"You Have 0 Friends" | |
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South Park episode | |
Episode no. | Season 14 Episode 4 |
Directed by | Trey Parker |
Written by | Trey Parker |
Production code | 1404 |
Original air date | April 7, 2010 |
"You Have 0 Friends" is the fourth episode of the 14th season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 199th episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 7, 2010. In the episode, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny make Stan a Facebook profile against his will and he becomes extremely frustrated with everyone asking him for friend requests. After he gets fed up with Facebook, Stan tries to delete his profile but is sucked into a virtual Facebook world. Meanwhile, Kyle starts trying to find ways to get more friends on Facebook after he drastically starts losing them due to his befriending of a third-grade friendless Facebook user, whom everyone considers a loser.
The episode was written and directed by co-creator Trey Parker and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. "You Have 0 Friends" features several references to the popular social networking service Facebook, and Stan's plotline parodies the 1982 Disney film Tron with Stan in the role of Kevin Flynn. The episode also parodies the CNBC series Mad Money, as well as the online chat website Chatroulette, and the social network game FarmVille.
"You Have 0 Friends" has received positive reviews from critics, and according to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was viewed by 3.071 million viewers and became the cable lead in the 18–49 Wednesday night.
Kyle, Cartman and Kenny surprise Stan by creating a Facebook account for him. Stan protests, but is quickly pressured by family and friends to add them as friends. To his annoyance and frustration, Stan finds people such as Randy, his grandmother and even Wendy confronting him over his supposed disregard for them and judging his real-world friendship solely by his Facebook configuration. Meanwhile, Kyle adds shy nerdy student Kip Drordy (anagram: Dorky Drip) to his thriving friends list out of pity. Kyle's number of Facebook friends rapidly declines when he does this, in part due to a Mad Friends podcast he finds Cartman has set up in which he berates Kyle for choosing a loser as a friend and asserts nobody will want to hang out with Kyle. Kyle understands this, but, on principle and out of pity, cannot bring himself to delete Kip to please others. Desperate to stem the loss of friends, he asks Cartman for advice. Cartman introduces Kyle to Chatroulette as a way to make new friends, which fails as most of the people on the site are either jacking off or showing their genitals, until Cartman finally finds another Jewish kid named Isiah, who agrees to be Kyle's friend, much to Kyle's delight.