SkankHunt (South Park)

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"SkankHunt (South Park)"
Even in a town like South Park, no relatives of other residents are safe from becoming something much more narcissistic...
Series: South Park Part of Season: 20 Episode Number: 2 Air Date: September 21, 2016 Writer: Trey Parker Director: Trey Parker Previous episode: Member Berries Next episode: The Damned

SkankHunt is the second episode of season 20. It was aired on September 21, 2016.

Summary

Kyle's dad manages to keep his identity as a troll secret, while he takes his on-line abuse global.

Plot

The episode starts in the school gym, where parents are at a community meeting about online internet trolls. Gerald Broflovski is shown looking proud about what he has accomplished as Skankhunt42. On their way home, Gerald and Sheila discuss the meeting and how society is changing as a result of internet trolls.

Heidi Turner is shown looking at her phone and then walking on a bridge overpass. She appears to be suicidal, but she actually deletes her Twitter account and throws her phone into the raging river below.

At South Park Elementary, there is a heavy police presence as Kyle Broflovski walks in. In the school library, Mr. Mackey tries to help the students cope with the loss of their friend on Twitter. He encourages them to tweet about all the good times they had with Heidi. At the cafeteria, Stan suggests that they need to stop Skankhunt42 immediately.

At the Broflovski Residence, Gerald decides to give Ike a talk about the incident and continues to feel happy about his accomplishments. He then goes into his office to begin another night of trolling. He goes to various Facebook posts and makes offensive comments. The song "Smokin'" is played by the rock band Boston and they are briefly shown performing before Gerald decides to call it a night.

Back at South Park Elementary, the girls are not happy and are discussing how to teach the boys a lesson. The boys watch from afar, wondering what the girls are plotting, knowing they are not happy. In the boys bathroom, they are discussing what to do with Cartman. It is suggested that they need to take out Cartman, meaning to forcibly take him off social media, by destroying his electronics. The boys then approach Cartman to deceptively invite him to go to Stan's Uncle Jimbo's cabin; he happily agrees to come.

Back at school, Mr. Mackey is fantasizing over Memberberries, when Scott Malkinson bursts in and threatens to delete his Twitter account. Mackey convinces Scott to not go through with it, however, he comes back in and threatens to delete his Twitter again.

In the woods, the boys are solemnly walking to the cabin, as Cartman talks about how awesome it will be to be alone in the woods to play Counter-Strike.

In a Presidential Campaign headquarters building, an employee claims they are being trolled by Skankhunt42. Back in town, Gerald takes a happy stroll through town, in the process almost getting hit by a car and bike. He then goes to the grocery store and then happily walks back home with his groceries.

Back at the school, Mr. Mackey is preparing to leave for the day when Scott appears and again threatens to delete his Twitter. Mr. Mackey tells Scott it's after hours but eventually lets him inside of the office to get him to back down.

Back at the cabin, the boys walk into the dark, secluded cabin and Cartman begins to take out his computer. As he does, the boys pull out a variety of weapons. Cartman turns around shocked to discover there is no internet, as the boys approach him, and he pleads for them to reconsider. They move closer and start destroying his electronic devices. Cartman passes out and the boys bury his stuff in the ground.

Late at night, Mackey is sleeping and receives a phone call from Scott who, once again, threatens to quit Twitter. Mackey, having enough of Scott's antics, is forced to listen to him talk about how the kids at school would be happier if he deleted his social media.

Back at home, Gerald is up late leaving hateful comments. As he gets ready to go to bed, a Google notification comes through on his computer. He watches a video from CNN where a Danish Olympian is discussing Denmark's response to his hateful comments. Gerald says that it is "game on".

At school, Kyle approaches Stan and Clyde, as the girls are angrily slamming their lockers. The three are in shock to find out that Skankhunt was still active the previous night, coming to the conclusion that Cartman was not the troll. Upon the boys realizing that destroying Cartman's devices was all for nothing, the girls are meeting saying it is time to punish the boys, still believing them responsible for Skankhunt's misdeeds.

At the school, Annie is the first girl to give her boyfriend a letter stating that she is breaking up with him. More girls across the school start to do this; Clyde is shown crying in the school library. In a Kindergarten classroom, a girl hands the boy a note saying "I brake up" and the boy faceplants into the blocks next to him. As Tolkien is playing basketball, Nichole approaches him to give Tolkien a break up note, which causes him to fall to his knees. Two boys in the school bathroom resort to hugging each other for comfort after also receiving letters.

Kyle sits on a swing looking at a picture of Cartman disappearing in a class photo, likely feeling guilty for destroying his electronics. In the school hallway, the boys (inculding Kenny) are shown crying on the floor with break-up notes strewn all over the hallway. Stan is walking around in disbelief as Wendy approaches him. She stoically hands him a note saying "This is goodbye forever, Stan. I can't fix you, Wendy." Stan and Wendy, along with all of the other couples, have ended their relationships. So starts troubling times at South Park Elementary.

Why We Should Destroy Gerald's Computer Instead

1. The absolute worst part of this episode is that Gerald is very unlikable and that he had done a horrible thing, which was the reason why he became a really bad character in this season. Do you want the reason why he became terrible here? It's because he trolled the internet by saying insults to people or even with pictures! And even corrupted the children so much that they thought that it was Cartman, and worst of all, he did make all the girls in the school break up with their boyfriends, making this episode have a ton of problems to the point of being extremely painful to watch, even in comparison to other terrible episodes of the show.
   • Not to mention that he didn't even get any karma in this episode nor this season, making him a huge Karma Houdini. It was howewer stated that he was exposed in South Park: Phone Destroyer, but still, it wasn't in this season, so it's almost pointless due to the game being released in 2019, 3 years after this season.
   • He is also a massive liar and hypocrite in this episode, as seen in the scene where he explains to Ike that trolling is not good, yet he does it himself, or even in the scene where he explains to Sheila that it's stupid but yet he does it, so it's complete hypocrisy.
   • Not to mention that if you did this in real life, you could get in massive trouble and you could go to jail for a long time, meaning that if he had been exposed in this season, then he would get in huge trouble, and Sheila would likely break up with him too.
2. It was the episode where all the girls broke up with their boyfriends due to them thinking that the boys were SkankHunt42 and that they were the ones doing that horrible thing, which was of course not true, and everyone after that thought that it was because of Cartman, in which they didn't have any proof (see WISDGCI#5).
   • Also, most of them didn't even get to be in a couple again with some exception, such as the Stan and Wendy couple, as in the game South Park: The Fractured but Whole, they hung out again, but that was pretty much the only couple that would have restarted.
3. There's a massive number of plot holes, to the point that it's likely the South Park episode with the most plot holes present, even beating The Wacky Molestation Adventure, and is especially the episode of season 20 with the most plot holes.
   1. First off, if Wendy wanted to go away from breaking with Stan and her friends forced her to, then why doesn't she listen to them and move on? That would have likely prevented Wendy from doing it, even if her friends forced her to.
   2. How did the boys think it was Cartman that was SkankHunt42 where there weren't any proof, not to mention that Kyle could have tried to see his dad in his chamber, so that would prevent this from happening? Also, they talked of that with Cartman before, and Cartman actually said that it's not good to do it, so the fact that they thought it was Cartman makes even less sense.
   3. At the beginning, when Mr. Mackey explained the trolls and that he thought that the children did it, how did the people around Gerald didn't think that it was him since he actually smiled and wasn't shocked?
   4. Why didn't Cartman question that if in the place they would go, there'd never be any internet to play Counter Strike, since in these places, often there is no internet connection?
4. It is not only a massive torture episode for Cartman, but also for the boys, since Cartman gets all of his stuff broken. As for the other boys, the reason why it's a torture episode for them is mostly because their girlfriends broke up with them, making this episode all over the place with its problems and also possibly the absolute worst torture episode for Cartman, if not for anyone else in the show due to all of the problems.
5. The boys directly thought that it was Cartman that made all of the trolls, yet they didn't even get any proof that it was him. Not only that, but that is the main reason why they are so unlikable in this episode, especially in the middle of it.
6. The episode, as you except from season 20, is horribly mean-spirited to the point that it's almost unwatchable at times, especially when the boys destroy Cartman stuff or other mean-spirited scenes.
   • Not only that, but the extremely mean-spirited nature of it is even forced since we can clearly see that this episode tried to be dark, but failed due to how horribly executed it is, and since most of these elements don't even make it an edgy episode in a good way, yeah South Park is know for it's disturbing and to a lesser extent being mean-spirited, but here it's just taken too far.
7. The boys (except Cartman) are extremely unlikable here and are at their absolute worst (with the possible exception of Kyle since he didn't want to do it in the first place), especially Stan, Butters, and Craig, since they did make Cartman think that they would play Counter Strike all night, yet they did that just to destroy the Cartman stuff, making them big liars and for almost no reason, not to mention that they didn't get any karma.
   • Not to mention that it was this episode that had made them flanderized in this season, since the entire season would have them being unlikable and doing a lot of awful things, and they would never get any karma, making them Karma Houdini.
   • Not only that, their solution of destroying Cartman stuffs wasn't even the best one since they could have easily looked up in the computer and they would found that it isn't Cartman that doing all of this stuff, which make everything much worse.
8. Kenny doesn't even appear in this episode. Not only that, but the worst part of that is that he is severely underused in this season, even more than usual, while in season 6 he doesn't appear. It was at least justified since he was actually dead until the end of it, but here, it is unacceptable considering that he isn't dead in this season overall.
9. The scene where the boys destroy Cartman's stuff is not only horrible, but extremely disturbing too, since it's actually made Cartman panicky and he even fell, making it even more disturbing when we can still hear Cartman screaming when they leave the place.
10. There are some filler scenes in this episode, such as the scene where Gerald goes shopping and celebrates what he has done. This scene could have easily been taken out of the episode, and nothing would change.
    • Not to mention that scene shows how much of a horrible character Gerald is in this season, since he actually enjoys doing it and would later in this season even make lies to not be exposed, which was the reason why Kyle and Ike are in trouble in the next episodes.
11. Gerald and especially the boys didn't even get any karma at all for doing horrible things, making them huge Karma Houdinis in the worst way possible, although Gerald was exposed in South Park: Phone Destroyer as said before.
12. The moments where we see the hacked picture of people with penis in their mouths are extremely disturbing and even disgusting, even by South Park standards, and it was even one of the worst moments of the entire season!!
13. Almost nothing in this episode is funny, and with the very few attempts at humor, it fails miserably due to the extremely mean-spirited nature of this episode (see WISDGCI#13).
14. The humor attempts, especially for South Park standards, are downright terrible and even insulting at times, such as the scene of Gerald hacking that was trying to be funny, but due to how badly it was executed, it fell flat, and the scene where Gerald does shopping and celebrates his action with goofy moves to walk is more insulting than funny; it's even comparable to how insulting Teen Titans Go! is at times!!
    • Not to mention that this is likely one of the very few South Park episodes where there are little to no funny moments, and also one of the few ones to have awful and insulting humor, to the point of making it even worse.
15. The concept of this episode was decent, but due to how bad it is, it's extremely wasted potential due to the horribly mean-spirited nature of it and almost all of the characters that are extremely unlikable and stupid for thinking that it was Cartman that was SkankHunt42.
    • The episode could also have been much better if it weren't for the characters being unlikable to Cartman and also for the girls breaking up with their boyfriends; it doesn't even help that some of these scenes are very lame.
16. It's even trying to do suicide jokes in some parts, such as when we see Heidi ending her twitter account and even it's look like that she even trying to suicide, even by South Park standards, this is just horrible and is incredibly out of place, similar to another episode from season 15, howewer it's not as bad as One Coarse Meal from SpongeBob SquarePants, which say something considering how horrible this episode really is.
    • Not to mention that it's give an awful moral about this, for exemple, when someone do bad things you should destroy his/her computer or when things go wrong, then you should suicide, which is not how it work!
17. Awful ending: Gerald, as said before, did get away with what he did, and he, of course, continues to troll the internet, which is not only a major red flag but also even feel insulting due to how bad it is.
18. Overall, this was an absolutely horrible episode that got a great concept that could worked, but was terribly executed, and it's even become one of the worst episodes of the entire series and is also easily the absolute worst episode of season 20 due to everything that we mentioned.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Kyle did at least question if destroying Cartman stuff was a good or bad idea, but because the other boys wanted to do it, that was pointless since they, including Kyle, destroyed Cartman's stuff anyway.
   • This shows that Kyle isn't completely unlikable in this episode, but still, he would be much worse in the next episodes of the season.
   • Also, Kyle did apologise to Cartman in another episode for doing this, making him the most tolerable out of the boys that did destroy Cartman stuff.
2. Aside from Kyle, some of the other characters are likable, such as Cartman, Wendy, and Heidi, which we're much nicer than the others, and we can feel sympathy for both Cartman and Heidi.
3. Some emotional moments here and there, such as when Heidi did end her Twitter account due to the trolls she got, and despite how lame the scene where the girls break up with their boyfriends is, it is somewhat emotional due to the boys being heartbroken.
4. Despite the fact that he wasn't exposed in this season, it was said that Gerald got exposed in the game South Park: Phone Destroyer as said in other bad qualities, but the game was mostly unrelated to this season and this episode.
5. Amazing animation and voice acting, as usual.

Reception

Despite having a 8/10 on IMDb, this episode was panned by South Park fans that said that this is one of, if not the worst episode of the entire season, and even considered it uncomfortable to watch due to being very mean spirited, it's also considered one of the worst episodes of the entire series.

Trivia

• This is the first time Mr. Mackey is shown without his glasses.
• The sub-plot of this episode equates quitting social media websites, i.e. Twitter, with actual suicide. In addition, destroying someone's electronic devices is equated with murder.
• Kenny and Jimmy are revealed to have been in a relationship, although not with who. They are seen crying in the hallway with the other boys.
• Heidi Turner's appearance has changed to include a red hat. She is one of the few girls at South Park Elementary to wear a hat.
• A deleted storyboard shows the girls learning the fact that the troll was not actually Cartman as they originally suspected, but deciding to still go through with their plan anyway.
• Craig and Tweek are the only couple at South Park Elementary that stay together since they are a same-sex couple and therefore do not have any girlfriends to break up with.
• Bebe, Sally Turner, Jenny Simons, and Lola were the only ones part of the popular girls' clique who were not seen handing breakup notes.

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