South Park: Every Easter Egg & Reference In Post Covid
South Park: Post Covid continues the franchise’s tradition of satirizing pop culture, and here is every easter egg and reference in the latest special. Post Covid is the first of many planned South Park specials for Paramount+, with Part 2 scheduled for release sometime in December. South Park debuted on Comedy Central in 1997 and continues to air on the channel, but creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have also recently created exclusive specials for other streaming services. After great success with “The Pandemic Special” on HBO Max, South Park has moved to Paramount+ in a deal with ViacomCBS to release 14 original specials.
The special jumps 40 years in the future to 2061, with the kids of South Park aging for the first time in 25 years. Following the events of "South ParQ Vaccination Special," the friend group has fallen apart, and Stan Marsh has moved away from South Park to be a whiskey consultant. Stan receives a call from his childhood best friend Kyle Broflovski, who has remained in South Park working on a “counseling online start-up thing,” and who is informed of the death of their childhood friend, Kenny McKormick. Although it has been a longstanding gag to have Kenny die, South Park: Post Covid is a rare instance where his death is taken somewhat seriously. Also returning to town is Eric Cartman, who has converted to Judaism and become a rabbi in Colorado Springs, much to the annoyance of Kyle.
A running gag in the special involves characters repeatedly referencing the changes in society by reminding others that this is how things are now, “because it’s the future.” In South Park’s imagined future, the police have been defunded, leading to crime being normalized in society. Restaurants no longer serve meat, as everyone in the future has collectively decided it was the responsible choice, and many businesses only accept Bitcoin as a currency. Along with gently poking fun at the direction of society, Post Covid also contains the pop culture commentary expected from South Park, which even anticipated Framing Britney back in 2008. The hour-long special uses memorable moments from iconic films for its premise and takes advantage of the special's setting to anticipate the direction of entertainment. Here is every Easter egg and pop culture reference in South Park: Post Covid.
In an early scene showing Stan in his home office, a poster for the film Mad Max 10 is displayed on the wall. This could be as simple as South Park parodying the endless stream of sequels coming out of Hollywood, but what is it specifically that caused them to choose Mad Max? It may be the post-apocalyptic setting of the franchise that is significant. Given the fact that the future of Mad Max 5 is up in the air and the spin-off Mad Max: Furiosa has been delayed to 2024, perhaps it is simply the title of the franchise that is relevant. With the preoccupation businesses and institutions have with adding "Max" to the end of a name in South Park’s imagined future, this could be the primary explanation for the action franchise’s continued success.
Even the battle between streaming services is subject to humor in the special, with all the businesses and institutions of South Park having either “Max” or “Plus” added to their names. This is a reference to the numerous streaming services that have adopted this trend, especially the two which have served as home to South Park’s original specials. The $900 million deal Stone and Parker made with ViacomCBS includes six more seasons for Comedy Central, along with 14 additional South Park projects exclusively for Paramount+. This explains why the town’s elementary school name has been changed to South Park Elementary Plus. The joining of Denny’s and Applebee’s to become Denny's Applebee's Max could also be a reference to the 2019 merger between Viacom and CBS, which resulted in CBS All Access being rebranded as Paramount+.
Adding to the dystopian reference of Mad Max is a repeated recreation of the Geisha Candy advertisement from Blade Runner, first shown on a screen above the Denny's Applebee's Max. A slight variation of the same ad also appears on a screen above the Shady Acres Retirement Community building, which is a skyscraper similar to the one displaying the commercial in Blade Runner. The advertisement in Ridley Scott’s classic sci-fi movie serves as an indicator of Japanese influence in the future society, while Post Covid seems to be using it to indicate the same dystopian feeling depicted in Blade Runner.
The basic premise of the grown children of South Park returning to their hometown after news of a death is similar to the set-up for It: Chapter 2. Similar to the second part of the popular horror franchise, most of the childhood friends from South Park have moved away. Along with Cartman and Stan, Wendy Testaburger returns to town with her husband Darwin, as well as Clyde Donovan and longtime couple Tweek Tweak and Craig Tucker. The biggest difference between the two is the cause of death that brings the friends back to town. While the children are reunited in It: Chapter 2 after the suicide of a character, Kenny’s death in Post Covid is due to the coronavirus. Jimmy Valmer also returns to town a successful comedian, which mirrors the career of adult Richard "Richie" Tozier (Bill Hader) in It: Chapter 2.
Cartman’s conversion to Judaism is easily Post Covid’s most unexpected development in the future, especially given his longstanding propensity for ridiculing Kyle for his Semitic background. Along with returning as a rabbi, Cartman is also a family man who arrives with his three children and a wife named Yentl. Cartman’s wife is likely intended as a reference to the 1983 film, Yentl, which starred Barbra Streisand. Most in South Park are skeptical of Cartman’s sudden change in demeanor, though it remains to be seen if his transformation is sincere or a part of an elaborate ploy to terrorize Kyle.
Audiences were disappointed by the release of Space Jam 2, and apparently so was Matt Stone. While responding to a question for an interview in August (via Bloomberg), Stone said, “If we did an episode right now it would, for sure, be about Space Jam 2.” While Post Covid does not completely fulfill this promise, it does use the Looney Tunes film as an excuse for the future looking so bleak. According to Randy Marsh, “Space Jam 2 came out and we all kinda gave up.”
Jimmy Valmer’s success as a comedian in Post Covid is depicted with his new job as host of a show called Late Night With Jimmy, a clear reference to other late night hosts named Jimmy. Along with a nod to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Jimmy’s future career provides the opportunity for South Park to continue parodying woke culture. South Park mocked Disney+’s The Muppet Show disclaimer in their last pandemic-focused episode, "South ParQ Vaccination Special," imitating an offensive content warning placed before certain episodes of the puppet variety show. There are no actual jokes in Jimmy’s routines, as the political correctness of the future has removed all edginess from comedy.
There are several scenes within Post Covid set in the South Park Mental Asylum Plus, which is holding a character named Victor Chaos. The returning characters discover Chaos was assisting Kenny as a millionaire scientist researching the origins of the coronavirus. The gang discovers that the mental asylum patient may have the answers they need to the mystery behind Kenny's death, mirroring the set-up of The Silence of the Lambs. While the character is never seen in the South Park special, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Victor Chaos is actually Butters Stotch. Given the setup, it would not be surprising to see Buster confined in similar manner to Hannibal Lector when he is finally revealed as Victor Chaos in the second part of South Park: Post Covid.