Grounded Vindaloop
| "Grounded Vindaloop" | |
|---|---|
| South Park episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 18 Episode 7 |
| Directed by | Trey Parker |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Production code | 1807 |
| Original air date | November 12, 2014 |
"Grounded Vindaloop" is the seventh episode in the eighteenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 254th episode overall, it was written and directed by series co-creator and co-star Trey Parker. The episode premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on November 12, 2014. The episode lampoons virtual reality headsets including the Oculus Rift using various science-fiction movie references, and customer service call centers.
In school, Butters walks around wearing goggles and headphones, believing he is in a virtual reality (VR) setting of his school, when actually Cartman is playing a joke on him and communicating with him via a walkie-talkie. Butters becomes so convinced that he is in a VR setting that he goes home and punches his father Stephen in the genitals as payback for being grounded, steals a car in the style of Grand Theft Auto, and tries to assault a prostitute but gets stabbed in the process. Butters wakes up in a hospital without his fake VR equipment. Cartman shows up, dressed similarly to Morpheus from The Matrix and, using dialog similar to Total Recall and magic illusions, convinces Butters that he is still trapped in the VR world since Butters took off the equipment outside of Cartman's room, which was the designated access point. The next day, Cartman receives a phone call from an Indian call center employee calling himself Steve, from Oculus Rift's technical support, who tells him that he is actually the one trapped in a VR state. Cartman's mother Liane, walks into Cartman's room and finds him in a catatonic state, hooked up to an Oculus Rift. Though she suggests that he has spent too much time with the device, she leaves his room after putting a meal on his desk.
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