Fantastic Easter Special
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| South Park episode | |
| "Fantastic Easter Special" | |
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| Episode no. | 158 |
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| Airdate | April 4, 2007 |
| South Park - Season 11 March 7, 2007 – TBA |
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| ← Season 10 | |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"Fantastic Easter Special" is episode 1105 of the animated series South Park. It parodies the movie The Da Vinci Code, based on the novel of the same name by Dan Brown.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The episode begins with the Marsh family dipping and coloring eggs for Easter. Stan suddenly questions why they're doing this for Easter if the holiday is supposed to be about Jesus Christ. He argues with his father about his vague responses before storming off. After Stan makes the same inquiries to a mall Easter Bunny, the bunny makes a mysterious call revealing that someone is uncovering a secret plot.
Stan soon finds himself being chased by men in bunny suits. When Stan gets home, it turns out his dad, Randy, is putting on a bunny suit. After calling the other bunny men off, He tells Stan he's in a society called "The Hare Club for Men", who have guarded the secret of Easter for generations. Randy takes Stan to the headquarters of the Hare Club, where he is to be initiated into the group. There they take out a rabbit named Snowball, who they seem to worship like a god. As Stan is going through the ceremony, the leader begins to tell him the secret of Easter. Suddenly, the club is ambushed by ninjas; the Hare Club members rush to protect Snowball, and Randy gives the rabbit to Stan, telling him to run. He escapes with Snowball, and witnesses the ninjas and their leader - Bill Donohue, head of the American Catholic League - interrogating and kidnapping the Hare Club members.
Stan goes to Kyle, and the two manage to track down a man named Professor Teabag who knows the secret of the Hare Club. Teabag explains that Leonardo da Vinci was actually a member of the Hare Club, and shows them a picture of his Last Supper. He points to a dark food on the table that appears to be an egg, right in front of St. Peter, the first pope. However, Teabag explains that, unlike his depiction in the painting, St. Peter was not a man - but actually a rabbit, and uses laser imaging to show that da Vinci originally portrayed St. Peter as a rabbit instead of as a man. ("Peter Rabbit.") Teabag explains that Jesus knew that no human could speak for all Christianity without being corrupted, but that rabbits were "pure" and could be trusted- hence why the Pope's hat is shaped to accommodate a rabbit's ears. He further explains that Snowball is actually a direct descendant from St. Peter, and that Stan's father has been kidnapped by the Vatican, who wish to cover up this secret. Once again the ninjas attack, but Teabag helps the two boys escape by putting marshmallow Peeps in the microwave, creating an explosion that destroys the mansion.
At the Vatican, Stan's father is interrogated by Pope Benedict XVI and Bill Donohue, who want to get Snowball and end their "blasphemy". Donohue insists that the rabbit must be retrieved at all costs, and his ninjas begin to kill the Hare Club members. Eventually Stan, Kyle and the rabbit go to the Vatican where Stan turns it over to the Catholic Church, after the pope and Donohue swear not to hurt it or the Hare Club members. Once they take possession of Snowball, Donohue reveals he had actually promised on a double cross and plans to make an example of the Hare Club. Jesus miraculously arrives to intervene. Benedict's assistant mentions he thought Jesus had died in Iraq. He tells them that he did, in fact, plan for the popes to be rabbits, and cites the current corruption as an example of why. Benedict is willing to listen, but Donohue seizes the Pope's mitre, and orders his ninjas to capture all of them, including Jesus and Benedict. He then goes out and addresses the Catholic worshipers, declaring himself the new Pope.
In the prison cell, Jesus tries to escape, but he can't; he explains to Kyle that his "superpowers" only work when he is dead. He suddenly realizes that if he were to die, he could resurrect outside of the cell and stop Donohue, and implores Kyle to kill him. Kyle is very reluctant ("I'm a Jew. I have a few hang-ups about killing Jesus."). However, Kyle does kill him saying "Eric Cartman can never know about this." A moment later, just as Pope Donohue is about to execute Stan, Randy and Snowball, Jesus appears in the crowd, and uses a glaive to cut Donohue in half. Immediately afterwards, Jesus puts on a pair of sunglasses. In the final scene of the episode, the newly elected pope, Snowball, cannot speak, leaving questions as to how people should lead their lives unanswered by the Church, the way "Jesus intended". Stan finally reveals that he has learned his lesson through all of his adventures: to not ask questions.
[edit] Continuity in South Park
- Although this episode claims St. Peter was a rabbit (hence "Peter Rabbit"), a human St. Peter was seen in his traditional role as Heaven's gatekeeper in "Best Friends Forever."
- This episode marks the first appearance of Jesus in four and a half years (apart from in Kyle's dream in "The Passion of the Jew" and al-Quaida's cartoon in "Cartoon Wars Part II.") His absence is even acknowledged when Benedict's assistant makes a reference to Jesus' last appearance and apparent death in the episode "Red Sleigh Down."
- When Kyle is about to kill Jesus, he says "Eric Cartman can never know about this." This references a long-running joke in the series about Cartman's antisemitism, and accusation of all Jewish people for killing Jesus ("The Passion of the Jew").
- Jesus states he only has special powers when dead, although in "Super Best Friends" he had the power of master carpentry and was able to fly. Those skills, though, would have probably not been helpful in breaking him out of jail.
[edit] Cultural references
- The episode parodies The Da Vinci Code in the following fashions:
- The Hare Club for Men is a parody of the secret society Priory of Sion, as well as a play on words on the "Hair Club for Men."
- Professor Teabag is a parody of Sir Leigh Teabing, and the way he introduces the conspiracy of St. Peter is very similar to the way the The Last Supper is presented in both the film and book versions of the Da Vinci Code.
- When the ninjas are seen breaking into Professor Teabag's mansion, it is most likely a parody of Silas, who breaks into Sir Leigh Teabing's mansion.
- William Donohue, head of the American Catholic League, is parodied as a ruthless executioner leading a band of ninjas, and who sees himself as more holy that the Pope or Jesus. Donohue has been a vocal critic of South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, particularly over the episode "Bloody Mary." Some of his lines seem to parody controversies about him:
- After the two-part "Cartoon Wars" episode, Donohue commented that Stone and Parker were "little whores" for being against the censorship of Muhammad but still being willing to make money off of mocking Jesus. In this episode Donohue calls Stan and Kyle (who often represent Parker and Stone, respectively, in the show) "whores."
- While the Marsh family is coloring eggs, Randy sings the song "Easter Parade" by Irving Berlin from the 1933 Irving Berlin, Moss Hart Broadway musical revue As Thousands Cheer.
- The scene in which Stan discovers his father wearing bunny ears is a parody of the scene in the 1985 movie "Teen Wolf" in which Scott Howard (played by Michael J. Fox) discovers his father is a werewolf.
- The song chanted by the members of the Hare Club for Men is "Peter Cottontail," written by Steve Nelson and Walter E. "Jack" Rollins in 1949. Sung in Latin, the chant combines lyrics from the eponymous song and traditional Catholic hymns. During the Vatican scene at the end of the episode, the last line is changed to "in the name of God." The lyric "hippitus hoppitus" is a Dog Latin "translation" of the lines "hippity hoppity".
- The weapon that Jesus throws at Donohue is a reference to the movie Krull's Glaive weapon. The pose he does afterwards was a nod to the movie Blade: Trinity.
- Jesus's escape from prison by resurrecting elsewhere after Kyle reluctantly kills him is similar to the episode Rapture from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica in which Sharon Agathon, a Cylon capable of being reborn in a new body upon death, convinces her hesitant husband kill her so she can resurrect on a Cylon ship where their daughter is being held.
- When Randy and the other rabbits are captured, the scene where Randy asks another rabbit how he is, is a direct correlation of part of the opening scene in 3 Skulls Of The Toltecs
- The scene in which Professor Teabag watches his "bomb" detonate, as well as the manner in which the detonation is shown, is a direct parody of the beginning of the X Files Movie, in which a man from the bomb squad allows a bomb to explode, blowing him backwards.
- The slow-motion sequence of death William Donohue is an obvious parody of the slow-motion sequences in 300, with each droplet of Donohue's off-focus, stylized blood shown spraying out. 300 was playing in theaters at the time of the original airing of this episode.
[edit] Trivia
- The television at the professor's house is branded "Cony," a play on the brand name Sony and the word cony, which is another word for a rabbit.
- The picture hanging on the wall outside of the restroom that Randy comes out of when Stan is being chased up the stairs by the rabbits is an image of the hill where Joseph Smith dug holes in search of the Golden Plates in a previous South Park episode entitled All About Mormons.
- The Marshes dye their eggs with Paas brand Easter egg kits.
[edit] External links
- "Fantastic Easter Special" at South Park Studios
- Fantastic Easter Special at the Internet Movie Database
| Preceded by "The Snuke" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "D-Yikes!" |
