Cartman Sucks
Template:Infobox South Park episode
"Cartman Sucks" is the 155th episode of Comedy Central's "South Park" and the second episode of the show's 11th season. It originally aired on March 14, 2007. The episode title is double entendre; "Cartman Sucks" could be interpreted as Cartman being very unfriendly but also referring to the picture which looks like Cartman sucking on Butters' penis.
Synopsis
Template:Spoiler Cartman shows the other three boys debasing pictures of Butters while he's sleeping at Cartman's house and tells them about his "ultimate plan" to embarrass Butters. The next morning he runs up to the bus stop showing the boys a picture of Butters' penis in his mouth, thinking that this would make Butters gay. The boys are disgusted and tell Cartman that he is the one that is gay, not Butters. Cartman gives in and pleads for a way to undo the act. Kyle sarcastically tells Cartman that the only way he can reverse the "gay polarity" is to put his own "wiener" in Butters' mouth. Cartman finds Butters back up in his own room and tries to follow through with Kyle's plan, but Mr. Stotch walks in on them. Butters' father, initially shocked, convinces himself that Butters must just be "bi-curious." Priest Maxi further tells Butters that he is just "confused" (which Butters accepts, since he honestly is confused about the term), and Butters is sent to Camp New Grace, a bi-curious camp to "Pray the Gay Away" (the camp's slogan).
Cartman then tells the boys that he looked his situation up on the Internet, and discovered that merely putting Butters' penis in his mouth does not make him gay. He plans to simply destroy the photo so that no one will ever know, but Kyle and the others threaten to tell other people unless Cartman is really nice to them forever. Cartman gets mad at him and tells him that if he tells anyone, he will Photoshop the picture to replace his face with Kyle's face. Later, when Cartman is unable to find the picture, he blames Kyle for its disappearance.
At New Grace most of the campers seem to be self-loathing, and in nearly every scene someone commits suicide with little concern from the camp officials. When the counselor is about to introduce Butters to his new roommate and "accountabilibuddy" Ryan, he has hanged himself. Butters is then introduced to Bradley, who is incredibly twitchy and is constantly quoting Bible verses under his breath.
Back in South Park, Cartman tries to report the theft of the photo to the police, specifically Sergeant Yates. When that fails, he goes home and makes himself cry, running to his mom and telling her that Kyle has a picture of him and he's going to use it to make fun of him the next day at Show and Tell. Cartman tells Liane that he was going to take a picture of Butters so that Butters could give it to his mom, but that Butters got really hot and pulled down his pajama bottoms to cool off. Eric tells his mom that he tripped and fell so that Butters penis landed in his mouth, and at that moment he thought of something really funny, so he looked at the camera and gave a "thumbs up," at which point Kyle snapped the photo. Mrs. Cartman calls Kyle's mom, who quickly assures her that Kyle doesn't have the picture. Cartman, horrified that his mother couldn't help, decides that if he cannot stop Kyle from showing the picture to the class, he will at least deny him the satisfaction of humiliating him by printing out another picture and showing it to the class himself.
At New Grace, a male underwear ad from a 1979 Sears Catalogue is found in Bradley and Butters' room, and both boys are punished. As they carry out their penance, Bradley apologizes for getting Butters into trouble with the catalogue, and then becomes horrified, realizing that he "likes" Butters. Butters innocently tells him that he "likes" him too, which causes Bradley to panic and run away, declaring that "our only way out is to kill ourselves." Eventually, Bradley turns up on a bridge, on the verge of committing suicide. As the counselors try to dissuade him from jumping, they continue to tell Bradley he is just "confused". Butters then gets mad and gives a speech about how he was only confused after people told him he was and that it was okay to be bi-curious (though Butters doesn't know what bi-curious means). He surmises that if all of them came from God, it must mean God is "a little bi-curious, too." After the speech, Bradley changes his mind about committing suicide, and Butters' father admits to Butters that he's bi-curious himself, further confusing Butters as a result.
Meanwhile, in South Park, Cartman confronts Kyle and states he will not let Kyle embarrass him in front of the whole class. He then volunteers to go first for Show and Tell with his photography project. After showing the class a long slide show of artistic photos he took, he reveals the picture of him with Butters' penis in his mouth. The whole class utters groans of disgust, and Cartman claims that the photo is a statement of protest against the war in Iraq. Mr. Mackey then walks in and tells Cartman that there's a note from his mom. He then reads it out loud, which tells Cartman not to show the picture because Kyle never had the picture; it was under his desk the entire time. The episode ends with Cartman standing shocked by the projector, muttering, "lame" in a deadpan tone, like at the ending of AWESOM-O. Template:Endspoiler
Trivia
- When Cartman returns to the boys, to tell them about his findings on the internet, they are playing a boardgame called 'Living' which closely resembles The Game of Life.
- Bradley, Butters' accountabilibuddy, resembles Billy Bibbit from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, played by Brad Dourif.
- This was the first episode since Butters' Very Own Episode to make reference to Stephen's homosexual tendencies.
- This is the second time Cartman has put a penis into his mouth. The first time he did it was in "Simpsons Already Did It", when in order to get semen, he had to "close his eyes and suck it out of a hose".
- Pastor Phillips ("completely cured" priest that acts like he is gay) is a parody of closeted religious leader Ted Haggard.[citation needed]
- The subplot where Butters is in the Christian camp to "fix" his bicuriousity is similar to the main plot in the 1999 film But I'm A Cheerleader, about a high school girl who gets sent to a camp that "fixes" bicurious teens (of both genders) after she's accused of being a lesbian.
- When Stan and Kyle are playing on the basketball court, they are playing a game called H-O-R-S-E, a variation of basketball.
- Before the episode aired, SouthParkStudios.com showed a picture of Cartman crying while shedding tears in his mother's arm. In the actual episode, however, Cartman never sheds tears. (compare: commercial versus episode)
Goofs
- When the counselor shows Ryan (the boy who hanged himself) to Butters, a cross is right of the door. But when the counselor tells another counselor about Ryan, the cross isn't there.
- When Stan, Kyle, and Kenny are playing Living, a spoof on "The Game of Life", the spinner is clearly present on the board, as with "The Game of Life", yet the boys roll dice to determine movement.