AWESOM-O

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South Park episode
"AWESOM-O"
AWESOM-O applies Butters' suppository.
Episode no.	116
Airdate	April 14, 2004
South Park - Season 8 March 17, 2004 – December 15, 2004
Good Times with Weapons Up the Down Steroid The Passion of the Jew You Got F'd in the A AWESOM-O The Jeffersons Goobacks Douche and Turd Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes Pre-School Quest for Ratings Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset Cartman's Incredible Gift Woodland Critter Christmas

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List of all South Park episodes

"AWESOM-O" is episode 802 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on April 14, 2004. It was the fastest ever episode of South Park to create, taking only three days.[1]

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Cartman disguises himself as a robot named "the AWESOM-O 4000" and puts himself in a crate on Butters' doorstep, planning to befriend a gullible Butters and thereby discover Butters' embarrassing secrets. However, to Cartman's shock, Butters tells "AWESOM-O" that he has a tape of Cartman dressed up like Britney Spears, making out with a cardboard cut-out of Justin Timberlake, and he plans to show it to the town next time Cartman plays a prank on him. Cartman, terrified about this, searches Butters' room furiously for the tape -- but cannot take off the robot suit, or Butters will know "AWESOM-O" was another prank. Butters' parents (knowing who "AWESOM-O" really is but thinking it's an elaborate game that Butters is in on) decide to let "AWESOM-O" come with Butters on a trip to Los Angeles to visit a relative. Left with no alternative, Cartman is forced to go, or else reveal his disguise.

In Hollywood, movie producers hear about the "robot" and decide to hire him from Butters to create movie ideas; Cartman, as the robot, pitches one thousand nonsensical ideas (800 of which star Adam Sandler), while Butters and the movie producers are gullible enough to buy them. Meanwhile, the U.S. Military hears about "AWESOM-O", and decides to capture him (using, for some reason, a van marked with the CIA seal) to make him into a weapon; they get Cartman, and hold him in a secret base.

Cartman tries to explain that he's really a kid, but when Butters shows up to rescue him, he has to stop, allowing the military to kill a scientist. But the military believes that he is a robot with A.I that made it think it was human. He gets rescued, however, in the end: Cartman's fart reveals that he's really human and, alas, Cartman's extensive ordeal has been for nothing as Butters shows the video of him dressed as Britney Spears to the whole town as well as to the U.S. Military. As everyone laughs and one of the military soliders remarks that Cartman is a little faggot, all Cartman can muster up in response is "Lame"

[edit] Trivia

This episode was advertised as "The Return of Lemmiwinks". However, no such episode exists. This disclaimer appeared before the episode began:

"Due to this week's tragic events in Hawaii, the Lemmiwinks episode of South Park will not be shown tonight. Instead, we present the all new and slightly better episode, AWESOM-O."

According to the audio commentary, the crew had to go to Hawaii for a friend's wedding, which pushed back the production of this episode.

On the creator's commentary, Matt Stone said that the idea for this show came from the idea of Cartman saying "lame" in a robot voice.
Mrs. Cartman's reference to Cartman being grounded for "trying to exterminate the Jews two weeks ago" refers to "The Passion of the Jew". However, this was two episodes before Cartman tried to exterminate the Jews.
Attached to the costume of AWESOM-O is a phone cord, six type D batteries, a television antenna, a can opener, construction paper shapes, a blinking red light, a green Christmas light, a power strip, and a garage door opener.
Butters remembers the events from "Casa Bonita" where Cartman convinced Butters to hide in a bomb shelter, and "Jared Has Aides", where Cartman imitated Butters on the phone to his father, verbally bashing him.
During the L.A. montage of clips, Butters and Awesom-O are seen in a log ride that looks exactly like the Yeti ride in Colorado's Funland. In the previous shot from the Season 5 episode, there are trees and bushes in a mountain-like atmosphere. In this episode, the tree (and one of the bushes) was changed into a dinosaur.
When Cartman, in the robot suit, stated his name and where he lived; the scientist called him "an eight year old boy." Cartman had not disclosed this information to him nor is he eight years old, anymore.

[edit] References to Pop culture

The name AWESOM-O is likely a reference to the ASIMO built by Honda.
"Konnichi wa" is Japanese for "Hello".
The song which Butters sings, "My Robot Friend", is based on the 1964 hit "I'm Into Something Good" by Herman's Hermits and its lyrics pay homage to the theme to the TV show The Courtship of Eddie's Father.
The scene where the military captures AWESOM-O is similar to R2-D2's capture in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
The scene in which Cartman (while bound to an upright operating table) asserts to the Military that he is human may be a reference to a similar scene in the 1996 film Ghost in the Shell.
Most of the end-section of this episode is a parody of the common hollywood cliche of science fiction movies, particularly B-Movies.
One of the movie ideas suggested by Awesom-o, coined "Punch-Drunk Billionaire", has a similar title with Punch-Drunk Love and has a partially similar storyline with Mr. Deeds. Adam Sandler plays the lead role in both movies.
AWESOM-O and Butters visit Catamount Pictures, a parody of Paramount Pictures (who own the DVD rights to South Park, and the US rights to the South Park movie).
AWESOM-O looks awfully similar to Danbo, a character from the manga Yotsuba&!. Both are fake cardboard robots that have simply-designed faces and in them lies a character who is known for teasing the protagonist. It is likely that Trey and Matt are aware of Kiyohiko Azuma's work, considering that Trey Parker is a fan of Japanese culture.