South Park Is Gay!

Template:Infobox South Park episode "South Park Is Gay!" is episode 708 (the 104th) of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on October 22, 2003. It was selected #4 of "10 South Parks that changed the world"

Plot

After the TV show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy begins showing, metrosexuality becomes a major fad among both adults and children, and all the men in town begin acting as if they're effeminate, except Kyle, who doesn't want to conform to metrosexuality and winds up being ostracized and beaten up; Mr. Garrison and Mr. Slave (two actual gay men) are likewise opposed to the fad since they feel the gay culture should be unique to gays and also Chef, who choose not to follow the metrosexual fad and encourages Kyle to remain the way he usually is after Kyle told Chef that he didn't feel metrosexual following a makeover. The women of the town were initially in favor of the fad because their husbands and sons would show good hygiene and communicate with them, but soon grow tired of it when they start paying more attention to their own looks than the ladies'.

Kyle, Mr. Garrison and Mr. Slave all go to New York to try to kill the Fab Five, but their mission fails. They then talk to the insouciant stars, who refuse to stop what they are doing. Mr. Garrison demands to know how gays could betray their own people, and then slowly realizes, they're not gay at all. The five, suddenly turning grave, reveal the truth: their skins burst open, revealing that they are actually from an ancient race of Crab People, planning to turn men weak in order to enslave the world.

Captured by the Crab People, the teachers and Kyle are unable to stop the five from their plans to metrosexualize the president; however, the women, finally fed up with everything, attack the Queer Eye guys and kill them. They explain that men need to be masculine and that's what really makes them attractive, even if they are gross. The producer says he will call the police to arrest them, before they find the bodies of the Fab Five have crab people within. The producer, stricken, decides it's time to bring back the Latino fashion -- which the denizens of South Park immediately adopt.

Kyle is accepted back at school, but when he expresses anger at his prior exiling, the others call him "gay" and go play football.

References to popular culture

• Kyle's look after he gets his makeover is very similar to that of recording artist Mick Hucknall of Simply Red.
• When Kyle is introduced to metrosexual style, and again when he is introduced to Crab People "style", the scene parodies the opening credits to Queer Eye.

Trivia

• The title of the episode is a supposed joke directed at those people who hate South Park.
• This episode introduced the Crab People, which are the basis for all bad ideas in the South Park universe. The creators thought of it in the writer's room and spent days deciding who the Crab People could represent in modern day life. When they couldn't think of anyone they decided to go out on a limb and just use their original idea. The creators have remarked that they still haven't decided if they like their decision or not.
• The Crab People who live beneath the Earth may be a reference to the Talosians from Star Trek as they were originally conceived by Gene Roddenberry as being crab-like humanoids who dwelled beneath the surface of the planet. They may have been inspired by the Deviants a sub-species of humanity from Marvel Comics that dwell underground.
• In the beginning where all the men are watching TV, the man on the far right side isn't standing on the floor, he is above the carpet.
• The boys actually have toes, as seen in the episode. In most cases, their feet are just simple ovals, even without their shoes on.

Censorship

• When aired in syndication, Mr. Garrison and Jimbo's entire conversation ("Those shoes say you take it in the butt!") is bleeped (albeit rather sloppily), and the word "pound" from the sentence "That shirt says you pound butt!" is also bleeped.