Pinkeye (South Park episode)

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“Pinkeye”
South Park episode
The boys in their Halloween costumes (the term used loosely in Kenny's case): Hitler, Chewbacca, Raggedy Andy, Zombie
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 7
Written by	Trey Parker Matt Stone Phillip Stark
Directed by	Trey Parker Matt Stone
Production no.	107
Original airdate	October 29, 1997
Season 1 episodes
South Park - Season 1 August 13, 1997 – February 25, 1998
Cartman Gets an Anal Probe Weight Gain 4000 Volcano Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig Death Pink Eye Damien Starvin' Marvin Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo Tom's Rhinoplasty Mecha-Streisand Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut

	Season 2 →
List of South Park episodes

"Pinkeye" is the seventh episode of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on October 29, 1997. This is the first Halloween themed episode of South Park, as well as the first episode where any of Kenny's facial features other than his eyes are seen. When he bites the coroners at the beginning, his mouth is visible for a few frames.

[edit] Plot

The Mir space station crashes into Kenny, killing him only 25 seconds into the show. He is taken to the morgue where he is drained and filled with embalming fluid, however, the coroner's bottle of Worcestershire sauce falls into the embalming fluid and turns Kenny into a zombie. He breaks out of the morgue, biting the two coroners on his way out.

The next morning, Kenny shows up at the bus stop as normal while the boys are waiting to go to school. Each boy is dressed up for the costume contest at school (for which the top prize is two tons of candy). Stan is dressed up as Raggedy Andy (Wendy is supposed to dress as companion Raggedy Ann, making them a shoe-in for the candy). Kyle is wearing a store-bought Chewbacca costume. Cartman is dressed, much to Kyle's perturbation, in a Hitler costume that he says his mom made him. The children all agree Kenny's costume is lackluster, despite Kenny actually being, unbeknownst to them, an actual zombie.

At the local doctor’s office, the morgue workers have their vitals taken: Their temperatures are only 55°F, they have no pulse, no heartbeat, and their eyes are puffy and sticky. The doctor diagnoses this as Pinkeye. The two morgue workers are acting normally, responding to the doctor's diagnosis, until they say they have an urge to eat brains.

The kids arrive at school only to discover everyone in the class, including Mr. Hat and Wendy, have dressed as Chewbacca except for Mr. Garrison who is dressed as Marilyn Monroe. Seeing Wendy as Chewbacca angers Stan, who is now forced to go around as Raggedy Andy all day long.

Kyle, disgruntled that he has the same costume as everyone else, decides to work up a new costume for the contest while Principal Victoria and Chef (dressed as Evel Knievel) are upset over Cartman’s costume. Principal Victoria makes Eric a ghost costume to amend the problem (however it ends up looking like a Ku Klux Klan robe instead). Meanwhile, Kenny attacks and bites Clyde when he walks past him.

Kyle arrives at the costume contest in the gym with a new costume, a working model of the Solar System, but Wendy’s Chewbacca costume earns her first place and the two tons of candy (which she promptly gives to starving children in Nairobi). The judge awards Kenny second place for his "Edward James Olmos" costume (his zombie state) and Stan "worst costume ever" for his "stupid little clown thing".

Across South Park the zombies continue to attack, although everyone still believes it is simply pinkeye. As night falls on South Park the boys prepare to go trick-or-treating, with Kyle now dressed as Count Dracula, just as Chef realizes that the pinkeye epidemic is actually a wave of the living dead. Wendy tries to apologize for humiliating Stan, but Stan rejects her. "Trick or treat with yourself Wendy! I wish you were dead!" Ironically, Wendy herself is later turned into a zombie.

Chef goes to the doctor seeking help and attempts to explain what’s going on, but the doctor doesn't believe him. Chef leaves (and the doctor is eaten by zombies) for the Mayor's office to warn her and Officer Barbrady, but they don't believe him either.

As the zombies continue to ravage the town, the boys, also oblivious of the zombies, head off to go trick-or-treating. However, Kenny keeps biting everyone before they can get any treats, so the boys ditch him on the way to Chef’s house. Chef pulls the boys inside and after some discussion, they head to the morgue to get to the bottom of the zombie matter.

Chef (and the other zombies) as Michael Jackson dancing to Thriller

While at the morgue they discover the bottle of Worcestershire sauce. The zombies eventually find a way into the morgue and turn Chef into a zombie (who then begins dancing and singing lyrics parodying Michael Jackson's "Thriller"). The zombies then pursue the boys, who are forced to fight them off. Through the commotion, Kyle calls the hotline number on the bottle of Worcestershire sauce for assistance. He is put through to the hotline number's office.

The hotline operator tells Kyle not to "start decapitating zombies left and right" (which they were doing), but to kill the original zombie (Kenny), and that will turn all the other zombies back into humans. As Zombie Wendy heads towards Stan he can't bring himself to kill her, but she is returned to normal when Kyle quickly cuts Kenny in half with a chainsaw. All around them the dead limbs of the towns people begin to turn back to normal flesh. They are all, of course, still dead.

Kenny is later buried in his grave. After the boys are done paying their respect, Kenny suddenly comes out of his grave only to have a statue from another grave crush him, and a jet crash into it.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Pinkeye

[edit] Pop culture references

Stan dresses up as Raggedy Andy and his girlfriend Wendy is supposed to dress up as Raggedy Ann but doesn't, humiliating him. The same thing happens to the character Randy Taylor on an episode of the show Home Improvement.
In one of the scenes Chef is trying to explain they are all zombies to the doctor. (A parody of I Am Legend)
Tina Yothers (who played Jennifer Keaton on Family Ties) gave out the costume awards (and was thought to be dead by everyone in South Park)
After being bitten by a zombie, Chef turns into a dancing, singing zombie, who begins imitating Michael Jackson from the "Thriller" music video.
When Cartman makes fun of Stan's costume, he refers to him as Howdy Doody, Holly Hobbie, & Pippi Longstocking.
During the costume contest, Mr. Garrison mistakes Kenny's transformation into a zombie as a costume of Miami Vice star Edward James Olmos.
In the scene where Chef is watching the news in his house, a poster of Isaac Hayes (the voice of Chef) can be seen.
The entire Zombie aspect of this episode is an homage to the movie Return of the Living Dead. Everything from the doctors describing the zombies symptoms to the emergency hotline number on the Worcestershire sauce bottle is a throwback to the plotline of Return of the Living Dead.
The fat man who gives the boys treats before Kenny bites him is wearing a T-shirt that reads, "Let's Get Physical," which was a 1982 song by Olivia Newton-John
Mr. Garrison mentions that Jackie Collins is a famous horror writer. Collins actually writes fiction centering around the seedy underbelly of fame and glamor, often including lurid scenes of sex and violence.
While decorating her house for Halloween, Ms. Cartman puts a poster of Richard Nixon on the front door.
In the final scene, a tombstone statue of Orgazmo can be seen in the background.
Kenny's arm popping out the grave at the end mocks cliché surprise endings such as that of Carrie.
On the commentary for this episode, Trey & Matt say that Cartman dressing up as Hitler was based on their love of John Cleese doing it in Monty Python.