Trapper Keeper (South Park episode)

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This article is about the South Park episode. For the type of loose-leaf paper by Mead, see Trapper Keeper.

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“Trapper Keeper”
South Park episode
Cartman absorbed by the trapper-keeper
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 60
Written by	Trey Parker
Directed by	Trey Parker
Production no.	413
Original airdate	November 15, 2000
Season 4 episodes
South Park - Season 4 April 5, 2000 – December 20, 2000
Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000 The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000 Quintuplets 2000 Timmy 2000 Pip Cartman Joins NAMBLA Cherokee Hair Tampons Chef Goes Nanners Something You Can Do with Your Finger Do the Handicapped Go to Hell? Probably 4th Grade Trapper Keeper Helen Keller! The Musical Fat Camp The Wacky Molestation Adventure A Very Crappy Christmas

← Season 3	Season 5 →
List of South Park episodes

"Trapper Keeper" is episode 60 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on November 15, 2000.

1 Plot
2 Kenny's death
3 Censorship
4 References to pop culture
- 4.1 Political reference
- 4.2 Previous episode references

[edit] Plot

Kyle comes to school with a Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper. He then is joined by Cartman who reveals he has a special, advanced Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper Ultra Keeper Futura S 2000, which has incredibly advanced computerized features including a TV, a music player with voice recognition and the ability to automatically hybrid itself to any electronic peripheral device. He purchased it to make Kyle jealous; around the same time, a mysterious man going by the pseudonym Bill Cosby (who bears no resemblance at all to the real Bill Cosby) appears and begins to ask about Cartman's Trapper Keeper, which he then attempts to steal. He is caught by Officer Barbrady and Cartman, and Officer Barbrady says, "I'm not going to shoot somebody for stealing your school folder", and when "Bill Cosby" is caught, he explains his actions: It seems this binder is destined to gain sentience and hybrid into a supercomputer to conquer the world in the future and wipe out all traces of humanity (or "hu-monity" as Cosby calls it). Cosby himself is a cyborg from the future named BSM-471, sent back in time to destroy the binder before it could rise to power; Cosby manages to destroy it, but Cartman then buys another one, which, according to the laws of time travel, would be the one that is actually destined to destroy the world, and Cartman refuses to allow this one to be destroyed.

Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison has been demoted to a kindergarten teacher, and his class holds an election for class president. Kyle's brother Ike runs against a boy named Filmore, the result being a tie that would be broken by the vote of a little girl named Flora. Unfortunately, she cannot decide who to pick. After she picks, the kids protest about an absent student, then demand recounts, then involve Rosie O'Donnell, who comes to protest that Filmore (her nephew) hasn't won. While this is going on, Stan, Kyle and Kenny have gone with their robotic companion to Cartman's house to convince his mother to help them, but she goes off with Bill Cosby to have sex; Cartman's Trapper Keeper, meanwhile, integrates itself into Cartman's computer and most of his belongings, and then absorbs Cartman himself, becoming a twisted bio-mechanical blob monster in a vaguely Cartman shape. It sets off to Cheyenne Mountain, to absorb a secret military base's (ostensibly NORAD, whose main facility is actually located beneath the mountain) computer that will make it unstoppable.

Kyle sneaks in to the gigantic Cartman-Trapper Keeper through a ventilation pipe, but before he can disable it the creature incapacitates him. Soon Rosie O'Donnell appears and yells at the Trapper Keeper for blocking the road, which leads to much confusion over which one was the amorphous blob. The creature then absorbs her, but it appears infusing with her made Trapper Keeper sick ("Eeeeww...bad pie...bad pie..."). Kyle is freed, and he takes his chance; he disconnects Trapper Keeper's CPU, and the beast returns to its powerless state. The creature's destruction causes Bill Cosby to disappear, as the robot needs not be created in the future to fight it if it is unable to take over the world, therefore he cannot come back in time (see Grandfather paradox). Stan tells Cartman to thank Kyle, who just saved his life, and Cartman starts to just as the episode ends. The credits roll before he can finish, cutting him off at "Kyle..."

As for the kindergarteners, after countless lawyers come in and legal forms and endless meetings, Filmore concedes because "this game is stupid." With Ike as president, the kids decide to go fingerpaint.

In addition to lampooning the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election, the episode also loosely deals with the issues of transhumanism and bioconservatism, with Kyle stating, "Man, I guess sometimes we let our technology and stuff grow too fast...", and Cartman's inability to ever own a Trapper Keeper Ultra Keeper Futura S 2000 for fear of what might happen being a send-up of Bill McKibben/Bill Joy-type proposals for technological relinquishment.

[edit] Kenny's death

Kenny plans enters Cartman's room to capture the Trapper Keeper. The device's mutations slams the door off it's hinges, crushing Kenny into the wall. After he dies, Stan says "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" without interruption, but Kyle just says "You ba-a-a-a-a-a-a!!" before being forced to run out of the house by the ever-growing Trapper Keeper.

[edit] Censorship

In the syndicated version, the brief shot of Mrs. Cartman having sex with the android known as "Bill Cosby" after the assimilated Cartman destroys the house is cut.
In syndication and all reruns of the episode, when "Bill Cosby" fades out of existence, he says "I don't exist. I don't exist." In the original broadcast, the robot is heard to say as he disappears, "Oh God it hurts, it hurts!!!"

[edit] References to pop culture

The Bill Cosby/Trapper Keeper storyline is based on the Terminator movies. Bill Cosby is based on Kyle Reese (even down to some elements of his clothing) and the T-800 with his odd accent, as a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent. A soundalike of the theme from the films plays when Cosby reveals his true nature.
The Trapper Keeper taking over all computer systems around the world is an allusion to Skynet, the manmade computer network that develops a mind of its own in the Terminator series.
When Bill Cosby is telling the story of how in the future Trapper Keeper takes over the world to Officer Barbrady and the boys, Trey Parker sings his own rendition of the Dawson’s Creek theme song.
During the retelling of these future events, other than references to the Terminator movies, some of the war machines also resemble the ED-209 from the Robocop movies, except for the large Dawson’s Creek photo as a torso.
The Cartman-shaped bio-mechanical blob monster is a reference to the anime film Akira as is the fashion in which Rosie O’Donnell is killed. The music playing when the Trapper Keeper moves toward the base resembles the music played when Akira awakens to stop Tetsuo. Rosie O' Donnell is killed the same way Kaori is. The number "Illusion" by Geinoh Yamashirogumi which is a soundtrack of Akira, is also played when Rosie O' Donnell is about to enter Mr. Garrisons kindergarden class.
Kyle must disable the creature Cartman becomes from within its core, which resembles the core of HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kyle even tells Cartman what he’s doing and Cartman responds, “I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Kyle,” which parodies HAL.
When Cartman crashes the police cruiser into Cosby, he says "Book 'em, Barbrady," A reference to the line "Book 'em, Danno," of the show Hawaii Five-O.
After Cartman orders his Trapper Keeper to "initiate music, country, high volume", the opening bars of Your Cheatin' Heart is played.

[edit] Political reference

The kindergarten election storyline is based on the United States Presidential Election of 2000, the results of which were eventually decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. "Flora" represents Florida, the undecided state, and the "Absent Kid" represents the "absentee ballots", those of overseas Americans, which come in later than other ballots. Ike and Filmore running for class President could be a possible reference to two former U.S. Presidents; Millard Filmore and Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower.

[edit] Previous episode references

When "Bill Cosby" asks to be Cartman's friend, Cartman replies that he can't be friends with men over 30, because he "kinda got screwed on that one once," a reference to when he joined NAMBLA. The episode acknowledges that the boys are now in the 4th Grade keeping succinct to the last episode. In the episode Cherokee Hair Tampons, Mr. Garrison loses his job as a result of having tried to solicit sex from Eric Cartman (he wasn't aware of Eric's identity immediately). In the episode 4th Grade, he finally admits his homosexuality and asks to return to his old job. Mr. Mackey and Principle Victoria laugh and say that they "don't hire gay people". However, Mr. Garrison explains in this episode that the school was kind enough to compromise and let him teach the kindergarten class. In the later episode The Death Camp of Tolerance, Mr. Garrison is offered the position of 4th grade teacher, which he accepts.