Hell on Earth 2006

Infobox Television episode
Title = Hell on Earth 2006
Series = South Park


Caption = Satan's party in full swing.
Season = 10
Episode = 150
Airdate = October 25, 2006
Production =
Writer = Trey Parker
Director = Trey Parker
Guests =
Episode list = List of "South Park" episodes
Season list = Infobox South Park season 10 episode list
Prev =
Next ="Hell on Earth 2006" is episode 1011 (#150) of Comedy Central's animated series "South Park", aired on October 25, 2006 and marked the series' fourth Halloween episode.

The episode sparked controversy shortly after it was aired due to the Steve Irwin parodies it contained, and was spoken against by Irwin's family. Despite the controversy, the episode received fairly high review ratings, as well as being favored among user-rated websites.

Plot

Satan decides that since Halloween is essentially his holiday, he is going to have a huge party in Los Angeles— as big as a sweet 16 party. He proclaims to the spirits of the damned that anyone who wants to get in must get a blue wristband, wear a costume, and that not appearing will make you a loser. He also states that no one should come dressed as "The Crow" as that's his costume but later he makes his minion Zazul swap his schoolgirl costume with him, yelling "No one can look hotter than me!" He also invites many celebrities, and plots to have it become the greatest party ever by arranging a really huge surprise for dessert. At first, he decides a giant chocolate fondue fountain would be a good surprise, but changes his mind when he learns that Diddy already had one when he had his birthday at the hotel. His other ideas are a doughnut machine and a full ice cream bar. When he finds Diddy had them all, he decides upon a Ferrari Cake (a cake the size and shape of a Ferrari), which three notorious serial killers — Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy — are ordered to bring. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church, angered that Satan doesn't invite them to the party, plans to call the fire marshal the night of the party to complain, thus ruining it.

The South Park boys experiment with a Bloody Mary-type ritual to summon Biggie Smalls and Butters succeeds in summoning him. However, Biggie already has a blue wristband and, since he is on Earth and cannot use the inter dimensional vortex opened from Hell to get to the party, demands that Butters help him get there.

Finding out that Butters disappeared, the kids try to see if the Biggie Smalls trick works and do the mirror summon; Smalls, who was sitting next to Butters on a plane bound for Los Angeles, teleports against his will back to South Park. In a rage, he begins shooting the boys. He is later summoned against his will, once again, by Randy, Stan's dad. The Catholic Church tries to call the fire marshal, but to their shock, they find that Satan, realising someone bitter about not being invited would do exactly what they're doing, has invited him — so they decide to crash the party. However, Satan's Security makes sure they don't get in at all, as they're wearing wristbands from Knott's Berry Farm.

The three serial killers run into trouble trying to pick up the cake: having killed the bakers. This is compounded as every time they enlist someone's help, Gacy (and once Dahmer) kills them and Dahmer performs necrophilia and cannibalism on the body. Ted Bundy's attempts to discipline them only slows progress down further. When an attempt to lift the cake fails, resulting in its destruction, the killers know they're in trouble. When trying to bake a new one, the three mutilate each other to the point where they cannot bake it, so Satan's assistant Demonius, who was in charge of planning the party decides to search for a new one on his BlackBerry and finds a cake the exact size and shape of an Acura, which he decides is an adequate last minute substitute.

Unfortunately, it isn't good enough for Satan (though it is for his guests). Satan flies into a rage over the Acura cake, screaming that the party is "Not about them, It's all about MEEEEEEE!!!!!" despite everyone having fun. The partygoers get upset, and Satan realizes that, in trying to have a party LIKE the girls on My Super Sweet 16, he has BECOME like one of them, and even when his minions insist he is not nearly as bad as they are, he insists he is. He tells the crowd that he is sorry and that his party is for all of the people who make his life so special ("And if I don't realize that, then I'm no better than a rich American teenage girl"). Now he wants everyone to enjoy his party so he invites everyone in, including the Catholic priests. Butters makes it to the party and uses a makeup mirror to summon Biggie Smalls straight to the party, who asks Butters to come into the party with him as thanks. Butters quickly agrees, seeing as "I'm gonna get grounded anyway, I might as well." The episode ends with everyone dancing, including the Catholic priests with naked altar boys on leashes who are also trying to dance.

Controversy

During Satan's party, he begins a conversation with Steve Irwin, who has a stingray sticking out of his chest. Satan does not realize that it's Irwin at first, thinking instead that it's someone else in a costume, and confronts the person telling him that it is in bad taste to wear such a costume so soon after Irwin's death. Finding out it actually is Irwin, Satan kicks him out of the party for not wearing a costume, as he shouts back: "Wait, I thought we were friends!" This scene has sparked controversy among the media as a parody of Irwin's death just weeks after the press surrounding it. A friend of Terri Irwin, Steve Irwin's widow, has issued a statement about the episode:

"Terri is devastated Steve is being mocked in such a cruel way. Her worry is that Bindi and Bob will see it and break down. Steve had as big a sense of humour as anyone, but this goes too far too soon."cite news|url=http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news?id=24176|title=Steve Irwin's Wife 'Devastated' By South Park Lampooning|publisher=entertainmentwise.com|date=2006-10-29|accessdate=2007-03-26]

The episode has also received criticisms from press personalities. John Beyer, the director of mediawatch-uk, said that it's of bad taste to create such a scene and the makers of "South Park" should review their decision to show it,cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/27/irwin.southpark/|title='South Park' mocks Steve Irwin|publisher=edition.cnn.com|date=2006-10-27|accessdate=2007-03-26] while Irwin's fellow naturalist Mark Amey called the show "distasteful shit."

Comedy Central's Tony Fox has responded to this criticism by defending the show, saying "The "South Park" guys do inappropriate things all the time...Their goal is to make people laugh, not to offend people." [cite news|url=http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news?id=24190|title=Comedy Central Defend South Park's Steve Irwin Episode|publisher=entertainmentwise.com|date=2006-10-30|accessdate=2007-03-26] Additionally, another spokesperson for the network has said that "South Park" has offended people in the past and probably will again. Regular watchers would not be shocked."

On the DVD commentary for this episode, Trey Parker stated that "In South Park lore, everyone goes to Hell. It's not a questioning of your moral character or anything."

Reception

The episode received fairly high review ratings. IGN originally criticized the episode for the lack of storyline development, but later stated that "the storylines were humorous enough that we were able to put aside that there was no real social commentary (like the last three episodes), but instead madcap comedy that was funny based on silly humor alone". IGN has also praised the episode for illustrating Satan as a spoiled child and for the Three Stooges scenes involving the killers, and concluded that "although "Hell on Earth 2006" isn't as good as a couple of South Park's other Halloween episodes, it is still a very funny episode."cite web|url=http://tv.ign.com/articles/742/742023p1.html|title=South Park: "Hell on Earth 2006" review|publisher=tv.ign.com|first=Dan|last=Iverson|date=2006-10-05|accessdate=2006-11-13]

References

External links

* [http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/1011/ Hell on Earth 2006 episode guide]