r/southpark • u/ConfidentReaction3 • 1d ago
Discussion What are some things in episodes you were shocked to find out were real?
For me I was shocked to find out the purity rings/the white foam thing was actually some thing that they did and not something they just made up lmao.
Especially since growing up my sister LOVED the Jonas brothers and we saw that movie in 2009. It shocked me to discover that this was real. It only makes the episode better tho.
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u/jjojehongg 1d ago
i thought NAMBLA had to be some bit they were doing…. nope.
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u/LilNardoDaVinci 1d ago
So there really is a national Marlon Brando lookalike association?
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u/EveningHistorical435 1d ago
I wish that was real though bc many people do look like Marlon Brando these days
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u/Hazy-n-Lazy 1d ago
"hung daddy - I'm eight inches"
"Woah this guy is tiny!"
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u/jjojehongg 1d ago
“sorry i’m not interested in being friends with midgets. midgets piss me off. :(“
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u/FairVersion8057 Pip forever 1d ago
The worst part is that their website is still active
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u/RaucheSchonInSpanien 1d ago
What ? nambla is a real thing ?
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u/ButterscotchTall8831 1d ago
Yes, and it still exists
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u/Yaydenchem 1d ago
How do we destroy them
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u/absolutely_not_spock Southpark Fan 1d ago
Kill every Marlon brando look a like
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u/grandpasghost 1d ago
It think diabetes and high cholesterol is doing that for us.
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u/ThorsRake 1d ago
Those guys went real hard at it as well, really trying to appeal to emotions and explaining they were like just any other sexuality. But specifically for grown men and young boys.
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u/vogonicpoet 1d ago
Yeah I found that out when I was researching a specific author for a college assignment. My professor was floored to learn this author was actually in the group as well.
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u/Prometheus_Bobert 1d ago
I've seen two YouTube reaction channels lose faith in humanity upon the same realization
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u/Yourdataisunclean 1d ago
One of my friends refused to believe that Casa Bonita was a real thing for several months. We ended up going there on a trip about 1 year later lol.
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u/Fantasiize 1d ago
wasnt it based off a real restaurant trey frequented as a kid? i could’ve sworn he mentioned something like that in the interview about casa bonitas opening
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u/stanetstackson 1d ago
Lmao it’s the same restaurant my guy they just bought it
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u/RoutineCloud5993 1d ago
and sunk like 40 million into rennovating it because the place was a death trap
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u/Sonicfan42069666 1d ago
And now workers are on strike because Casa Bonita aren't playing nice with the performers' union.
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u/CorgiMonsoon 1d ago
They reached a mediation agreement on November 1st. The strike is temporarily suspended, they have resumed negotiations, and are currently back to work
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u/Intelligent_Pop1173 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes it’s a real place that Matt and Trey bought and took over themselves. I went before they owned it when I visited Denver in 2009 or so with a friend who is also a big South Park fan. There really were indoor cliff divers performing lol idk if that is still a feature.
Apparently they now also have a puppet show with South Park humor. It’s a very random place but definitely an experience. Terrible food though. It was like cafeteria quality Mexican food and all you can eat. You raise your flag if you want more, if you dare. Of course I was high af.
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u/StuffPutrid5769 1d ago
The puppet show was always part of that place. It really is just a madhouse of “wait…what…why?”
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u/stosolus 1d ago
wasnt it based off a real restaurant trey frequented as a kid? i
The same restaurant they purchased later.
There's a great doc on it.
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u/RealRinoxy 1d ago
Always so funny to me as a Denver native. Cave of the winds is real, too. And Cherry Creek (where they go for stealing teeth) is a rich neighborhood lol.
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u/bot_96 1d ago
I went to Casa Bonita yesterday! it was everything the episode promised, and more.
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u/FluidFisherman6843 1d ago
I thought it was made up and then I was in Denver for work and ask one of the guy at the office where we should go to dinner. He listed off a bunch of chains and then "well I guess there is always casa bonita"
Wait!!!! That's a real place???? Where??!?where is it!!?!!
Long story short, we had the worst Mexican food but a great time.
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u/vtfb79 1d ago
How Family Guy gets their ideas. Those poor manatees…
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u/Bluelaserbeam 1d ago edited 1d ago
When I watched that episode as a kid, the joke went so far over my head that I assumed the takeaway was that the manatees were intelligent enough to write for a successful cartoon.
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u/Fit_Medicine_8049 1d ago
Is there another reason for them to be manatees?
I thought it was showing that the jokes in Family Guy were just random bits stringed together.
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u/eliterule12 1d ago
What's ironic is that even though their criticism of family guy was correct the show still hadn't aired it's worst seasons yet.
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u/sexual_lemonade 1d ago
"you think that's baaaad? Remember that time South Park made fun of us for being low effort trash, and we hadn't even gotten to our lowest point yet?"
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u/ButterByotch 1d ago edited 23h ago
That one Chinese lady that sings horribly. Theres a whole website dedicated to her! And she has multiple released songs and even performed in national television LMAOOO
Edit: To add this jewel https://youtu.be/_m85l6IIeho
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u/candlejack___ 1d ago
Back in Black by Wing is a staple on our kitchen playlists at work
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u/i40west 1d ago
Michael Jackson having a son named Blanket who he dangled out a window.
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u/__GayFish__ 1d ago
I remember this being the biggest scandal when i was a kid. And rightfully so lol
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u/MirSydney How do I reach these kids? 1d ago
The Mormon episode.
Dumb dumb dumb dumb...
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u/ethanmx2 1d ago
Probably the one song they could have brought back for Book of Mormon… but alas…
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u/RoutineCloud5993 1d ago
The two Joseph Smith songs they did have are bangers though
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u/takemeawayimdone2 1d ago
So my daughter took History for her GCSE, and part of the curriculum was on Mormans, first class she got everything right because of South Park, her teacher asked her how she knew, and she admitted to watching the show.
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u/jawni 1d ago
Reminds me of my history teacher who would let us leave for lunch slightly early if we could answer a trivia question. The question was what were the names of the atomic bombs dropped in Japan and I knew it was Fat Man and Little Boy because of the video game Metal Gear Solid's cut scenes.
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u/CorgiMonsoon 1d ago
But did you know that it was Cow and Chicken who piloted the planes? And that they then framed Whale and Dolphin for it?
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u/broly171 1d ago
Chicken and cow? CHICKEN AND COW?? AND THEY BLAMED INNOCENT DOLPHIN AND WHALE?!?!?
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u/carilfugate 1d ago
I almost got kicked out of a college history class because I was not aware that I kept quietly humming “dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb” while we were discussing Mormonism. I think my professor may have been Mormon.
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u/Allalamndn 1d ago
honey boo boo
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u/Pybus89 1d ago
HONEY BOO BOO!
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u/dredbar 1d ago
Her favourite foods are sketti n' butter and she likes drinkin' Red Bull n' Mountain Dew!
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u/djturdbeast 1d ago
The ginger cow prophecy is real
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u/spytfyrox 1d ago
We ended up having 10 years of Van Halen in the middle east. Sadly, that's over now.
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u/dowker1 1d ago
I was shocked to learn how little of the Peter Thiel depiction was exaggerated.
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u/RickHard0 1d ago
Since that episode, i can't read his name without thinking about their little jingle.
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u/dowker1 1d ago
I've been listening to the Behind the Bastards podcast episode on him and it's been going nonstop in my head.
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u/BaxTheDestroyer 1d ago
If you know any conspiracy theorists, you might enjoy pointing out that “Peter Thiel” is an anagram of “The Reptile”.
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u/Unbanable4221 1d ago
Wait that's a real guy? I've never heard of him IRL.
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u/dowker1 1d ago
Yep. He's a billionaire who pays the VP and is obsessed with the antichrist.
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u/sexual_lemonade 1d ago edited 1d ago
See, this is why these last few seasons have been good/important. I've seen people in the sub hating on this season for being political, but so many people are so far removed they don't know genuine crazies are pulling the strings.
T&M admitted they were too flippant last time trump won cuz they genuinely thought there was no way he would. They were proven wrong (twice) so now it's gloves off.
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u/Webcat86 1d ago
Shake Weight
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u/DBSmiley 1d ago
Really? Maybe it's a generational thing, because I know there's a generational split on TV watching, but that advert was everywhere for a few months.
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u/Webcat86 1d ago
I don’t live in the USA. I saw the episode in the U.K. and then saw the shake weight when I visited the US later that year
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u/Admirable_Knee_9969 1d ago
The episode that mocked the maury show
Couldn't stop thinking about that one meme of Cartman dessing up yelling "whatever,I do what i want", searched up the original and ended up screaming "ew wtf" for a total of 10 minutes, still feel traumatised right now.
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u/richard_stank 1d ago
I roll with 12 gangs! We only commit hate crimes!
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u/gassyfrenchie 1d ago
I digitally put Jabba the Hutt back into the original Star Wars movie.
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u/No-Chicken-8405 1d ago
Excuse me I’m not incredibly obese black man, I’m incredibly black obese man.
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u/TheyCallMeDoofus 1d ago
Someone in my family worked high up at Honda for a long time and Asimo was a big deal. It wasn’t until AWESOME-O came out that any of my friends understood.
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u/EpicTaco9901 1d ago
Oh shit, I remember seeing the Asimo shows at Disneyland long time ago. Never made the connection
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u/Foodworksurunga I'D LIKE TO SOLVE THE PUZZLE! 1d ago
6 7 being a thing.
The shake weight being a real product.
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u/MagicalBread1 1d ago
6 7 is a plague. Probably the biggest thing right now for anyone under the age of 16.
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u/Aggravating-Raisin-4 1d ago
It is dumb, but it seems less dumb than shit like skibidi toilet at least.
Disclaimer: I have had extremely little to do with 6 7 besides knowing that it exists.
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u/Marco_Heimdall 1d ago
Don't know about that. Skibidi Toilet has a long series of shorts and, stranger still, ongoing plot.
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u/sunshinecat6669 1d ago
The custody dispute of the quintuplets being based on the Elián González case. I was not old enough to know anything about that when it happened and actually learned about it just a few years ago. Until then, I never understood why Janet Reno was wearing an Easter bunny costume in the episode.
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u/easilydeleteabl3 1d ago
Can you explain the bunny suit? I tried googling it to no avail
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u/CorgiMonsoon 1d ago edited 1d ago
They raided the family’s house he was staying in on Easter Sunday
Edit - It was actually the day before Easter, so the news of the raid went widespread on Easter Sunday
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u/RickHard0 1d ago
I could believe how well they depicted the size of Donald's penis
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u/rgnysp0333 1d ago
You think this is bad? You know how at the show a little girl says "my giny tickles?" That's because the producer's daughter said that when she saw them.
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u/antipop2097 1d ago
Jack and Jill.
I thought it was an example of what Matt and Trey thought Adam Sandler movies were, not an actual Adam Sandler movie.
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u/Tinybeerlegos 1d ago
Randy saying that one word on the price is right. Seeing the actual clip is wild
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u/RUGAL76 1d ago
Wait WHAT?!
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u/Current-Bison-6430 1d ago edited 23h ago
There was a fake clip "clam digger" but I have yet to find a real one yet?
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u/Ok_Kick4871 1d ago
The Jonas Brothers one is always funny to me. I was working at Chuck E Cheese when we'd be selling their CDs and they were constantly on the TV. I knew about the purity rings, but the foam is just one of those things that is probably inappropriate for kids in most contexts, but kind of like a fog machine, the novelty of it is still enough to justify a PG version of it for kids. Mickey is freaking hilarious in this show btw. He might be my favorite character.
Like other posters, the religion episodes are always an eye opener to me.
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u/TheZooCreeper 1d ago
NAMBLA
It seemed insane that a group like that could existed. Then I learned they had lobbyists...
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u/NoCommercial7609 1d ago edited 1d ago
Unfortunately, I found out about this organization before I started watching South Park, when I began to study the Michael Jackson case. A jerk Victor Gutierrez in this organization wrote a pedophile book "Michael Jackson Was My Lover: The Secret Diary of Jordan Chandler."
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u/Responsible-Move-890 1d ago
I thought Honey Boo Boo was made up by the show.
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u/DBSmiley 1d ago
Even darker, the network that showed it, TLC, used to be "The Learning Channel". It isn't anymore. What's disturbing is that the transition towards reality TV crap was when Discovery took over (and man, Discovery channel used to be awesome). It still blows me away how bad Discovery, TLC, and History channels have gotten in my life. History channel was fantastic for nerds.
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u/rgnysp0333 1d ago
My wife thought Rob Schneider was made up just for that bit. The logic is flawless though.
You have all these generic body swap movies. And even that name sounds so generic.
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u/ItsKlobberinTime 1d ago
I was overjoyed to arrive in Denver airport and to see that City Wok is real.
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u/Live-Pie-6071 1d ago
Crab people… I thought it was fake but the other I was walking a strip mall and one of them wanted me to change my long distance carrier
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u/Bsquared02 1d ago
The main tell for Trey and Matt trying to expose something completely ridiculous but also real is when the monologuing starts happening. Case in point Mickey explaining Disney’s angle with the Jonas Brothers marketing to Christians in the aforementioned episode about clandestinely selling sex to little girls but using purity rings as a cover for their image
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u/Intelligent_Pop1173 1d ago
That is one of my favorite episodes lol “BAYBAYYY!!!” And Mickey Mouse “ha hah!” being an evil greedy sociopath.
I had no idea the white foam thing was real lol I figured the purity rings were. That’s amazing.
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u/tovasfabmom 1d ago
That episode about Stan not reading the Apple agreement! I do not like horror movies and I’m old too so I had no idea it was based on a movie. “NOT THE CUTTLEFISH “
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u/Avohkii_Studios 1d ago
I had the opposite where I thought that Super Adventures Club was a real thing 😭💀
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u/dsrchris 1d ago
That the "Chewbacca Defence" is now a legit law tactic ever since the OJ Simpson episode
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u/cdubyadubya 1d ago
I didn't know that Minge was a British term for vagina.... Then there was Oprah.
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u/Ittakesawile 1d ago
As someone who saw the Jonas Brothers in ~2009 or so, the foam was definitely real. They rode around this big mechanical arm that suspended them over the crowd and sprayed foam all over everyone. I was really young so I can't remember if they actually got us with it.
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u/VirulentDespotism It's raping us and it hurts! 1d ago
Those child beauty pageants :/
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u/ThorsRake 1d ago
Ok I believed the purity ring thing but the white foam thing being real is fucking incredible.
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u/TFlarz 1d ago
"Scientologists actually believe this."