He is a street magician, an illusionist and mentalist.
The Blainetologists = The Scientologists
But Matt and Trey didn't address the celebrity aspect of Scientology, probably because Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist. Still, they noted the similarity between Mormonism and Scientology: both are aggressive, proselytizing groups, and they even have the kids using Mormon tactics in their door-to-door preaching of Blainetology.
Here's the full pic for the pamphlet Kyle was reading
'Tis more an invitation than a pamphlet
If the workshop is in Denver, shouldn't it be amid a bunch of other buildings? Looks like the reference was to the Waco siege rather than anything in Colorado.
There's a Catholic precedent for this episode: Padre Pio, the famous stigmatist, was forbidden to preach or write books because the Church felt a cult would grow up around him, as one did around Blaine here, and that cult would take undue attention away from Jesus.
Cartman and Kyle making the rounds in the neighborhood is similar to Joe Young and his buddy Robert White in Orgazmo making the rounds for the Mormon Church.
Jesus greets Stan with a sash around his waist, a first.
The original miracle involved no intervention from Jesus: at the wedding at Cana the host ran out of wine, and Mary alerted Jesus. Jesus did nothing at first, but then told the servants to fill six water jars to their tops with water, then to draw some and taste. The servants did as told, and found the water tasted like wine. They took some to the host, and he confirmed their findings: the jars contained the best wine at the party.
Jesus may not have done very well changng water into wine in this episode, since it was just sleight of hand, but the wine pitcher seems to be magical. Sometimes it is opaque, sometimes it is transparent.
After Jesus and Stan are shown in a plane, the Blaine complex is shown at night, but the next scene has blue daylight sky showing through the windows.
The Superfriends — this is a pared-down version of the Justice League of America, and these are the friends I, and Trey and Matt, and all the others of our generation, knew as kids watching Saturday morning cartoons. There were four incarnations. The third one featured all the superheroes in the Justice League, mentioned below, but the one remembered best is the second incarnation, with the Supertwins. This second incarnation is the one being spoofed.
The Justice League of America — The Superfriends are based on this group. Here's a FAQ
"NO Paula Poundstone, leave me alone!" — she's been accused of molesting her children
Fun with names: David Blaine => DB => BD => Branch Davidians. It helps to know that the Branch Davidian leader was David Koresh.
The bed covers on the bunks are purple, a reference to Heaven's Gate, the cult that committed suicide (as the Blainetologists do in the episode) when the Hale-Bopp comet came around (in 1997?). Their bed covers were also purple.
"At least I'm not the boy in the plastic bubble!" — Cartman was refering to Kyle's predicament at the time, not to the snow globe he was in - Kyle couldn't touch anything outside the snow globe. There's a movie called "The Boy In The Plastic Bubble" in which John Travolta (a Scientologist :D) starred as the kid in the plastic bubble who could not touch anything outside it. Also there are hard clear plastics that can break like glass.
That's My Bush is paid homage to, as the characters appear in SP forms.
Echoes of previous episodes creep into this one, like Death (the Blainetologists continuing to die = the SP protesters throwing themselves into the building), Chinpokomon (the ease in which kids are led into fads, cults, and other such things), Mecha-Streisand (beings with superpowers, and the statues of Lincoln and Booth)
Many questions:
How could Kyle's voice sound so loud and clear when he's still in the snow globe, or bubble, after Stan finds Kenny's body?
How could water fill the bubble if there's no way for air to escape? And wouldn't Kyle's ears pop?
How come Kyle didn't call on Stan to pull the hose out of the snow globe? How come Stan didn't think to do so anyway?
Kyle's hat disappears and reappears several times through some of the Blainetology scenes.
The water at the Reflecting Pool thaws pretty quickly.
Blooper: when Sea-Man and Joseph Smith pour the raw materials into the mold, the beams they're supposed to be standing on are missing.
Blooper: as the Blainetologists look at Blaine get away in his little ship, the ship is silent.