Band in China/Trivia

Trivia

 * The episode's name is a pun on "Banned in China"; as this is the issue that the plot focuses about.
 * The episode premiered on October 2, 2019, the day after the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
 * The voices of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet were done from a random casting call two days before the episode premiered.
 * The episode as a whole satirizes the Chinese Government and how influential it is on the world as a whole.
 * China is one of the biggest markets in the world for the film industry, so various studios see many film's incomes as successes or failures based on whether or not they get a Chinese release.
 * The Chinese strict standards for any film released in China has a film production team doing anything possible to secure the release, even having Chinese agents give advice and rewrite Stan's movie. This is a reference to just how desperate some studios are willing to go to see that a Chinese release is secured, due to China being the largest market for Hollywood, as well how strict the Chinese censorship board is.
 * The banning of references to The Dali Lama, Winnie the Pooh, organ transplants, homosexuality and a free country that the producer mentions are actual topics that China has banned from being in films released in the country.
 * Winnie the Pooh's death after being enticed by the "Hunny" pot trap in an alley is a pun on honey trapping, which is typically the use of an attractive female to entice a male subject for information by creating a false relationship with the subject until the desired information is obtained. It may also be referencing the growing use of female Chinese spies employing honey trapping on foreign intelligence officers and corporate officials.
 * The screenshot of the airport in China bears the Chinese words "中国机场", which translates to "China Airport". It does not specify which city the airport is situated in.
 * The parked aircraft appear to be operated by "China Airlines" (which is actually the flag carrier of the Republic of China (Taiwan)), rather than "Air China", the flag carrier of the the People's Republic of China.
 * It is not known why there is a need for multiple baggage claim belts to operate for a single flight (given that most of the characters in the screenshot took the same flight with Randy).
 * The building where Mickey and Randy try to convince Xi Jinping to sell tegridy is the Great Hall of the People.

References to Popular Culture

 * Various Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney characters are shown trying to expand their business in China, as a reference to how much money these movies generate from the Chinese film market. They include:
 * Winnie the Pooh
 * Piglet
 * Thor
 * Black Panther
 * Captain America
 * Captain Marvel
 * Iron Man
 * Beast
 * Peter Pan
 * Snow White
 * Captain Hook
 * Queen of Hearts
 * Jack Sparrow
 * Elsa
 * Buzz Lightyear
 * Genie
 * Jafar
 * Jasmine
 * Kylo Ren
 * Stormtrooper
 * NBA players LeBron James, Will Barton and James Harden can be seen on the airplane. This is reference to the sport of basketball gaining popularity in China, with well established NBA players often playing exhibition games or running basketball camps in the country during the off season or after retirement.
 * When Mickey hears that Randy comes from South Park, he believes it to be a rival film industry and asks if he owns it yet. This is a reference to Disney's various acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and most recently Fox that have made the Walt Disney Company very powerful and influential.
 * The episode mentions how the Chinese government banned Winnie the Pooh in 2018 due to unfavorable comparisons to Chinese President Xi Jinping, which subsequently led to the film Christopher Robin not receiving a release there.
 * The song that Stan and his band plays at the autumn festival is "Useless Sacrifice" by Death Decline. The bass and guitar that Kenny and Butters play as well as Stan's posturing are modeled after the ones seen in the music video.
 * The song that Stan and the band play in the barn is "Second Skin" by Dying Fetus.
 * In Stan's room, real life board games Nemesis, Core Space, Gaslands, Dune, Endeavor, and Affliction can be seen on a bookcase.

Continuity

 * Randy Marsh is still trying to expand his weed selling business Tegridy Farms from the previous episode "Mexican Joker".
 * Kyle and Cartman are also shown returning from the deportation camp they were sent to in the previous episode.
 * Randy accused several people on his flight of stealing his idea to generate business from the Chinese similar to how he accused several of his former customers of stealing his idea to grow weed during the previous episode "Mexican Joker".
 * Mickey Mouse makes his first physical appearance since Season Sixteen's "Obama Wins!".
 * The Spinny Mountain Records producer appears in this episode to help the boys produce their biopic. He was last seen in "Buddha Box".
 * The PC Babies and their fame from the episode "Buddha Box" are mentioned.
 * The boys' band Fingerbang from "Something You Can Do with Your Finger" reappear in their dream outfits and perform their song.
 * Stan has board games in his room, a callback to "Freemium Isn't Free", where he became addicted to freemium games but stopped eventually. This is also shown in "A Boy And A Priest".

Goofs

 * In the promotional picture for this episode, Butters is seen playing bass with a 4 string Fender Jazz Bass and Kenny plays guitar with a gold Gibson Les Paul. In the episode, Butters is now playing guitar with a white Flying V guitar while Kenny plays bass with an Ibenez 5 string bass.
 * List of Chinese words errors:
 * If you look closely at the Chinese words for Baggage Claim (行李提取) at the airport, the third character (提) is incorrectly written, missing a stroke at the bottom.
 * If you look closely at the screenshot of the Chinese customs, the sign for No Phones and No Cameras reads "没有电话" and "没有相机". This is not correct as "没有" translates to "don't have".
 * The tea shop which Winnie the Pooh and Piglet visited bears the signboard "苏伟的药房和...". There are missing strokes on "苏","的" and "药".
 * In addition, a sign next to the tea shop reads "没有侵入" (There is no intrusion). This is also not a correct translation for "No entry".