Video games hold a solid place in pop culture. They’ve influenced everything from movies, to music, to breakfast cereals. There’s also no shortage of video game episodes and references in South Park. So it’s no surprise that when Guitar Hero emerged as one of the most popular and widely appealing franchises in recent times, that South Park would use it as influence for an episode. It’s also no surprise that with the popularity of video games and Guitar Hero on NPP, that “Guitar Queer-O” would make an appearance on our list of favorite South Park episodes.

GUITAR QUEER-O

T-10^th (21 points)
Season 11, episode 13. 166^th episode in the series.
Highest: 1^st by shanon
Also listed by: Slappy (3^rd), Lou (8^th)

“Guitar Queer-O” is the most recently aired episode to make the list. The episode not only lampoons the Guitar Hero phenomenon, but also the “rise and fall” musician story, a common plotline in many movies which was made popular by the old “Behind the Music” VH1 series. While the plot of this episode isn’t strong due to its very common theme, the fact that they’re just playing a video game the whole time, along with the in-jokes and references, are what makes it memorable.

“Guitar Queer-O” opens off with Stan and Kyle playing the game at Stan’s house, with a crowd of their classmates cheering them on. Most of the songs in the episode are right out of Guitar Hero games, with a few pulled from Guitar Hero 3, which was released a little over a week before this episode aired. Stan’s dad Randy asks what all the commotion is about, and Stan’s mom Sharon tell him they’re playing a new game. This leads to a line by her that sums up one of the major complaints against Guitar Hero, “If they spent half the time learning a real instrument as they do playing that game, who knows what they could accomplish.” This idea is alluded to a few more times throughout the episode. It also gives Randy a great idea to try to impress the kids. He shows them his real guitar, and then plays “Carry on my Wayward Son,” the song they were just playing in the game.  Randy thinks this will make him cool, but of course the kids hate it. It’s not a game where you can earn points and beat other people, so to them it’s gay. Randy is confused, since this is real, but unfortunately real guitar is for old people.

Randy is an excellent character, one of the most consistent go-to characters for comedy, and has some of the best parts of this episode. He’s also someone that doesn’t give up. Late at night, we see Randy sneaking down to play the game, maybe thinking that if he plays it, then the kids will think he’s cool. Or maybe he’s just seeing what the big deal is. He starts it up, and gets ready to rock, but fails almost instantly. He’s trying to play the actual song that he knows on guitar, but this shows that being good at guitar and being good at Guitar Hero are very different skills, and he walks away dejected.

When we see the boys again, they manage to break 100,000 points in the game, and this is where the rock star story takes off. The Kinkaid Talent agency (a reference to the Partridge Family’s agent) immediately knocks on the door, and offers to be the boys’ agent. He even gets them a one year record deal, an absurd notion since they’re not actually playing anything. They’re showing here what would happen if the game really did let you become a rock star. They later get to go to a celebrity sex and drugs party, which is filled with comical local Colorado celebrities, such as news anchors and furniture salesmen. They’re references only people from Colorado would recognize, but that’s also part of the joke. Seeing these people makes them think they’ve made it. They do get to meet Jay Cutler, although he’s now a Chicago celebrity.

The rock star story continues with the inevitable breakup. The goal of the “big gig” for the band is that they want to break one million points. Kinkaid tries to get Stan to replace Kyle with a new kid he’s found, Thad. Thad is so good he can play “acoustically,” without the game. He shows off his skills, with other restaurant patrons clapping along, even though it’s just a bunch of clicks, showing the absurdity and irony of being good at the game.

So of course Kyle finds Stan playing with Thad, and they have their breakup. The whole thing is stressful to Stan, so he goes to the store to find a new game to help relax him. The clerk recognizes him for his Guitar Hero skills, so he offers him the game “Heroin Hero.” It’s no secret that some musicians use drugs, so of course a video game musician would be tempted by video game drugs. The purpose of the game is to chase the dragon, a reference to a slang term for using heroin. Stan plays it so much that he gets tired and “grump grouchy,” leading him to have a fight during rehearsal with Thad, where Thad quits.

On the day he’s supposed to have his gig to break a million points, Kinkaid finds Stan OD’ed on Heroin Hero. He’d been up all night playing it, and is now so tired he crashes during his performance and fucks it all up. This is the next part of the rock star story, getting so caught up in the lifestyle that it becomes a problem, and they can’t even do the thing that got them there in the first place. He had it all and he blew it. But of course, this is all in video game terms. They’re taking the joke to the extreme here, which is a South Park trademark. They’ll take a concept and run with it to the wildest levels.

While Stan continued stardom, Kyle was living the other half of the rock star story, left to play Guitar Hero at a bowling alley bar. Stan tries to recover later by getting another game. He turns down the clerk’s offer for “Rehab Hero,” and settles on a simple driving game, wanting to get away from the rock star life. This leads to the hilarious “change of heart redemption scene,” where while Stan is playing he hears “Carry on my Wayward Son” on the radio, and turns the video game car around to go after Kyle. He tries to get the band back together, and while Kyle says he doesn’t need him anymore, it’s Stan that admits he needs Kyle, as it was only fun when they were playing together. They decide to make one last attempt at getting a million points and unlocking superstardom. They of course have to kick Randy off the TV, who’s now become addicted to Heroin Hero. Word spreads quickly throughout the kid world, and a crowd soon gathers to watch them. They finish the song, and manage to get a million points. This is it, their dream come true, the things they’ve worked so hard for. Their reward? Are they superstars? The game tells them:

You have played Guitar Hero enough to
reach one million points! YOU. ARE.

The dejected faces on their video game characters says it all. An instant classic moment in the series.

So what are they saying here? It’s a commentary on not just Guitar Hero, but on video games in general. I don’t think they’re saying that video games are useless, more that playing them that much is pointless. Enjoy them as a break or as a hobby, but don’t let them take over your lives. And yes, while some people do get paid for winning tournaments and competitions, it’s a very small fraction of the people that do play. It’s similar to a kid on a high school football team thinking he’ll be able to go pro and get paid millions. While that is a possibility, he should still be well rounded and explore other things.

But besides the message, there’s a great deal of funny in this episode. Randy is always gold, and South Park is always good at putting a new twist on a parody. An overall solid episode that sits well at tied for tenth on our list.

Watch the full episode here

Also listen to a short commentary by Trey Parker and Matt Stone: