In 2012, South Park aired “Faith Hilling,” an episode that talks about the rapid change of the world’s internet memes and the obsession with going viral.
The episode starts with Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, and Butters at a Colorado Republican presidential debate. They are there specifically to pull off a coordinated “Faith Hilling” stunt. “Faith Hilling” is the boys’ current favorite internet meme, where they pull their shirts outward to make their chests look like boobs while someone photographs them. Security has apparently heard that someone is planning to Faith Hill the debate and is actively looking for the culprit. Despite security knowing, Cartman manages to get onto the stage. He pulls his shirt outward in front of the presidential candidates while the others photograph him. The stunt succeeds and becomes a major news story.
Because Faith hilling has become a dangerous internet phenomenon, the fourth graders are given a special class taught by Professor Lamont, a supposed expert in internet memes. He shows them an educational film called Bloody Sunday: The Dangers of Memeing. The movie demonstrates how dangerous viral trends can be. The particular example is Tebowing. Kids attempt to take pictures of themselves doing the pose in “dangerous locations” and repeatedly get killed by trains. The whole presentation is graphic but the boys aren’t particularly impressed by the warning. Butters, however, is genuinely scared and doesn’t want to continue Faith Hilling.
After school, the boys are trying to figure out where they should Faith Hill next. Then Craig tells them that their picture from the Republican debate has made the newspaper. At first they’re excited until they read the news article. The newspaper says that Faith Hilling is completely outdated and passé and that the new trend is Taylor Swifting. Taylor Swifting is when you pull your pants down and drag your bare ass along the ground like a dog. The boys are pissed that their meme has already been replaced.
They decide that Faith Hilling is much better than Taylor Swifting and go to the Cafe Monet to take another Faith Hilling picture. When they get there they see another group of kids already there, Taylor Swifting. Cartman gets in the way of their picture while Faith Hilling and the two groups get in an argument on which meme is better and then they all just start fighting.
Back at school, Professor Lamont continues his lesson about the dangers of memes. This time he uses a real gun and hands it to Butters and tells him to put the barrel of the gun in his mouth. Butters just sits there while he’s talking with a gun in his mouth when two men interrupt the class because they have just discovered that cats are now memeing too.
The men show Professor Lamon pictures from the internet of cats with slices of bread around their faces. It’s called cat breading. Lamon immediately assumes that this means that cats are evolving intellectually. His theory is that memes aren’t merely human behavior anymore since another species has started participating in them suggesting that cats are developing intelligence comparable to humans. The boys discover that Cartman’s cat, Mr. Kitty, has been Cat Breading and Cartman is furious at his cat for memeing.
Meanwhile another meme appears: Oh Long Johnsoning. It’s based on the famous video of the cat just saying “Oh Long Johnson” over and over. Teenagers began imitating the video in dangerous circumstances and they all got hit by trains. Then the news makes the bizarre revelation that the person who started the meme wasn’t a person but a cat. The cat is arrested and placed in a cage because authorities believe it caused the dangerous meme. At this point Professor Lamon and the authorities are seriously worried that cats are becoming an intelligent competing species.
Stan switches sides and the boys discover Stan doing a newer meme, combining Taylor Swifting and Oh Long Johnsoning. Cartman and Kyle feel betrayed by Stan for abandoning them Faith Hilling. Stan tells them that Faith Hilling is over and they just need to accept that. Kenny agrees with Stan and it leaves Cartman and Kyle to continue Faith Hilling while Stan and Kenny start embracing newer memes.
Professor Lamont goes to interrogate the Oh Long Johnson cat. He asks the cat whether it understands what it’s doing but all the cat can say is “Oh Long Johnson” over and over again. Lamon interprets this as a deliberate refusal to cooperate and becomes convinced that cats are a threat to humanity. He warns the cat that if it keeps memeing, there could be a war between humans and cats.
As the episode goes on more memes appear. People take already existing memes like Taylor Swifting, Oh Long Johnsoning, Cat Breading, and Reporting and combine them all. “Reporting” is another parody meme where people dramatically talk about the dangers of memes while filming themselves. Of course the reporter demonstrating it gets killed by a train while doing an Oh Long Johnson.
Cartman and Kyle go to a Planned Parenthood clinic to do another Faith Hilling photo. Everyone around them treats them like they’re ridiculously out of date. A father explains to his son that the boys are Faith Hilling, but that it’s “a little before your time.” Someone else tells them to go back to the 1990s and even the doctor makes fun of them. Cartman and Kyle finally accept that Faith Hilling is over and they reminisce on how much they enjoyed Faith Hilling but trends change.
The news reports that household cats have evolved into a species as intelligent as humans. The authorities fear that this could lead to war so they send an ambassador to communicate with the leader of the cats. The ambassador tried to communicate with the cat using very annoying renditions of Oh Long Johnson. All the cat can repeat is just “Oh Long Johnson.” The ambassador eventually comes out and says he believes the cat has essentially communicated that war between humans and cats is inevitable.
Meanwhile, the boys decide that if they’re going to abandon Faith Hilling, they need to embrace the newest trend. They create a combination of Taylor Swifting, Cat Breading, and Reporting. Cartman holds Mr. Kitty, who had bread around his head, while doing the Taylor Swifting behavior and talking dramatically about the dangers of the meme. They’ve created the next huge internet sensation.
The episode returns to the political debate. The Republican candidates are debating while the cat ambassador is also involved in the plan. The boys have another plan: they’re going to perform their elaborate new meme combination at the debate. Cartman gets onto the stage with Mr. Kitty. He’s ready to do the meme, but he stops and realizes that he’s only doing new trends because everyone else is, and he doesn’t want to follow the crowd. So he goes back to Faith Hilling and pulls his shirt out and says that he’ll Faith Hill until he dies. Then everyone starts Faith hilling. The politicians, the audience, the whole debate turns into a Faith Hilling event.
A reporter explains that Cartman has reminded everyone what it means to be human and to resist blindly following trends. But the reporter turns the whole thing into a new meme called “Pandering” before getting hit by a train.
This episode aired on Comedy Central March 28th, 2012. While you can tell the age of the episode, the meme format still applies today. It starts with a meme and people copy it, and then it gets replaced by another meme, and then it gets combined with another one.
This format is still used today even with Tiktok. A Tiktok sound will start trending, a bunch of people use it and create different things with it, the sound becomes “dead” and “over used”, and years later it becomes nostalgia, then people start using the meme again ironically.
The episode basically talks about the fact that memes don’t have to be funny as long as people participate in them. Which is a huge thing today called FOMO. Fear of missing out can be linked to anything, like not being invited to something, or not understanding a huge internet joke that everyone else understands but you. Knowing a current internet joke is like a form of social status.
Images courtesy of Wikipedia and South Park Wiki
Edited by Matt Kimley
