You Have 0 Friends

"You Have 0 Friends"

"You Have 0 Friends" is the fourth episode of the fourteenth season of the animated television series South Park, and the 199th episode of the series overall. It aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 7, 2010. The episode references Facebook, the 1982 Disney movie Tron and the CNBC series Mad Money.

Plot

At Kyle's house, he, Cartman and Kenny are using Facebook. When Stan comes in, the three surprise him with his very own Facebook account. Stan protests, saying that he does not want to be a Facebook member and get "sucked into it," but Kyle replies that there are many things one can do on Facebook and that everyone should have at least one Facebook friend. Cartman joins in, warning Stan he will end up like a kid named Kip Drordy, a Facebook member who has had his account for six months and has no friends. Kyle starts to pity Kip, while Stan leaves to play Xbox and dismisses them as "retarded." The scene then cuts to Kip (who the episode frequently cuts out to), who is joyful at the prospect of having a friend.

While Stan is at home doing homework, his father Randy informs him that he knows he has a Facebook account and asks Stan if he will add him as friend. Stan initially says he will not bother with his account, but eventually gets annoyed by Randy's requests to add him as a friend and eventually uses his account and adds him as a friend. Meanwhile, Kyle notices that his number of friends on Facebook is drastically decreasing. Stan starts having to tamper with his account because of continuous disturbances, including Wendy being mad at him for having his status as "Single", people getting mad at him for ignoring their friend requests and asking for "pokes", and being begged by Kyle to fertilize his crops on Farm Town due to Kyle's lack of friends, and eventually he ends up with 845,000 friends. He finally gets fed up with Facebook and tries to delete his account, but Facebook will not let him and he is literally sucked into a virtual Facebook world through his webcam.

Meanwhile, wanting more friends, Kyle seeks advice from Cartman, after seeing his Facebook friend advice podcast Mad Friends, and Cartman introduces him to Chatroulette where he tries to get friends. Meanwhile, in the virtual Facebook world, Stan is brought to a "gaming arena" and is forced to play Yahtzee with another player, which he wins immediately, causing the loser to be derezzed. When the gamemaster tells him he was not supposed to survive, Stan escapes from the arena and into the Facebook world, where he finds Kyle's Farm Town farm, and asks him what his status is. He is informed by Kyle that he is hosting an online chat party at Café World, where he encounters his profile, who is more powerful by the numerous friends as Stan faces his profile off at a game of Yahtzee, which Stan wins with his Profile derezzed as Stan and finds his now has no friends. Meanwhile, Kyle, fed up with his friends deserting him, deletes Kip as a friend, who is saddened until he ends up with all of Stan's facebook friends in a rare happy ending.

Cultural references

The episode prominently features several aspects of the online website Facebook, including the Facebook games Farm Town, Café World and a digital version of the Milton Bradley game Yahtzee. Also, many aspects of the virtual Facebook world Stan gets sucked into in the episode parody the film Tron. The episode also features the website ChatRoulette, as well as the fact that many men use their webcams to show their genitalia. Cartman's podcast, Mad Friends, is a parody of a segment from the financial show Mad Money on CNBC. The restaurant Casa Bonita, previously referenced in the episode "Casa Bonita", is mentioned by Cartman in his podcast.

Kenny connects to the internet with a computer provided through the One Laptop per Child program.

On both Stan's and Kyle's Facebook page you can see that their birthdays are October 19 and May 26, they both correspond with Trey and Matt's real birthday respectively.

When Stan attempts to delete his profile, it responds "I'm afraid I can't let you do that Stan Marsh" and the webcam is shown up close. This is a reference to HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey

Reception

Reviews of the episode were generally positive. "The half-hour was shrewdly precise in its targets: The older audience that communes on Facebook (such as parents and grandparents) as well as lonely kids; as usual, South Park is merciless when it smells a baby-boomer-adopted trend," writes Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly. "All in all, one of the better South Parks of the new season, don't you think?"

Meanwhile, game review site IGN rated the episode a 9 out of 10, considered "outstanding." IGN's Ramsey Isler said "It's brilliant from beginning to end, and one of the best episodes the series has served up in a while."

TV Fanatic, however, complained that there was "too much Facebook" in the episode, saying "it was a great parody, but just a decent episode that could have had more LOL moments."

External links

• Episode guide at Southparkstudios.com
• Episode guide at Southparkstudios.co.uk