Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo (episode)
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| South Park episode | |
| "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" | |
 Mr. Hankey in his native habitat. |
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| Episode no. | 110 |
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| Airdate | December 17, 1997 |
| South Park - Season 1 August 13, 1997 – February 25, 1998 |
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| Season 2 → | |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is the tenth episode of Comedy Central's animated series South Park which originally aired on December 17, 1997.
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[edit] Plot
This Christmas-themed episode of South Park opens as the school children rehearse for their Christmas play. They are performing a Christian Nativity, and when Kyle's mother hears of this, she is angered by the play, because her son, a Jew, plays the role of Joseph (never mind the actual on screen depiction of the birth of Jesus, with Wendy playing the role of Mary). Even though Joseph was indeed a Jew, Mrs. Brovlovski is offended by the Christian imagery, and demands that the religious elements be taken out of the public school Christmas pageant. Kyle suggests they celebrate Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo as a non-religious substitute for, but since he is the only one who believes in Mr. Hankey, his suggestion is rejected.
Mrs. Brovloski's demands trigger uproar in the town, and so it is decided that anything offensive to anyone will be removed from the Christmas celebrations, including Santa Claus, wreaths, trees, stars, lights, and candy canes. Kyle is embarrassed by his mother's actions, and turns to Mr. Hankey for solace, who, it turns out, is a real-life talking piece of poo. Kyle tries to introduce Mr. Hankey to the masses, but no one believes in him, and most are in fact horrified at the idea of a talking piece of poo. Kyle's efforts result in mishaps, such as flinging Mr. Hankey (who looks like a normal piece of poo to everyone else) at Cartman and slipping poo into Mr. Mackey's coffee. Mr. Mackey declares Kyle a "clinically depressed fecalphiliac on Prozac" and has him committed.
Ultimately, the school Christmas pageant is stripped of all semblance of Christmas, as anything that does resemble Christmas is deemed offensive by someone. Instead, the children present a minimalist song and dance created by Philip Glass. The parents, astounded by how awful the pageant is, begin blaming one another for destroying Christmas, and a fight breaks out. Finally, Mr. Hankey reveals himself to everyone, and scolds everyone, saying that in spending so much time trying to find what's wrong with Christmas, they forgot everything that was "so right about it" - singing songs, cookies and goodwill towards men. The townspeople release Kyle from the asylum and apologize, and they all watch Mr. Hankey fly away with Santa Claus.
[edit] Kenny's Death
- This is the first episode in which Kenny doesn't die. However, Kenny is told to unplug Christmas lights (plugs are by a dripping water tap), and also to climb to the top of a ladder to remove a star hanging above the stage, two actions where Kenny does risk his life. At the end of the episode, Stan and the others comment on something not being quite right, as if something is wrong with the end picture. When the words "The End" appear before the credits, Kenny cheers in relief, the first time a South Park character has broken the fourth wall.
[edit] Trivia
- Mr. Garrison asks Mayor McDaniels to get rid of all the Mexicans. He says this again in It's Christmas in Canada.
- After the children's choir finishes singing, the episode opens with Stan arriving on the stage and reciting the story of the birth of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, in much the same manner as Linus did in the famous "A Charlie Brown Christmas" special.
- Three popular South Park songs debuted in this episode: "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", "Kyle's Mom is a Stupid Bitch", and "The Lonely Jew on Christmas."
- Just after the fight at the Christmas play, there is a fake live-action commercial for the "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo Playset". It features a family of a mom, her son and two daughters. The mom uses a fish net to recover a piece of feces from their toilet, and they dress it up with clothes and accessories from the set. It is edited in syndication, though.
- Jesus can be seen after the end credits celebrating his birthday (Christmas) alone in his TV studio.
- After this episode aired, John Kricfalusi, of Ren and Stimpy fame, accused Parker and Stone of ripping off a character from his George Liquor flash cartoons called Nutty the happy dump. However, the court ruled out the case as "too ridiculous". Ironically, the episode actually featured a reference to Ren and Stimpy when Mr. Mackey calls Kyle a "sick little monkey".
- It is believed by fans of Marvel Comics that a pre-super-hero monster called Taboo featured in Strange Tales #75-77 was the inspiration for Mr. Hankey because it bore an unintentional resemblance to a humanoid lump of feces and was in fact re-colored and re-drawn in reprints to stop this confusion.
- This is the first episode to feature Mr. Mackey, the school counselor.
- This is the episode that began Cartman's horrible and entertaining anti-semitism.
[edit] Goofs
- Sheila Broflovski (Kyle's mother) complains about Kyle playing Joseph of Arimathea. In fact, Mary's husband was Joseph of Nazareth. It is possible that this is a deliberate mistake, since Sheila Broflovski is Jewish and so might not be expected to know that the two Josephs are different. This could also be one of many Monty Python tributes, as Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- When the children run out to play with the snow in the beginning, Red (Bertha) can be seen wearing Wendy's clothes when exiting the door.
- Kenny can be seen next to Stan when Mr. Garrison is telling them to get ready, but Kenny was taking off the star at the time.
- After the big fight in the audience during the play, Token is seen sitting there with a white face.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by "Starvin' Marvin" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "Tom's Rhinoplasty" |
