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This page contains trivia for "Goobacks". Remember, trivia must be factual, provable, and it is always best to cite your source for not-so-obvious trivia. If you would like to dispute a trivia point, please discuss it in the talk page.

Trivia[]

  • The episode as a whole is a satire about illegal immigration and the reaction of both conservative and progressive people who attack or defend immigrants without any discussion about the underlying causes (such as the poor conditions where the immigrants come from, or the impact their migration has on those whose livelihoods depend on the lower-wage jobs the immigrants assume).
  • The Okama Gamesphere appears in the window of a game store where one Gooback works.
  • An unnamed Goth Girl appears in the montage.
  • This episode features one of the few times the Goth Kids are seen smiling.
  • Jimbo is the only member of the audience at the redneck convention who objects to becoming gay, which is ironic because in the episode "It Hits the Fan" it is implied that Jimbo is secretly gay, or at least has homosexual tendencies.
  • When the rednecks are naked and about to get gay, a redneck in the far right is wearing a hat that says "John Denver Experience", a reference to the earlier episode, "Cartman Joins NAMBLA".

References to Popular Culture[]

  • When the "time border" gets wider and many "time immigrants" come through, it resembles a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
  • The appearance of the "time border", including the lightning storm immediately before its appearance and the growing energy sphere, closely resemble the special effects used to show characters arriving from the future in the Terminator films. There is also a scene where a reporter mentions that the time portal follows the "Terminator rules", instead of the "Back to the Future rules" of time travel.
  • In the news scene with the female reporter which the boys watch at the woman's house, a hangar numbered "18" can be seen behind the fence. This is a reference to the Roswell UFO incident in 1947, in which the remains of aliens and their spacecraft were supposedly flown to Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) in Ohio and stored in "hangar 18".
  • From the same scene, the caption given to the news report is "Guest from The Future". While highly unlikely that it was intentional, this could be seen as a reference to a popular Soviet Sci-fi television miniseries of the same name about a girl from the future that travels to the present and a boy who lives in the year 1984 and travels a hundred years into the future.
  • The immigrants come through the portal covered in purple goo, hence the name "goobacks". This is a reference to the American term "wetback", a derogatory slur for illegal Latin-American immigrants who swim across the borderline river, Rio Grande, in order to get into the USA.
  • After Goobacks start arriving en masse, there is a sign shown on the highway near the portal cautioning motorists to watch for Goobacks in the road. There are actually similar signs on I-8 in the US state of California cautioning motorists to beware of illegal immigrants in the road.

Continuity[]

  • This episode marks the first time the catch-phrase "They took our jobs!" is used.
  • The Raisins Girls and the Goth Kids are among the townsfolk who help to clean up South Park during the closing montage.
  • The field of flowers where the townspeople gather up litter previously appeared in "AWESOM-O"; it will be seen again in "Follow That Egg!".
  • When the protesters think they need to turn gay to stop the future, Jimbo Kern states "I ain't turnin' queer!" This statement seemingly contradicts the events of "It Hits the Fan", wherein Jimbo's unbleeped use of the word "fag" inadvertently outed him as homosexual.
  • The homeless man who appeared in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and was shot in "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer" appears again in this episode.
  • Kevin Mephesto can be seen in the crowd when townsfolk sing.
  • At the start of the episode, before the human from the future is hit by a car, a Hummer with the Three Feathers Casino logo on it drives passed him. The Three Feathers Casino is a fictional casino a few miles from South Park and was featured in the episode, "Red Man's Greed".
  • Ms. Crabtree is briefly seen at the end of the episode. This is her very last appearance before she gets killed off six episodes later.

Goofs[]

BoysMissing86

The boys' seating locations in the first shot, then their locations in the next.

  • The first Gooback is from the year 3045, which is a little less than 1100 years into the future; however, on the news report, the reporter states that he has traveled from over 2000 years into the future.
  • When the boys are going for the second time to shovel the driveway, a small patch of snow by the sidewalk disappears briefly.
  • During the second protest meeting, the boys can be seen in the crowd during the first wide shot, despite not being there at that time. The following wide shots shows their seats empty however.

Hidden Visitor[]

  • A Visitor is seen on top of a tall building in Little Future.

Dubbing Changes[]

International Titles[]

Language Title Translation
Czech Invaze z budoucnosti Invasion from the Future
French Les Gluants The slimes
German Immigranten aus der Zukunft Immigrants from the future
Hungarian A jövő jövevényei Newcomers from the future
Italian Gli immigrati dal futuro Immigrants from the future
Japanese ネバネバ・ネバー未来人
(Nebaneba nebā miraibito)
Sticky sticky sticky future people
Polish Czasogracja Time Grace
Portuguese (Brazil) Os Goobacks The Goobacks
Spanish (Latin America) Espaldas babosas Goobacks
Spanish (Spain) Espaldas pringosas Goobacks
Ukrainian Слизозаді
(Slyzozadi)
Goobacks

Japanese[]

  • Darryl Weathers, along with all news reporters (except Aaron Brown) are not addressed with a last name.
  • While explaining the time travel rules, the news reporter quotes Michael J. Fox in place of Timerider. Michael J. Fox played the role of Marty McFly in Back to the Future film trilogy.
  • The running gag of "They took our jobs" is replaced with "奴らは仕事泥棒だ!" (Yatsura wa shigoto dorobōda!, "They are work thieves!"). The quote can be devolved to as far as "ぼぼぼぼぼぼぼぼ" (Bobobobobobobobo).
  • All scenes showing naked men are partially censored, applying censor bars over private parts or blurring effects for wider shots.

Spanish (Latin America)[]

  • The news reporter quotes Spanish over English as one of the few examples of languages that have been mixed into the future people's spoken language.

Ukrainian[]

  • When the boys knock at the woman's door for a second time, there is a script error where Stan says "Oh goodness, what happened?" instead of asking for bandages, a copy of what the woman would have asked later.
  • The phrase of "The 11:15 bus from Denver arrived twelve hours late" written during Mr. Garrison's class is read as "The Denver bus was 20 hours late".


  806: "Goobacks" edit
Story Elements

Future HumansDarryl WeathersBill O'Reilly • "The Future Begins With You and Me" • "They took our jobs!"Wendell's Burgers

Media

ImagesScriptExtrasWatch Episode

Release

South Park: The Complete Eighth Season

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