Trapper Keeper
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| South Park episode | |
|---|---|
| “Trapper Keeper” | |
| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 60 |
| Original airdate | November 15, 2000 |
| South Park - Season 4 April 2000 - December 2000 | |
| |
| List of all South Park episodes | |
"Trapper Keeper" is episode 60 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on November 15, 2000. The episode parodies the movies Terminator , Akira, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the GI Joe season I episode "The Germ", as well as the 2000 U.S. Presidential election.
[edit] Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot details follow.Kyle comes to school with a Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper. He then is joined by Cartman who reveals he has a special, advanced Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper Ultra Keeper Futura S 2000, which has incredibly advanced computerized features including a TV, a music player with voice recognition and the ability to automatically hybrid itself to any electronic peripheral device. But of all it's endless functions, Cartman seems to be most intrested in using it to make Kyle jealous; around the same time, a mysterious man going by the pseudonym Bill Cosby (who bears no resemblance at all to the real Bill Cosby) appears and begins to ask about Cartman's Trapper Keeper, which he then attempts to steal. He is caught by Officer Barbrady and Cartman, and Officer Barbrady says, "I'm not going to shoot somebody for stealing your school folder", and when "Bill Cosby" is caught, he explains his actions: It seems this binder is destined to gain sentience and hybrid into a supercomputer to conquer the world in the future and wipe out all traces of humanity (or "hu-monity" as Cosby calls it). Cosby himself is a cyborg from the future named BSM-471, sent back in time to destroy the binder before it could rise to power; Cosby manages to destroy it, but Cartman then buys another one, which, according to the laws of time travel, would be the one that is actually destined to destroy the world, and Cartman refuses to allow this one to be destroyed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison has been demoted to a kindergarten teacher, and his class holds an election for class president. Kyle's brother Ike runs against a boy named Filmore, the result being a tie that would be broken by the vote of a little girl named Flora. Unfortunately, she cannot decide who to pick. "OK, Flora's undecided," Garrison remarks. After she picks, the kids protest about an absent student, then demand recounts, then involve Rosie O'Donnell, who comes to protest that Filmore (her nephew) hasn't won. While this is going on, Stan, Kyle and Kenny have gone with their robotic companion to Cartman's house to convince his mother to help them, but she goes off with Bill Cosby to have sex; Cartman's Trapper Keeper, meanwhile, integrates itself into Cartman's computer and most of his belongings, and then absorbs Cartman himself, becoming a twisted bio-mechanical blob monster in a vaguely Cartman shape. It kills Kenny and sets off to Cheyenne Mountain, to absorb a secret military base's computer that will make it unstoppable.
Is Cartman still in there somewhere? After hearing farts coming from an exhaust tube, Kyle smiles and says, "He is in there."
Kyle sneaks in to the gigantic Cartman-Trapper Keeper through a ventilation pipe, but before he can disable it the creature incapacitates him in a take-off on 2001: A Space Odyssey . Soon Rosie O'Donnell appears and yells at the Trapper Keeper for blocking the road, which leads to much confusion over which one is the amorphous blob. The creature then absorbs her, but it appears infusing with her made Trapper Keeper sick ("Eeeeww...bad pie...bad pie..."). Kyle is freed, and he takes his chance; he disconnects Trapper Keeper's CPU, and the beast returns to its powerless state. The creature's destruction causes Bill Cosby to disappear, as the robot needs not be created in the future to fight it if it is unable to take over the world, therefore he cannot come back in time (see Grandfather paradox). Stan tells Cartman to thank Kyle, who just saved his life, and Cartman starts to just as the episode ends. The credits roll before he can finish, cutting him off at "Kyle..."
As for the kindergarteners, after countless lawyers come in and legal forms and endless meetings, Filmore concedes because "this game is stupid." With Ike as president, the kids decide to go fingerpaint. Garrison is so relieved, finally at piece. There is a moral here.
[edit] References To Popular Culture
- The whole concept of sending someone to the past to get rid of a robotic enemy is a reference to the Terminator films.
- When the trapper keeper fuses with Cartman it becomes a gigantic blob with his head this is a reference to the the popular anime film Akira also the soundtrack during the scene is the same music when Tetsuo becomes the blob, and the scene where Rosie O'Donnell is crushed inside him is a parody of how Tetsuo accidentally killed his girlfriend.
- Mr Garrison's B-story parodies the contentious United States presidential election of 2000 between George Bush and Al Gore.
- The scene where Kyle is "floating" on the inside of the massive trapper keeper is an homage to HAL 9000 of the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey".
[edit] Censorship
- In the syndicated version, the brief shot of Mrs. Cartman having sex with the android known as "Bill Cosby" after the assimilated Cartman destroys the house is cut.
- In syndication and all reruns of the episode, when "Bill Cosby" fades out of existence, he says "Look, I'm fading! It must've worked! I don't exist!" In the original broadcast, the robot is heard to say as he disappears, "Goodbye, humans! Oh God it hurts, it hurts!!!"
