South Park Season 23 Episode 22: Band in China Review

South Park’s “Mexican Joker” opened the 23rd Season with ICE, immigration, Randy and Tegridy Farms reclaiming the marijuana market ala The Godfather. This second episode, “Band in China,” continues Randy’s quest to make cash with a tegridy that is becoming questionable as time progresses.

Beware of spoilers ahead!

“Band in China” continues with Randy’s interest to make more money at the cost of his family’s interests. It’s becoming clear that this isn’t a Randy episode as the previous episode: this season will be a Randy season.

Randy wants more business, so he goes to China to make some business. However, he is neglecting the needs of his family in the form of Stan performing death metal at the local Autumn Fest; Stan sings about how he wants to go away from the farm and gets the attention of a record company guy. He will help Stan’s band, Crimson Dawn, make lots of money but with a catch: they have to be like Hollywood and make biopic movies to please the Chinese audience.

Disney is not spared because they are viewed as complicit in producing their various projects in collaboration with the Chinese government. The clearest example is also the simplest: Winnie the Pooh is censored in China because of Chinese memes comparing him with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Mickey Mouse returns and in convinced by Randy to promote marijuana to him but fails because of Pooh. Randy solves their problems by murdering Pooh while Piglet watches in horror.

As Kyle and Cartman return from the ICE detention camp, Crimson Dawn realizes that in order to be great they have to be “vanilla and cheesy.” Hence, their old band Fingerbang reunites to make a successful biopic about themselves. But Stan quits because he does not want to be complicit to the entertainment industry’s indifference and collaboration with Chinese censorship. Does this mean that Stan has Randy’s tegridy or a different kind of tegridy?

The themes this time are censorship rules in China and how the American entertainment industry becomes submissive to Chinese censorship in order to make huge revenues. South Park also lampoons on social entertainment norms; biopics are what make money now and not the traditional ways of making income (e.g. making an album and touring). South Park even mentions that the PC Babies are also complicit and collaborate with the Chinese government even though they “cry about everything.”

Does this mean that we will have other hot topics involving Randy and his Tegridy? Will Stan be a success at getting out of the farm that he hates so much? I have a feeling that President Garrison may debut this season in the near future. I know, it’s unrelated to the previous sentences but it may be connected to a big topic.