Broadway Bro Down

"Broadway Bro Down"
South Park episode
Randy tells his friends about the power of Broadway theatre.
Episode no.	Season 15 Episode 11
Directed by	Trey Parker
Written by	Trey Parker Robert Lopez (uncredited)
Production code	1511
Original air date	October 26, 2011 (2011-10-26)
Episode chronology
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South Park (season 15) List of South Park episodes

"Broadway Bro Down" is the eleventh episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 220th episode overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on October 26, 2011.

The episode was written by Trey Parker and Robert Lopez as an uncredited writer, who previously worked with Parker and Matt Stone on the Tony Award-winning The Book of Mormon. This episode is rated TV-MA for profane language (L) and sexually explicit content (S) in the United States.

Plot

Randy hears from his male co-workers that taking women to Broadway shows sexually arouses them into performing fellatio. Randy takes Sharon to see Wicked, but is confused and unimpressed with the lack of overt sexuality. He is informed by a fellow theatergoer at the theater's bar that women are aroused not by the production's explicit sexuality, but by its subtext. When Randy returns to the auditorium, he now hears the actors using the word "blowjob" in the songs' lyrics. On the ride home Sharon performs fellatio on him, and as a result, Randy decides to take her to New York City to see all the Broadway shows, leaving Stan and Shelley with the Feegans, South Park's resident life-preserver wearing vegans. During their dinner with the Feegans, Shelly gets into a confrontation with Mr. Feegan over letting his son Larry decide for himself if he wants to be a vegan. This results in Larry's falling in love with Shelly and discarding his vegan lifestyle and his life preserver.

Upon returning to South Park, Randy laments the fact that he does not live closer to a major theater venue like Broadway, as the Denver production of Wicked, to which he has already taken Sharon 23 times, will soon move to Seattle. He decides to produce a local play, though he discards subtext by naming it Splooge-Drenched Blowjob Queen, and explicitly including the word "blowjob" in all its songs' lyrics. This attracts the attention of Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Elton John, who chastise Randy for the overt use of sexuality in his play, explaining to him that the lack of any real subtext would expose the truth behind Broadway shows. Randy dismisses their criticisms, insisting that his play is filled with subtext, but after a "bro-down" with Sondheim in a parking lot, in which they confront each other with verbal challenges, Randy agrees to accept their assistance, and renames his play The Woman in White.

When Randy returns home and learns that Sharon gave Shelly two tickets to see Wicked with Larry, Randy is horrified, and races to Denver with Sharon, revealing to her the truth about Broadway shows, much to her own horror. Initially thrown out of the theater for being disruptive, Randy dons a Spider-Man costume and swings through the auditorium, knocking out several patrons and production personnel, before breaking open a water main, forcing the play into an intermission and fatally drowning Larry, much to Shelly's grief. Randy apologizes to Sharon for taking her to the theater to get oral sex in return, though she expresses difficulty in faulting him for doing what all other men also do, pointing out that musicals must have value if they brought them closer together. When Sharon asks which show is coming to Denver next, an advertisement for Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez's musical The Book of Mormon plays, with the narrator quickly saying, "You'll get a blowjob".

Reception

Ryan McGhee of The A.V. Club graded the episode an A, stating, "The show has long featured the musical stylings of its co-creators, but rarely has that skill been deployed as effectively as tonight’s masterful half-hour."^[1]

References

External links

"Broadway Bro Down" at South Park Studios