The Coon

"The Coon"

"The Coon" is the second episode of the thirteenth season of the animated television series South Park. It first aired on March 18, 2009. This episode is a parody of several comics which have vigilantes as protagonists such as: The Dark Knight, The Spirit, Watchmen, and other comics.

Plot

The Coon's shadow.

Cartman becomes a lone vigilante who wipes out crime in South Park. Though Cartman tries to bring talk about The Coon to South Park through word of mouth, nobody seems to care about The Coon's efforts. When he reports crimes to the Police Station, he is threatened to be thrown in jail and snubbed off. During class, Cartman tries to hype up an appearance from The Coon, saying he will be on top of a Walgreens. Cartman as The Coon shows up to the spot to find another superhero (who appears to be a child) that tries and succeeds in taking the Coon's place as the crime stopping icon. The other superhero's name is Mysterion. He actually is appreciated by the citizens and the police, angering Cartman. Butters makes a supervillian appearance as his former alter ego Professor Chaos, with his sidekick General Disarray. A running joke in the episode is the fact that Cartman can't be Mysterion because he's too fat. In return, The Coon's identity is mistaken for Bruce Villanch to South Park residents and not Cartman himself. At the end of the episode, Mysterion unmasks himself. However, it is unknown to the viewer who he really is due to the similar faces that the male children of South Park share. All that is known is that Mysterion is a student in Mr. Garrison's fourth grade class and Cartman correctly guessed who he was earlier in the episode and that he cannot be Kyle Broflovski, who was seen in Mysterion's presence. That leaves the remaining characters as possible Mysterion suspects: Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick, Clyde Donovan and Craig Tucker, all of whom Cartman guessed on the rooftop of Walgreens. Wendy Testaburger mentioned that Mysterion might be a girl, which leaves a possibility for Wendy to be Mysterion. Even though we are left guessing who Mysterion is, The Coon is officially the primary superhero of South Park at the end of the episode, while Mysterion sits in jail for being a vigilante.

Cultural References

• The Dark Knight
  • The Coon has Professor Chaos threaten to blow up a hospital if Mysterion doesn't give up his true identity, similar to what Joker does in The Dark Knight.
  • The Coon and Mysterion talk in raspy voices, similar to how Batman does.
  • The Coon disappears and reappears quickly, just like Batman.
  • The Coon's main theme is that of The Dark Knight.
  • As The Coon seeks Professor Chaos' help in putting an end to Mysterion's deeds, Chaos makes a reference to The Joker, quoting, "Nervous?".
  • Mysterion is forced to take off his mask and show himself, or "bad" things will happen.
  • At the end of the episode, we see that The Coon is riding a tricycle, similar to that of Batman riding his Batpod.
• Watchmen
  • The beginning of the episode zooms out of a newspaper lying in a gutter, much like the smiley face pin was in both the comic and film adaptation of Watchmen.
  • The Coon and Mysterion both utilize inner monologues to narrate their story, using the same style of speech as Rorschach.
  • The Coon seeks to profit from his image, similar to Adrian Veidt.
  • Mysterion removes his mask at the end, similar to Rorschach
  • Both Mysterion and Coon speak like Rorschach.
• The Spirit
  • Both The Coon and Mysterion briefly refer to the city as "she."
  • After a battle with Professor Chaos, Mysterion is presumed dead, but soon springs back to life.
• Spider-Man 3
  • After a battle with Professor Chaos, Mysterion is presumed dead and the news reporter says the same thing about Mysterion as he did about spiderman.
  • The backround looks similar where Professor Chaos and Mysterion fought to that of where Spiderman fought Venom and Sandman.
  • As a civilian, Eric Cartman said he will be on top of Walgreens with his camera to take pictures of his alter-ego, The Coon; just like Peter Parker with Spiderman.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force
  • The Coon hands out T-shirts with "Who is the Coon?" on them, similiar to Master Shake handing out T-shirts with "Who is the Drizzle?" on them in reference to his phony hero persona, the Drizzle, during the season two episode "Super Hero."
• The Silence of the Lambs
  • The storage lot where Professor Chaos keeps his hideout is similar to the storage lot in The Silence of the Lambs, where Clarice finds the severed head as instructed by Hannibal Lecter.
• The news report which features the black man with the gold grill encouraging the crowd to find Mysterion is a direct parody of a viral video on Youtube of a real life news report on leprechaun sightings in Mobile, Alabama.

References

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/220985

External links

• Episode guide at Southparkstudios.com