Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers

"Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers" is the fourth episode of the seventeenth season of South Park, and the 241st episode of the series overall. It premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on October 23, 2013. It was originally scheduled to air October 16, but a power outage that occurred at South Park Studios prevented the episode from being finished in time. The episode satirizes the goth, emo and vampire teen subcultures, and uses plot elements from the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers.^[1]

Plot

Henrietta, the female member of the Goth kids, is informed by her parents that they have been troubled by her behavior for some time, and having heard that they are not the only parents of an emo child, they inform her that they are sending her to Troubled Acres, a two-week camp for at-risk teens with emotional problems, which will teach her responsibility. Despite her irritation at her parents' ignorance of the difference between the emo and Goth subcultures, and her refusal to go to the camp, she is nonetheless sent there. When her male Goth friends, Michael, Pete and Firkle, learn of this they attempt to report her parents to Child Protective Services, claiming that her parents abuse her by calling her an emo, but the case worker fails to see the distinction between emos and Goths, and the Goths' attempt to define the difference only muddles the issue. At Troubled Acres, Henrietta is locked in a cell that is monitored by a security camera. Her only contact with anyone comes when a trapdoor opens on the floor of her cell, and a potted plant is deposited before her, vibrating as if it is alive.

Two weeks later, much to the horror of her friends, Henrietta returns to South Park as an emo, sporting some minor cosmetic changes to her appearance, such as portions of her hair dyed pink, and alterations to some of her accessories. Despite her insistence that she has not changed, she begins associating with the other emo kids. When Henrietta's mother speaks to her, Henrietta still responds in a caustic manner, but because she does not explicitly insult her mother as she used to, her parents see her as having improved. When Michael confronts Henrietta over what the camp did to her, he realizes from her reaction that Troubled Acres is part of a plot to turn the entire world emo, and is himself transported by his father against his will to Troubled Acres. Realizing that Goths are being "body-snatched" by emos, Pete and Firkle attend a meeting of their sworn enemies, the Vampire Kids, who are the one other clique that understands the emos as Goths do, and explain the problem to them. Mike, the lead Vamp Kid, and an adult black male member of the Vamp Kids agree to help, and during a séance, summon the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe, whom both the Vamp Kids and the Goth Kids regard as their spiritual progenitor. Poe thinks little of emos, vampires or goths, dismissing them in the same way that those cliques dismiss each other, but agrees to help Pete and his allies, because he must obey the people who have summoned him.

At Troubled Acres, Michael finds himself tied to a chair in a greenhouse filled with potted plants. He is told by Harold Flanagan, the plants' elderly caretaker, that the plants are the actual emos, and are merely misunderstood sentient beings who invade the bodies of humans with spores. Pete, Mike, the black man and Firkle arrive, but Firkle reveals himself to be emo, and captures the other three at gunpoint, tying them up alongside Michael. The ghost of Poe then intervenes, and when he confronts the large "King Emo" plant, Poe discovers that the plants are just ordinary ficus plants in vibrating pots. A television production crew then appears from hiding, and reveals that Flanagan has been the target of a hidden camera prank TV show called Yes! I'm Scared. The TV host further explains that Troubled Acres and the idea of the plants turning goths and vamp kids into emos were part of the prank, inasmuch as all those cliques are "exactly the same thing", much to the annoyance of Michael, Pete and Mike.

Firkle realizes that the change in clique allegiance he underwent was entirely of his own accord, and when Michael and Pete subsequently tell this to Henrietta, she is overcome with embarrassment. Wishing to spare her feelings, Pete then retracts what he and Michael have just said, and instead tells Henrietta that they have infiltrated the emo lair and destroyed the King Emo plant. Hearing this, Henrietta feigns a reverse transformation, and says that she is her true Goth self once again. When her mother calls her for dinner, Henrietta insults her, indicating things are now back to normal.

Production

"Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers" was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, and was originally scheduled to air on October 16, 2013.^[2] South Park episodes are usually produced in only six days and delivered to Comedy Central just hours before airing. However, on October 15, South Park Studios suffered a power outage, causing the staff's computers to go down during post-production and leaving the episode incomplete, missing its deadline for the first time in the show's 17-season run.^[3] Series co-creator Trey Parker wrote that "it sucks to miss an air date but after all these years of tempting fate by delivering the show last minute, I guess it was bound to happen."^[4] A rerun of the fifth season episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die" (re-rendered in HD) was shown in its place, with live tweets accompanying the broadcast. The episode eventually aired one week later on October 23, 2013.^[5]

The episode's opening title sequence departs from the one used since the beginning of the seventeenth season, as it features the Goth kids as the central characters instead of the series' four main characters, and uses elements from the discontinued title sequence that had previously been used for the series' first three seasons, and a version of the show's theme song with altered lyrics that reflect the Goth kids' bleak outlook.^[1]

Critical reception

The episode received mixed reviews.

Ryan McGee of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C−, saying: "Unfortunately, 'Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers' was a fairly limp episode, one that an extra unexpected week of time apparently could not fix".^[1]

Chris Longo of Den of Geek gave the episode 1 out of 5 stars, opining: "Instead of realizing the tired Emo/Goth storyline is about six years past its expiration date, South Park drudged on to complete its most uninspired episode of the young season."^[6]

Max Nicholson of IGN gave the episode a "Good" score of 7.7/10, declaring that "this week's South Park proved that the goth kids still had enough material for (most of) one more episode."^[7]

References

External links

• "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers". South Park Studios.