Sponsored Content (South Park)

"**Sponsored Content**"
"Sponsored Content"
South Park episode
Episode no.	Season 19; Episode 8
Directed by	Trey Parker
Written by	Trey Parker
Production code	1908
Original air date	November 18, 2015
Guest appearance
	Bill Hader as Tom
Episode chronology
← Previous; "Naughty Ninjas"	Next →; "Truth and Advertising"
	South Park season 19
	List of episodes

"Sponsored Content" is the eighth episode of the nineteenth season and the 265th overall episode of the animated television series South Park, written and directed by the series co-creator Trey Parker, and is also the first episode of a three-episode story arc that serves as the season finale. The episode premiered on Comedy Central on November 18, 2015. It parodies the abundance of online advertising, native advertising and clickbaits while humorously linking them to artificial intelligence, while continuing its season-long lampoon of political correctness. The story arc of this episode continues into the following episode "Truth and Advertising" and concludes with the episode "PC Principal Final Justice".

Plot

Jimmy Valmer, to his office. Principal demands to review future editions of the newspaper before they are published to eliminate any offensive terms, but Jimmy refuses and accuses Principal of being unknowingly biased towards students with disabilities, a trait known as ableism

. Principal states that the newspaper can no longer be distributed on campus, so Jimmy resorts to hand-delivering the paper to homes in South Park, including the fraternity house where Principal lives. Principal is further outraged when he sees that Jimmy's editorial in the newest edition refers to Principal's policy as "retarded".

Principal Victoria

.

PC Principal hosts a party at his fraternity house for disabled people, including Jimmy,

Randy and Sharon Marsh

argue over the PC story in the newspaper, and Sharon finally demands that Randy stop going to their fraternity house, noting that Randy has changed and become more aggressive due to his association with the politically correct crowd.

Jimmy and Barbrady meet with a group of men led by a mysterious stranger (seen in the previous episode "

Leslie. Jimmy and Leslie realize that the men they have been speaking with are former news reporters. Victoria, who has been speaking with Garrison and Jenner, reveals that she was never fired, but replaced. Principal removes Jimmy from the school newspaper and replaces him with Nathan. After speaking with Leslie, Jimmy identifies her as an advertisement, while Principal is extremely shocked as he views an online ad featuring himself and Leslie. Jenner drives herself, Victoria and Garrison back to South Park, running over multiple people in the process

.

Critical reception

IGN's Max Nicholson gave the episode a 7.8 out of 10 and summarized that the episode "didn't really have the 'epic tie-in' feel it was going for within the larger PC storyline".^[1] Chris Longo from Den of Geek gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars and wrote in his review that the episode "hits all the right notes because Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker] approach the dynamic between the readers, publishers, and advertisers in a way that’s painfully accurate".^[2] Writing for The A.V. Club, Dan Caffrey rated the episode an A− and especially enjoyed the sci-fi references in the show, stating: "It also helps that everything’s played with a chilly sterility — Jimmy’s conversation with Leslie feels reminiscent of Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, A.I., and any number of other films involving humans and the androids among them — that feels like a true embrace of science fiction rather than a straight-up parody of it."^[3]

References

^ Nicholson, Max (November 18, 2015). "South Park "Sponsored Content" Review". IGN. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
^ Longo, Chris (November 19, 2015). "South Park: Sponsored Content Review". Den of Geek. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
^ Caffrey, Dan (November 19, 2015). "South Park: "Sponsored Content"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved March 21, 2022.

External links

"Sponsored Content" Full episode at South Park Studios
"Sponsored Content" at
IMDb

[1] Nicholson, Max (November 18, 2015). "South Park "Sponsored Content" Review". IGN. Retrieved November 19, 2015.

[2] Longo, Chris (November 19, 2015). "South Park: Sponsored Content Review". Den of Geek. Retrieved March 21, 2022.

[3] Caffrey, Dan (November 19, 2015). "South Park: "Sponsored Content"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved March 21, 2022.

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v t e South Park episodes
Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Specials
Season 19	"Stunning and Brave" "Where My Country Gone?" "The City Part of Town" "You're Not Yelping" "Safe Space" "Tweek x Craig" "Naughty Ninjas" "Sponsored Content" "Truth and Advertising" "PC Principal Final Justice"