Marjorine

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“Marjorine”
South Park episode
Marjorine meets Mrs. Garrison.
Episode no.	Season 9 Episode 134
Written by	Matt Stone Kenny Hotz
Directed by	Trey Parker
Original airdate	October 26, 2005
Season 9 episodes
South Park - Season 9 March 9, 2005 – December 7, 2005
Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina Die Hippie, Die Wing Best Friends Forever The Losing Edge The Death of Eric Cartman Erection Day Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow Marjorine Follow That Egg! Ginger Kids Trapped in the Closet Free Willzyx Bloody Mary

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List of South Park episodes

"Marjorine" is episode 909 of Comedy Central's South Park. It aired on October 26, 2005.

1 Plot
2 References to pop culture
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Plot

The episode begins with Cartman gathering the boys together in his basement to show them a video tape of the girls of South Park Elementary using a Cootie Catcher but, not realizing it is a game, the boys all believe the girls possess a high-tech gadget which gives them the ability to see into the future.

The boys build a containment centre complete with hazardous material suits and a quarantine shower with which to study the device, and come up with a plan to steal it. This elaborate plan entails infiltrating Heidi Turner's slumber party, which means that one of the boys will have to fake his death, so that he can attend the party disguised as a girl. Unsurprisingly, this unpleasant duty falls to Butters. The boys get Butters to fake his death by dropping a pig carcass dressed in Butters' clothes from the Bowery Building. Cartman believes this to be appropriate, as no one will be wondering where Butters is while pretending to be a girl (however, when Mrs. Garrison announces the unfortunate death of their fellow classmate, everyone has a confused expression, with Red replying "who's Butters?"). He then dresses up as a new girl, Marjorine (a play on the 'butter substitute' margarine), and infiltrates a slumber party that Heidi Turner is hosting. Heidi is not pleased at having to invite the weird new girl to her party, but Mrs. Turner tells her Marjorine's mother called to ask if her daughter could come; Mrs. Turner also says Marjorine's mother informed her that she is a state official and she should "respect her authori-tah" (a mispronunciation of Cartman's catchphrase, indicating it was Cartman on the phone). Of all the girls there, none like Marjorine (although Wendy and Bebe seem to care about her, as seen later), and Butters is overwhelmed by their cruelty, finally running into the bathroom crying. Wendy and Bebe, having discovered the tearful Marjorine in the bathroom, angrily tell the other girls that they were too hard on Marjorine. The other girls, realising it is hard being the new kid on the block, agree and decide to try to make amends with their new classmate. After convincing her to come out of the bathroom, they give Marjorine a makeover and resume their party. Meanwhile, Mr. Stotch is told by an old farmer not to dig Butters' body up and re-bury him at the Indian burial ground. The farmer tells him "Don't do it Stotch! Sometimes, what you take out of the ground ain't the same thing you put in!" Stephen Stotch does however exhume Butters' 'remains' (Butters' headstone reads: Leopold "Butters" Stotch) and re-bury the pig-carcass there, believing this will bring Butters back to life.

Butters (as Marjorine) is just starting to have fun with the girls, dancing to "Rock Your Body" by Justin Timberlake, when Heidi's father realizes that there are boys around the house. Butters believes his cover to be blown and makes a desperate escape with the device, and gives it to the other boys (an annoyed Heidi asks for some paper and scissors to make a new one). Stan tells Butters to come along to learn about the device, but he refuses, saying that the device is nothing but trouble and his job is done, and goes home to tell his parents that he's not dead. When the boys attempt to ask so many questions with the device, Stan realises what Butters has meant. The boys, this time around, decide that the power of the fortune-telling device is too great for any mortal. Rather than spending their lives defending it from girls, the CIA, terrorists and Russians, they decide to destroy it by having Kenny blow it up. However, the explosion incinerates the entire forest, prompting Cartman to say, "Damn, Ken."

Meanwhile, Butters' parents have now convinced themselves that their child will return as a demon. When Butters comes home, his parents lock him in the basement. When he says he is hungry, his parents kill a saleswoman (Rachel, from Quality Curtains) with a shovel, and offer him up her corpse to feed on, still believing Butters to be hell-spawn. The episode ends with Butters asking for SpaghettiOs instead.

[edit] References to pop culture

The episode makes a number of references to the film Pet Sematary^[1]^[2]through its subplot concerning Butters' parents, concerning its theme of corporeal reanimation, and in a number of specific scenes (for example that in the Indian burial ground) and characters; the character of the old farmer is based on Jud Crandall from Pet Sematary, who similarly warns not to dig Butters' body up and re-bury him at the Indian burial ground. The farmer, quoting directly from the film, says "Sometimes dead is better"^[3]. The South Park character who parodies Jud Crandall is a minor recurring character who had previously appeared in "Butters' Very Own Episode" and "Asspen".) The episode also contains a number of minor references to other horror films, such as the scene where Butters' parents kill a saleswoman with a shovel, which is directly inspired by a scene in the cult horror movie Hellraiser. Also the scene at the slumber party where the girls do "light as a feather, stiff as a board" is a generic horror movie scene (whearas Butters competely loses it shouting, "You're all a bunch of witches!"), as can be seen in the 1996 horror film The Craft and the 1987 horror film The Gate, although it has become a common slumber party game. The episode also makes reference to the 2002 comedy Juwanna Mann. When Kevin suggests that Cartman's plan to disguise Butters as a girl idea is just like the one in that film Cartman replies: "No, not like Juwanna Mann, Kevin, okay?! It's way cooler than that!"

In a sly minor pop culture reference to the popular Bratz dolls, as in Heidi Turner's room there is a poster of the dolls, which are here called "Twerpz". The episode also makes reference to W. W. Jacobs short story, The Monkey's Paw. In the brief parody, Butters raps at the door after returning to his parents from the fake suicide.