Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow
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| South Park episode | |
| "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" | |
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| Episode no. | 70 |
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| Airdate | July 18, 2001 |
| South Park - Season 5 June 20, 2001 – December 12, 2001 |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" is episode 505 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on July 18, 2001.
[edit] Plot synopsis
The episode opens at Cartman's house, where the boys are watching Terrance and Phillip on TV. The episode proves to be a rerun, and the boys are able to speak each line of the show an instant before Terrance and Phillip do. As the show goes to commercial, Stan asks, prophetically, "When are they gonna make new ones?" But the boys are quickly distracted when the commercial informs them that Terrance and Phillip LIVE! is coming to the Denver Coliseum Thursday night. All four boys go into hysterics, determined to see the show.
At school the next morning the boys are ecstatic as they inform their jealous classmates that they will be seeing Terrance and Phillip LIVE! Ms. Choksondik then calls the class to order and tells the children that Earth Day is coming up on Friday and that the national Earth Day organization has chosen South Park to be the location of the Earth Day Brainwashing Festival. She then introduces three environmentalists from the organization who are there to tell the children more about it.
The environmentalists immediately begin using Jedi mind tricks on the children, slowly waving their hands uttering phrases like, "You care very much about the earth, don't you?" and "Nothing matters more than saving the planet from Republicans." This works on everyone except for the boys, who are horrified to learn that they are expected to help set up the festival Thursday night. Kyle protests that they spent $40 apiece for tickets to see Terrance and Phillip that night. When this fails to sway the environmentalists, Kyle lies and tells them that the real reason the boys are going to the show is to convince Terrance and Phillip to perform at the Earth Day festival (he informs them that the boys are the official presidents of the Terrance and Phillip Fan Club). The environmentalists like the idea, but warn Kyle that he had better not promise things to the Earth Day people that he cannot deliver.
At the "Terrance and Phillip LIVE!" show the boys discover that Terrance has grown incredibly fat and is now performing with a Phillip stand-in who neither looks nor sounds like the real Phillip. Together they perform a "classic Terrance and Phillip sketch," which turns out to be a parody of the classic Abbott and Costello sketch Who's On First?. Determined to find out what's going on, the boys try to visit Terrance in his dressing room, where a bouncer informs them that they have to get in the "Official Presidents of the Terrance and Phillip Fan Club" line, which is full of other children, all of whom are official presidents. Fortunately the boys spot another, shorter line, for "female groupies and other random sluts". The boys hide in the pants of an extremely obese groupie and quickly find themselves in the dressing room. Once inside the boys ask Terrance about performing at the Earth Day festival and about Phillip's absence. Terrance turns angry at the mention of Phillip, and explains to the boys that he and Phillip have gone their separate ways, and Phillip is currently in Toronto, doing Canadian Shakespeare.
Back in South Park, the boys tell the environmentalists that Terrance and Phillip are no longer performing together, so it will be impossible to have Terrance and Phillip at the Earth Day festival. The environmentalists become violently angry, as they have already heavily promoted the appearance. The boys are told to go to Canada immediately to convince Phillip to perform, or else. Fearing for their lives, the boys leave to track down Phillip.
After sitting through a Canadian performance of Hamlet, the boys confront Phillip in the parking lot and ask him if he will appear at the Earth Day festival. Phillip is receptive until Kyle mentions performing with Terrance, which Phillip flatly refuses to do. When pleading and threats (Cartman says he will make Phillip eat his parents) fail to persuade Phillip, Kyle again lies and says that the people of South Park only want to see Phillip anyway, not Terrance. This placates Phillip and he agrees to come, but all four boys worry about what will happen when Phillip finds out that Terrance is at the festival too.
At the festival, the boys assure the environmentalists that Terrance and Phillip will both be there any minute. Determined to keep up the pressure on the boys, the environmentalists use a meat cleaver to chop off Kenny's left forearm. A moment later Phillip shows up, followed quickly by Terrance. The two are initially furious to see one another, but this time Kyle uses a Jedi mind trick to convince the two of the importance of the event and they reluctantly agree to work together.
During their rehearsal, Terrance and Phillip stand far apart, their backs to each other, with their arms crossed. The rehearsal quickly boils over into an argument when Phillip starts substituting Shakespearean dialog in place of his usual lines. The two call each other a host of names and finally storm off the stage, each refusing to work with the other any more. The boys are dismayed by this, but not nearly as much as the environmentalists, who tell the boys that they had better get Terrance and Phillip back together before the show starts, or else. For good measure, the environmentalists chop off Kenny's right forearm.
When the show finally starts and Terrance and Phillip are introduced, Kyle instead puts on a video of the documentary Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow. The crowd seems pleased by this, but the environmentalists are furious and begin chasing the boys, with meat cleavers in their hands. While the chase is in progress, Terrance and Phillip both notice the film that is playing, and both stop to watch the story of their career, which included a Nobel Peace Prize and their own Saturday morning cartoon.
When the boys pause in front of the school, thinking they've momentarily lost the environmentalists, Stan suggests that the four will have to move away because "environmental activists don't use logic or reason." Just then the environmentalists catch up to them and chop off Kenny's left lower legs. Despite his grievous injuries, Kenny still manages to hop away again with the rest of the boys. Back at the festival Terrance and Phillip happen upon one another in the crowd and, after seeing what an incredible career they've had together, apologize to one another and decide to perform for the crowd.
At this point the boys and the environmentalists both arrive back at the festival, where the environmentalists cut off Kenny's right lower leg. Just as the environmentalists move in to finish off the other boys Terrance and Phillip take the stage and begin performing their routine. This thrills everyone, even the limbless (but still alive) Kenny (who can't see the stage until Cartman rolls him over).
[edit] Trivia
- Cartman says to Phillip "I'll make you eat your parents", a reference to the events in "Scott Tenorman Must Die".
- The Behind The Blow special references the fan outrage after "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus" was aired instead of "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut".
- As Carl was going to sever Kenny the second time, he seems to be missing his mouth.
- Kenny is chopped up in this episode (legs and arms only), yet he doesn't die. He could have died off screen after the episode, though.
- The scene that Philip acts out in Hamlet is actually a word-by-word enactment of the last scene of the play.
- This is one of the few episodes to make an explicit reference to the events of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.
- We find out in this episode that Terrance and Phillip started using fart jokes because, when they were 6 years old, Terrance accidentally did a fart on the Ed Sullivan Show, which he and Phillip were performing in.
[edit] Goofs
- When the random slut appeared in the line she was the forth person and behind a woman in a green shirt. When she saw Terrance he came after the first woman in the line instead of the woman in the green shirt. However, there is a possibility that the second and third women left or she may have cut in the line.
| Preceded by "Super Best Friends" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "Cartmanland" |
