Scott Tenorman Must Die

Infobox Television episode
Title = Scott Tenorman Must Die
Series = South Park


Caption = Scott Tenorman and guest stars Radiohead.
Season = 5
Episode = 69
Airdate = July 11, 2001
Production = 501
Writer = Trey Parker
Director = Eric Stough
Matt Stone
Guests = Radiohead
Episode list = List of "South Park" episodes
Season list = Infobox South Park season 5 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"Scott Tenorman Must Die" is episode 69 of the Comedy Central animated series "South Park". It originally aired on July 11, 2001. It features the band Radiohead as guest stars, a rarity as usually any 'stars' on the show are imitated.

Plot

Cartman excitedly brags to the rest of the gang that he is the first to reach puberty, since he has gotten his first pubes. It turns out, however, that he has only bought the pubic hairs from a boy in ninth grade (however, later in the episode, he's said to be in eighth grade) Scott Tenorman (voiced by Toby Morton), rather than growing them himself but was under the impression this would be sufficient to reach puberty. Cartman is outraged at having been conned.

Cartman tries to get back his $10 through various methods, but is always outwitted by Scott. He even loses an additional $6.12 in the process. He also gets tricked into traveling over 100 miles to another town because Scott told him of a "pube fest," and that he could sell them at $5 a hair; Cartman falls for it, thinking that he will get "a million dollars" for the "pubes," saying "Ha ha, charade you are, Scott!", a reference to the Pink Floyd song "Pigs (Three Different Ones)." Upon arrival, he finds that the fair was a lie, and receives a delivered package full of more pubic hair. Finally, he tells Scott his grandmother will die without the money, but Scott, after tricking Cartman into acting like a "little piggy," burns the money in front of Cartman.

An irate Cartman angrily plots his revenge. He first attempts to get his friends on his side using a motivational rhetoric which parodies the one seen in Braveheart, but as Cartman is the only victim, none are interested.

Cartman's first major plan involves training one of Farmer Denkins' ponies to bite Scott's wiener off. He trains one to attack a scarecrow with a hot dog hanging from its pants. The pony doesn't bite it off the first time, instead performing fellatio on it. Jimbo and Ned turn up, stating that the best way to humiliate Scott is to exploit his weaknesses. The major weakness Cartman, Jimbo, and Ned find is that Scott likes the band Radiohead, but before they can go any further Cartman spots Mrs. Tenorman undressing and shifts his focus there. Jimbo and Ned get a look before Mr. Tenorman spots them and tells them that he's spotted them before and he'll call the cops if they don't leave (revealing, in the process, that most of the men in South Park have been watching Mrs. Tenorman undress as well).

Now armed with new information, Cartman comes up with a scheme that involves dubbing his voice over that of Radiohead to make it appear that the band is telling Kurt Loder that Scott Tenorman is "totally not cool." This plan fails (as he made no attempt to disguise his voice, so it is obvious that he dubbed it) and Scott further humiliates Cartman by showing the entire town the film of Cartman's acting like a pig in order to get his money back.

Cartman then proceeds to carry out a new plan. He invites Radiohead, Scott's favorite band, to come to South Park to meet Scott (who is, according to the letter, dying from "cancer in his ass") saying he might not make it past "next Tuesday around 5." Stan and Kyle betray Cartman, telling Scott about Cartman's plan. Cartman invites Scott to a chili cookoff, telling him that he can have a free pony ride at the event. Scott, who thinks he knows what Cartman's plan is, tells his parents that there is an abandoned pony at Farmer Denkins' place. His parents go to Farmer Denkins in order to have the pony sent to an animal shelter. Scott decides to humiliate Cartman once again by having all the kids in South Park put their pubic hair in Scott's chili and watch Cartman eat it.

At the cook off, everybody is waiting for Cartman to get humiliated (except for Chef, who brought his own chili). Scott eats Cartman's chili first, and then taunts Cartman to do the same. When Cartman has almost finished a bowl of chili that is apparently Scott's, Scott begins to tell Cartman what he did. However, Cartman has anticipated Scott's move, and reveals through a mouthful of chili that he switched Scott's chili with Chef's. He then goes into detail about how he figured Scott out. First, Cartman knew that Stan and Kyle would tell Scott about his original plan. He knew that Scott would try to take care of the pony. He also knew that Scott, out of fear of having his penis bitten off, would probably send his parents to do the deed. Knowing that, Cartman went to Denkins' farm and warned him about violent pony killers in the area. Knowing that Denkins shoots trespassers on sight, Cartman returned to the farm later that night after Denkins had shot and killed Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman, and stole the bodies. After spending a night cutting the bodies up with a hacksaw, Cartman was able to create "Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman Chili", which Scott has eaten, and promptly finds his mother's finger with her wedding ring still on it. Scott is horrified and devastated at the loss of his parents. Scott throws up, and Cartman mocks him for eating his parents. At that moment, right on cue, Radiohead shows up. They see Scott sobbing and mock him for being a "crybaby" and "totally not cool."

Finally, as Scott is crying over the death of his parents, Cartman licks the tears off Scott's face, remarking that they are "yummy and sweet" as well as calling them "the tears of unfathomable sadness." Kyle and Stan, shocked at how far Cartman went to get revenge, decided never to piss him off again. The episode ends with Cartman imitating Porky Pig in an homage to old "Looney Tunes" cartoons.

Revisiting

The chili incident is revisited in the season nine episode "The Death of Eric Cartman" while Cartman is recounting to Butters all the bad deeds he's done over the years. Cartman visits Scott at his parents' graves and gives him a gift basket to make things right.The same incident is touched upon in the season ten episode "Cartoon Wars Part 2," where Cartman mentions the incident to a parody of Bart Simpson. [cite episode |title=The Death of Eric Cartman |episodelink= |series=South Park |serieslink= |credits=Trey Parker |network=Comedy Central |station= |airdate=2005-04-13 |season=9 |seriesno= |number=131 |minutes= ] In many subsequent episodes (most of which are in season five) Cartman threatens people that he will make them "eat their parents".

Popularity and reception

* In an official poll held by Comedy Central, this episode ranked 8th most popular of all-time; and in another poll, it was named Cartman’s Greatest Moment [http://www.comedycentral.com/events/south_park/cartman_25/index.jhtml Comedy Central voting page] for Cartman's 25 Greatest Moments.] , as it finally showed the audience just how psychopathic Cartman could be. It was also voted the most controversial episode of all time on another Comedy Central poll.
* This episode is currently the one of the highest-rated "South Park" episodes on IMDb.com [ [http://imdb.com/title/tt0121955/eprate South Park: Episodes Rated by IMDb User Rating] ] and TV.com [ [http://www.tv.com/south-park/show/344/top.html?tag=subtabs;top TV.com episode list sorted by user rating] ] , and also appears on the "South Park: The Hits" DVD.
* In the recent UK poll Paramount Comedy's Top 10 Episodes, this episode was ranked number 2.
* The events of the episode are referenced in many subsequent episodes by Cartman as a way of demonstrating just how bad he can be, usually by either whispering under his breath or shouting (depending on the situation) "I'll make you eat your parents" as a means of extortion.
*During Comedy Central's "South Park" Marathon (March 2008), this episode earned the title "Most Shocking Plot Twist."

Censorship

Due to its airtime of 6:30PM on Irish network TG4, several scenes from this episode are cut. These include:

*The scenes of Cartman trying to train a pony to bite off Scott's penis
*The scene in which Scott's parents are shot (the scene cuts off at the point where the viewer can hear the shotgun being cocked)
*The close-up of the severed finger that Scott pulls out of his chili.

References