Casa Bonita (South Park)

"Casa Bonita (South Park)"

"Casa Bonita" is episode 107 of Comedy Central's South Park. It revolves around Eric Cartman's ploys to get to a Mexican restaurant known as Casa Bonita, which is a fairly accurate representation of the actual restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado. The episode originally aired on November 12, 2003 and was featured on South Park: The Hits DVD. It is one of co-creator Trey Parker's top 10 episodes according to DVD commentary.

Plot

Kyle arrives at Stan's house where the boys are and announces to the group that as a birthday treat his mother is taking him and three of his friends to Casa Bonita, a restaurant that Cartman dreams about frequently. Cartman is ecstatic and begins singing the "Casa Bonita Song" until Kyle disappoints him by revealing that he has decided to invite Butters to his birthday party rather than him. Kyle explains that Cartman constantly mocks him for being a Jew (this results in a montage of many instances in the past when Cartman made fun of Kyle), also that Butters also invited Kyle to his own birthday, and is a better friend to him than Cartman. Cartman then sets out on a campaign to prove that he is nice; however, kindness is such a foreign concept to Cartman that his attempts are laughably unsuccessful (he is unable to tell the difference between wearing a nice sweater and actually being nice), and Butters still gets invited. Cartman's next step is to talk to Jimmy asking him to teach him to be nice. Cartman can't grasp any of what Jimmy tells him, and when Kyle passes by, he proceeds to beat up Jimmy, pretending to be defending Kyle's mother from Jimmy saying he had had sex with her. This prompts Kyle to say, "You really think beating up handicapped kids is nice?" Cartman then talks to Kyle, saying that he was sorry for all the past abuse he had inflicted upon him and saying that he hoped they could still be friends despite the predicament. Kyle, touched and knowing how much Cartman wanted to go to Casa Bonita, says that, if Butters is for some reason unable to go, Cartman can. This, of course, was Cartman's whole evil plan, and he begins working to get rid of Butters.

Cartman tricks Butters into thinking that a meteor is about to hit Earth by asking Butters to peer into a telescope and dangling a stone in front of it. He then arranges for Butters to go into hiding to escape the disaster; and, with Butters gone, Cartman figures he's set to go to the restaurant with Kyle. He hides Butters in Jimbo's bomb shelter filled with food and water. However, Kyle, saying that it "doesn't feel right" to go and enjoy himself after finding out that Butters is missing, decides to postpone the party for a week. The policemen state that they will be checking bomb shelters as well, which is bad news to Cartman. Cartman says that a meteor the size of Wyoming has hit sooner than he thought, the fabric of civilization has crumbled, and that the world is filled with radioactive cannibals. Cartman makes Butters wear a cardboard box over his body, to "protect him from the toxic radiation", so he doesn't see that there hasn't been a meteor, saying that the destruction is too terrible for Butters to see. Cartman brings Butters to the broken down gas station as a plausible site for demonstrating the effects of the meteor. Cartman then tells Butters that a radioactive cannibal just came and Cartman managed to kill it, but that it bit him so Cartman will turn into one as well. Cartman puts Butters into an abandoned refrigerator; seconds after Cartman leaves, a garbage truck comes and dumps Butters into the city dump. Butters thinks the dump is the remains of Earth and after finding a dog, they build a "new civilization". While he is doing so, he finds a junkyard woman and thinks she is another survivor, and asks her to help rebuild the civilization. When Butters explains Cartman's story, the woman explains that none of it actually happened: there was no meteor, no-one was killed, and the town has been looking for Butters for over a week. Butters, realizing that he's been tricked by Cartman, asks the junkyard woman for her phone, and calls the police about the story.

After arriving at Casa Bonita, Kyle's mother gets a call telling her that Butters is okay and that Cartman is the one responsible for his disappearance, confirming Kyle's doubts. They confront Cartman, notifying him that the police are on their way. Knowing that his entire plan is close to ruin, Cartman escapes and goes on a mad dash through the restaurant to sample every attraction and food in the minute he has left. He is eventually trapped and cornered by the police, the Broflovskis and the boys, and he jumps off the waterfall. They catch up with him floating on his back in the water below. When a police officer explains all the trouble that Cartman's caused and that he's going to be sent to Juvenile Hall for a week and that he's made the whole town worried and that his friends now hate him and asks Eric if it had been worth it. Cartman responds dreamily, "....totally," before the credits roll.

Notes

Parts of this episode may parody the Fallout gaming series (which in turn takes several references from the film "A Boy and His Dog"), such as the fact that Butters finds a stray dog and befriends it, a reference to Dogmeat, the cannibals, a reference to the Andale cannibals, and radiation.

External links

• South Park Studios
• Casa Bonita Denver (Lakewood)