White People Renovating Houses
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Episode 1
| "White People Renovating Houses" | |
|---|---|
| South Park episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 21 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | Trey Parker |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Featured music | "Humble" by Kendrick Lamar |
| Production code | 2101 |
| Original air date | September 13, 2017 |
"White People Renovating Houses" is the first episode in the twenty-first season of the American animated television series South Park. It is the 278th episode of the series overall, and first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on September 13, 2017.
The episode parodied the use of smart speakers, such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple Siri, and the use of Confederate flags in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
Eric Cartman and his classmates play with an Amazon Echo Smart speaker, giving it instructions that include profanity, and laugh when the device repeats the inappropriate language. Cartman immediately becomes depressed when his girlfriend Heidi Turner appears and interrupts their laughter, and she in turn becomes frustrated when he refuses to express his feelings. Meanwhile, Randy and Sharon Marsh have started a television series titled White People Renovating Houses that features the couple redesigning people's homes. One of their broadcasts is interrupted when a group of men waving torches and Confederate flags are shown in the background protesting smart speakers because they believe the products have left them unemployed. Randy is irritated by their protest, but later decides to help them get jobs in which they serve as replacements for the smart speakers by responding to users' voice commands.
Cartman is dismayed to find his Alexa Echo has been replaced with a human, one who refuses to repeat his inappropriate language. Another man, Darryl Weathers, has accepted the job as Randy's smart speaker, but soon finds the job demeaning and quits. Randy berates him for being closed minded about the future until Darryl reveals his frustration that he cannot knock down the load bearing walls in his house via renovation without his second floor collapsing. Randy offers to prop the ceiling up while knocking down the wall and delights Darryl with his redesign of the house. Cartman finds a pile of abandoned smart speakers in an alley and takes them home. Heidi goes to Cartman's house to apologize for upsetting him, but his mother says she cannot get him to leave his room. He is then shown laughing as the smart speakers comply with his requests. Before Heidi can apologize to him when they arrive at school, he ends their relationship, saying that he cannot tolerate her "abusive" treatment of him, and walks away.