In my opinion, the 'Whale Whores' episode from South Park accurately depicted the public ignorance, indifference and selfishness towards current issues such as environmental concerns. Stan took the initiative and proposed the idea of saving the dolphins and whales, only to be turned down by his friends who could care less about the problem. The indifference shown by Kyle is inferred from how he told Stan that they "don't give two shits about stupid-ass whales". Viewers may also link the significance of Stan celebrating his birthday at an aquarium with dolphins to be an indirect reference to one of the causes of whaling.
After boarding the Sea Sheperd in Whale Wars, Stan was disappointed at the halfhearted and insincere attempts of Paul Watson and his crew in deterring the Japanese from whaling. Although it centers on addressing the controversial Japanese whaling, which was also garnering quite an amount of media attention during the time when this episode aired, it also brought up the issue of people participating in obviously pointless activities as an alternative to actually spending effort in fixing problems, also known as slacktivism. Animal rights and environmental activist Paul Watson who stars in Animal Planet's reality show, Whale Wars, was portrayed as a person that the modern society coined the word 'slacktivist' for. Therefore, we can conclude that both the antagonized Japanese and the animals' rights slacktivists are criticized equally in this parody of Whale Wars.
After Stan's success as the new captain, following Watson's fictional death, he went on an interview with Larry King on CNN and was bombarded with questions pertaining viewership instead of whaling. The fact that 'Whale War's gained popularity after Stan employs violent tactics, reflects poorly on the character of the general public. Interviewer Larry King's persistence emphasis on increasing the ratings of 'Whale War' instead of the whaling issues shows a prominent exploit of violence in media for money and viewership.
There are also many stereotypical references to the Japanese and their culture, such as Stan uncovering the infamous Japanese movie monster 'Godzilla' statue to scare the whalers off. The Japanese whalers are also clad in their traditional garb and weapons, complete with a typical white headband around their heads.
We can see clearly how narcissistic and egotistic Stan's friends, Cartman and Kyle, are when they expressed interest in joining Stan on television under the pretense of volunteering for the cause. This proves how animals are also being exploited by humans for their shallow and superficial desires. Stan and his friends met the Japanese president after they were captured and imprisoned, where they learnt the hatred stemmed from WWII's atomic bombings. A doctored photo of a dolphin and a whale to be piloting the aircraft that dropped the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was presented to the Japanese by the US. Knowing that the Japanese aim to drive the species of perpetrators to extinction, Stan decided to have Kyle create another doctored photo to be shown to the Japanese in order to stop whale and dolphin slaughter.
When presented with a new doctored photo by Stan who claimed it was authorized by the US government, the Japanese quickly switched targets to chickens and cows without a single doubt or question. It is evident that the Japanese are being portrayed as being less than intelligent in this parody to be so easily manipulated into believing anything. As Randy congratulates Stan at the end for making the Japanese 'normal like us', viewers are also left with another question concerning social dogma and morality in killing animals which are considered common to the rest of the world. Bluntly put, this can be interpreted as hypocrisy and double standards for justifying the killing of another animal just because the society approves of it.
