Trapper Keeper
http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com/images/south_park/episode_thumbnails/s04e13_720.jpg?width=285
| Season | s04 |
| Episode | e13 |
| Written By | Trey Parker |
| Production Code | 0413 |
| Original Air Date | 2000-11-15 |
Episode Chronology
- Previous
- Next
Story[edit]
Description[edit]
A grown man who calls himself Bill Cosby shows up on the kids' bus, claiming to be a fourth grader. He shows unusual interest in Cartman's new Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper Ultra Keeper Futura 2000. It turns out he's really a robot from the future, sent back in time to destroy the Trapper Keeper, which will (thanks to its ability to fuse with other electronic systems) take over the world's computers and launch a war of extermination against humanity.
Cartman reluctantly allows his Trapper Keeper to be destroyed, but then gets his mother to buy another one. It promptly merges with Cartman and becomes a grotesque human/robot hybrid bent on controlling the world. Kyle enters the creature and tries to disable its CPU. He gets some unlikely assistance from Rosie O'Donnell, who makes the creature ill when it consumes her. Kyle manages to deactivate the Trapper Keeper, which disintegrates into a mound of goo. Rosie O'Donnell dies, as does the robot Bill Cosby, who winks out of existence when the timeline changes. Cartman, not surprisingly, survives.
What I Learned Today[edit]
"Man, I guess sometimes we let our technology and stuff grow too fast."
Memorable Quotes[edit]
- "Dude, you can't just ask to be somebody's friend and be their friend. It doesn't work that way. If you want to be my friend, you'll have to pay me." Cartman
- "So what are you going to do with your crappy robot life now, Bill Cosby?" Stan
- "Kiss your ass goodbye, fat boy!" Stan
- "Ooh. Bad pie. Bad pie." (Trapper Keeper)
- "I pooped my pants." Ike
- "Mrs. Crabtree! There's another creepy homeless guy on the bus!" Stan
- "Damn. I thought 4th grade was gonna be different " Kyle
- "Do you want my heart as well?! You'll find it on the bottom of your shoes." Cartman
- "Oh Jesus tap dancing Christ " Mr. Garrison
- "Man... I guess sometimes we let our technology and stuff grow too fast... " Kyle
Characters[edit]
Kyle Broflovski
Eric Cartman
Kenny McCormick
Veronica Crabtree
Bill Cosby (android)
Herbert Garrison
Liane Cartman
Rosie O'Donnell
Jesse Jackson
Ike Broflovski
Officer Barbrady
Character Debuts[edit]
We meet Mr. Garrison's entire kindergarten class, who appear in several future episodes including "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", "Proper Condom Use", and "It Hits the Fan".
Filmore Anderson
Billy Harris
Body Count[edit]
Kenny, smashed against a wall by the Trapper Keeper. Also Rosie O'Donnell and a guard at the military base are eaten alive by the carnivorous Trapper Keeper monster.
Locations[edit]
Behind The Scenes[edit]
Where Did The Idea Come From[edit]
The show's subplot, in which Ike runs for kindergarten class president, is a commentary on the contested 2000 presidential election. Everything comes down to a girl named Flora, whose ballot is so illegible that Mr. Garrison can't make out who she voted for, "Flora" sounds an awful lot like "Florida."
Pop Culture References[edit]
Shout Outs[edit]
The hideous Cartman/Trapper Keeper hybrid is an homage to a similar biomechanical creature in the Japanese anime classic Akira.
Also Kyle's attempt to deactivate the hybrid by entering and disabling its CPU mimics the scene in which Bowman deactivates HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
There are a number of references to the TV drama Dawson's Creek, of which both Kyle and Cartman are apparently huge fans. Pictures of the cast can be seen on their Trapper Keepers, as well as in the hellish, apocalyptic vision of the future. Cartman also sings the theme song to the show "I Don't Wanna Wait". He will sing this happy tune again while bludgeoning a Colonial messenger to death in "I'm A Little Bit Country".
The plot of this episode draws directly from The Terminator. Furthermore, Bill Cosby's clothing is reminiscent of the film's main character, Kyle Reese, while his accent (and the fact that he's a robot) are parodies of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Pwn'd[edit]
Rosie O'Donnell, who plays the aunt of Filmore, the kid running against Ike for kindergarten class president. Onlookers repeatedly confuse her with the hideously fleshy and bulbous Cartman/Trapper Keeper hybrid. Also, during the class president controversy, Jesse Jackson briefly appears, then just as quickly vanishes when informed that no African American children were involved.
Bill Cosby. His name is adopted by the humanoid robot from the future.
Bonus Factoids[edit]
Pointless Observations[edit]
We saw Ike reading Steinbeck novels in "Do The Handicapped Go to Hell?", but we learn here that he's truly "some kind of genius".
When Bill Cosby asks to be his friend, Cartman responds, "I'm not supposed to have male friends that are over thirty. I kind of got screwed on that once." He's referring to when he unwittingly became a poster child for the North American Man Boy Love Association in "Cartman Joins NAMBLA".
It's the second time Cartman's house has been destroyed by alien life forms. The first being by Starvin' Marvin's space ship in "Starvin' Marvin in Space".
A few episodes earlier, Cartman saves Kyle's life with a kidney transplant in "Cherokee Hair Tampons". Here, Kyle returns the favor by saving Cartman's life.
Season 4[edit]
- e1 Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000
- e2 The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000
- e3 Quintuplets 2000
- e4 Timmy 2000
- e5 Pip
- e6 Cartman Joins NAMBLA
- e7 Cherokee Hair Tampons
- e8 Chef Goes Nanners
- e9 Something You Can Do With Your Finger
- e10 Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?
- e11 Probably
- e12 Fourth Grade
- e13 Trapper Keeper
- e14 Helen Keller! The Musical
- e15 Fat Camp
- e16 The Wacky Molestation Adventure
- e17 A Very Crappy Christmas