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One young citizen takes it upon himself to maintain order during a time of despair in South Park. "The Coon" rises from the trash and takes his place as a lone vigilante who wipes out crime in the town of South Park. A rival superhero appears on the scene in the form of "Mysterion" and challenges the Coon’s place as a "symbol" for the town. |
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| Originally Aired |
18th March 2009 |
| Guest Starring |
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| Trivia |
- "The Coon" is largely a parody of the recent trend of dark-toned comic book movies. The Dark Knight (2008) and Watchmen (2009) are the most commonly referred to films, but others such as Spider-Man 3 (2007) and The Spirit (2008) are also referenced.
- The music used in "The Coon" is inspired by the style of film scores by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer, both of collaborated on the scores for Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight.
- The Coon uses a gravelly voice similar to that used by Christian Bale in the Batman films, whereas Mysterion has a low voice like that of Rorschach in Watchmen.
- Cartman and Mysterion both refer to themselves as "the symbol this town needs", a line from The Dark Knight, and Cartman encourages Butters to film a video threatening to blow up a hospital, the same as The Joker from a scene in that movie.
- The opening shot of "The Coon" is also inspired by the opening sequence from Watchmen: both start at a close-up of a city sidewalk and zoom out to someone looking down from the top of a tall skyscraper.
- Although Eric Cartman's superhero identity literally comes from the North American mammal, the raccoon, the term "coon" is a well-known ethnic slur against black people.
- The episode makes reference to the election of President Barack Obama, the nation's first African American president, while describing the crime running rampant in South Park: "Then a black man was elected president. He was supposed to change things. He didn't."
- Eric Cartman holds his "Coonicon 2009" convention at the same Airport Hilton where he holds his "ginger pride" event in the episode Ginger Kids and the AIDS benefit in the episode Tonsil Trouble.
- Butters dresses up as Professor Chaos, and Dougie dresses as General Disarray, both of which are the supervillian alter egos they first take on in the sixth season episode Professor Chaos.
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