You’ve probably seen the clip. It’s everywhere. A small, round, incredibly foul-mouthed version of Kathleen Kennedy stands in an office, screaming at a group of terrified executives. Her demand? Put a chick in it and make it lame. It’s visceral. It’s funny. It also happened to perfectly capture a massive, boiling resentment within modern fandom.
When South Park: Joining the Panderverse aired in late 2023, it didn't just parody Disney; it gave a name to a phenomenon people had been grumbling about for years. The special hit a nerve because it wasn't just complaining about women in movies. It was complaining about the lazy way studios were doing it.
Where did this actually come from?
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have this uncanny ability to wait until a cultural conversation is at its absolute breaking point and then just drop a nuclear bomb on it. For a long time, the discourse around "woke" media was messy. On one side, you had people genuinely upset about diverse casting; on the other, you had corporate entities shielding themselves from legitimate criticism by calling everyone a bigot.
Then came the "Panderverse."
The phrase put a chick in it and make it lame specifically targets the idea of the "Panderstone." In the episode, Cartman is transported to a universe where every single person is a diverse woman who complains about the patriarchy. But the real bite isn't just the casting. It's the "make it lame" part. That's the part that hurts. It’s the suggestion that the writing, the soul, and the stakes of these stories are being sacrificed at the altar of a corporate checklist.
Disney, specifically under Kathleen Kennedy’s leadership at Lucasfilm, became the poster child for this. Whether that’s entirely fair is debatable, but the perception is reality in the eyes of the audience. When South Park used that phrase, they weren't just making a joke. They were articulating a specific type of creative bankruptcy where "representation" replaces "character development."
Why it resonated so hard with fans
People like good stories. It’s that simple. Honestly, if you look at the biggest hits of the last decade, audiences have no problem with female leads. Look at Arcane. Look at Everything Everywhere All At Once. People loved those.
The problem—the "lame" part—starts when a studio takes an established male character, swaps them for a woman, and then forgets to give that woman a personality beyond "being better than the guys."
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It feels cheap.
When you hear put a chick in it and make it lame, it’s a shorthand for a specific kind of lazy executive decision-making. It’s the boardroom meeting where someone says, "How do we appeal to Gen Z?" and the answer is just "swap the protagonist." No one asks if the script is actually good. No one cares if the internal logic of the world makes sense anymore.
Take the recent Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Or the Willow series on Disney+. Fans didn't hate these because women were present. They hated them because the original heroes were often sidelined or made to look incompetent just to make the new female leads look better. That is the definition of "making it lame." It’s artificial. It’s unearned.
The Kathleen Kennedy Factor
We have to talk about Kathleen Kennedy because the South Park special certainly did. She is one of the most successful producers in history. Seriously. Look at her resume: E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler's List. She’s a titan.
But at Lucasfilm, she became a lightning rod.
The "Force is Female" campaign, while technically a Nike collaboration, became a symbol for what fans saw as a shift in priorities. The phrase put a chick in it and make it lame became the unofficial slogan for the era of Star Wars that gave us the "Holdo Maneuver" and the "Rey Skywalker" reveal.
Critics of this viewpoint argue that fans are just being sexist. And sure, some are. There's a dark corner of the internet that hates anything that isn't a white dude in a cape. But most people? They just want to feel the magic again. They want the hero’s journey to mean something. When you skip the "journey" and just give the hero all the powers because it’s "her turn," you lose the audience. You make it lame.
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The economics of pandering
Why do they do it? Money. Or at least, the idea of money.
Corporations are risk-averse. They look at data. They see that diverse audiences are growing and they want to capture that market share. But they try to do it with the least amount of effort possible.
- Instead of creating a new, iconic female character like Ellen Ripley or Sarah Connor, they "reimagine" an existing one.
- Instead of writing complex flaws, they write "flawless" icons who are boring to watch.
- They use ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores to satisfy investors, sometimes at the expense of the creative vision.
This is the "Panderstone" in action. It’s a feedback loop where the studio produces something mediocre, the fans complain, the studio calls the fans names, and the brand value drops.
Is the tide actually turning?
Interestingly, since the South Park episode aired, we’ve seen a bit of a shift. Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, has publicly stated that the company may have leaned too hard into messaging at the expense of storytelling. He’s talked about pulling back on the volume of content and focusing on quality.
Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is feeling the burn. The Marvels struggled at the box office. Not because people hate Brie Larson—though some certainly do—but because the movie felt like a homework assignment. It felt like it was following the put a chick in it and make it lame formula by focusing on "the message" rather than a compelling, high-stakes narrative that stood on its own.
Compare that to Deadpool & Wolverine. It’s irreverent. It’s messy. It’s definitely not "lame." And it made a billion dollars.
How to actually fix the "lame" problem
If you’re a creator, the lesson here isn't "don't include women." That’s the wrong takeaway. The lesson is to treat female characters with enough respect to let them fail, let them be wrong, and let them earn their victories.
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- Stop the "God Mode" writing: Give your characters weaknesses. A character who is naturally good at everything with no training isn't inspiring; they're a Mary Sue. They're boring.
- Stop tearing down the past: You don't have to make the old hero a loser to make the new hero look cool. That just pisses off the people who spent forty years loving the old hero.
- Focus on the "Why": Why is this character here? If the answer is "to fill a demographic slot," start over.
The phrase put a chick in it and make it lame is a warning. It’s a sign that the audience can smell corporate insincerity from a mile away. You can't trick people into liking a bad story by wrapping it in a progressive flag. They will see through it every single time.
Moving forward for fans and creators
Look, the "Panderverse" won't disappear overnight. These movies take years to make. There are likely three or four more "lame" projects already in the pipeline that can't be stopped.
But the conversation has changed.
The South Park special gave people a way to criticize the quality of the content without getting bogged down in the political mud-slinging. It’s okay to want better writing. It’s okay to want characters that feel like human beings rather than corporate avatars.
If you're tired of the "lame" trend, the best thing you can do is vote with your time and your wallet. Support the indie projects that are doing it right. Watch the shows that prioritize story over "the message." Eventually, the big studios will have to listen, because at the end of the day, their primary goal isn't social engineering—it’s profit.
The next time you see a trailer that looks like it was designed by a committee of HR managers, you’ll know exactly what’s happening. You’ll see the Panderstone glowing in the background. And you can choose to skip it.
Actionable takeaways for navigating modern media
To avoid falling into the trap of consuming or supporting "lame" content, consider these shifts in how you engage with entertainment:
- Look for "Writer-Led" projects: Seek out films and shows where a single creative voice has control, rather than those overseen by massive executive committees.
- Analyze the "Flaw Factor": Before diving into a new series, look at reviews (from both critics and fans) to see if the protagonist has an actual character arc or if they start the story already perfect.
- Support Original IP: The easiest way to avoid the "swap" controversy is to support new stories with original female leads. Projects like Prey (the Predator prequel) showed that you can have a strong female lead in a legacy franchise if the writing is grounded and the character earns her stripes.
- Demand nuance: Don't settle for "representation" as a substitute for "characterization." A diverse cast in a terrible script is still a terrible movie.
The era of put a chick in it and make it lame might be reaching its peak, but the only way to ensure it ends is to hold the creators to a higher standard of storytelling. Demand the magic, not the pander.