"Members Only" is the eighth episode in the twentieth season of the American animated television series ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

''. The 275th episode of the series overall, it first aired on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

in the United States on November 16, 2016. The episode, while mostly progressing the season's plot, lampooned

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's rejection of

political correctness ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

during his presidential campaign and parodied a worst-case scenario of a Trump-led presidency.

Plot

The newly elected

Mr. Garrison Herbert Garrison, formerly known as Janet Garrison, Ethan F Garrison, and the President, is a fictional character and occasional antagonist on the American animated television series ''South Park''. The character is voiced by cocreator Trey Pa ...

relishes his newfound authority by getting a

-esque toupée and forcing

PC Principal '' South Park'' is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. The ongoing narrative revolves around five children, Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, Kenny M ...

and other townspeople to perform

fellatio Fellatio (also known as fellation, and in slang as blowjob, BJ, giving head, or sucking off) is an oral sex act involving a person stimulating the penis of another person by using the mouth, throat, or both. Oral stimulation of the scrotum may ...

on him as revenge for doubting him. However, as Denmark prepares to unleash their Troll Trace program worldwide, he is called to

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

to manage the global crisis. Having absolutely no idea what to do, he angrily rebuffs a warning from

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Johnson warns Garrison that the country is collapsing after everybody ate the " mem'burries". Meanwhile, the member berries flood the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

, where their leader, an aged Godfather-like berry, plans to bring back "the real Stormtroopers." Butters suddenly joins

Cartman Eric Theodore Cartman, commonly referred to by his surname Cartman, is a fictional character in the adult animated sitcom ''South Park'', created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. He is voiced by Parker, and is one of the series' four main charact ...

and Heidi Turner at the

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

building, hoping to leave Earth with them. Under the threat of Troll Trace, Butters has reversed his previous attitude toward women to the point where Heidi becomes interested in him, much to Cartman's annoyance. The three are disappointed to find that their desire to leave the planet was only taken metaphorically, as they are instead given a guided tour of the facility led by

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...

. After Musk explains that a Mars rocket is still several years away, he becomes interested in speeding up the process when offered Heidi's assistance. Detained in the Troll Trace building in Denmark,

Gerald Broflovski Gerald and Sheila Broflovski are fictional characters in the animated television series ''South Park''. The two are an upper middle-class married Jewish couple who raise their ten-year-old son Kyle and three-year-old Canadian-born adopted son Ike ...

is given a cell phone by the Troll Trace CEO and is told he can call anybody to help him, although it will end up revealing his identity as Skankhunt42. Gerald calls

Ike Ike or IKE may refer to: People * Ike (given name), a list of people with the name or nickname * Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II and President of the United States Surname ...

and instructs him to continue trolling as Skankhunt42, effectively framing Ike when Sheila catches him. When

Kyle Kyle or Kyles may refer to: Places Canada * Kyle, Saskatchewan, Canada Ireland * Kyle, County Laois * Kyle, County Wexford Scotland * Kyle, Ayrshire, area of Scotland which stretched across parts of modern-day East Ayrshire and South Ayrshir ...

comes home and finds Ike sitting in the timeout corner, Kyle suddenly realizes his father has been the troll all along. He grabs Ike and leaves the house, leaving Sheila bewildered.

Reception

Jesse Schedeen with ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' rated the episode an 8.5 out of 10 and stated that he enjoyed how the episode "cleverly built on recent political events as it shed more light on the Member Berries and their true, horrifying plan for mankind." Jeremy Lambert with 411 Mania rated it a 6.5 out of 10 and noted "Something just feels a bit off from the start of the season to now." Dan Caffrey with ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' rated the episode an A−, and stated that the story "will definitely result in some great—if very, very dark—episodes of ''South Park'' in the future."

References

External links

"Members Only"
Full episode at South Park Studios * {{South Park episodes, 20 Television episodes set in Denmark Internet trolling Parodies of Donald Trump in South Park South Park (season 20) episodes Elon Musk Cultural depictions of Boris Johnson Cultural depictions of Caitlyn Jenner