Free Hat/Trivia

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This page contains trivia for "Free Hat". Remember, trivia must be factual, provable, and it is always best to cite your source for not-so-obvious trivia. If you would like to dispute a trivia point, please discuss it in the talk page.

Trivia[]

This is the only episode directed by Toni Nugnes, a member of South Park team who animated many scenes since the very beginning.
This is the last episode until "Cupid Ye" to not be directed by Trey Parker.
Kenny McCormick has a brief non-speaking appearance in the trailer scene of the remake of the first South Park episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" and this is the first of four times he appears in Season Six (in "A Ladder to Heaven" during reminiscences, "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" only his soul, and at the end of "Red Sleigh Down").
This is the first episode of Season Six that does not feature Butters despite taking Kenny's place in the same season. This is understandable since he was replaced by Tweek Tweak in "Professor Chaos".
Kyle tells George Lucas "There's still good in you I know it". The same line would be used 3 years later in Revenge of the Sith when Padme is dying.

References to Popular Culture[]

Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola parody the three main villains in Raiders of the Lost Ark in their manner of deaths. Coppola's head shrivels up like Colonel Dietrich's, Lucas' head melts down to a bloody skull like Agent Toht's, and Spielberg's head explodes like Rene Belloq's. Coppola was in fact added to the episode at a relatively late stage after Trey Parker and Matt Stone realized that they needed a third director in the finale, and happened to fit well since he had also re-edited one of his classic films (namely Apocalypse Now, which was re-edited into a longer version called Apocalypse Now Redux) at the time of the episode's original airing, and Lucas used to work under him early in their careers at Coppola's film company, American Zoetrope. Unlike the re-edited versions of Star Wars and E.T., Parker and Stone actually liked the footage added to Apocalypse Now Redux, but felt that it was "lame" that the original version would not get a release on DVD.
Most of the last six minutes of the episode parodies Raiders of the Lost Ark, with many lines being taken almost directly from the movie (a few choice words are replaced).
When George Lucas refuses to give the boys the negative, he says "It is too late for me." This is a parody of Darth Vader's words to Luke in Return of the Jedi.
The boys compare movies being changed with the Colosseum being remodeled and The Beatles changing their White Album every year.
Throughout the episode, the bad guys keep holding walkie-talkies like rifles (e.g. when George calls in the guards to get rid of the boys, the guards are holding walkie-talkies). This serves as a constant reference to the changes Steven Spielberg did in E.T., where the guns, which the special secret agents hold against the children, were replaced in that scene with walkie-talkies to make the film more family-friendly.
The outfits worn by the boys seem similar to the tropical outfits worn by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in BASEketball.
During the screening, Steven Spielberg says "It's beautiful", a sound clip that would later be used by Stan's father when he first enters the Wall-Mart in "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes".
A show airs called "Excess Hollywood", a parody of Access Hollywood, with a look-alike of then co-host Pat O'Brien.
In the scene when the boys break into George Lucas's house to steal the original print of Raiders of the Lost Ark, many props from Lucas's past films can be seen in the room where the print is found. These range from a model of Howard the Duck, and many helmets belonging to Stormtroopers.
Although the episode depicts Spielberg as being the main driving force in re-editing Raiders of the Lost Ark and Lucas only reluctantly going along with the plan, in real-life the two directors' attitudes ended up being the other way around after this episode. Spielberg admitted that the re-edit of E.T. was a major mistake and vowed never to do such a thing again, whereas Lucas re-edited the original Star Wars trilogy a second time for its DVD release, and a third time for its Blu-ray release. Plus he re-edited the prequel trilogy a little bit. George Lucas even re-edited his first movie THX-1138. Francis Ford Coppola likewise re-edited Apocalypse Now for a second time in 2019, albeit with the intention of bringing it closer to the theatrical version rather than adding even more new footage.
The song played near the end is called "Stars and Stripes Forever".

Continuity[]

Trey Parker and Matt Stone appear in a fake promo saying that they are going to remake the pilot episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe". Trey and Matt rehashed the episode in the 7th season as "Cancelled", albeit with a different plot driving it.
Cartman's addition of "Free hat" to increase attendance is similar to him suggesting the addition of "pie and punch" to an internet ad in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
When Steven Spielberg and George Lucas say that they are going to remake the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, Kyle is heard saying "NO! Don't touch Indiana Jones!". This problem became part of the episode "The China Probrem".
The boys' actions against Lucas and Spielberg help result in a dislike towards South Park, and along with other celebrities, will result in a Class-Action Lawsuit against the town in the show's 200th episode.

Goofs[]

When Tweek is making the hats, his dad comes in and tells him to calm down and find his inner peace. When he walks away, his hair disappears for a split second.
Inside George Lucas' house, a trophy case can be seen holding five Academy Awards and four Emmy Awards. In real life, George Lucas has been nominated for an Academy Award four times and an Emmy Award twice, but has never won either of these awards. However, he did receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Oscars, which is given outside of competition.
During the movie premiere. Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Tweek are tied up to poles. However, when the premiere stops, the rope disappears and the four are no longer tied up.
Although Spielberg and Lucas die in this episode, they are shown to be alive and well while raping Indiana Jones in "The China Probrem". This either is a continuity goof, ignored or implying that celebrities have a Kenny-esque ability to cheat death. Another similar situation is when Paris Hilton gets stuck inside of Mr. Slave's ass, but is seen later in Season Fourteen episodes, "200" and "201".

Dubbing Changes[]

International Titles[]

Language	Title	Translation
Czech	Zachraňte film a Čepičáře	Save the film and Hat
Finnish	Ilmainen hattu	Free Hat
French	Bérets gratos	Free berets
German	Größer, digitaler und umgeschnitten!^{[note 1]}	Bigger, more digital and recut!
Hungarian	Rendezői változat	Director's version
Italian	Cappello libero	Free Hat
Japanese	監督はディレクターズカットがお好き (Kantoku wa direkutāzukatto ga o suki)	Directors love director's cuts
Korean	공짜 모자 (Gongjja moja)	Free Hat
Polish	Komu zależy na kapeluszu	Who cares about the Hat
Portuguese (Brazil)	Libertem Hat	Free Hat
Russian	Даёшь шляпу (Dayosh' shlyapu)	Give me Hat
Ukrainian	Дістаньте Бриля (Distanʹte Brylya)	Get the straw hat

Mandarin Chinese[]

List of plot element changes:
- All references of Hat McCullough along with the cause to free him are removed entirely, leaving the campaign against changes to classic movies as the sole focus for the episode.
- The townsfolk who attended the boys' rally are only capable of cheering and chanting slogans, for the sake of supporting the boys' campaign (or any other campaigns in general).
  - Skeeter also assures that cheering is always effective, using the South Korean national football team's performance at the 2002 FIFA World Cup as an example (where they attained their best result to date at 4th place).
- All references of Raiders of the Lost Ark are removed entirely. The film instead bears the title "前传再前传" (lit. Prequel of a prequel).
Stan counts the number of sign-ups for their campaign at 215 members, one more than the original version of 214.