All About Mormons

"All About Mormons"
South Park episode
A new Mormon family moves to South Park
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 12
Directed by	Trey Parker
Written by	Trey Parker
Production code	712
Original air date	November 19, 2003
Episode chronology
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List of season 7 episodes List of South Park episodes

"All About Mormons", also known as "All About the Mormons?", is the twelfth episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 108th overall episode of the series. It was originally broadcast on Comedy Central in the United States on November 19, 2003. The episode revolves around the religion and culture of Mormons, as a Mormon family moves to the town of South Park, and influences the beliefs of the family of character Stan Marsh. The story of Joseph Smith's founding of Mormonism and the writing of the Book of Mormon is told through a number of comedic 19th century flashbacks, with a musical narration.

The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, and was rated TV-MA in the United States. The episode evolved from personal experiences of creators Parker and Matt Stone, who grew up in Colorado. After learning details of Mormonism during the production of their 1997 film Orgazmo, Parker found the religion ridiculous, but hard to parody Mormons comedically due to their good-natured attitudes. The scene in which Stan is invited to dinner by the Mormon family was inspired by Parker's first girlfriend in high school, who was Mormon and invited him over for Family Home Evening. The new Mormon student Gary is voiced by South Park writer Kyle McCulloch, who grew up Mormon.

The episode received positive reviews from television critics, and has been placed on "best-of" South Park lists. Parker found that younger audiences found the episode unfunny, but many of his Mormon friends found it hilarious. "All About Mormons" was released on DVD along with the rest of the seventh season on March 21, 2006. Parker and Stone later carried over many themes from the episode for their musical The Book of Mormon, which opened on Broadway in 2011.

Plot

A new family, the Harrisons, move into South Park, and their son Gary, stereotypically depicted as unusually perfect (achieving high grades, being state champion in sports, being perfectly polite, etc.), invokes the wrath of the other boys. Stan is drafted into the job of beating him up by the other children, but Gary's sheer politeness leads Stan to discover himself walking away with an invitation to dinner that night. After dinner, the five-child, two-parent family has "Family Home Evening" where they play games, do performance art and read from the Book of Mormon. Stan is intrigued and confused by all this, and asks his parents about the Mormon family's beliefs. His father concludes that they must be religious fanatics attempting to brainwash Stan, and heads over to confront them and beat them up (but only upon determining that Mr. Harrison is white). Instead, he too finds himself quelled by the family's perfection and politeness, and in the end, actually decides to convert to Mormonism himself. The next day, Kenny, Cartman and Kyle cruelly mock Stan for hanging around with Gary and his family, accusing Stan of going on a date with Gary. When the Harrisons and Gary show up, the three children walk off lying about going to "put in some volunteer work at the homeless shelter".

Throughout the episode, characters ask questions about Mormonism, and the story then breaks off to a sub-story about Joseph Smith, Jr. and the founding of the religion. For satirical purposes, the show deviates from the original accounts of Mormonism's founding by adding extra to stories originally left vague (e.g. the precise location where Martin Harris lost the transcript of the Book of Lehi given to him by Joseph Smith); furthermore, during the narration, an upbeat tune plays in the background, with a choral "Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum" following the lyrical lines of the song. When skeptic Lucy Harris appears in the sub-story, the chorus changes to "Smart, smart, smart, smart, smart," and it becomes clear that the voices are actually singing "Dumb, dumb, dumb" after the specifics of Smith's story. The show asserts flaws in the religion's founding, which especially concern Stan (for example, that Joseph Smith offered no proof to the general public of finding the Golden plates, and that he claimed to have translated from a slightly different plate after the first translation was lost while in the possession of Martin Harris). Stan ends up shouting at the Mormons that they're ridiculous for believing in it without proof; they smile patiently and explain that it's a matter of faith, while Stan argues that it should be a matter of empirical evidence. He further lashes out at them for acting unusually nice all the time, claiming it blindsides stupid people like his father into believing in Mormonism (to which Randy Marsh responds with a determined "Yeah!").

Stan's anger doesn't much upset anyone in the Mormon family other than Gary, who confronts Stan and the other boys the next day, pointing out that he believes his religion does not need to be factually true, because it still supports good family values and helping the poor. Gary condemns their bigotry and ignorance, stating:

"Maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up. But I have a great life and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don't care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the Church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that's stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls."

He walks away, leaving the boys in utter shock. The episode ends as Cartman, with a new-found respect for Gary, says "Damn, that kid is cool, huh?".

Production

The episode was written and directed by South Park co-creator Trey Parker. The character of the new Mormon student Gary is voiced by South Park writer Kyle McCulloch, who himself is a Mormon.^[1] An earlier version of the episode had not only the Marshes take up Mormonism as their new religion, but had "the rest of the town become Mormons."^[2]

Growing up in Colorado, Parker and Stone knew a lot of Mormon people, and Parker's high school ex-girlfriend was a Mormon, whose family he has visited while they held Family Home Evening.^[1][3] Through these experiences, Parker learned a number of things about the religion, and did more research for his film Orgazmo, in which he played the Mormon main character.^[1]

Reception

Cameron Adams of the Herald Sun, a tabloid Australian newspaper, highlighted the episode among "Top Choice" picks in television. ^[4] Chris Quinn of the San Antonio Express-News placed the episode at number 7 on his list of "Top 10 Most Offensive South Park Episodes and Therefore, Maybe The Best, List".^[5] The episode was used as an exhibit in discussing Mormonism in popular culture by Utah Valley State College religious studies professor Dennis Potter in a presentation titled "The Americanization of Mormonism Reflected in Pop Culture".^[6] KUER's Radio West host Doug Fabrizio used the episode as a case study in a discussion about "Mormonism and Popular Culture".^[7]

See also

	Comedy portal
	Latter-day Saints portal

• Criticism of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• First Vision

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Trey Parker, Matt Stone (Audio commentary). South Park: The Complete Seventh Season: "All About Mormons" (DVD). Comedy Central. 
2. ^ "News: Posted on: November 17, 2003". South Park Studios. November 17, 2003. http://www.southparkstudios.com/news/2003/nov. Retrieved January 12, 2011. 
   "breayle". "News Update November 17th, 2003". South Park Studios. http://forums.southparkstudios.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=16646. Retrieved January 12, 2011. 
3. ^ Trey Parker and Matt Stone talk at The Amazing Meeting 5, in January 2007. JREF (August 4, 2010). "Trey Parker & Matt Stone - SouthPark Creators". Vimeo. http://vimeo.com/13890658. Retrieved January 12, 2011. 
4. ^ Adams, Cameron (December 29, 2003). "Television". Herald Sun: p. 87. 
5. ^ Quinn, Chris (September 5, 2007). "Not Necessarily A Critic: South Park re-elected by a landslide for four more years". San Antonio Express-News: p. 6T. 
6. ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (August 10, 2006). "Once-radical Mormons move to mainstream". The Salt Lake Tribune. 
7. ^ Fabrizio, Doug (May 28, 2007). "Mormonism and Popular Culture". Radio West. http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1088209. 

External links

• All About The Mormons? Full episode at South Park Studios
• All About The Mormons? Episode guide at South Park Studios
• "All About Mormons". X Episodes (Formerly South Park Zone). http://www.xepisodes.com/episodes/712/All-about-the-Mormons?.htmlvid=712. 
• "All About Mormons". South Park Stuff. http://www.southparkstuff.com/season_7/episode_712/. 
• All About Mormons at the Internet Movie Database
• "All About Mormons". TV.com. CNET Networks, Inc. http://www.tv.com/south-park/all-about-the-mormons/episode/286385/summary.html. 
• "All About Mormons". South Park Archives. Wikia. http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki/All_About_Mormons.