Watch this week's South Park to see the events leading up to The Fractured But Whole

Excited for South Park: The Fractured But Whole? You should make sure to watch this week's episode of the show if you haven't already. Appropriately titled "Franchise Prequel," the episode shows the beginnings of Cartman's plans to start a superhero franchise, gives backstory for Jimmy's alter-ego, and digs a little deeper into the events leading up to the start of Ubisoft's upcoming RPG.

If you didn't catch the episode when it aired last night, you can watch it now online - or just keep reading and I'll give you a summary. After Professor Chaos (Butters) targets Cartman and the town's heroes with fake Facebook posts about the depraved acts they apparently get into, the parents call in Mark Zuckerberg. He ends up being too much to handle, and... look, I won't spoil the whole thing, but suffice to say plenty of trademark South Park madness and humor ensues.

By the end of the episode, the boys gather in Cartman's basement, and we see almost exactly the same scene shown in The Fractured But Whole's E3 2016 trailer, with small differences like Mysterion (Kenny) complaining about getting a video game instead of a Netflix series:

South Park pulled a similar move with The Stick of Truth and season 17, when several episodes showed the kids preparing for a war between Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as if they were fantasy kingdoms. In comparison to that three-episode, Game of Thrones-inspired saga, one episode featuring the cast dressed up as their made up superheroes while Mark Zuckerberg runs amok feels relatively tame.

Sam Prell

Sam is a former News Editor here at GamesRadar. His expert words have appeared on many of the web's well-known gaming sites, including Joystiq, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, and G4 Media, among others. Sam has a serious soft spot for MOBAs, MMOs, and emo music. Forever a farm boy, forever a '90s kid.