Here Comes the Neighborhood

From South Park Archives

South Park episode
“Here comes the Neighborhood”
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 12
Production no.	512
Original airdate	November 28th, 2001
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Entity" "Kenny Dies"
List of all South Park episodes

Here Comes the Neighborhood is episode #512 of South Park.

[edit] Plot

Token Black (known as Token Williams in this episode) is not only the only black child in South Park, he also happens to be the wealthiest. All of the other kids are picking on him for this, and he gets fed up with it. He then mails letters to many rich (and black, strangely enough) celebrities, such as Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Oprah Winfrey, P. Diddy, Kobe Bryant, Snoop Dogg, Bill Cosby, etc., inviting them to move to South Park. Mr. Garrison then gets annoyed by having all of these rich people (or richers, as he calls them), and the other, less affluent citizens soon follow suit. Even Token realizes that these rich kids are completely different from him, all speaking with snotty rich accents and doing typically upperclass activity's like polo which Token can't begin to understand, he's still as out of place as he was with the poorer kids. He then decides there's only one place left where he can go - the South Park Zoo, to live with the lions there.

The poor people in South Park begin to segregate the rich people more and more, as the original residents make up various laws which go against the rich people (disallowing them to eat in certain restaurants, drink in certain bars and forcing them to sit at the front of all the buses since the front seats are first-class seats, basically only allowing them to go to better places than the other residents go). Then, the black richers invite Chef, the only recurring black character other than Token, to join their marches against this rich discrimination, assuming that since he is black, he must be rich. Chef tries to explain to them that he isn't rich, but they offer him $100.00 if he'll join up all the same.

Token, meanwhile, has to put up with the lions, including the leader, Aslon's, stupid, lame jokes. He finally decides he no longer wants to be a lion, so he leaves and goes back home. When he gets back, the others say they missed him. He is surprised, and says he thought they didn't like him. They then explain that they only picked on him because they're guys, and that's a normal form of communication amongst them. Then they decide that they shouldn't tease him for being rich anymore, and instead mock him for being such a pussy, since he was unable to stand being called rich.

In the meantime, Mr. Garrison leads a group of poor people, dressed as what they think are ghosts (but actually look more like the suits of KKK members) and burn a lower-case 't' (as in "time to leave"). Mr. Garrison is convinced that this'll work, as all rich people are scared of ghosts. Sure enough, the rich people are scared, and flee the town upon discovering that it was "hainted" (haunted). Mr. Garrison then plans to sell all their houses and become rich. When everyone else points out that he'd only be becoming rich, when he hates rich people, he replies, "Well, yeah, but at least I got rid of all those damn ni — ", but is cut off by the credits before he can finish his final word.

[edit] Trivia

• While Token is always referred to as Token Black, during the scene in J-Mart, Randy Marsh refers to Token's family as the Williams', instead of "the Blacks".

• The character "Aslon", head of the lions whom Token joins, is a reference to "Aslan" from C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. The character is made to resemble the version of Aslan from the 1979 made-for-TV animated movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe directed by Bill Melendez.
• The Events are similar to the life of Dave Chapelle who took a sabbatical to africa in a famous flip out.

[edit] Goofs

• Inexplicably, the snow on one of Token's front yard plants dissappears at the end of his song.

• When Butters is giving his report on volcanoes, you can see another Butters seated at his desk.
• When Will Smith is looking in Forbes Magazine, the advertisement says "like Aspen was 20 years ago," but his wife says 30 years instead.