"Dead Celebrities" includes references to several actors, singers and other celebrities who died in the middle of 2009, when the thirteenth season of "South Park" was on a mid-season hiatus. The episode serves not only to parody the celebrities themselves, but also to provide commentary on the tendency of American media to exploit, idolatrize and excessively report on the lives and deaths of celebrities. The most prominently featured of these celebrities is pop singer Michael Jackson, who died of multiple drug intoxication on June 25.