Mecha-Streisand

The episode was written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone along with writer Philip Stark, and was directed by Parker. "Mecha-Streisand" parodies numerous popular Kaiju films and features portrayals of actor Sidney Poitier and film critic Leonard Maltin.


According to Nielsen ratings, "Mecha-Streisand" was watched by 5.4 million viewers, a record high viewership for a South Park episode at the time. Streisand herself was critical of the series and her role in "Mecha-Streisand", although Leonard Maltin was complimentary about his portrayal.

Plot[edit]

During a field trip to an archeological dig, Cartman discovers a mysterious stone triangle, which he promptly throws away without interest. Shortly after Kyle picks it up, the guide identifies the writing on the triangle as Anasazi. Kyle appears on television to discuss the find, resulting in a jealous Cartman wanting the triangle back. Cartman constantly pesters Kyle until he returns the triangle to him. Meanwhile, Leonard Maltin comes to South Park and asks Chef whether he has seen Barbra Streisand. Maltin, having seen Kyle and the triangle on television, tells Chef the boys are in great danger.


Streisand herself finds the boys at the bus stop and demands the "Triangle of Zinthar", and gets aggravated when they reject her. As they search for Streisand, Maltin tells Chef she is seeking the boys' triangle to complete a powerful and ancient relic, the "Diamond of Pantheos", which will allow her to become an evil and dangerous creature capable of conquering the world. He explains that the diamond was originally split into two pieces and hidden at different points of the world, but Streisand had managed to find the first of the two. Streisand later dons a disguise and visits the boys again, offering them a monetary reward for the triangle. Stan, Kenny and Kyle are suspicious, but Cartman insists they go along for the money.


Streisand takes them to her condo in the mountains, where she chains the boys up and tortures them with her singing voice. Cartman relents and gives up the triangle. Streisand uses the triangle to complete the diamond, transforming herself into a giant mechanical dinosaur version of herself, Mecha-Streisand, and begins to lay waste to South Park with her new form. Maltin and Chef arrive to free the boys, and Maltin asks Chef to call Robert Smith of The Cure for help. Maltin then transforms into a giant robot to battle Mecha-Streisand, but is quickly defeated. The boys evade fiery debris from the fight, but Kenny is killed when he stops to play tetherball and gets strangled by the rope. Actor Sidney Poitier arrives and turns into a giant fanged turtle to fight Mecha-Streisand, but he too is easily defeated. After getting a call from the boys and Chef, Robert Smith arrives and transforms into a giant moth creature.


During the ensuing battle, Smith-Moth manages to punch the Diamond of Pantheos away from Mecha-Streisand before flinging her into outer space, where she explodes and dies. The townspeople, including Jesus, joyfully praise Smith as a hero. As the singer walks off into the sunset, Kyle calls out "Disintegration is the best album ever!". The boys split the diamond again to try to prevent anyone else from getting its power and throw the pieces in the trash can. However, Kyle's little brother Ike finds the pieces of the diamond in the trash, resulting in the episode ending with the boys cowering in the presence of a new foe: Mecha-Ike.

Cultural references[edit]

"Mecha-Streisand" parodies Kaiju films such as Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra, and Ultraman. Parker and Stone watched many Godzilla films during their childhoods, and Parker said he knew from the beginning of South Park that he would base an episode around the films. Streisand is based on Mechagodzilla, the mechanical doppelgänger of Godzilla. Smith is based on Mothra, the giant moth-like monster from the 1961 film Mothra and also one of Godzilla's rivals, which Parker described as his favorite of the Kaiju films. The scene in which six-inch-tall twins appear and ask actor Sidney Poitier to fight Mecha-Streisand are based on similar scenes and characters from the Mothra film.^[2] Poitier portrays a monster similar to Gamera, a flying turtle monster, and film critic Leonard Maltin transforms into a giant mechanical superhero resembling that of Japanese television superhero Ultraman. During the fights sequence, Stan shouts for Smith to "use robot punch", a line frequently used in Japanese robot television shows.^[3] The Diamond of Pantheos, on the other hand, closely resembles the pendant worn by a major character in the anime Galaxy Express 999.


When the monsters battle each other at the end of the episode, a Japanese man sings songs about each of the monsters while they approach. This mirrors a common element throughout actual Japanese monster movies, which commonly have theme songs for the monster characters. Parker wrote the songs in Japanese language. The English translation for the lyrics sung when Robert Smith transforms translates are, "I really like Robert Smith", and the lyrics sung about Mecha-Streisand translate, "Barbra, Barbra, she's a bitch, Barbra". When Streisand becomes Mecha-Streisand, the line was written in Japanese, "From this moment on, I am Mecha-Streisand!", but Parker said Bergman misread some of the words so the on-air translation was imperfect. Before Leonard Maltin transforms, he screams in Japanese, "Listen, listen, here's a tulip", which Parker said is a phrase Japanese children say before passing gas.^[2]


During the fight scene, a number of skyscrapers are shown getting destroyed. Parker, who acknowledged the buildings were never featured in any other South Park episode, said they were modeled after real-life skyscrapers in Denver and included in "Mecha-Streisand" only so they could get destroyed during the monster fight, a frequent element of battles in real Japanese monster films. Musical elements from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Super Friends are also featured during the battle.^[2] Actress Sally Struthers, who was previously lampooned in the South Park episode "Starvin' Marvin", is briefly seen during a scene in "Mecha-Streisand", in which she is filming a movie scene with Poitier.^[3] Kyle tells Robert Smith, "Disintegration is the best album ever". The line was based on Parker's own enthusiasm for The Cure's 1989 album, Disintegration, and Robert Smith himself would go on to say in an interview that the line was his "happiest moment". As Smith walks into the sunset, a version of The Cure's "Let's Go to Bed" is played on the Japanese Lute (Biwa). Officer Barbrady makes a reference to singer-songwriter Fiona Apple with the line, "Well, you ain't Fiona Apple, and if you ain't Fiona Apple, I don't give a rat's ass." At the time of "Mecha-Streisand"'s airing, Apple had recently released her first studio album Tidal.^[2]