as useless as they are when he immediately calls a handyman. It's not a lack of knowledge, he's just too lazy to do it. He easily finds some DIY instructions online, but he grumbles that somebody else isn't there to do it for him.
- Plumber's Crack: All the handymen have a visible crack when they repair, even when one has a fur coat on.
- Political Overcorrectness:
- When Cartman and Kathleen Kennedy actually talk things out it's revealed to have been a vicious circle where minor efforts for diversity and inclusion result in minor complaints, so they double down on diversity and inclusion to stick it to them and the complaints get bigger and louder. This all comes at the expensive of trying to make a quality product.
- PC Principal not only orders Stan, Kyle and Kenny to accept that Cartman is suddenly a black woman, but also orders them to do whatever she says.
- Pronoun Trouble: Stan initially wasn't sure what to refer to the Panderverse version of Cartman as, going through he, she, they and it.
- Race Lift: Spoofed; every single white character in the Panderverse has a different ethnicity (e.g. Stan is Hispanic, Kyle is Indian, Cartman is African-American, and Kenny is Asian). The sole exception is Liane in Cartman's dream in the opening, and even then it's unknown if she's still white in the actual Panderverse.
- Ripped from the Headlines:
- One of the handymen buying Instagram mirrors Elon Musk's controversial purchase of Twitter, while another handyman claiming he bought Bloomberg Media is a dig at Jeff Bezos' purchase of The Washington Post (which has often been criticized for calling the independence of the newspaper into question). Musk and Bezos are also running rival space programs. Finally, both handymen challenging each other to a public wrestling match references a similar exchange between Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
- Several Hollywood strikes for writers and actors were ongoing during production of the special, both regarding the use of AI technology. This is addressed in the show as Randy being unable to perform basic household chores and no matter how advanced Siri is they can only explain the process but not do it themselves. It turns out many professionals are losing work because of AI tech replacing their market values, including therapists because "there is an app for that." Handymen end up ridiculously wealthy because no one can do the job themselves, and Randy ends up with other people similarly displaced. One sign even says they'll trade screenwriting for home repair.
- Running Gag:
- Kennedy constantly ordering a "chick" be added to every movie and making her gay (and occasionally adding "and fucking lame!"). This extends to a remake of Bambi and she even demands it in her food.
- Sharon noting the oven door is still broken to Randy, and Randy telling her he's working on it in an increasingly annoyed tone.
- The Panderverse version of Kenny talking about how Tammy Mullin has great knockers.
- Almost everything Randy tries to do requires calling a handyman to actually get things done.
- Sassy Black Woman: Cartman's Panderverse counterpart is a rather straightforward example.
- Self-Deprecation:
- The Panderverse version of Cartman is voiced by Janeshia Adams-Ginyard, who is known for her work with Disney.
- Trey and Matt both went to UC Boulder, which the college in-universe is modeled after. It's ridiculed by Randy (and the other adults) in a smorgasbord of dry insults, with one of them being about how they're all still paying off student loans, possibly alluding to how "shitty" the creators think they themselves should feel after already having enough money to have done so.
- Series Continuity Error: Randy has been shown doing plenty of basic and complex home repairs before. One episode he even had a home renovation show "White People Flipping Houses." That is, if one assumes he's genuinely clueless and didn't just become incredibly lazy.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Both Kennys semi-flippantly insist that they aren't in love with Tammy Mullin, just her knockers.
- Shout-Out:
- The title card is a send-up to Disney's 1985-2006 Vanity Plate.
- Stan and Kyle cite Miles Morales as an example of where a Race Lift character works because the character has their own personality and narrative instead of just being the original beloved character with a different appearance.
- There's quite a few references to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, such as the Cartmans being able to see into each other's dimensions via dreams.
- The Panderverse version of Kenny resembles Go Go Tomago.
- Stealth Pun: A couple crop up.
- The college that the adults try to destroy with catapulted stones looks like a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of University of Colorado, Boulder. In other words, they're fighting a Boulder with a boulder.
- In Universe 216-B, aka "The Panderverse", the City Wok restaurant is named City Woke instead, which seems like a rebranding to make it more diverse, until you remember how the owner pronounces that first word. In other words, it's "Shitty Woke".
- Take That!:
- Lots of jabs are targeted at Kathleen Kennedy and Disney for the poor quality and reception of the studio's recent films, particularly the Disney Live-Action Remakes. Bob Iger is also mocked for relying too much on established IPs and remakes instead of original ideas to make the company money.
- The Panderverse itself (Universe 216-B) is a jab at a trend in movies replacing established white male characters with diverse female characters. The City Wok equivalent being named "City Woke" drives the point home.
- The Panderverse versions of our characters talking about "fighting against the patriarchy" can be taken as a shot at how some shows, films, comics, graphic novels, and other media focus on sending a message (that is, obnoxiously preaching) for marginalized groups rather than telling a story.
- The scene of Kyle, Stan, and Kenny getting labeled as racist by PC Principal for their questioning how Cartman changed into a black woman is this towards writers who respond to valid criticism by acting like their work is the exact same as the original and claim critics are just being bigoted (a marketing strategy dubbed "fan baiting"). It helps that they're fans of Miles Morales, who they cite as an example of diversity assisting with the story rather than hindering it.
- Special mention goes to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which left Cartman sending angry letters to Kennedy, prompting her to use the Panderstone in the first place.
- Stan, Kenny, and especially Kyle shrug off the multiverse concept used in modern superhero movies as a way to excuse lazy writing.
- Randy traveling through the space between universes has his clothing randomly changing, with him treating it like a mind-blowing experience, mocking multiverse stories for signifying different universes with superficial changes.
- Toxic fans are mocked as well by being represented by Cartman, who indirectly started the whole conflict by causing Kennedy to use the Panderstone repeatedly.
- On the other side, Kathleen Kennedy doubling down in retaliation at the cost of writing quality is this towards writers who overestimate the number of genuinely bigoted fans and alienate the fans who value writing over all else by fixating on the bigots.
- Fans of Disney/Lucasfilm properties who tend to blame Kathleen Kennedy for everything are mocked in the scene where Randy and the other protesters stupidly blame her for why nobody can do anything anymore, despite her having absolutely nothing to do with the situation and them not even knowing who she is.
- It also jabs at AI being cited as a reason for the 2023 WGA strike, showcasing its imperfections through Siri, as well as humans' overreliance on AI in general.
- Society is mocked for fixating so much on college educations and knowledge-based skills that most people have no idea how to perform basic home repairs as a result.
- The handymen having their own spaceships represents billionaires attempting to travel into space for no other reason than because they can afford to. They also compete to buy up social media platforms on a whim and challenge each other to fistfights when things don't go their way, a very pointed jab at Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
- Techno Babble: When using the Panderstone one of the Disney execs started talking nonsense Readings Are Off the Scale dialogue, which Kyle immediately lampshades as sounding like "typical multiverse story gobbledygook."
- They Killed Kenny Again: Parodied with the namesake's Panderverse counterpart, who is crushed by the Panderverse version of Cartman after the latter arrives back at the Panderverse.
- Vocal Dissonance:
- Alien!Liane has a very grotesque appearance, but still has the voice of her Earth human counterpart.
- The cereal Kyles also have a very grotesque appearance, yet speak in a slightly higher-pitched version of human Kyle's voice.
- Vocal Minority: Parodied In-Universe. Kathleen Kennedy receives tens of thousands of hate letters over every piece of pandering content Disney has produced, and they all come from Cartman, and only Cartman.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kathleen Kennedy is ultimately shown to be a well-meaning producer who initially wanted to make good films while also increasing the diversity of the characters in order to give representation to minorities. Then when she started getting hate mail from bigoted fans (later revealed to somehow be Cartman entirely), her anger caused her to double down on her diversity efforts without any care as to how they affected the final products.
