Goobacks
| "Goobacks" | |
|---|---|
| South Park episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 8 Episode 7 |
| Directed by | Trey Parker |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Production code | 806 |
| Original air date | April 28, 2004 |
"Goobacks" is the seventh episode of the eighth season of the animated television series South Park, and the 118th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 28, 2004. In the episode, people from a poverty-stricken future travel back in time to find work, affecting the town's economy and the employment of the original occupants.
"Goobacks" serves as a satire of illegal immigration, and mocks both sides of the debate concerning it. The episode is widely remembered as the origin of the catchphrase "They took our jobs!".
Early in the morning, a mysterious future man appears in South Park, entering from some kind of portal. Unfamiliar with his surroundings, he is hit lightly by a car. After shovelling snow, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny watched a report on CNN about the mysterious arrival. The future person, who has come from over a thousand years in the future, is looking for work because of the overpopulation and poverty in his time, and he learns that the money that he earns in the 21st century will be enough to feed his family in 3045. Soon enough, large numbers of immigrants begin to come through the portal. The future people are described by CNN as "a hairless, uniform mix of all races" with the same skin color, while their language is a guttural mixture of all world languages. As the boys return to offer to shovel snow again the next day, they find that the newly arrived time-immigrants have shoveled all driveways on the street for very low pay. As the immigrants are willing to accept jobs for that kind of pay, the original workers throughout South Park are replaced, thus resulting in massive unemployment throughout the town.
At a meeting to discuss their concern with the immigrants, construction worker Darryl Weathers complains that they have worked hard to get their pay high enough to make a living, but now are being ousted by the time immigrants. The other workers voice their own complaints, with each sentence finishing off with an increasingly slurred and garbled exclamation of "They took our jobs!", which later becomes their slogan. Later at that meeting, Weathers has the audience suggest ideas for stopping the immigrants from arriving at the town. One man suggests everyone start stripping and engaging in an orgy; Weathers likes the idea, as it is the only way to stop the immigrants from coming because homosexual couples cannot spawn offspring. The protesters agree and begin the orgy.
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