Guitar Queer-O

"Guitar Queer-O"

Guitar Queer-o is episode 1113 (#166) of Comedy Central's South Park, which aired on November 7, 2007. The title and plot parody the video game Guitar Hero.

Plot

Obsessed with the Xbox 360 video game Guitar Hero II, Stan and Kyle make a great team and score record points when they play. Stan realizes he has the potential for enormous success if he plays with another partner. He and Kyle break up, but without his friend, Stan quickly folds under the pressure of being a rock star. The episode ends with Stan and Kyle reuniting, and returning to Stan's house to try to reach their goal of scoring a million points. After Stan kicks his dad Randy off the couch, who had been playing Heroin Hero, the two begin to play Guitar Hero, soon after other South Park kids come and watch them, and the two reach their goal of scoring a million points. At which point, the game congratulates them on scoring a million points, and puts a message up saying, "You are Fags!"

Cultural references

• The songs featured in the show are "Carry On My Wayward Son" by Kansas, "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones, "John the Fisherman" by Primus, "Surrender" by Cheap Trick, "Pretty Vacant" by Sex Pistols, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison, "Woman" by Wolfmother, and "I Remember You" by Skid Row. A brief reference is made to "Jordan" by Buckethead.
• The band manager who appears to Kyle and Stan is named Mr. Kincaid, this is a reference to Reuben Kincaid, the band manager of The Partridge Family.
• Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler makes a brief appearance. The boys tell him he kinda sucks, but that Stan's dad says he might be good someday.
• Numerous other Colorado in-references are present during the celebrity party. There are references to Tom Shane from the Denver-based Shane Company and Jake Jabs from American Furniture Warehouse, as well as Ron Zappolo, a local news caster.
• The song playing on the radio when Stan is playing the driving game is "You and Me, Girl", sung by his father, Randy in the episode Spontaneous Combustion.
• A KFC bucket is seen next to Stans father while he is playing "Heroin Hero" another possible Buckethead reference.
• The video game "Heroin Hero" is a reference to the phrase chasing the dragon, meaning to inhale the vapors of heated heroin.
• The record producer in the episode is a clear take-off of the character of the Colonel James in the movie Boogie Nights, whose wardrobe and physical appearance are almost exactly the same as the character here.
• Thad's song as he parts ways with Stan ("I quit...") is a reference to the 1996 film That Thing You Do!, in which Johnathon Schaech's character quits the band in a similar way.
• The X-Box in the episode looks like a white Playstation 2.
• Randy Marsh's amp is a "VAUX" which is a parody of the VOX brand of amplifiers.
• The Guitar Hero arcade cabinet looks very similar to the Guitar Freaks cabinet.
• Numerous copies of the game Okami are seen in the video game store Stan visits.
• Stan Enters a store called "EV Games", A Parodying of EB Games, which was also seen in the Go God Go episode.

Trivia

• Guitar Hero 3 was released 10 days before the airing of this episode.
• This episode satirizes Guitar Hero and also video games systems like the Nintendo Wii, that have become so popular forms of virtual reality, in this case playing guitar, that the normal activities such as bowling, or golfing are more increasingly being substituted for video game versions of themselves.

Errors

• When Kyle and Stan score 100,000 points the wires from there Guitar Controllers are seen detached from the controller