Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes
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| “Something Wal-Mart This Way Comes” | |
|---|---|
| South Park episode | |
 South Park as a ghost town |
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| Episode no. | Season 8 Episode 120 |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Directed by | Trey Parker |
| Production no. | 809 |
| Original airdate | November 3, 2004 |
| Season 8 episodes | |
| South Park - Season 8 March 17, 2004 – December 15, 2004 |
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| ← Season 7 | Season 9 → |
| List of South Park episodes | |
"Something Wal-Mart This Way Comes" is episode 809 of Comedy Central's South Park. This episode originally aired on November 3, 2004.
[edit] Story
The episode begins with Cartman betting Kyle five dollars that when people die they "crap their pants". Kyle says it's a stupid idea and never agrees to the wager. In the meantime, a Wall-Mart opens in South Park with much fanfare. Everyone in town starts shopping there, due to its bargains. Cartman is especially delighted that one can buy three copies of Timecop for $18 though Kyle wonders why you would need three copies of the same movie. The popularity of Wall-Mart forces the local businesses to shut down, including Jim's Drug. The owner, Jim, cries as he tells the boys he can't compete with Wall-Mart. Cartman mocks this by playing a violin which Kyle snaps in half. Cartman claims, "Whatever, I can get another one at Wall-Mart. It was only 5 bucks." and then gives Kyle the finger. Soon, the now-unemployed residents start to work at Wall-Mart for minimum wage, including Stan's father Randy who becomes obsessed with shopping there.
With all the small enterprise going out of business, South Park turns into a ghost town. Eventually the townspeople decide they no longer want the Wall-Mart in South Park and agree to boycott. They fail to resist, though, as they start to miss the bargains they could get there. The townspeople approach the president of the store and ask him to shut the Wall-Mart down. He responds by writing signs saying its not safe to speak within the Wall-mart and meet him outside in 5 minutes. As the people stop outside his office, the manager is thrown though the office in an apparent suicide by hanging. He then "craps his pants" after his death. Cartman aproaches Kyle and says "Ha! You owe me five bucks Kyle."
The townspeople decide to burn the building down (While singing Kum-Ba-Yah), only to see it rebuilt. A man rebuilding the Wall-Mart tells Kyle, Stan, and Kenny that the rebuilding order came from the "higher-ups" in Bentonville, Arkansas. The three of them then travel to Bentonville to stop the Wall-Mart.
The Wall-Mart starts "speaking" to Cartman, telling him his friends are trying to destroy it. He catches up with the other boys at a bus station, where he consorts with them, despite "working with the Wall-Mart" to stop them from succeeding. Cartman first tries to stop them by slashing the bus' tires, but they still reach Bentonville. They reach Wall-Mart HQ where they find out they need to talk to Harvey Brown, the current president of Wall-Mart. The boys ask him how they can stop it, and he tells them they need to find and destroy its "heart". As the boys leave, Brown turns to the boys, puts a gun to his head, says "boys, tell the world I'm sorry," and pulls the trigger. He then dies and "craps his pants". Cartman responds by saying "Ha! That's ten bucks you owe me dickface!"
Back in South Park, the boys are about to enter Wall-Mart when Cartman confronts them with a knife in his hand, and says "Wall-Mart is a great store, I cannot let you fools ruin its terrific bargains. You see, I was working for Wall-Mart all along!" Kyle then tells him he knew that he was, and a "Yes I did" "No you didn't" argument ensues. Kenny is then assigned to hold Cartman off while Stan and Kyle enter the Wall-Mart. Once in the Wall-Mart, they find Stan's father, who tells them how to get to the television department, which is where Brown told the boys the "heart" is. On the way, Randy succumbs to Wall-Mart's bargains. He finally caves in to a screwdriver set which is "only $9.98," telling him the bargain is too great. He gives the boys his keys, and the two head for the television department.
In the television department, the boys are confronted by a man who says he is Wall-Mart. After a confusing dialogue, resembling the Architect scene in The Matrix Reloaded, he finally tells the boys that the heart "lies beyond that plasma screen television". The boys walk over to find it is a mirror, to which the Wall-Mart responds, "yes, don't you see? That is the heart of Wall-Mart. You. The consumer. I take many forms, Wall-Mart, Kmart, Target, but I am one single entity: desire." The boys then smash the mirror to "destroy the heart." The actual building of Wall-Mart then begins to fall apart, and the man who says he is Wall-Mart starts to laugh diabolically. Everyone evacuates the Wall-Mart, as it begins to cave in to one area.
After the Wall-Mart disappears, it "craps its pants". Cartman then laughs because of the fact that Kyle now owes him 15 dollars and he now knows that when stores die they "crap their pants". Randy then gives a speech about how the Wall-Mart was "us", and that if they want to keep the small town charm, they need to spend a little more. Gerald then says they should all shop at Jim's Drug down the street. The store is seen with people streaming in and out of it, and a time lapse shows the store getting bigger and bigger as the number of people grows, its final look resembling the Wall-Mart. The final part of the episode shows Jim's Drugs being burned down, as Randy then says "All right, let's not make that mistake again," to which Mr. Garrison responds "yeah, let's go shop over at True Value!" as everyone goes with him.
[edit] Cultural references
- Wall-Mart is a reference to Wal-Mart.
- The title (and some of the plot) comes from the novel Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, the title of which, in turn, comes from a line in Macbeth.
- The "Heart of Wall-Mart" scene is lifted from the Architect scene in The Matrix Reloaded.
- At the end of the episode, the Wall-Mart vanishes the same way that the house did in the movie Poltergeist. However, it also "craps its pants" when it vanishes.
- The greeter welcomes Randy to the Wall-Mart with the phrase "All are welcome, all are welcome" which is also used in the movie Poltergeist.
- When Randy wakes up in the middle of night and looks at Wall-Mart, it is glowing and on top of a hill, in reference to Salem's Lot.
- When Randy first enters Wall-Mart he says "It's beautiful." A sound clip first used by Steven Spielberg during the screening of the modified version of Raiders of the Lost Ark in the episode "Free Hat".
- Near the end, when the people find out Wall-Mart's weak point lies in the "heart", Chef says, "Spread the word to other towns" to a military telegraph operator in a parody of the end of Independence Day. A similar scene was in the season three episode Chinpokomon.
- The sound used to display time passing (such as when Jim's drugstore increases in size during the last few minutes) is the sound used in Heroes of Might and Magic III when a new week starts.
- The pants-crapping gag is later used in the Season 10 episode The Return of Chef.
- When assaulting the Wall-Mart, Kenny, Kyle, and Stan are dressed similarly to the amateur vampire hunters' (Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, and Jamison Newlander) outfits at the end of The Lost Boys.
- In the scene where Wall-Mart is speaking to Cartman, there are chocolate bars labeled Golden Ticket. This was also referenced in A Ladder to Heaven and later in Le Petit Tourette.
[edit] External links
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South Park episodes | Followed by “Pre-School” |
