The Secrets of
"Chinpoko Mon"

First Rule of South Park: If a phrase gets predictable or expected, it's time to change it or remove it, at least for a while. Stan and Kyle have not said their famous lines after Kenny's death since "Sexual Harassment Panda." (7/7/99)

The cashier's tag reads, "LUAUS TOYS." A luau is a Hawaiian party. Maybe the Japanese wanted to party after the kids bombed Pearl Harbor?

The Lambtor the cashier picks up has a voice that parodies Barney's to a tee, even including "I love you" among its phrases.

Kenny and his seizures

On December 17th [1997] the Canadian News Online Enterprise, a.k.a. CNews, reported that about 650 Japanese viewers ages 3 to 20 were hospitalized following epilepsy-like seizures apparently induced by what they saw on TV. To paraphrase, roughly 600 young viewers were rushed to hospital after they were "felled by fits of spasms and nausea" occurring about 20 minutes into Tuesday night's episode of TV Tokyo's hit cartoon "Pokemon" (meaning "pocket monsters"), based on characters in a game produced by Nintendo. Another 50 or so who saw part of the show repeated on a news program also fell victim. Total viewership of either the cartoon or the news segment was not reported. Those afflicted reported experiencing headaches, "flashing lights" in their field of vision, and nausea akin to car sickness A scene in the cartoon featuring a "vividly colored explosion mixed with the strobe-light flashing of a character's eyes" seemed to trigger the illness. About 150 viewers remained hospitalized Wednesday. In Kyodo News, an epilepsy expert at Saitama University of Medicine outside Tokyo, Toshio Yamauchi, said their symptoms suggest a one-time attack triggered by optical stimulus, which is different from epilepsy. "There have been many similar cartoon programs in the past, and I don't understand why the program this time caused so many attacks," Yamauchi was quoted as saying. "It's a sign that Japan will also have to set up guidelines for TV program production." TV Tokyo said Wednesday that it is canceling the segment on 30 other stations scheduled to show it. Spokesman Hiroshi Uramoto told reporters "We are shocked to hear many children were taken to hospitals" and promised that the station would investigate. The Computer-Related Risk? While isolated incidents like this have been reported in the past (RISKS 14.63 etc.), this particular cartoon segment has furnished us with a model for seizure-inducing video that apparently affects a significant portion of the population. If low-definition broadcast video can mass-induce spasms and nausea, higher-definition computer video almost certainly can. And unlike TV, the choice of images displayed on your computer screen is in the hands of several hundred thousand faceless programmers. If even one of those programmers has an axe to grind, well, imagine a new class of computer virus that crashes your hard disk *and* your cerebral cortex!

One-upmanship - The video wall displays 160 Chinpokomon. There are 151 Pokémon now.

The previews had a scene with the boys chattering to Chef in Japanese. Why was it cut?

The White House fountain head turns into a penis head at every third squirt.

Kids move around a lot at the chinpokomon camp when Mr. Ose and Mr. Hirohito talk to the kids. The makeup of the kids behind the four boys is always different.

Why does a Chinpoko Mon camp have a replica of the Forbidden City? That's a Chinese thing, not a Japanese one.

LEo: The Japanese occupied China and other Asian countries before WW II in the hopes of creating a larger empire, and set up 'education camps' to teach the locals how to relate to (and service) the Japanese Army. "Did I say education camps? I meant happy camps…"

In the Chinpoko Mon camp, you can see the pairs introduced so far in the seies:
Bebe and Clyde (Clubhouses)
Craig and Tweek (Tweek Vs. Craig)
Wendy and Stan (Cartman Gets An Anal Probe)
Pip and Butters (Two Guys Naked In A Hot Tub)

A note on Bebe and Clyde: unlike Stan and Wendy, Clyde and Bebe are not infatuated with each other. They are good friends, and in third grade, that's the way it should be.

It would have been nice to hear a Chinpoko Rap.

If Kenny is still in a seizure when he and Stan reach Cartman, how did he laugh with the others when Kyle showed up with the game controller?

"Jesus Tapdancing Christ" - a variation on "Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ," from The Blues Brothers

During the march, Kenny isn't there until Sharon starts trying to get Stan's attention, but he's seen for only a second. Also, sometimes the boys are in the first row, sometimes in the second.

The Alabama Man Cartman circles in Duffy's catalog in "KORN's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" (which aired first) is the same one whose commercial he calls gay. Had this episode aired first, Cartman would logically have appeared to have a change of heart.

Remember the rumor that South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut would have Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny as fighter pilots sent on a secret mission to Iraq? Well, here they are, but they are being sent by Hirohito to bomb Pearl Harbor. In this episode President Clinton acknoledges that many children are being trained as fighter pilots.

LEo: After Japan lost many of its good figher pilots to American firepower, it started training kids 16 and under to fly Kamikaze missions as a last ditch attempt to turn the tide of the war. It also 'militarized' the kids during that time in much the same way that there were 'Hitler Youth Corps' in Germany. This is reflected in the kids' march through town and the chant, 'Owatta, Beikoku!'

The scene in which Sharon tells Mr. Garrison to "Get on the wire to every parent around the country and tell them how to bring those sons of bitches down!" is derived from Independence Day.

The Japanese woman is Kumashiro Yumiko, one of the Ass-fuck Twins in Orgazmo, and a star of soft- and hard-porn films.

Ash = Ash Ketchum
Eight = James
Lambtron - Pikachu

The Chinpokomon

Other Chinpokomon include a gorilla with mouse ears, duck-billed platypus with Pikachu tail, a mad rabbit, and a salamander.

The first time one sees the yellow lamb, it is called Lambtor. After that, it is called Lambtron.

The Chinpokomon Liane calls Donkeytron is not the same one given that name in the beginning of the episode.