Highlights
- The 14-year mystery of which Rock Band song was played in the South Park episode featuring "Poker Face" has finally been solved.
- The actual song used in the episode to represent "Poker Face" is "Street of Dreams" by Guns n Roses.
- There is hope for a revival of music rhythm games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
The 14-year South Park mystery of which Rock Band song is actually being played while Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny are supposedly playing Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" has been solved. On October 28, 2009, South Park aired the Season 13 episode "Whale Whores," which has become famous for Cartman's rendition of "Poker Face."
In the episode, Cartman's vocal performance is backed up by Kenny on the drums and Kyle on guitar. Viewers can even catch a glimpse of actual Rock Band gameplay, though that may have been confusing for some fans of the game back when the episode originally aired. After all, the Poker Face episode of South Park aired in 2009, yet the popular Lady Gaga song wasn't actually playable in the game until 2010.
South Park: Snow Day Shows Off Co-Op Gameplay
A South Park: Snow Day trailer invites players to team up with friends, showcasing interesting co-op gameplay set in a snow-covered scenario.
Clearly, this meant that South Park was using footage from some other Rock Band song, though the exact song has remained a mystery for 14 years. As shared in a TikTok video by JasonParadise, the mystery has finally been solved. Twitter user aWiseMoose asked for the community's help in identifying the song. JasonParadise explained that the fact that the South Park episode showed part of a guitar solo is what really helped them solve the mystery. Twitter user ahelpfulhamster was able to share a spreadsheet of every Rock Band song with a guitar solo, which user PuppetMasterIX used to narrow things down and ultimately discover that the song used in the South Park episode to represent Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" is actually "Street of Dreams" by Guns n Roses. And with that, a 14-year South Park mystery was finally solved.
Anyone that still has Rock Band 4 and its plastic instruments handy can purchase Eric Cartman's version of "Poker Face" for just $1.99. The game's store is still active at the time of this writing, though it's entirely possible that it will get shut down eventually, so Rock Band fans may want to purchase any songs they want while they still have the chance.
There is some hope that games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero could make a comeback at some point down the line. As far as Guitar Hero goes, there has been some interest expressed in reviving the once mega-popular brand now that Microsoft owns the IP, while Rock Band is living on through Fortnite. Rock Band developer Harmonix has built a music/rhythm game playable within Fortnite called Fortnite Festival that is available right now with official plastic instrument support expected to come at some point in 2024.
South Park, meanwhile, still has a major presence in the video game world. In fact, it was just recently announced that the South Park co-op game, South Park: Snow Day, is releasing on March 26, 2024.
Rock Band 4
The fourth entry in Harmonix’s music game, Rock Band 4 brings back the franchise’s classic music simulation gameplay. Players must band together with different instruments that work as controllers and perform songs by hitting the correct notes in-game. Rock Band 4 comes with a career mode, quickplay mode, and show mode for players to choose from.
