South Park takes on looksmaxxing, aura-farming and influencer nonsense with grotesque glee
In the third episode of the latest season, the boys head into Sephora and eventually the Backrooms in a story that makes fun of app-mutated self-care Trey Parker and Matt Stone have always been pretty upfront about how South Park, like all animated sitcoms from the past 35 years, lives in the shadow of The Simpsons. There are plenty of ways that The Simpsons, even in its more uneven recent seasons, still outshines…
Key points
- The third episode of South Park's 29th season, titled You Like That On Your Face, targets looksmaxxing and aura farming.
- The story follows Ike's pursuit of looksmaxxing and a Sephora trip that leads Stan into the Backrooms.
- Randy returns shrunken to tween size after anti-ageing procedures work too well, and later beats Chase Chadwick in an aura battle.
South Park's 29th season takes on looksmaxxing and aura farming in its third episode, You Like That On Your Face. The episode follows Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Ike as they engage with influencer-driven self-improvement trends.
The story begins with Cartman telling Kyle and Stan that Ike risks being "mogged" by another student. Ike wins a livestreamed aura battle because he has taken up looksmaxxing, which the episode describes as the influencer practice of using any means to gain greater facial symmetry.
Apps and the Sephora Backrooms
Stan explains to his father Randy that apps use AI to analyse and rate appearance and suggest products. Randy advises closing the app and simply eating well and exercising, but then assesses his own face on it. Ike is challenged by Chase Chadwick, the only person to score perfectly on the Chadmaxx app.
Stan takes Wendy to Sephora for her birthday and meets an old man who says his granddaughter went in six years ago and never returned. Stan loses track of Wendy, the store turns uncanny and yellow, and he enters the Backrooms. The episode juxtaposes the Backrooms with Sephora's trendy space, suggesting the two may be closer than realised.
You like that on your face?
— Sephora workers
Randy Shrinks and Fights
Stan escapes the Sephora-Backrooms, but Randy comes back diminished to tween size, apparently because anti-ageing procedures worked too well. Cartman later agrees to take Ike to Sephora. Stan and Kyle learn from Randy, now enrolled as a student at South America elementary, that Cartman and Ike are in the Sephora-Backrooms and rush to rescue them.
Sephora workers offer creams with the suggestive phrase that gives the episode its title, and the monstrous Sephora manager squirts lotion from a crotch-positioned bottle. At the end, a semi-drunk Randy enters the aura battle between Ike and Chase Chadwick and beats Chase, "mogging" him. South Park streams on Paramount+ in the US, UK and Australia.
