Die Hippie, Die

Template:Infobox South Park episode "Die Hippie, Die" is an episode of the popular Comedy Central series South Park. It is the second episode aired in the ninth season, and originally aired on March 16, 2005. Excerpts from this episode can be viewed here.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler The town of South Park is invaded by hippies, who start a music festival that threatens to destroy the town. They manage to convert Stan, Kyle and Kenny to their cause with talks of corporate evils, and the trio get caught up in the massive hippie crowd, who spend their time listening to jam band music and doing drugs. Meanwhile, Cartman does whatever he can to save the town from the hippies, a foe he has feared and hated for most of the series. He is initially jailed. In the end, Cartman, with the help of a scientist (Stan's Dad), an engineer (Butters' Mom), and "a black man to sacrifice himself in case anything goes wrong" (Chef), builds a giant drill to bore through the hippie crowd and upload a Slayer CD, because "hippies can't stand death metal". Cartman receives a Tonka radio controlled bulldozer for his efforts and a promise from Kyle's mother that Kyle will never have one and that he has to watch Cartman having fun with his in the school parking lot.

Hippie JamFest '05

The festival devolves into what is essentially an excuse to take recreational drugs and party. Similar criticisms of the precedence of drugs and partying rather than the intended environment of music and activism have been levied at other jam band festivals, such as Bonnaroo, Reggae on the River, and Burning Man. Somewhat negative, though arguably loving caricatures of bands such as Phish and the Polyphonic Spree are the main stage headliners of this festival.

The Ward Churchill Controversy and Die, Hippie, Die

It is noteworthy that the college student neo-hippies are students at the University of Colorado at Boulder and make numerous references to "little Eichmanns" a term originally used by CU-Boulder professor Ward Churchill in reference to civilian casualities of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. At the time of the original airing of the episode Churchill had been at the center of a minor media frenzy due to the intervention of Fox News Channel program The O'Reilly Factor in a dispute over academic freedom and freedom of surrounding Churchill's scheduled speaking engagement at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.

Trivia and Goofs

• Live 8, the world wide concert that aimed to eliminate poverty in early 2005, can also be named as an inspiration for this episode. (Like Live 8, the hippy's concert to show the corporations that they don't need them failed to reach its aims).
• The drill constructed by Cartman reach the center of the music festival is a parody on the film style of the Bruckheimer/Bay producer/director team, noticably the movies The Core and Armageddon. Most notable similarities beside having to drill to save the town (world) are the mayor (government) wanting to nuke as soon as the drilling was put to a halt, Chef (Lev) climbing outside the Drill (Armadillo) to restore power as well as the music and the astronaut suits. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have frequently made critical remarks about the quality of this particular film-making team.
• Much of the music in the episode is a parody of that featured in Armageddon, most notably the introduction theme played when the drill is first seen.
• Also, this episode brought in some characters neglected in recent seasons, such as Officer Barbrady, Chef, and the Mayor.
• Randy and Sharon Marsh couldn't possible have been at the original Woodstock Festival, or at least not at the age the Flashback shows them. Both are supposed to be at the beginning of their thirties and to be at woodstock at the age of 20 they would have to be going into their fifties when the episode portrays them.
• This episode proves that Mayor McDaniels has very little or even no brain at all.
• The scene when Gerald Broflovski looks out his door to see droves of Hippies going to the concert is a parody of the typical zombie movie image.
• Cartman's method to get rid of the hippies has similarities to Mars Attacks! and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
• The Slayer song used to drive the hippies away is "Raining Blood" from their Album Reign in Blood.
• There is a reference to Monty Python's Flying Circus with one of the stalls at the hippie jam fesitval having a banner saying "Save the Larch". This could be seen as a reference to the recognising different trees sketch as well as to The Lumberjack Song where the Larch tree is mentioned (both Trey Parker and Matt Stone are big fans of Monty Python's Flying Circus).
• There are many references to the original Ghostbusters in this film. Cartman's outift is the same shade as the uniforms from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon series. When dealt with, the hippies are held underground. When they are released because of a government official, Officer Barbrady in place of the EPA officer, the town is nearly destroyed.