Canada on Strike
From South Park Archives
| South Park episode | |
|---|---|
| “Canada on Strike” | |
| |
| Episode no. | Season 12 Episode 4 |
| Original airdate | April 2, 2008 |
| Season 12 March 12, 2008– TBA | |
| |
| | |
| ← Season 11 | |
| List of all South Park episodes | |
"Canada on Strike" is the fourth episode of the twelfth season of South Park. It originally aired on April 2, 2008. In Canada, this episode aired on April 18, 2008.
Spoiler warning: Plot details follow.Contents |
[edit] Plot
When "Canada Aprreciation Day" in the U.S. is mocked and doesn't bring Canada the respect it believes it deserves, The leader of 'The World Canadian Bureau' (Abbreiviated as the WGA, a reference to the Writers Guild of America) Stephen Aboutman leads a nation wide strike of Canadians to garner respect and more money. They demand 'some of that Internet money' from other UN nations, but are denied. Meanwhile, Kyle Broflovski is worried abour his brother Ike who is also on strike. Kyle's concern for his brother and reruns of Terrance and Phillip episodes convinces the boys they need to try and negotiage an end to the strike. After talking to Steven Aboutman who demands Internet Money for the end of the strike, Cartman, Stan and Kyle put a video of Butters singing "What, what...In my butt" on Youtoob (Youtube) which becomes an instant hit.
Canadian spirits are down when there is no world interest in the strike, and Terrance and Phillip talk about ending it. Things get worse when the Danish flock to the U.S. to take the places of Canadian's. Meanwhile, the boys wait in line at the 'Colorado Department of Internet Money', where they meet other YouTube phenomena such as Tay Zonday, Ghyslain Raza (although he is Canadian he does not have a flappy head) and Chris Crocker. The other YouTube celebrities begin to argue about who is the most famous, which quickly descends into violence, and most of them end up killing each other. The boys are the only survivors and, ergo, first in line; they receive 10 million "theoretical dollars," 1 for each viewing of the YouTube video.
They take the money to the WGA in Canada, but it is rejected because it isn't real money. Stephen Aboutman refuses to give up the strike being he doesn't want to admit that he led everyone astray. A call from the UN asking if they could transform Newfoundland into a theme park once all the Canadians are dead throws Stephen over the edge. Kyle takes the call and asks the UN to give Canada something small at least, and act as if 'they are giving something big'. The UN give Canada free coupons to Bennigans and bubblegum as a consolation prize, and Canada 'wins the strike'. The boys return home and Kyle tells Ike he can stop striking. He then recites what he learned from all of this.
We thought we could make money on the Internet. But while the Internet is new and exciting for creative people, it hasn't matured as a distribution mechanism to the extent that one should trade real and immediate opportunities for income for the promise of future online revenue. It will be a few years before digital distribution of media on the Internet can be monetized to an extent that necessitates content producers to forgo their fair value in more traditional media.Kyle
Back in Canada, as a victory party is held by the WGA, Terrance and Phillip—whose attitudes in this episode reflect that of the show's two creators—arrive and uncover that the strike cost Canada millions of dollars and accusing the WGA head of trying to look good so they wouldn't "set him adrift". As it turns out, Canada lost far more revenue by going on strike than they gained through it. Canada is outraged, and the WGA leader, along with his assistants, are set adrift on an ice floe.
[edit] YouTube part of the episode
A number of Internet phenomena including Tron Guy, Gary Brolsma doing his Numa Numa[1] dance, The Star Wars Kid[2], the sneezing panda[3], Afro Ninja[4], the laughing baby[5], "Chocolate Rain"[6] by Tay Zonday, Chris Crocker [7] , and the Dramatic Prairie Dog[8] are parodied during the episode. Also, Butters is seen parodying Samwell's What What In the Butt video[9]. The Back Dorm Boys[10], lonelygirl15[11], and Bubb Rubb are depicted as well, however, none of them have any speaking roles. Ironically, in the days following the airing of the episode in the US many of the featured videos as linked above hosted on Youtube have received many thousands of comments parodying the episode in return, notably the 'I'm not your...' sequence, forming a meme in it's own right.
| Preceded by: "Major Boobage" | South Park episodes | Followed by: "Eek, a Penis!" |
[edit] Goofs
- The Star Wars kid is actually Canadian but has the looks of an American. The Star Wars kid is from Quebec.
[edit] Trivia
- Despite the fact in the song "Canada on Strike" says "Canada on Strike, From Vancouver to St. John's", the population seems to stop at a bit past the Quebec-New Brunswick border. St. John's is in Newfoundland, an island province near Labrador in the Atlantic Ocean. Labrador is located next to northern Quebec. The Arctic areas (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) have no population as well. It should also be noted that southern Ontario is missing some population as well. Southern Ontario is home to the largest city in Canada, Toronto.
- Pizza Nut is a parody of Pizza Hut.
- Butters told Chocolate Rain that his video had a few hundred thousand hits. The news report said it was over ten million.
- Bennigan's does not exist in Canada, making the coupons useless unless they visit one in the US.
