Go God Go XII

Template:Infobox South Park episode "Go God Go XII" is episode 1013 (#152) of Comedy Central's South Park, which aired on November 8, 2006. The episode is a continuation of the previous episode, "Go God Go".

Plot

File:Future cartman.jpg

Cartman in the future.

In the previous episode, Eric Cartman froze himself in an attempt to make his three-week wait for a Wii pass quickly. A freak accident landed him 540 years in the future—and now he's stuck there. The future is a tumultuous place with warring atheist factions (intentionally ironic because in the previous episode Richard Dawkins mused that without religion the world would be less violent), angry sea otters and no video games.[1]

Plot Summary

Cartman has been trapped in the future for even more time since the end of the previous episode. He is now being held captive by The Sea Otter faction—Allied Atheist Alliance (AAA)— and he tells them he will cooperate with them in exchange for them helping him get the Wii. After helping him obtain one from the abandoned technology museum in New New Hampshire, Cartman manages to warp back to the United Atheist Alliance (UAA) headquarters. The ancient Wii is not compatible with the futuristic Float Screen, and Cartman gives up hope until he and his robotic dog K-10 discover the Crank Prank Time Phone, which allows people to crank call the past. Cartman plans to use it to call himself in the past to convince himself to be patient and wait three weeks for the Wii instead of going through with his plan.

Meanwhile, it is learned that Richard Dawkins was the founder of worldwide atheism, and he —along with Mrs. Garrison, whom he eventually married— maintained that mere logic doesn't work; you must also be "a dick" to others who disagree with you. As a result, atheism split into three factions. The three groups differ on what they perceive to be the answer to the "Great Question," each believing the other groups' answer to the Question is "illogical" and thus unacceptable (the AAA also objects to humans for illogically cutting down trees to make tables, instead of just eating off of their abdomen and ironically reveres Dawkins.). The Otters have set up false clam fields, which the UAA plans to attack, leaving their own city defenseless from a Unified Atheist League (UAL) attack, thus leaving both the UAA and UAL vulnerable to an attack from the AAA. When one Otter—the "Wise One"—asks if the war is truly just, and implies that perhaps it is acceptable to believe in something supernatural and/or paranormal, he is lynched.

Cartman uses the Time Phone to call himself in the past; however, past-Cartman doesn't believe him, dismissing him as Kyle playing a prank. He then tries to call Butters and Kyle to convince both to prevent his past-self from freezing himself. Both attempts fail, and the latter call prevents Kyle from catching a ride, which somehow slightly alters certain aspects of the future (Cartman's clothes change, and his robotic dog turns into robotic cat called Kit-9) which could mean that Kyle had something to do or is the founder of the UAA.

The massive battle between the three atheist groups begins. Cartman goes to the main control hub of the UAA. The war is over "the Great Question", which is revealed to be what atheists should call their respective groups. Kit-9 then tells Eric to call Mrs. Garrison with the Time Phone. He calls her while she is having sex with Dawkins. Dawkins answers and through his conversation with Cartman discovers that Mrs. Garrison in fact used to be a man. Dawkins gets so disgusted and disturbed over the fact he had sex with a transsexual that he immediately leaves. Mrs. Garrison calls him an "atheist faggot" and reverts to her old ways.

With the split between Garrison and Dawkins the future world becomes altered once again. Cartman suddenly finds himself in a room with members of all three factions. In this new version of the future, the three groups are not at war. Paradoxically, the whole world has decided to get rid of of "-isms," because they say though "-isms" are good for people who are rational, in the minds of irrational people they cause violence (ironically, this stance could fall under a philosophy or "-ism"). The leaders reveal that Cartman's purpose has been fulfilled, though neither Cartman nor the viewer learn what that purpose was, and he is returned to his own time.

Cartman is transported back in front of the EV Games and merges with his past self. His mom appears and tells him he needs to be patient in waiting for the Wii. Apparently learning his lesson, Cartman says that he will wait. Cartman then learns that the future inhabitants sent him back slightly too far, to September, changing his initial waiting time of three weeks to two months. Angry once again, he is told by an EV Games employee that there is a call for him inside. He picks it up and on the other line is another future Cartman, pleading with him to not to do what he is thinking (implying he freezes himself once again because he cannot wait two months for the Wii). Cartman assumes it to be a prank call from Kyle, showing that he learned absolutely nothing during his extensive ordeal in the future.

Inaccuracies

• In the previous episode, the otter faction was known as the Allied Atheist Allegiance. In this episode they are referred to as the Allied Atheist Alliance.
• In the beginning of the episode with the Spoofed opening, the narrator says that Cartman is put 500 years into the future, despite the fact that a count of the years shown in the opening starts at 2006 and ends on 2546, a difference of 540 years. This might have been intentional, however, as many sci-fi series don't use exact numbers in their opening monologues, either.

Cultural references

• The opening segment and music—as in the previous episode—is a direct parody of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, right down to the time meter, theme music and logo.
• New New Hampshire was shown similar to Washington D.C. from the dystopian film Logan's Run. The name is a satire on the habit of adding the word 'new' to existing place names to name a new place, a joke already made with "New New York" used in Futurama (as well as "New New Jersey" in the episode Bendin' in the Wind).
• A few of the evolved sea otters are seen in hovering thrones resembling those of the Halo series' Covenant [[High Prophets (Halo)|High Prophets]List of Avatar: The Last Airbender creatures], the Wise One's headdress also resembles that of the High Prophets in Halo 2.
• The weapon that most of the otters wield resembles the Brute Shot, a weapon wielded by the Covenant Brutes from Halo 2 and the M41A Pulse Rifle from the movie Aliens.
• One of the evolved sea otters appears to be wearing a Saiyan Scouter from Dragonball Z.
• The army of ostrich-riding otters, along with the horn-blast music, references the ape cavalry in Planet of the Apes. This is also similar to the Ostrich Horses used by Earthbenders in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• The uniform Eric Cartman is wearing while stealing the prank calling device resembles the uniform worn by the electrical engineers in the futuristic sci-fi movie Brazil (1985).
• The robot dog K-10 reminds of Dr. Who's K-9.
• The background sound used in the future after Cartman breaks up Mrs. Garrison and Richard Dawkins is the background ambience from the holographics room on seaQuest DSV.
• The Crank Prank Time-Phone is made by Zazbro, likely a parody of Hasbro, a real-life toy company.
• The XII at the end of the title might be a refrence to Final Fantasy XII which was relesased a week before this episode.
• When Cartman cries out that he has been sent back too far this reminds of the director's cut of Army of Darkness when Ash (Bruce Campbell) has been sent too far into the future (into a post-apocalyptic wasteland).