Season 1 Episode 7 – Pinkeye

 

It’s Halloween in South Park, and all is not well…

Original Airdate

29^th October 1997

Featured Music

• It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (sung by Ms. Cartman)

Character Debuts

• Principal Victoria

Synopsis

Halloween at South Park shows everyone has the same idea of a costume… but a scant few… and instead of a virus outbreak, we have a zombie outbreak! Will South Park be filled with the living dead? And Cartman gets a big lesson about what NOT to dress.

Oh, and we also have an outbreak of pinkeye in South Park, which may or may not be related to the zombies.

Kenny's Death

Crushed by MIR Space Station, then his zombie self is sawed in half by Kyle. Then, after coming out of his grave, crushed by a statue of an angel and hit by a flaming plane.

My Thoughts Back Then

This one I remember fondly – even my Mum likes the joke about the Worcestershire sauce being used as embalming fluid! That stuck with me for good reason, I first saw this either just before or just after Halloween of 2004, again, rented on video from the video shop near my Dad’s house.

I had only seen Episodes I and II of Star Wars at this time, so didn’t know who Chewbacca was, and I also remember reinforcing the “Don’t dress as Hitler message” to my Mum, as an example of the good values South Park teaches, in one of our arguments in her house at the time. Just a few years prior (when I was 8 myself) I thought Hitler was from the Wolfenstein games, which I used to play on the computer at my Dad’s house. I didn’t know Michael Jackson’s music at the time, so didn’t get Zombie Chef’s parody of Thriller at the time either.

My Thoughts Now

First of the Western intros, in sepia, with Trey and Matt dressed as cowboys, again, home video only. Same format as the fireside chats. And don’t forget Indian Companion!

With a special Halloween intro, our episode starts on the communist-infested MIR Space Station, which crashes in South Park, killing Kenny less than a minute into the episode. The other boys think it’s a UFO, and Kenny is actually taken to the morgue. Halloween at South Park Elementary is the next day. Never tried Worcestershire sauce on a hot dog, maybe I will. It’s a favourite condiment of my stepdad, and is nice in cooking.

Some of the Worcestershire sauce makes it into dead Kenny, turning him into a zombie. The next day, Stan is Raggedy Andy, Kyle is Chewbacca, and Cartman is… Hitler! Complete with swastika badge, Kenny then rocks up, the other boys don’t know he’s a zombie.

Almost everyone is Chewbacca (including Wendy and Mr. Hat), and Mr. Garrison is dressed as a chick! Perhaps a precursor to a later season? Stan is upset, as is Kyle, who scolds Cartman for dressing up as Hitler. Ms. Cartman also decorates the front door with disgraced former US President Richard Nixon (I was a big George W. Bush supporter at this point), while singing a Christmas song!

Chef is MAD at Cartman (who is dressed as Evil Knievel, the stuntman)… as is Principal Victoria! Cartman is escorted away from lunch, while Kenny turns Clyde into a zombie! Principal Victoria’s attempt to educate Cartman with a video backfires, and he even visualises himself speaking as Hitler, in German! His new costume is a ghost (which looks like a Klansman! – you can see why Chef is scared, and for dang good reason!)

Tina Yothers (Jen from Family Ties) is ripped on when she presents the sweets, to Wendy! Kyle disses her, and Stan has the worst costume. Zombie Clyde is now ruining apple bobbing, and Chef knows what’s going on. Trick or treating, which only became popular here in Australia within the last 10 years, comes around, and Kyle is now a vampire. Wendy giving her sweets to hungry children in Nairobi brought back memories, I went there on holiday with my Dad, uncle and auntie 10 years ago.

Chef, still the only sane adult in town at this point, walks in on the Mayor with a trouser less Officer Barbrady and a lot of money, who mock Chef, by now the town is having houses ripped up, and the KKK appear to be stingy with sweets (I wouldn’t take their sweets anyway!) Chef is ready, and scolds Cartman for his “ghost”. Even Pip, who’s from East London, is a zombie now!

Loved how the boys can’t pronounce Worcestershire either! We enter the final battle, which is much like out of Doom with the chainsaw enabled, Kenny is killed again and the zombie curse lifts, Cartman only cares about sweets after all this! Typical 8 year old! Kenny’s death at the end with the tombstone hits home for me more as adult too, I’ll go into this more in a later episode.