OPPOSE BUSHY: South Park: Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes - TV Tome



Thursday, May 26, 2005

South Park: Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes - TV Tome

South Park: Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes - TV Tome
Cartman bets Kyle $5 that you crap your pants when you die. The town is abuzz; the new Wall-Mart store is having its grand opening. The building is built on the space where Stark's Pond used to be. The doors open and inside we find Grandpa Marsh employed as the greeter and Jimmy help with the carts. There are bargains galore everywhere; Cartman is delighted that he can get 3 copies of "Timecop" for $18. Stan asks his dad why Wall-Mart is able to sell stuff so cheap, his dad says he doesn't know, but he knows he loves it. Later that night Randy Marsh has become obsessed with the store, he goes there late at night hoping to get him some bargains, but finds there are many other people there with the same idea. Kyle doesn't want to go to Wall-Mart but finds out that that Jim's Drug Story has to close down because it can't compete. Cartman, of course is on the side of Wall-Mart. The boys go to the town's Main Street, but find that it is all boarded up and looking much like a ghost town. Stan wants to tell his parents about what is happening to their town. When he returns home he finds his dad is wiped out after a marathon shopping at Wall-Mart. The citizens gather together to confront the manager and tell him they want him to close their store. The manager tells them that it is out of his hands, the store has taken over his life. He gives them a message to meet him out back in 5 minutes, but before that happens the manager commits suicide by hanging himself and as his last act, craps his pants, much to Cartman's delight, Kyle now owes him $5.

The whole town has agreed to not shop at Wall-Mart anymore; but the Marsh family goes to the store and find that everyone is still there doing their shopping. They try to come up with a plan to stop the evil that is the Wall-Mart store and Kyle tells them that it only takes self-control to stop shopping there. The town instead decides to burn the store down; but that doesn't stop the store from getting itself rebuilt. Kyle gets Stan and Kenny to accompany him to Arkansas so they can put a stop to the store. The store reaches out to Cartman, who accompanies the boys on their journey. Kyle knows that Cartman is only coming with them to try stopping their effort to get the store closed. They can't find help at corporate headquarters, but they find one of the founding executives at nearby bar. He tells them the corporation's history and tells them about the store's heart, which is located near the television section. The boys leave and the executive kills himself, and to Cartman's delight he craps his pants; Kyle now owes him $10.

The boys return to town, with the intention of destroying the stores heart and Cartman tries to stop them, much as Kyle knew he would. They battle the store's ever lowering bargains on their way to the television department. They finally make it there and they meet the store in one its many forms. Kyle and Stan look in a mirror at the back of the television department and see their own reflection. It is just possible that we (the consumer's desire) are responsible for making Wall-Mart such a success. The boys decide to break the mirror anyway and the store begins to implode. They all escape as the store craps itself as a last act. The townspeople decide to begin supporting Jim's Drug in earnest, until they make it too much of a success and the cycle repeats itself.