I do love an auld episode of South Park that’s relatable. Sorry, we are supposed to refer to it as South America for this season. I wasn’t expecting to see the whole saga played out in the first episode of South Park’s new season. The South Park e-bike episode is funny, and it’s very relatable to what’s going on in Ireland right now. Basically, it’s the same storyline as what’s actually happening with electric scooters in Ireland, but with ebikes – which arguably is also happening.
The episode is called “South American Biker Gangs”, and is on Paramount+ now. South Park is now officially called South America, which is a joke about Donald Trump’s habit of renaming things. The story is about the kids getting e-bikes, the adults hating it and a biker gang war breaking out between the two. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched yet.
What is the South Park e-bike episode about?
It’s about a town that panics over kids on e-bikes and ends up in a biker gang war, with the adults behaving far worse than the children ever did.
Cartman kicks things off by pretending to be bullied at school so his mum buys him an e-bike for exercise, and he promptly turns it into a status symbol to mock his friends. Stan, Kyle and Kenny end up on knock-off bikes from a local shop owner, and before long the kids are tearing around town in a pack. Randy, horrified, rounds up a group of dads into a rival gang, and they go after the shop owner rather than the kids. It ends with Kenny dying for old time sake, because of course it does, and the town responding by outlawing e-bikes and selling “South America Strong” t-shirts.
In many ways, it may aswell be Dublin. We came close to “South Dublin Strong” t-shirts.
Why has South Park been renamed South America?
The show is taking the piss out of Donald Trump’s habit of renaming things, and out of the companies that went along with it. The creators announced the change by saying they were inspired by the “bravery and patriotism” of Apple and Google, a dig at the tech giants relabelling the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on their maps.
It’s a joke about how Trump is taking on everybody these days, from Canada to the Gulf of America, or whatever they’re calling it this week. The rename runs right through the episode, including an updated theme song. Even so, there are some nods to the old South Park in there, and the episode sticks with the four boys rather than chasing the headlines.
Why the South Park e-bike episode feels so Irish
Almost every beat of it matches the Irish e-scooter story, from the exploding battery panic to the shops looking the other way.
Start with the battery fearmongering. The episode toys with the idea of batteries exploding on imported models, and the one bike that does go up was rigged by the adults. In Ireland, the reason we can’t carry electric scooters on buses today is largely down to how slowly standards arrived. The National Transport Authority banned them over battery safety, and I’d argue that’s because the market got flooded with unregulated scooters with no CE mark before the rules caught up. I’ve made the case that they should come back on public transport once registration and insurance are in place.
Then there are the retailers, selling electric scooters they knew weren’t legal for the road, to customers they knew would be kids, and turning a blind eye. That’s the private property loophole I flagged years ago, where a scooter far too powerful for public roads can be sold as long as it’s marketed for use on private land. It’s a big part of why I’ve argued Ireland needs enforcement, not a ban.
The kids in the episode wear face coverings while riding around, and nobody is wearing a helmet on these high-powered electric bikes. They’re also looking to remove the blocks on power and speed limits. All of that could easily describe the electric scooter scene in Ireland at the minute, and e-bikes to a certain extent, with delivery riders and the like. Helmets and hi-vis only became mandatory here on 4 September, as I covered in the ultimate guide to Irish e-scooter laws, and the Garda Representative Association has already said enforcement is likely to be weak. As for tampering, I’ve said before that anti-tampering rules need to be part of any new definition, so speed limiters can’t be removed with a YouTube tutorial and ten minutes.
That said, the real-life version has a much less funny side. Figures cited by the Government in July showed more than a third of paediatric traumatic brain injury admissions at Temple Street this year involved e-scooters. Ministers stopped short of an outright ban on 20 July, though it remains a possibility, and I broke down what the new e-scooter rules mean for riders at the time.
Everybody hates each other
The point I enjoyed the most is how everybody hates each other. The motorists hate the cyclists, and the cyclists hate the e-bike riders. The anger gets directed at the shops, while everybody ignores the parents buying the bikes for the kids. This is Ireland in a nutshell. I tell people I ride a scooter and the first thing I get back is “those things are lethal, they appear out of nowhere”. You see, to me that’s a driver error. If I appear out of nowhere, at 20kmph with hi vis on – you aren’t paying attention. Same goes for most drivers in a 2 tonne metal wheel barrow. You should be paying more attention.
But back to the parents. Those parents are giving in to kids saying they want one because they’re getting bullied, knowing it’s all manipulation to get the electric scooter, read also the electric bike, they want. Cartman pretending to be bullied is the perfect example. It’s incredibly fitting for the situation in Ireland at the minute. I found it so incredibly fitting.
It’s a strong start to the season, and I’ll get into why the e-bike storyline hits so close to home in a moment. First, a quick recap.
Where to watch South Park in Ireland
You can watch South Park and South America on Paramount+ in Ireland.
