Band in China/Trivia

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This page contains trivia for "Band in China". Remember, trivia must be factual, provable, and it is always best to cite your source for not-so-obvious trivia. If you would like to dispute a trivia point, please discuss it in the talk page.

Trivia

• The episode's name is a pun on "Banned in China"; as this is the issue that the plot focuses on.
  • Ironically, because of this episode, South Park is now banned from airing in China, with all episodes, clips, and comments being removed from streaming services, social media, and fan sites. Trey Parker and Matt Stone later acknowledged the ban on the South Park Twitter account with a tongue-in-cheek response.
    • However, South Park: The Stick of Truth and South Park: The Fractured But Whole can still be downloaded from the Steam shop in China, and the soundtrack of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut can still be found on some platforms.
  • This episode has been played by Hong Kong protestors across the city in public view.
• The episode premiered on October 2, 2019, the day after the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
• At the beginning of the episode, there is a couple that looks exactly like PC Principal and Strong Woman, the appearance is almost identical, the only difference is the colors.
• The voices of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet were done from a random casting call two days before the episode premiered.
• Winnie Pooh's death after being enticed by the "Hunny" pot trap in an alley is a pun on honey trapping, which is typically the use of an attractive female to entice a male subject for information by creating a false relationship with the subject until the desired information is obtained. It may also be referencing the growing use of female Chinese spies employing honey trapping on foreign intelligence officers and corporate officials.
• The screenshot of the airport in China bears the Chinese words "中国机场" (Zhōngguó jīchǎng), which translates to "China Airport". It does not specify which city the airport is situated in.
  • The parked aircraft appear to be operated by "China Airlines" (which is actually the flag carrier of the Republic of China (Taiwan)), rather than "Air China", the flag carrier of the People's Republic of China.
  • It is not known why there is a need for multiple baggage claim belts to operate for a single flight (given that most of the characters in the screenshot took the same flight with Randy).
• The building where Mickey and Randy try to convince Xi Jinping to sell tegridy is the Great Hall of the People.
  • The screenshot of Beijing's city center shows the Great Hall of the People situated directly opposite of what it appears to be the Tiananmen gate, with Tiananmen Square in between. In reality, the Great Hall of the People is located west of Tiananmen Square, while the gate is north of Tiananmen Square.
• The words spoken by Mickey during the conversation with Xi Jinping worked out to be: "所以你看，真的是一个人，活动销外。我还认为，中国很棒。我的朋友，要送你这些种子，他不是说中国没种，<>。他的意思就一项，真是可笑。" (Suǒyǐ nǐ kàn, zhēn de shì yīgè rén, huódòng xiāo wài. Wǒ hái rènwéi, zhōngguó hěn bàng. Wǒ de péngyǒu, yào sòng nǐ zhèxiē zhǒngzǐ, tā bùshì shuō zhōngguó méi zhǒng. Tā de yìsi jiù yī xiàng, zhēnshi kěxiào.)
• There are 2 baggage tags on Randy's luggage, each likely bearing IATA airport codes.
  • "COL" does not exist, although it may be based on Colorado.
  • "HZK" is the code for Húsavík Airport in Iceland.
• Randy says "Jay shi daa maa Tegridy Weed" - he is trying to say 这是大麻 (zhè shì dàmá, "this is marijuana").
• In the Chinese court, the judges each have "审判长" (shěnpàn zhǎng) written underneath them, simply meaning "presiding judge".
• Stan wears his trademark brown jacket for the first time since "Tegridy Farms".
• Jimmy is shown playing extremely fast double pedals on the drums in Crimson Dawn, although his legs do not function properly. In reality, this is a very difficult technique that often requires years of practice even for able-bodied people.
• Below is a list of video clips that make up the montage towards the end of the episode (in chronological order):
  • A bird-eye view of Hong Kong, seen from Victoria Peak.
  • The Russian Preobrazhensky Independent Commandant's Regiment is shown marching.
  • The Burmese military marching with weapons.
  • A rioting exercise in Tulcea, Romania.
  • A man smoking with a bong in Phongsali, Laos.
  • A man smoking a cigarette in rural Thailand.
  • A mock video of two men in Polish military uniform with riot gear.
  • Protesters throwing Molotov cocktails in Kyiv, Ukraine.
  • Two men smoking with bongs.
  • An old woman smoking a cigarette in Yangon, Myanmar.
  • Riot police with water cannons during a 2013 protest in Ankara, Turkey.
  • A street view in Foshan, China.
  • Parade footage from the 2015 China Victory Day Parade held along Changan Avenue, Beijing, on September 3, 2015 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day of World War II.
  • A wide view of Guangzhou, China.
• This is the first time since Season Four that the boys sang "Fingerbang", but this time without Wendy and Randy.

References to Popular Culture

• Various Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars characters are shown trying to expand their business in China, as a reference to how much money these movies generate from the Chinese film market. They include:
  • Winnie the Pooh
  • Piglet
  • Thor
  • Black Panther
  • Captain America
  • Captain Marvel
  • Iron Man
  • Beast
  • Peter Pan
  • Snow White
  • Captain Hook
  • Queen of Hearts
  • Jack Sparrow
  • Elsa
  • Buzz Lightyear
  • Genie
  • Jafar
  • Jasmine
  • Kylo Ren
  • a First Order Stormtrooper
• NBA players LeBron James, Will Barton, and James Harden can be seen on the airplane. This is a reference to the sport of basketball gaining popularity in China, with well established NBA players often playing exhibition games or running basketball camps in the country during the offseason or after retirement.
  • Interestingly, this episode airs shortly after The Morey Incident, which causes the NBA to be removed from TV broadcasts in China.
• When Mickey hears that Randy comes from South Park, he believes it to be a rival film industry and asks if he owns it yet. This is a reference to Disney's various acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Hulu, and most recently 21st Century Fox, which have made the Walt Disney Company very powerful and influential and how one day they will likely buy every single company, both domestic and foreign on the planet (like BNL in WALL·E, ironically a Disney and Pixar movie) and either take over the world or just the entire industrial world. This is something that the company has been widely criticized for.
  • Interestingly, when Matt and Trey pitched the series to Fox Network (which 20th Century Fox was part of before 20th Century Fox was sold to Disney), the three men discussed with executives from 20th Century Fox Television and Fox Network in order to get the show off the ground. However, the trio later said that the executives passed on the series, after not being fond of the show having to include a talking poo character and thought that the adult animated sitcom should be revolved around a family rather than children in order to be successful.
• The episode mentions how the Chinese government banned Winnie the Pooh in 2018 due to unfavorable comparisons to Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping, which subsequently led to the film Christopher Robin not receiving a release there.
• Stan's idea of using death metal to vent his frustrations with the current world around him is a considerable reference to the Netflix animated series Aggretsuko, which also features a protagonist character doing the exact same thing.
• The song that Stan and his band play at the autumn festival is "Useless Sacrifice" by Death Decline. The bass and guitar that Kenny and Butters play as well as Stan's posturing are modeled after the ones seen in the music video.
• The song that Stan and the band play in the barn is "Second Skin" by Dying Fetus.
• In Stan's room, real-life board games can be seen on a bookcase including:
  • Nemesis
  • Core Space
  • Gaslands: Refuelled
  • Dune
  • Endeavor: Age of Sail
  • Great Western Trail
  • Meeple Circus
  • AFFLICTION: Salem 1692
• The band was seen performing at Live Aid during their biopic. Similarly, the 2018 Biopic Bohemian Rhapsody features a performance at Live Aid.
• The reference to musician biopics is a reference to recent successes, like Rocketman, Judy, and Bohemian Rhapsody, and several others are in the works.
• The episode as a whole satirizes the Chinese Government and how influential it is on the world as a whole, and how Western companies cater to China's restrictions in order to get access to Chinese markets.
• The Chinese strict standards for any film released in China has a film production team doing anything possible to secure the release, even having Chinese agents give advice and rewrite Stan's movie. This is a reference to just how desperate some studios are willing to go to see that a Chinese release is secured, due to China being the largest market for Hollywood, as well how strict the Chinese censorship board is.
• The death of Winnie the Pooh and Randy's relief from killing him is a reference to the 2007 Coen Brothers film No Country for Old Men.
• The banning of references to the Dalai Lama, Winnie the Pooh, organ trafficking, homosexuality, and a free country that the producer mentions are actual topics that China has banned from being in films released in the country.
• Stan has a Denver Broncos clock in his room.
• Black Panther is always depicted wearing his mask. This is possibly because of stories about Chinese posters for the movie only showing him in a mask because they thought Chinese audiences would not want to watch a movie about a black man. In reality, this only happened in the Hong Kong posters - mainland Chinese posters did show Black Panther's face.[1]

Continuity

• Randy Marsh is still trying to expand his weed selling business Tegridy Farms from the previous episode "Mexican Joker".
  • Kyle and Cartman are also shown returning from the deportation camp they were sent to in the previous episode.
• Randy accused several people on his flight of stealing his idea to generate business from the Chinese similar to how he accused several of his former customers of stealing his idea to grow weed during the previous episode "Mexican Joker".
• Mickey Mouse makes his first physical appearance since Season Sixteen's "Obama Wins!".
• The Spinny Mountain Records producer appears in this episode to help the boys produce their biopic. He was last seen in "Buddha Box".
• The PC Babies and their fame from the episode "Buddha Box" are mentioned.
• The boys' band Fingerbang from "Something You Can Do with Your Finger" reappear in their dream outfits and perform their song.
• Stan has board games in his room, a callback to "Freemium Isn't Free", where he became addicted to freemium games but stopped eventually. This is also shown in "A Boy And A Priest".
• Crimson Dawn is the third group that Stan and Kenny have been in a band together, as they were previously in Fingerbang and Moop.

Goofs

• In the promotional picture for this episode, Butters is seen playing bass with a 4 string Fender Jazz Bass and Kenny plays guitar with a gold Gibson Les Paul. In the episode, Butters is now playing guitar with a white Jackson RR1T Randy Rhoads Flying V guitar while Kenny plays bass with a Warwick 5 string bass.
• The Chinese flag behind Xi Jinping's office has its stars colored white instead of yellow.
• The sign for "Goods to declare" (货物报关, Huòwù bàoguān) is incorrectly placed above a passport control counter.
• List of Chinese words errors:
  • If you look closely at the Chinese words for Baggage Claim (行李提取, Xínglǐ tíqǔ) at the airport, the third character (提) is incomplete, missing a stroke at the bottom.
  • If you look closely at the screenshot of the Chinese customs, the sign for No Phones and No Cameras reads "没有电话" (Méiyǒu diànhuà) and "没有相机" (Méiyǒu xiàngjī). This is not correct as "没有" translates to "don't have".
  • In the sign for "Goods to declare" (货物报关, Huòwù bàoguān), the last character "关" has a missing stroke.
  • Two doors behind the baggage inspectors bear the sign "僅員工" (Jin yuangong) (Staff only). They use Traditional Chinese characters, instead of Simplified Chinese which Mainland China adopts, which in turn should read "仅员工".
  • All cells in the Chinese prison are labeled "细胞" (Xìbāo, lit. Cell). These words refer to a biological unit, rather than a prison cell. The correct translation is “牢房” (Láofáng).
  • A sign placed on the plaintiff's table to the right of the Chinese court has its text mirrored.
  • The tea shop which Winnie the Pooh and Piglet visited bears the signboard "苏伟的药房和..." (Sū wěi di yàofáng hé). There are missing strokes on "苏","的" and "药".
    • While grammatically correct, the word "的" (used to express possession) is almost non-existent in most Chinese signboards.
    • In addition, a sign next to the tea shop reads "没有侵入" (Méiyǒu qīnrù, There is no intrusion). This is also not a correct translation for "No entry".
• The Live Aid performance with Fingerbang is depicted as occurring in 1984 in at Invesco Field in Denver. The actual Live Aid performance took place in 1985 and was split between Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.
• Winnie the Pooh can be seen with teeth, despite having none in his actual incarnation.

Dubbing Changes

International Titles

Language	Title	Translation
Czech	Banda v Číně	Band in China
French	À l'assaut de la Chine	An assault in China
German	Verbannt in China	Banned in China
Hungarian	Kínai banda	Band in China
Italian	Una band in Cina	A band in China
Japanese	中国の大市場 (Chūgoku no dai ichiba)	Chinese Big Market
Polish	Chińskie zagranie	Chinese move