Top 5 moments from South Park Season 22, Episode 9, Fulfillment
By Josh Tyler
In the penultimate episode of the season, South Park takes aim at our society’s reliance on Amazon as well as the company’s sketchy track record of employee treatment. How well did Fulfillment fulfill our desire for great comedy?
This season of South Park has been consistently strong, going back to the show’s roots of parody and allegory of current trends. Now, the show takes on perhaps the strongest entity in the world: Amazon.
The episode opens by showing us that more and more residents of South Park are being forced to take jobs at the Amazon fulfillment center – including Mr. Stotch, Mr. and Mrs. Tweek, and even Mr. Slave – as the behemoth forces out smaller, local companies.
Meanwhile, the four boys decide that they will take part in the local bike parade after making fun of their regular punching bag Butters when he proclaims he is going to win. Although the four are initially against it, Cartman points out that the group has not really done anything together recently (Stan moved away to Tegridy Farms, Cartman has anxiety, no one really talks to Kenny, and then there’s just Kyle). The gang decides that, for old times sake, they will rock the parade together.
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Meanwhile, an accident at the Amazon fulfillment plant causes the workers to go on strike for better conditions. This leads to the town becoming “unfulfilled” as they tragically wait for their Amazon orders to arrive. In a classic montage, members of the community sadly walk out to their porches every morning, seeing no boxes with the Amazon smile on the front.
Without Amazon, the boys are forced to remember how they got stuff before they had their every desire delivered within a day or two. Eventually, Cartman is able to recall that back in the day they would go to the mall, which is now a decrepit, run-down relic (though still playing 2000s pop hits on the loudspeaker). The mall is also populated by a race of light-fearing mole-people.
The workers accost the boys, trying to sell them some of the kitschy crap that’s only available in malls – but lacking the specific items the boys want. Realizing that these workers could be working at Amazon, they formulate an idea: negotiating with Jeff Bezos to get their stuff before all others in exchange for these new workers.
The episode ends as Bezos, having just learned about the coming bike parade, watching as Butters dresses up his bike. Meanwhile, the workers prepare to hold any scabs who might join Mr. Stotch – who broke to work and crossed the picket line to get items for Butters’ bike – setting up a climactic showdown for the season finale.
This episode was considerably weaker than the rest this season. The clash of needing fulfillment at the expense of workers going against the rights of those workers, coupled with market inefficiencies (the malls still employing those mole-people for some reason) is an interesting premise, but the jokes fall flat. Five moments from the episode stood out above the rest though.