Cartmanland

Template:Infobox South Park episode "Cartmanland" is episode 506 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on July 25, 2001.

Plot synopsis

Upon the death of his grandmother, Cartman inherits $1,000,000 (bequeathed to him since he is the one member of his family who wouldn't waste it all on crack). Delighted with this money, Cartman makes an offer to buy an amusement park. The owner says he can't go through with the deal because the park doesn't make any money, but Cartman says he doesn't want to make money. Because he hates the long lines and noise, Cartman wants the amusement park all to himself so nobody but him can be allowed in it. Around the same time, Kyle comes down with a hemorrhoid, and his suffering combined with Cartman's perfidious fortune causes him to lose faith in God (with Kyle saying to God "There are people starving in Alabama, and you give Cartman a million dollars?!). After an ad about Cartman's theme park comes on TV, 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 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.

Cartman initially enjoys his park, but since Stan and Kyle tried to sneak in he is forced to hire a security guard, and, for money to pay him off with (he spent all his inheritance on the park itself), he agrees to let in two paying customers a day. More expenses begin to pile up, though, with broken rides, candy etc., and Cartman ends up having to let in 816 people per day. On the TV news, they call Cartman "the financial genius of our age". This is because since he said no-one is allowed in it people REALLY wanted to go into the park. Cartman is making more money every second, and business owners nationwide are copying his "method". This news distresses Kyle in hospital so much, he sinks into cardiac arrest, and has lost the will to live. His immune system has stopped fighting against the sore, and there is nothing else the doctors can do.

The park is incredibly successful, but Cartman becomes furious because him letting people in the park was exactly what he intended not to do. He sells the park back to its original owner, but 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 rides; 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 parks' new-found success.

Stan gets the idea 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 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.

The whole plot is a bizarre reversal of the story of Job: Kyle begins losing faith when he sees Cartman gaining a fortune, rather than being impoverished as happened to Job. It is only at the end, when Cartman loses his fortune and ends up suffering misery and ruin, that Kyle's faith is restored. In the Bible, however, Job does not renounce his faith after suffering terrible poverty and physical afflictions and seeing his ten children killed, but merely wanted an explanation for his suffering when there was no sin. God then speaks to Job that afflictions are ways of strengthening him for later trials and ultimately deepening their relationship. God then restores Job's fortune two-fold, grants him long life, and gives him new children. However, Kyle questions why God would do such a thing just to prove a point to Satan.

Kenny’s Death

• Kenny dies at Cartmanland by impalement on a low-hanging metal pipe. Cartman is later sued by Kenny’s family for his death, and his un-safe amusement park (although, in his defense, Kenny was standing up when he was impaled).
• When the men are taking his money and say that one of the reasons was "The little boy who died on a ride" Cartman says that Kenny dies all the time referring to his constant deaths on the series.

Trivia / Pop Culture References

• After hearing the Trials of Job, Kyle remains miserable, stating "Then I was right, Job has all his children killed, and Michael Bay gets to keep making movies. There isn't a God." South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker later rip on Bay in their film Team America: World Police with the song “The End of an Act,” which repeatedly states Pearl Harbor (directed by Bay) sucked. It also poses the question “Why does Michael Bay get to keep making movies?“
• When Cartman begins speaking his hatred for theme park lines, the scene is reminiscent from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! – particularly the line “If there’s one thing I hate, all the lines, lines, lines, lines!” (originally “noise, noise, noise, noise!“)
• The name of the roller coaster Cartman is seen riding in is his amusement park is called “Chupacabra.”

Censorship

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

Goofs

• Cartman states that owning a million dollars is a lifelong dream of his. However, on several previous episodes he is shown attempting to get ten million dollars (and what he intends to purchase with this is never made clear).
• When Stan is in disguise as another boy to try to get into Cartman’s amusement park, he is shown to have brown hair. In actuality, Stan has black hair, as seen in “How to Eat with Your Butt,” aired after this episode.
• Kyle should have been dead by the end of this episode because, having discovered Cartman is now considered Financial Genius of the Century, he flatlines, meaning he had gone into cardiac arrest, and because the doctor was away from him, it is unlikely his heart was zapped back into action in time.
• Kyle believes that there is no God in this episode despite the fact that he and all the other characters met God in person in “Are You There God? It’s Me, Jesus.”