Introduction

Despite its infamy for profanity and dark, satiric humor, I’ve been a huge fan of South Park over the years. I’d like you to try out a random episode of South Park. Before you walk away saying, “Screw you guys, I’m going home”, I’ll be sharing a little trick to watch a random episode without even launching the browser.

Prerequisites:

Gone scripting

South Park’s official website has a route called random-episode which redirects us to, well, a random episode. The redirection, however, is done using javascript instead of regular HTTP status codes like 302. This meant, one couldn’t simply run the following and expect to see a video.

mpv https://southparkstudios.com/random-episode

Let’s try being a little creative to see what the page returns.

http get https://southparkstudios.com/random-episode

Along the response lines, we can observe javascript assigning to window.__DATA__ that contains paths to many random episodes.

window.__DATA__ = {"type":"Page","props":{"bentoURL":"https:\u002F\u002Fbtg.mtvnservices.com\u002Faria\u002Fbentojs.js?site=webplex-southpark-intl&v=3.2.0","edenData":null,"imageConfig":null,"authSuiteConfig":{"authSuiteEnv":{"adobeUrl":"https:\u002F\u002Fapi.auth.adobe.com","authSuiteUrl":"https:\u002F\u002Fauth.mtvnservices.com","isisUrl":"https:\u002F\u002Fmusicjsonpath-a.akamaihd.net","tveUrl":"https:\u002F\u002Ftve.mtvnservices.com","xboxUrl":"https:\u002F\u002Fxbox.mtvnservices.com"}},"featureFlags":{"test1":true,"test2":true,"isContinueWatchingEnabled":true,"isPublicShowPagesEnabled":true,"isCompositeUserSelectionEnabled":true,"isUserWatchlistEnabled":true},"edenConfig":null,"helmet":{"helmet":{"base":{},"bodyAttributes":{},"htmlAttributes":{},"link":{},"meta":{},"noscript":{},"script":{},"style":{},"title":{}}}},"children":[{"type":"MainContainer","children":[{"type":"RandomEpisodeQueue","props":{"items":{"items":[{"shortId":"1nq9xv","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F1nq9xv\u002Fsouth-park-broadway-bro-down-season-15-ep-11"},{"shortId":"rxb67x","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Frxb67x\u002Fsouth-park-the-entity-season-5-ep-11"},{"shortId":"u1yv8w","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fu1yv8w\u002Fsouth-park-canada-on-strike-season-12-ep-4"},{"shortId":"2b4m4s","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F2b4m4s\u002Fsouth-park-ass-burgers-season-15-ep-8"},{"shortId":"uvp08l","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fuvp08l\u002Fsouth-park-ginger-kids-season-9-ep-11"},{"shortId":"aba4sz","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Faba4sz\u002Fsouth-park-freak-strike-season-6-ep-3"},{"shortId":"hmaufp","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fhmaufp\u002Fsouth-park-poor-and-stupid-season-14-ep-8"},{"shortId":"u9u3rq","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fu9u3rq\u002Fsouth-park-butt-out-season-7-ep-13"},{"shortId":"97d61n","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F97d61n\u002Fsouth-park-succubus-season-3-ep-3"},{"shortId":"oki0th","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Foki0th\u002Fsouth-park-pinewood-derby-season-13-ep-6"},{"shortId":"z31od5","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fz31od5\u002Fsouth-park-preschool-season-8-ep-10"},{"shortId":"81p0af","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F81p0af\u002Fsouth-park-dances-with-smurfs-season-13-ep-13"},{"shortId":"qly8oc","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fqly8oc\u002Fsouth-park-a-ladder-to-heaven-season-6-ep-12"},{"shortId":"5fuujn","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F5fuujn\u002Fsouth-park-trapper-keeper-season-4-ep-12"},{"shortId":"me0b40","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fme0b40\u002Fsouth-park-casa-bonita-season-7-ep-11"},{"shortId":"avmdp8","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Favmdp8\u002Fsouth-park-coon-vs-coon-friends-season-14-ep-13"},{"shortId":"327ba3","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F327ba3\u002Fsouth-park-eek-a-penis-season-12-ep-5"},{"shortId":"xenush","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fxenush\u002Fsouth-park-pee-season-13-ep-14"},{"shortId":"scexjh","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fscexjh\u002Fsouth-park-starvin-marvin-season-1-ep-8"},{"shortId":"9do3gw","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F9do3gw\u002Fsouth-park-margaritaville-season-13-ep-3"},{"shortId":"n9jsjf","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fn9jsjf\u002Fsouth-park-tonsil-trouble-season-12-ep-1"},{"shortId":"44i3y3","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F44i3y3\u002Fsouth-park-tom-s-rhinoplasty-season-1-ep-11"},{"shortId":"1jbnuo","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F1jbnuo\u002Fsouth-park-lil-crime-stoppers-season-7-ep-6"},{"shortId":"dumjvr","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fdumjvr\u002Fsouth-park-cartman-s-mom-is-a-dirty-slut-season-1-ep-13"},{"shortId":"ex6roo","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fex6roo\u002Fsouth-park-a-history-channel-thanksgiving-season-15-ep-13"},{"shortId":"06brb8","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F06brb8\u002Fsouth-park-probably-season-4-ep-10"},{"shortId":"t746u2","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Ft746u2\u002Fsouth-park-proper-condom-use-season-5-ep-7"},{"shortId":"d7grkc","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fd7grkc\u002Fsouth-park-the-passion-of-the-jew-season-8-ep-3"},{"shortId":"7efemk","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F7efemk\u002Fsouth-park-tweek-vs-craig-season-3-ep-5"},{"shortId":"akix98","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fakix98\u002Fsouth-park-pandemic-2-the-startling-season-12-ep-11"},{"shortId":"x5mqiz","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fx5mqiz\u002Fsouth-park-medicinal-fried-chicken-season-14-ep-3"},{"shortId":"ppnf3g","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fppnf3g\u002Fsouth-park-truth-and-advertising-season-19-ep-9"},{"shortId":"iyw8ps","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fiyw8ps\u002Fsouth-park-cartman-finds-love-season-16-ep-7"},{"shortId":"y3uvvc","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fy3uvvc\u002Fsouth-park-grounded-vindaloop-season-18-ep-7"},{"shortId":"38exov","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F38exov\u002Fsouth-park-the-problem-with-a-poo-season-22-ep-3"},{"shortId":"c5x1x5","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fc5x1x5\u002Fsouth-park-the-scoots-season-22-ep-5"},{"shortId":"xj9ctz","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fxj9ctz\u002Fsouth-park-buddha-box-season-22-ep-8"},{"shortId":"hjfzgc","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fhjfzgc\u002Fsouth-park-a-boy-and-a-priest-season-22-ep-2"},{"shortId":"5b6ld6","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002F5b6ld6\u002Fsouth-park-tegridy-farms-season-22-ep-4"},{"shortId":"ykf57h","path":"\u002Fepisodes\u002Fykf57h\u002Fsouth-park-dead-kids-season-22-ep-1"}],"storageNamePrefix":"default"}}}]}]};

We can now grab the video’s short identifier (shortId) and format the URL to the specific episode. To do this, we can use Nu’s parse command which allows regular expression matches.

http get https://southpark.cc.com/random-episode | parse -r '"shortId":"(.+?)"' | first 5

This gives us the following table:

#capture0
0dfdwfl
1oq0xia
22bf9a5
3jy5lbq
44sa1hk

Since these are random episodes, we can do away with picking the first captured ID.

(http get https://southpark.cc.com/random-episode | parse -r '"shortId":"(.+?)"').capture0.0 

wpmnpk

All we are left with now is to append this to the episodes URL path and pass it to mpv. We will use the $"string" syntax to interpolate the short ID into the URL.

mpv $"https://southpark.cc.com/episodes/((http get https://southpark.cc.com/random-episode | parse -r '"shortId":"(.+?)"').capture0.0)"