The City Part of Town

Plot

After being mocked on national television by Jimmy Fallon for Mr. Garrison’s anti-immigration antics, the residents of South Park decide they need a public relations win. Their plan: convince Whole Foods Market to open a store in town.

To pass the company’s strict inspection, Mayor McDaniels and Randy Marsh create a trendy, upscale district called SoDoSoPa, short for “South of Downtown South Park.” They deliberately build it around Kenny McCormick’s rundown house, hoping its “rustic charm” will attract hipsters. SoDoSoPa runs live-action commercials claiming all its new shops and restaurants support the original poor residents, even though no one in Kenny’s family actually works there. The district soon adds middle-class apartments for customers and employees, all while insisting it’s revitalizing the poor families it merely surrounds.

The new development draws customers away from City Wok, the town’s existing Chinese restaurant. Its owner, Mr. Kim, responds by hiring child laborers to cut costs, and Kenny lands a job there. Meanwhile, the Whole Foods representative arrives, and the townspeople put on their best behavior. After a chat with PC Principal, the rep seems impressed.

But when Randy and the others discover Mr. Kim is creating his own gentrified zone called CtPa Town (pronounced “shitty part of town”) and using children as workers, they storm the restaurant and drive the kids out, sparking a massive brawl. The fight stops abruptly when everyone realizes the Whole Foods rep is watching. To their surprise, he likes the town’s energetic effort to impress him and approves the market. The crowd celebrates and disperses, leaving only Kenny and Mr. Kim.

Kim pays Kenny a “child labor wage,” which Kenny uses to buy his sister a doll. He then goes to bed in his room, despite the loud nighttime noise from SoDoSoPa.

The episode closes with a mock commercial showing the citizens happily entering the new Whole Foods Market—only for the camera to reveal it’s actually located in CtPa Town, leaving SoDoSoPa completely deserted.