AWESOM-O

Infobox Television episode
Title = AWESOM-O
Series = South Park

suppository.
Caption =
Season = 8
Episode = 116
Airdate = April 14, 2004
Production =
Writer = Trey Parker
Matt Stone
Director = Trey Parker
Guests =
Episode list = List of "South Park" episodes
Season list = Infobox South Park season 8 episode list
Prev =
Next ="AWESOM-O" is episode 116 of the Comedy Central series "South Park". It was originally broadcast on April 14, 2004. It holds the show record for being created in the shortest amount of time, taking only three days. [http://www.southparkstudios.com/fans/faq/archives.php?id=18199]

Plot synopsis

Cartman disguises himself as a robot named "The A.W.E.S.O.M.-O 4000" and puts himself in a crate on Butters' doorstep as a gift from Japan, planning to befriend the gullible Butters and thereby discover his embarrassing secrets. The name is derived from Honda's ASIMO humanoid robot. Though Butters acknowledges that his birthday is "not until September 11," he enthusiastically accepts this deception and reveals several personal secrets; however, Butters also tells "AWESOM-O" that he knows one of "Cartman's" secrets: he has a videotape of him dressed up as Britney Spears and making out with a cardboard cut-out of Justin Timberlake. Butters adds that he plans to show the tape to the town the next time Cartman plays a prank on him.

Cartman, terrified about Butters's plan of revenge, searches his room furiously for the tape but fails. He is also starving because Butters believes that, as he is a robot, he does not need to eat. With the agreement of Cartman's mom (who has to overturn his grounding for attempting to exterminate the Jews [Incidentally, this event does not occur until the events of "The Passion of the Jew", 2 episodes later but apparently earlier in the production order] ), Butters's parents (knowing whom "AWESOM-O" really is but thinking it an elaborate game that Butters is in on) decide to let "AWESOM-O" come along with Butters on a trip to Los Angeles to see his aunt. Cartman realizes that he will have to accompany Butters on the trip, in order to keep up his disguise. Upon arriving, he is so hungry that he makes up an excuse to use the bathroom and proceeds to eat toothpaste and take off the disguise to cool down.

In Hollywood, movie producers hear about the "robot" and decide to hire him from Butters to create movie ideas. Cartman, as the robot, pitches over one thousand nonsensical ideas (800 of which star Adam Sandler), while the movie producers are gullible enough to buy them as brilliant. Meanwhile, the U.S. military hears about "AWESOM-O", and decides to capture and make him into a weapon. "AWESOM-O" flees the movie studio in panic after a film producer tries to sodomize him, thinking that he may be a "pleasure model". The military captures "AWESOM-O" by shocking him and conveying him to a secret base.

Cartman tries to explain that he is really just a kid, but the military believes him a robot with A.I. that makes him think himself human. A scientist, moved by this, attempts to save Cartman, who is about to reveal that he is a human when Butters shows up to rescue him. He has to maintain his disguise, allowing the military to kill the rebellious scientist. Butters pleads with the military to spare "AWESOM-O": the general is touched. Just as it appears he will get off undetected, Cartman farts, causing Butters to suspect and finally discover his true identity. Butters carries out his promise of revenge and shows the video of Cartman dressed as Britney Spears to the whole town, as well as the movie producers and the military. The General calls Cartman a little faggot, and Cartman says "lame", thus ending the episode.

Production

This episode was advertised as "The Return of Lemmiwinks", but no such episode exists. This fictional disclaimer appeared before the episode began It does not appear in the Season 8 dvd release in both UK and USA:

::"Due to this week's tragic events in Hawaii, the Lemmiwinks episode of South Park will not be shown tonight. Instead, we present the all new and slightly better episode, AWESOM-O."

While the creators did not mention the Lemmiwinks idea for the episode on the creator's commentary, they did mention that production on this and several episodes were halted due to the staff going to a wedding in Hawaii. Matt Stone states that the idea for this show came from the idea of Cartman saying "lame" in a robot voice.

Reception

In the recent UK poll Paramount Comedy's Top 10 Episodes, this episode was ranked number 5.