Christian Rock Hard
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| South Park episode | |
| "Christian Rock Hard" | |
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| Episode no. | 105 |
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| Airdate | October 29, 2003 |
| South Park - Season 7 March 19, 2003 – December 17, 2003 |
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| ← Season 6 | Season 8 → |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"Christian Rock Hard" is episode 709 of Comedy Central's South Park. It originally aired on October 29, 2003.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
When the other boys kick Cartman out of their band, "Moop", for suggesting that they play Christian rock, Cartman forms his own group to make music for Jesus not for spiritual rewards, but to profit from the wide audience for this kind of music. Cartman and Kyle bet each other $10 that their respective band will be the first to go platinum by selling one million records.
Stan, Kyle and Kenny, seeking "inspiration", decide to download music from the Internet (because CDs are too expensive) and they are arrested for illegal downloading. The police chief shows them the consequences of downloading. Musicians like Lars Ulrich (drummer of metal band Metallica) and Britney Spears are so affected by loss of income from music piracy that they must substitute extremely luxurious purchases for preposterously extravagant ones (like Britney Spears not being able to keep a Gulfstream 4, so she replaced it with a smaller Gulfstream 3, that didn't have enough space for a few things she had in her Gulfstream 4). As budding musicians, Moop decides to go on strike until fans stop downloading and are joined by a large number of pop and rock stars, including Britney Spears, Master P, Blink 182, and Skylar's band from the season three episode "Cat Orgy" and the season four episode "Timmy 2000".
Meanwhile, Cartman, Butters and Token (who, according to Cartman, can play bass because he is black) have rocketed to the top of the Christian rock charts, with Cartman simply tweaking the lyrics of love ballads to include Jesus' name. It turns out to be extremely successful.
Their band, Faith + 1, soon celebrates the sale of its millionth album. Stan, Kyle and Kenny realize that the satisfaction of having fans should surely be more important to musicians than fighting against fans, who make them popular and come to see their concerts. Moop decides to stop striking, although the other (more famous) musicians decline, saying "sorry, we're all about the money."
At an expensive awards ceremony to celebrate Faith + 1's success, their record label present them with a myrrh album. This means Kyle hasn't lost the bet; Christian record companies only hand out gold, frankincense and myrrh records, so Cartman can never have a platinum album (but can "go double myrrh"). His frustration gets the myrrh album destroyed and leads him to scream "Oh Fuck Jesus!", making the fans scream and flee. Butters then says "Eric, I don't think you should say the 'F' word about Jesus." Token becomes mad because Cartman has driven the crowd away. Cartman get back at Token by calling him a "black asshole" and, driven to breaking point, Token beats Cartman up and walks away. The boys feel that Cartman got what he deserved and leave. As Cartman is on the ground in pain, Butters hesitates, then farts in his face, gives him the finger and says "Fuck you, Eric!" before he leaves Cartman all alone.
[edit] Trivia
- The lyrics to the songs that Cartman writes express physical love (eros), rather than spiritual love (agape) for Jesus. According to the commentary for this episode, the creators expressed that at one point they wanted to make a Christian rock band which expressed physical love for Jesus.
- The fact that the episode suggests illegal downloading is OK reflects the genuine belief of the creators, who have no problem with episodes of the show being downloaded.[1]
- Bands and artists joining Moop's strike are, among others, Rancid, Ozzy Osbourne, Meat Loaf, Master P, Blink-182, Metallica, Britney Spears, Missy Elliot, Alanis Morissette and The Lords of the Underworld.
- In the commentary for this episode Matt and Trey remark that this is probably the first time on TV that "fuck Jesus" was ever said, even though it was censored. However, in the earlier episode "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics", Santa says "Aww, fuck you, Jesus!".
- The commentary also reveals that Matt and Trey wrote and produced full versions of each of Faith+1's songs. They were only able to play short segments of each of them due to time constraints, but they would consider releasing the full versions in some form in the future.
- Some of the songs Cartman parodies are: I've Never Been to Me by Charlene ("I Wasn't Born Again Yesterday"), and Three Times a Lady by the Commodores ("Three Times My Savior").
[edit] Goofs
- When the photo for the album is taken, Butters is standing on the left side and Token is standing on the right side. But on the banner for Faith+1's award presentation, Token is on the left and Butters is on the right.
[edit] References
- ^ FAQ Archives #13232. South Park Studios (2003-08). Retrieved on March 19, 2007. “Matt and Trey do not mind when fans download their episodes off the Internet; they feel that it’s good when people watch the show no matter how they do it.”
[edit] External links
| Preceded by "South Park Is Gay!" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "Grey Dawn" |
