My Future Self n' Me
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| South Park episode | |
| "My Future Self n' Me" | |
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| Episode no. | 95 |
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| Airdate | December 4, 2002 |
| South Park - Season 6 March 6, 2002 – December 11, 2002 |
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| ← Season 5 | Season 7 → |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"My Future Self n' Me" is episode 616 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on December 4, 2002.
[edit] Plot
The kids find some marijuana on the playground left there by an older kid. They are afraid of it, but know that they must dispose of it. Stan chooses to throw the joint away saying, "It's just a stupid plant that makes you dumb, touching it won't hurt you."
That night, in the middle of a thunderstorm, an older version of Stan appears at the Marsh family's door. Somehow, apparently in the future Stan is thrown back in time. This future Stan is in very poor condition, as apparently Stan's life has been a complete failure. He spent time in Juvenile Hall, used large amounts of drugs and alcohol, and his descent all began when he first touched marijuana. He is told that the only way to save his future self is for his present self to avoid drugs and alcohol, do well in school, and stay motivated in life.
Soon, Stan finds out that other "future selves" have arrived, including an adult version of Butters. It seems that all the future people have made serious mistakes in their childhood which has caused them to become failures.
Stan finds the whole situation suspicious, and tries to trick his future self by posing questions that only he would know, and as well, pretending to remove his own hand with a cleaver (at which point Stan's parents quickly slice off the "future" Stan's hand, find it was a trick, and quickly try to show that it never happened (by holding the man's hand up to its original position.)). Ultimately it is revealed that the parents had hired the future selves from "Motivation Corp.", an agency which specializes in using underhanded tactics to scare children from doing drugs. Stan and Butters then find an ad in the paper entitled "Parental Revenge Agency" which they later find out is owned and operated by Cartman and specializes in smearing the walls of the victim's house in human feces. Butters pays for his services, while Stan is more skeptical.
Stan's attempts to get the truth out of his parents fail, while the Parental Revenge Agency does its job. The Stotchs and Marshes then all admit what Motivation Corp. does is wrong, and hires Cartman to smear their walls with feces in exchange for freshly baked cookies.
Cartman learns that the whole experience has taught him that he should think about the future and start taking better care of himself. Moments later, a thin and handsome man, claiming to be Cartman's future self, shows up and tells Cartman that this was the turning point in his life. From this day forward he turns his life around, and will become the famous CEO of a time-traveling company. Cartman is not convinced, believing it to be yet another Motivation Corp. actor and changes his mind, vowing to redouble his slovenly ways. Unfortunately, the man really is Cartman's future self and subsequently changes into a fat, forgotten mechanic.
[edit] Trivia
- The electric storm during the time travel is a reference to the movie The Terminator.
- Matt and Trey's inspiration for the episode came from public service announcements that made the claim to the effect of "If you smoke pot, you fund terrorists." Enraged by such propaganda, they decided to spoof it.
- As he walks away from his future self, Cartman yells "Whatever! I do what I want!" -- a throwback to its use in Freak Strike.
- When Stan asks Cartman just whose parent's he's gotten back at, Cartman references previous episode The Wacky Molestation Adventure, "And Kyle's parents but that one was a freebie."
- Butters reveals his secret identity to Stan. However, Stan thinks that his revelation is that he is gay.
- One other way of getting payback at Stan's parents that Cartman offered was to trick them out, kill them, chop them up, and feed them to the dog. This is a reference to Scott Tenorman Must Die.
- In the original trailer, which ran all the way up until the episode aired, the future-version of Stan looked and sounded remarkably like Stan, implying that perhaps in the original episode (or in an attempt to fool the audience) future Stan was truly Stan from the future, rather than the fat stoner-sounding actor which ended up in the final cut. Butters' future self did, however, resemble him in appearance and voice.
- Stan's mother said in a previous episode "Fun with Veal" that she would never betray Stan because of fear of being haunted, but in this episode, she did lie, and even went as far as mutilating their actor when Stan pretended to chop his hand off.
| Preceded by: "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" |
South Park episodes | Followed by: "Red Sleigh Down" |
