South Park – You Have 0 Friends

1. Write a brief summary of the episode you watched.

The name of the episode I watched was “You Have 0 Friends”. It is focused Facebook and people's obsession with acquiring as many “friends” as possible. In the beginning of the episode, the main characters Eric, Stan, Kyle and Kenny are talking about how many friends they have on Facebook. Stan is reluctant to start a Facebook account, but ends up doing so. Kyle adds an unpopular kid to his friends list and he suddenly loses all of his friends. He then goes to Eric for help and he gives him advice as if his friends list was a stock portfolio.

At the end of the show, Stan has amassed almost a million friends and enters into his computer and defeats his profile in a game of Yahtzee. All of his friends are then transferred to the unpopular kid's profile.2. How original was the plot? Can you remember any other show you've seen with a similar plot? Explain your answer.I think the plot was pretty original. The ending was inspired by the move “Tron”, but other than that, it was creative and it helped convey the message.

South Park usually has very original episodes because they are not afraid of offending or making fun of anybody.3. What attitudes and values did the show encourage? Do you personally share or agree with these attitudes and values? Why or why not?This show is about the shallowness of people's relationships with each other and how the meaning of friendship is being lost because of the proliferation of Facebook and other social networking websites. It is showing us how ridiculous it is that we try to amass as many “friends” as possible on Facebook, and how we seem to think that the number of “friends” we have validates our life and creates the illusion that we are important.

Also, it shows how people can get engrossed in the virtual world and forget about their real friends. In the episode, Kyle loses all of his Facebook friends and goes to see his best friend Stan. Kyle tells Stan that he really needs a friend, but the reason he says this is because he wants somebody to fertilize his farm on the game “Farmville”. This shows how the creators of South Park feel that Facebook is destroying the meaning of true friendship.4. Reflect on the cast of characters in the show: Were they only stereotypes? If so, why do you think the writers of the show presented stereotypes to the viewers? If not, why do you think the writers presented unique characters to the viewers?The characters in this show were mostly stereotypes.

There is a fat kid who is mean to everybody, there is a poor kid who is using a cheap old laptop, and there is a nerdy kid who has no friends. I think that the writers presented these stereotypes because they wanted to represent all the different types of people that use Facebook. They also wanted to show that Facebook can be a good thing because when the nerdy kid, Kip Drordy, finally gets his first Facebook friend Kyle and he becomes very happy. 5. Did the show you watch have a “laugh track”? If so, do you think it was necessary to the show? Why or why not?The show did not have a laugh track and I don't think that the show would be made better with the addition of one.

6. Do you think this comedy is appropriate for all age groups? Why or why not?While many episodes of South Park contain inappropriate jokes, the episode “You Have 0 Friends” contains suitable jokes, with the exception of one scene about ChatRoulette. The comedy in South Park is really spectacular because the writers do not censor themselves at all, so this means that the jokes are more raw and more provocative which I really like.7. Write a brief paragraph in which you explain your personal views about the show you watched.

Would you recommend it to anyone? Why or why not? Would this show be suitable for college classroom discussions? Why or why not?I really liked this episode. It really represents what many people feel about the current state of social networking and how it has become increasingly popular in our society. Also, I liked the scene where Eric Cartman parodies the popular American show “Mad Money” because it really shows how our friendships have been reduced to numbers and statistics. I would recommend this episode to anyone because I think it really helps put things in perspective and it makes us think about what we are doing on the internet. I think this episode would be perfect for classroom discussions because it directly relates to the content covered in class and I the overuse of Facebook is a problem that affects a lot of young people.