Season 1 Episode 1 - Cartman Gets An Anal Probe

The only episode of the series to be actually made of construction paper, South Park gets off to a raunchy, notable start.

Original Airdate

13th August 1997

Featured Music

I Love To Singa by Norman Spencer, 1936

Character Debuts

• Stan Marsh
• Kyle Broflovski
• Eric Cartman
• Kenny McCormick
• Ike Broflovski
• Chef
• Officer Barbrady
• Mr. Garrison
• Mr. Hat
• Wendy Testaburger
• Ms. Crabtree
• Ms. Cartman
• Visitors

Synopsis

Starting off with Kyle Broflovski kicking his baby brother into a window, we meet him, Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick in the debut of South Park. Cartman is abducted by aliens, who program him to sing at random intervals, and farts fire, along with a satellite dish being installed in his bottom. All in the mountain town of South Park, Colorado (based on the real town of Fairplay, for my fellow Perth-based residents, think somewhere like Bakers Hill).

Kenny's Death

Run over by a police car.

My Thoughts Back Then

I first watched this episode in 2004, as a 13 year old boy, it was September of that year if I recall correctly. Having wanted to watch South Park since 1998, spurred by some of the boys in my primary school class being fans (one in particular used to watch anything he desired, even at that age), I decided to rent some of the video tapes (remember those?) from my local video shop, one weekend when I was at my Dad's house.

This wasn't the first episode I saw (that review won't be for a while), but this was one of the first I saw. Despite the adult themes being a bit much for me at the time (I hadn't seen anything this vulgar before), I was a fan from almost the get go, and wanted more... and more... and more! What appealed to me was feeling cool watching it, the stupidity of the boys, and of course, Kenny dying. When I was 7/8, I memorised my cousin's South Park poster, proudly on display in the dining room of my auntie and uncle's house, with all of Kenny's Season 1 deaths on it.

My Thoughts Now

I've rewatched this one a few times over the years, now at the age of 30, 31 this coming April, I still enjoy this episode, over 17 years after I first watched it. Kyle has the first solo line of the series (they all sing at the start of the episode), then Cartman, then Stan and finally Kenny. Chef (voiced by the late great Isaac Hayes) also makes his debut.

The story about aliens abducting Cartman is timeless, a lot of later South Park episodes are time capsules of when they were made, especially from the fifth season onwards. I love the cartoonish nature (such as how Ike can be kicked through TWO glass bus windows and not be hurt haha, or Ms. Crabtree’s terrible driving which makes Otto from the Simpsons look like an amazing driver). Then there’s Cartman’s malfunctioning anal probe…

A lot of South Park staples are right here from the start, including Mr. Garrison’s bad teaching, Officer Barbrady’s inept police work (Chief Wiggum is basically Einstein compared to Barbrady), and Stan’s crush on Wendy (later a relationship), and Cartman saying “Screw you guys, I’m going home!”, to name a few.

As far as first episodes of a series go, South Park is already pretty well formed from the first episode, and while a lot’s changed since 1997 in the show, this holds up well, and serves as a reminder of when the show was a lot simpler, and the adventures took place in the town of South Park itself.

Re-watching these at 30 means I also get a lot more of the cultural references in South Park, like when Chef mentions he only has 20 minutes before Sanford and Son, another favourite show of mine, comes on. I would discover Sanford and Son, the classic 1970s American sitcom, as a young man in the late 2000s.

The fireside chat on the video and DVD release of this episode is also a nice feature, showcasing a then 28-year old Trey Parker and 26-year old Matt Stone (younger than I am now – scary!)