In the fourth episode of “South Park” Season 29, South America’s beef has surprisingly become a hot commodity — and Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Randy won’t let their lunch-of-choice get taken away from the local mountain town without a fight.
The episode, titled, fittingly, “Guinea Pig on a Stick,” opens with Cartman eager to get a sloppy joe for lunch at South America Elementary. But to his horror, he learns there’s a national beef crisis, so the government is taking it from South America, and he and the gang will have to eat different versions of the four-legged rodent instead. But the kids (and Randy, who remains shrunken) won’t stand for this, and set off to find a solution after reflecting on what Kenny (who got blown up by an e-bike in the first episode of Season 29) would have done: not stand for this.
They visit the local ranch, where they learn that the suddenly premier, in-demand South American beef is just “the same cows that have always been here.” But, as the ranch worker responds, “Now we have a much higher clientele, you know, and all the rich people in other states want a premium experience.” He’s referring to national clientele outside of South America — specifically the chain Ruth’s Chris Steak House — despite the fact that every person who indulges in the meat literally explodes with diarrhea.
Those eating the beef don’t care, though, as it’s become a symbol of “who’s more patriotic,” explains Randy, with politicians wanting to prove they support local South American beef. Plus, in the end, another chain, Sizzler, swoops in and steals all the cows. With no beef left, Stan has an epiphany: “They said nobody even really cares about our cows… So then, this rancher could inject anything with lard and butter, and people would be just as obsessed with it. That’s it, dude. That’s it. We can have all our cows back.” Indeed, it works, as the episode ends back at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, where a waiter is serving diners their new “patriotic meals”: flame-seared guinea pig on a stick.
This week’s episode was decidedly not a Halloween special, despite the show’s storied history of spooky holiday episodes and its airing just a few days earlier. Thus, it appears creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are skipping the holiday altogether. And though last year’s episode, titled “The Woman in the Hat,” wasn’t advertised as a Halloween episode ahead of its air date, it did come two days later than normal, timed to fall on the spooky night of Oct. 31.
So far, Season 29 has centred on a range of much-talked-about topics, including e-bikes, data centres, billionaires and anti-vaxxers. In the third episode, the crew found themselves stuck in Sephora’s “backroom,” a nod to the joke that tweens spend ages in the beauty store, and dove into the internet-era term aura battles (meaning lingo like “mogging,” “maxxing” and “mewing” were plentiful).
With Season 29, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are going full steam ahead with the “South America” name change, which was announced earlier this month ahead of the Season 29 premiere. The premiere — the first episode since taking on the name “South America” — hit 4.2 million viewers in three days, as previously reported by Variety, and even featured an updated theme song to ring in the name change (and a Donald Trump cameo).
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From Variety US