Cartmanland

Infobox Television episode
Title = Cartmanland
Series = South Park


Caption = Cartmanland is open for business
Season = 5
Episode = 71
Airdate = July 25, 2001
Production = 506
Writer = Trey Parker
Director = Trey Parker
Guests =
Episode list = List of "South Park" episodes
Season list = Infobox South Park season 5 episode list
Prev =
Next ="Cartmanland" is episode 506 of the Comedy Central series "South Park". It was originally broadcast on July 25, 2001.

Plot synopsis

Upon the death of his grandmother, Cartman inherits $1,000,000. Delighted, Cartman makes an offer to buy an amusement park, having always wanted a park all to himself without having to wait in lines. Around the same time, Kyle comes down with a hemorrhoid, and his suffering combined with Cartman's fortune causes him to stop believing in God. After an ad about Cartman's theme park comes on TV (advertising that no one will be allowed in, which business analysts believe to be "the brilliant 'you can't come' marketing technique"), Kyle and Stan attempt to sneak into the theme park. Unfortunately, Kyle pops his hemorrhoid on the barbed wire fence, infecting the sore and almost killing him. He has to go to the hospital. He renounces his faith completely, and his parents' description of the trials of Job does little to assure him as they leave out the real ending and cut off when Job is suffering.

Cartman initially enjoys his park, but after the incident with Stan and Kyle, he decides to hire a security guard, believing he will accept a few rides a day as payment, but the guard does not accept, and to get the money to pay his salary and through some advice from the guard, he agrees to let in two paying customers in a day, charging $29.95 per ticket. More expenses begin to pile up, though, with broken rides, candy, utilities, and such. To cover the costs, Cartman ends up having to let hundreds of people a day, and finally thousands. The park ends up becoming incredibly successful, as Cartman closed his park off to the public, which made them more desperate to go in. Once he finally opens the doors, they all barge in at once. He is furious that his park is completely full, and, out of pure spite, sells the park back to its original owner. However, his money is then taken to pay off the IRS and a lawsuit by Mr. and Mrs. McCormick, as Kenny died on one of the roller coasters, to which Cartman retorts "What?! Kenny?! He dies all the time!". He also owes an additional $13,000 which he cannot pay. He tries to buy the park back from the owner so he can pay off his additional debt, but the owner won't resell due to the park's new-found success. While Kyle is in the hospital, the doctor informs his parents that he is not fighting the hemorrhoid and he has given up hope on life. During this time, a program called Money Quest comes on the TV and it praises Cartman's success by saying "You can't come." Kyle suddenly flatlines and he falls into a coma. His parents are then informed that there is nothing more the doctors can do. Sheila is distraught at the thought of Kyle's death. Stan comes to see Kyle because Cartman has lost his park and his money. When told that Kyle is not going to make it, Stan orders the doctors to bring Kyle down to the park, where they observe that Cartman is extremely miserable and frustrated; more so than if he had never acquired the park in the first place. He throws stones at his old park, but his old security guard sprays him in the eyes with tear gas and puts him in horrible pain. Observing this justice, Kyle regains his faith and desire to live, his illness is put into remission, and he recovers almost instantly. He awakens and, seeing Cartman's misery, realizes there is a God who cares after all.

Production

In the DVD commentary to this episode [cite web
url = http://www.southparkstuff.com/season_5/episode_506/
title = South Park: Episode 506 - Cartmanland - South Park Stuff.com
publisher = South Park Stuff
date = 2007-10-07] Parker and Stone highlight it as another example (after "Scott Tenorman Must Die") of the show's change in style towards simpler ideas which consisted only of an A-Plot, with no subplot, and "not try [ing] to do too many things at once". Parker mentions how they almost didn't make the episode as they didn't believe that there was enough going on in the episode, that it was too "basic and easy", and they were also concerned that the story of Cartman inheriting a million dollars and buying a theme park was clichéd. However, as it was the middle of the run and they had no other stories to go on, they decided to run with the idea. However, Parker said he realised while they were making the episode that "as long as you have the basic easy cliché thing as the overall thing, then you can get into the scenes and have a lot of fun with scenes and get original in there." The episode eventually became a favorite of the creators - in the commentary to "Super Best Friends" Parker refers to it as a "great episode".

Censorship

The shot of Kyle’s hemorrhoid shrinking was cut in syndication.

References