Cancelled (South Park)

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South Park episode
"Cancelled"

Episode no.	100
Airdate	March 19, 2003
South Park - Season 7 March 19, 2003 – December 17, 2003
I'm a Little Bit Country Krazy Kripples Toilet Paper Cancelled Fat Butt and Pancake Head Lil' Crime Stoppers Red Man's Greed South Park Is Gay! Christian Rock Hard Grey Dawn Casa Bonita All About Mormons Butt Out Raisins It's Christmas in Canada

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"Cancelled" is episode 704 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on March 19, 2003.

In terms of production, this is the 100th episode, though "I'm a Little Bit Country", was actually aired as such. Its production was alluded to in a joke in the episode.

1 Plot
2 References to Pop culture
3 The "Joozians"
4 Miscellanea

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

This episode begins in a manner very similar to the first episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", with Cartman arriving and talking about a dream where he was abducted by aliens. When the children realize this, they and Chef decide to do something about the anal probe Cartman has; they first see a proctologist, then a scientist. They discover the satellite dish in Cartman's butt is sending off pictures of Earth into space; then a group of Visitors show up, and the children and Chef flee. However, the children are ultimately abducted.

The kids wake up on the ship, and meet Najix, an alien who looks like Stan's dad, explaining to them that he chose an appearance that would be most pleasing to them. The disappointed children say it's like the movie Contact which "sucked." He shows his true form, a terrifying monster, so the children have him go through a series of transformations, mostly of celebrities, until Cartman suggests "a taco that craps ice cream". Najix then explains he and the other aliens make a reality show called Earth, which Chef and the scientists discover at the same time on Earth; they proceed to tell everyone, which leads the alien network heads to cancel the show and prepare to destroy the Earth.

The boys go to Planet Fognl to meet the alien heads, who are "Joozians", a species that control all media in the Universe. The aliens don't listen to the boys, but insist on taking them to lunch, a "hekma"(titty) bar, then get a prostitute's hotel room. The two Joozians then, very drunk and high on "blach", begin sucking on each others' "jagons" and licking each others "Quarth." Kenny takes a picture of it, and the boys then blackmail the aliens with it. The Joozians agree to erase everyone's memory of the truth about Earth, then send the oblivious boys back to their own planet. Kenny still has the picture, and though no one can remember what it is, Chef tells Kenny to keep it, as he feels sure it's something very important.

[edit] References to Pop culture

Sounds from the game Doom are used in this episode (the door open and close sound).
The movie Contact is parodied.
The alien construction (and tearing down) of the Earth is a reference to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The opening of the decrypted alien reality-TV show resembles the initial opening of Star Trek: The Next Generation, that was only used during the first season.
The alien chase scene in the first act parodies the archetypal chase scene in The Dukes of Hazzard. A caricature of Boss Hogg can be seen on a billboard during the chase scene, with the words "Eat Big Pig's BBQ." The alien giving chase also impersonates the cackling laugh of Sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane.
The aliens' car is a Buick LeSabre, complete with a mock Buick emblem.
The plot of the episode also parodies The Truman Show.
In another case of The Simpsons Already Did It, the idea of Earth being used as a massive intergalactic reality show was a major plot element in The Simpsons Hit & Run video game - released in September 2003.
According to the shape-shifting alien, each planet has only one species living on it. This is a reference to popular science fiction works such as Star Trek in which each alien species seems to exist on a world without (or at least extremely limited) additional animal life.
The Saddam Hussein form the shapeshifting alien takes on and the song he sings is a parody on a scene right at the end of 1987's Mel Brooks Spaceballs movie.
The scientist, named Jeff, trying to help the boys and Chef looks like a South Park version of Jeff Goldblum. In a reference to Independence Day, when puzzling out alien technology and action, Jeff Goldblum's character follows unlikely chains of thought to come to conclusions that, curiously, turn out to be exactly correct.

[edit] The "Joozians"

The "Joozians" who run the universe's media are parodies of Jews and the charge that Jews secretly run the media; they are shown with stereotypically Jewish appearance (such as their very large noses), use words that sound like Hebrew and when Kyle (who is Jewish) samples some of their food and likes it the aliens claim that he seems to have "Joozian ancestry" to which Cartman replies "Tell us about it."
The Joozians congratulate the boys for having their show (Earth) make it to 100 episodes. "Cancelled" is however only the 97th episode of South Park, the true 100th episode is I'm a Little Bit Country, in which Stan's Dad tells the viewers it is the 100th episode.
In syndication, the reference to the Joozians' apparent oral sex was cut out.

[edit] Miscellanea

Forms that the alien takes on: Randy Marsh (Stan's dad), Santa Claus, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jordan, Don King, George Burns, Saddam Hussein, Jimmie Walker, Missy Elliot and Mr. Roarke and Tattoo from Fantasy Island.
During Fognl's television preview for Earth you can hear Trey Parker saying "derp", a word popularized on the set of BASEketball and in the episode "The Biggest Douche in the Universe".
This episode originally aired on the night the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began. It is referenced at the very end of the episode. In fact it began almost the same hour as the bombs started falling on Baghdad.
In episode 609 (Free Hat), a fake commercial satirically claimed that Matt and Trey had always wanted to digitally remaster the pilot episode, turning the alien spaceship into a "4.0-megapixel digitally dropped masterpiece". It has been suggested that this episode is exactly that: a digitally remastered repeat of Cartman Gets an Anal Probe.