The Death of Eric Cartman
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| South Park episode | |
| "The Death of Eric Cartman" | |
 Butters hides from Cartman. |
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| Episode no. | 131 |
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| Airdate | April 13, 2005 |
| South Park - Season 9 March 9, 2005 – December 7, 2005 |
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| ← Season 8 | Season 10 → |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"The Death of Eric Cartman" is episode 906 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired April 13, 2005.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In this episode, Stan, Kyle and Kenny become incredibly angry at Cartman for ruining their treat of KFC food by eating all the chicken skins (and making Kenny cry), they decide that the best way to deal with him is to completely ignore him. Cartman, however, discovering that nobody seems to see or hear him, believes that he has died and become a ghost. This seems confirmed when he goes home and sees a casket-like box coming out of his house, which the men carrying it mentioning that it was filled with chicken skins, when in reality, it is the toilet that Cartman destroyed with his last use of it. He also hears his mother crying, he thinks because he is dead, though she is actually having anal sex with the plumber.
While most of the kids in South Park soon join in Stan, Kyle and Kenny's resolution to ignore Cartman, Butters is unaware of the movement, and so greets Cartman as he passes by. They then both believe that Butters is somehow psychically able to see him, and set off to try to allow Cartman to go to Heaven (Cartman claims he can't go to hell because he is not black). First, Cartman has Butters apologize to everyone on his behalf; when that fails to allow Cartman to pass over, Butters makes a list of all of Cartman's sins, and they try making amends to various people Cartman has wronged via gift baskets. When this too fails, Cartman goes berserk, destroys Butters' room with a baseball bat, and ends up getting Butters thrown in an insane asylum, where Butters is anally probed by a machine for 17 1/2 hours.
After breaking Butters out, the two consult a psychic, who suggests that God has kept Cartman on Earth to help with some kind of crisis. When they hear of a hostage situation at a Red Cross center, the two set off and Cartman manages to stop the criminals by moving things around. The robbers are merely befuddled at the child's behavior, which provides enough of a distraction for the police to end the hostage situation. Cartman is credited with saving the day, "armed only with the weapon of confusion," as a news reporter put it. After this, Cartman's classmates arrive and tell him they're willing to be his friend again, thinking he has truly changed. When they leave, Cartman—mortified and furious that he had apologized to everybody and been fooled—again goes berserk and inexplicably blames Butters. At the end of the episode, after Cartman has sworn revenge, it is suggested that Butters is sent back to the hospital.
[edit] Cartman's sins
From the list Butters makes:
- Breaking Mr. Anderson's fence. (Possibly a reference to Mr. Anderson from Beavis and Butt-head)
- Crapping in the principal's purse seven times (never in an episode).
- Convincing a woman to have an abortion so Cartman can build his own Shakey's Pizza (from episode 513, "Kenny Dies").
- Pretending to be retarded to compete in the Special Olympics (from episode 803, "Up the Down Steroid").
- Trying to have all the Jews exterminated (from episode 804, "The Passion of the Jew").
- Having a kid's parents killed and made into chili, which he then fed to the kid (from episode 501,"Scott Tenorman Must Die").
From the ensuing scene (but not mentioned while the list was being made):
- Miss Claridge (from episode 810, "Pre-School").
Seen on the list afterwards but not mentioned while list was being made:
- Sally Struthers incident (from episode 109, "Starvin' Marvin" and episode 311, "Starvin' Marvin in Space")
[edit] Trivia
- The beginning of the episode has a strong resemblance to the beginning of The Twilight Zone episode The Hunt.
- Sergeant Yates is one of the few characters in this episode to be surprised of Cartman, rather than just ignoring him, possibly because he saw Cartman enter the Red Cross.
- The scene where Cartman walks into the fields to "Rest in peace" is a reference from Field of Dreams.
- The scene where Butters is anally probed for 14 hours is a reference to the medical test scene in The Exorcist.
- During the song, when Cartman and Butters give a fruit basket to Scott Tenorman, who is mourning at his mother and fathers graves, the gravestone beside him reads 'A. Kutcher'.
- The idea of having Cartman eat the skin off of an entire tub of fried chicken came from a similar script meeting when Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and the remaining writing staff were sitting around a table eating Kentucky Fried Chicken and someone mentioned how terrible it would be if someone stole all the skins when they were all out of the room.
[edit] Goofs
- The last time Sally Struthers was shown,(starvin marvin in space)she resembled jabba the hut from star wars. Yet in this episode, she was shown as she was in the episode, starvin marvin.
| Preceded by "The Losing Edge" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "Erection Day" |
