Jared Has Aides
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| South Park episode | |
| "Jared Has Aides" | |
 "Welcome to City Wok." |
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| Episode no. | 80 |
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| Airdate | March 6, 2002 |
| South Park - Season 6 March 6, 2002 – December 11, 2002 |
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| ← Season 5 | Season 7 → |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"Jared Has Aides" is episode 602 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on March 6, 2002.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Jared Fogle, the ubiquitous spokesman for Subway, visits South Park, touting that "weight loss is easy" with a regimen of sub sandwiches. When Stan, Cartman, Butters, and Kyle visit Jared after his speech to the town, they are dismayed to find that his amazing weight loss is the result not of eating all the sandwiches he wanted, but of intensive consultations with a personal trainer and a dietitian (who he refers to as his "Aides"). Cartman suggests that the boys cut a similar deal with the local Chinese restaurant, City Wok, and that Butters should gain 50 pounds and then lose it, claiming that his weight loss was due to a strict diet of City Wok.
Meanwhile, after being confronted by the boys, Jared decides to tell the world his secret to weight loss. He informs his girlfriend Christine that he has had help from "aides", causing her to believe that he has Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome and sparking a running gag in which everyone mistakes the word "aides" for the disease AIDS for the rest of the show. He also comes clean with the people of South Park, suggesting that everyone who wants to lose weight should get aides. For this, Subway decides to fire Jared from his promotional duties.
The boys cut a deal with City Wok's stereotypical proprietor, Tuong Lu Kim, and the next phase of the plan begins. Unfortunately, Butters does not lose weight from exercise. The only remaining option is liposuction, which Cartman performs himself. However, after the procedure, Butters' parents come home, and Cartman, Stan, and Kyle manage to leave before they enter the house. Butters' parents immediately ground him, thinking he had self-performed liposuction surgery in the house after they had warned him four times to never do so.
Jared surmises that the reason for this turn of events is that others cannot afford to hire their own aides to assist in their weight loss. Thus, Jared devotes his money to the Aides for Everyone Foundation, dedicated to providing aides to everyone, including personally giving aides to every underprivileged child in the world. This does not go over too well with the townspeople, and Jared is chased through town by an angry mob. When he escapes, he vents his frustrations by (literally) beating a dead horse.
Stan and Kyle sneak Butters out of his house (with Cartman covering for him) and take him to City Wok, but the owner decides that he wants nothing to do with his "very own Jared" due to recent events. The boys run downtown to intercept the mob, but Jared is already at the gallows. Back at the Stotch residence, however, Cartman masquerades as Butters on the phone when Mr. Stotch calls home. When Mr. Stotch asks if he is watching TV, Cartman claims that he was just "jackin' his hot spicy boner" and proceeds to call him a "vaginal belch". After telling Mr. Stotch "Bring it on, queerbait," Cartman hangs up on Butters' father and laughs. Mrs. Stotch calls shortly after, telling him how upset her husband was. Cartman uses more trash talk on her before hanging up on her, saying "I'll be waiting with bells on, you old horse banging skank." Meanwhile, Kyle manages to stop the lynching by clarifying the running gag to Jared, the Subway executives, and the townspeople. Everyone determines that AIDS is finally funny, since it has been 22.3 years, and a monument is unveiled declaring it as such.
Now that Jared has returned to favor, the City Wok owner offers the boys $15 to use Butters in his advertising, which is rejected. Butters then runs home and thanks Cartman for covering for him, calling him a true friend. Cartman thanks Butters, then as soon as he gets outside, Cartman pulls up a deckchair outside of the house and happily listens as Butters' parents return home and beat him for what they believe to be his earlier manner on the phone.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode introduces a new opening, with the boys cut out and made out of construction paper as clips are shown. This features Timmy singing to replace "permanently" dead Kenny.
- Chef uses one of the Aliens to stir his pot. One can also be seen in the restaurant after Jared's girlfriend breaks up with him. As he stands up to chase her, you can see the camouflaged alien on the wall.
- According to Cartman, Japanese girls eat their puke. This is a reference to a video that went around the Internet several times that showed a Japanese girl putting her finger down her throat, throwing up into a bowl, and then eating it.
- The part of the episode where Jared gets fired and is walking along the street parodies Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen and its associated 1993 movie Philadelphia, in which Tom Hanks is fired because of having HIV.
- The song Cartman sings at the end while setting up to watch Butters' parents return is "Johnny's Theme" from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
- Although Jared is portrayed as having a girlfriend in this episode, he had already married in 2001.
- According to this episode, the town square was named after Kenny.
[edit] Censorship and Bans
- The British satellite channel Sky One banned this episode due to the sequence with Butters' makeshift liposuction, the part where Butters eats his own vomit, the AIDS references, and Butters' parents beating him at the end of this episode, but was shown uncut on the UK terrestrial channel Channel 4.
- Syndicated versions cut out the scene where Butters eats his own vomit and the scene at the end where Cartman watches Butters getting beaten and comments that if he "were old enough, he'd be jacking off to it.". In addition, the dialog of Cartman talking to Butters's father was altered to a degree. Both scenes are shown on the Canadian channel Comedy Network.
[edit] Controversial ending
This episode has rarely appeared on Comedy Central. According to one report, the channel forbade ever showing it after its initial week, because of the scene at the end where Butters was heard being beaten by his parents. The implied abuse is never actually seen. The camera cuts to an exterior view of the Stotch's home and Butters' yells, sounds of punches, and even the breaking of glass are heard. Comedy Central is also believed to have forbidden many other episodes with Butters being physically abused by his family. Despite the Comedy Central ban, this episode and other episodes depicting Butters experiencing painful treatment have been shown in syndication (edited for content). Also, the episode is uncut on the Season 6 DVD. In the UK it has been shown on Paramount Comedy 1.
Some fans, however, believe that the reason this episode doesn't reair is because of the controversial potrayal of Subway and its spokesmodel, Jared, while others believe that the episode was pulled because of how it made light of AIDS.
The episode is on normal episode rotation on The Comedy Network in Canada.
In the 10th season finale episode Stanley's Cup, there are 3-and-4-year-old children being beat by several other adults on-screen. Strangely, Comedy Central did not say anything about the on-screen violence. There was also no controversy following "Butters' Very Own Episode", in which Butters' mother actually tries to murder him.
| Preceded by "Freak Strike" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "Asspen" |
