Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants

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“Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants”
South Park episode

Bin Laden and a camel in repose
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 74
Written by Trey Parker
Matt Stone
Directed by Trey Parker
Production no. 509
Original airdate November 7, 2001
Season 5 episodes
South Park - Season 5
June 20, 2001 – December 12, 2001
  1. Scott Tenorman Must Die
  2. It Hits the Fan
  3. Cripple Fight
  4. Super Best Friends
  5. Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow
  6. Cartmanland
  7. Proper Condom Use
  8. Towelie
  9. Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants
  10. How to Eat with Your Butt
  11. The Entity
  12. Here Comes the Neighborhood
  13. Kenny Dies
  14. Butters' Very Own Episode
← Season 4 Season 6 →
List of South Park episodes

"Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants" is episode 74 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired November 7, 2001. It is notable as the first episode to air after 9/11, as well as the American invasion of Afghanistan; it dealt with the latter and only tangentially made mention of the former. It is also noted as being nominated for an Emmy.

Contents

[edit] Plot

South Park has changed since the events of 9/11: everyone is afraid of terrorists, American flags are plastered everywhere to show widespread patriotism, everyone wears gas masks for fear of anthrax attacks, and Stan's mother simply sits on the couch all day, in an almost catatonic state, watching SNN (pun on CNN) endlessly, apparently for "about eight weeks." At school, the kids each bring in a dollar in response to President Bush's request for charity to Afghanistan; Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny bring in money and send it to four Afghan kids who resemble them immensely, except of course that they're Afghan and speak Persian amongst themselves. Kenny's counterpart even wears a turban which covers everything but his eyes. In response, the four send them a goat in the mail.

The boys realize they cannot keep the goat, and so try to send it back to Afghanistan; but since only American military planes are flying over the country, they can only do it by sneaking the goat aboard a military plane. They sneak into a nearby base, able to do so when the guards mistake the goat for Stevie Nicks there for a USO show; however, the boys wind up on the plane too, and after enduring Cartman's flatulence for 20 hours, arrive in Afghanistan.

The boys manage to find their Afghan counterparts, who refuse to take back the goat; furthermore, the two groups get into an argument over America. The boys assumed that most Afghans liked America, but the Afghan boys reveal that they hate the country. This angers the boys, as they cannot return the goat this way.

After the boys leave to try to get home, they get caught by terrorists and are brought to the hiding place of Osama bin Laden, who is depicted as completely insane. Bin Laden makes a video tape revealing his hostages, and again the Army mistakes the goat for Stevie Nicks. The Afghan boys, finding out about this, go and rescue the American boys despite their argument, due to them thinking if they don't help the innocent they are no better than America; Cartman, however, goes to challenge Bin Laden in a struggle of wits, which parodies old cartoons with Cartman as Bugs Bunny.

The US Army storms the cave to rescue "Stevie Nicks" and the boys escape, though Kenny and his Afghan counterpart die in the process. The boys wind up getting in yet another fight. Meanwhile, Cartman and Osama are fighting amongst themselves in classic Bugs Bunny shtick; Osama creeps up to moving bush, Cartman dresses up as an oriental seductress to lure Osama, then suddenly appears in a producer's uniform and hurries Osama behind a changing screen to prepare for another anti-American film. Osama re-emerges from behind the screen in an Uncle Sam costume, and Cartman hands him a lit stick of dynamite as a microphone. A bunch of terrorists crowd around to kill him, but they all end up getting killed. Bin Laden is shot by an American soldier. With the Taliban overthrown and Bin Laden dead the boys say goodbye to the Afghan kids who, despite a somewhat schmaltzy moment, still hate them. Stan replies with "maybe... someday...we can learn to hate you too". The Afghan kids reply positively, confusing Kyle.

The troops celebrate their victory with a show by Fleetwood Mac and "Stevie Nicks." Before they leave, Stan sticks a small American flag into the ground, prompting Kyle to say to him, "Dude, I almost thought those Afghani kids talked you into not liking America." Stan replies, "No, dude. America may have some problems, but it's our home, our team. If you don't want to root for your team, then you should get the hell out of the stadium." The episode ends with Stan and Kyle saluting the American flag, saying "Go America," and finishing with "Go Broncos."

[edit] Kenny’s death

  • When both Kenny and his Afghan counterpart are killed during the shoot out, the Afghan kids exclaim “Ya Allah! Koshtaen Keyvano! Tol dayoos!” which translates to “Oh God, they killed Keyvan! You bastards!” Keyvan is an accurate Persian/Afghan name.

[edit] Awards

  • This episode was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding animated program, but lost to "Futurama."

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • All the Afghan characters speak Farsi, one of the official languages of Afghanistan, during non-English dialogue. Remarkably for a comedy show, the language used is fluent and lacking an accent, but in a dialect more reminiscent of neighboring nation Iran, rather than the more traditional Dari dialect which is far more common in Afghanistan.
  • Osama bin Laden speaks mostly gibberish while adding words like “jihad,” “America,” and “Ramadan.” In real life his native language is Arabic. He shouts "Flippity Floppity Floop," which is the term Chef tells Mr. Garrison in the episode South Park is Gay is the new way for black people to say "I'm in the house."
  • In the commentary of the episode, Matt Stone states that he hates Stevie Nicks, hence the goat. Her singing voice is often compared to that of a bleating goat, which is why the military confuses the goat with the real Stevie Nicks.
  • The episode’s first title was “Osama bin Laden Has a Really Really Small Penis,” a statement which is addressed during the Bugs Bunny-like chase scene.
  • Stan's Afghan counterpart's name (Akmarh) can be seen on his letter from Stan.

[edit] References to popular culture

  • The song performed by Fleetwood Mac and the goat at the end of the episode is a parody of the 1981 Stevie Nicks song “Edge of Seventeen.”
  • Cartman parodies the Bugs Bunny cartoons with signs depicting two pictures — which, when saying the two words together, forms a humorous word or phrase describing the antagonist (Elmer Fudd-like Bin Laden). His signs describe Bin Laden as “screwball”, “jackass”, “shithead”, “cocksucker”, and “Barbra Streisand.” The first one of these (screwball) is the only one of true Looney Tunes vintage.
  • The scenes with Cartman and Osama also spoof the various Warner Bros./Disney cartoons during World War II, wherein the characters interact with animated versions of Nazis as to mock them. Osama’s last line (“Terrorists is the CRAZIEST peoplez!”) is directly from a Warner Bros. short called “Russian Rhapsody” where Hitler says “Nazis is the CRAZIEST peoplez.”[1]
  • Cartman refers to the Afghan kids as Jawas, a fictional race from Star Wars. He elaborates with "You know, Sand People", and while Sand People are also a race from the Star Wars universe, the two are not the same.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Russian Rhapsody at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
“Towelie”		 South Park episodes Followed by
“How to Eat With Your Butt”