Good Times with Weapons

"Good Times with Weapons"

"Good Times with Weapons" is episode 112 of South Park. The first episode of Season 8, it originally aired on March 17, 2004. The episode's animation routinely switches from the usual cutout-and-solid-color style to a highly stylized anime theme. Asian-style ambience plays in the background.

This was also one of ten episodes to be featured on South Park: The Hits DVD. In addition, it was voted the 2nd best episode of all time by fans in the United States, while being ranked the third best among fans in the United Kingdom. This episode was one of the first to be available in high definition, available on Xbox 360's Marketplace. A promotional HD DVD was also released exclusively for Best Buy. The show was rated TV-MA on Comedy Central but was rated TV-14-LV on syndication.

This was the first episode with April Stewart as the bulk of the female characters following Eliza Schneider's departure.

Plot

At the Park County Fair, the boys come across a vendor dealing "authentic weapons from the Far East." After tricking him into selling them several dangerous ninja weapons (parental permission is required if the hopeful buyer is under 18; Cartman uses this information to pretend that he, Kenny, Kyle and Stan are orphaned brothers, a ruse the boys have apparently successfully used "like twelve times" in the past), they pretend to be ninjas, as they become anime-like characters with their own individual superpowers, as the animation style takes on an overall Japanese look and switches to a cinemascope aspect ratio. The boys refuse to let Butters play, so he becomes his alter ego, Professor Chaos, and sets off to fight them in a stylized anime sequence. The sequence ends abruptly when Kenny throws a shuriken at Butters, whom they all see as Chaos, which hits him in the eye and gets stuck. To avoid having to explain themselves and getting into trouble with their parents by taking him to a regular hospital along with playing with weapons, the boys decide to dress Butters up as a dog and begin their journey to the local veterinarian.

File:SP Good Times With Weapons.jpg

Butters after being dressed up as a dog.

The boys hide Butters in an abandoned stove before facing off with Craig's gang, who have also acquired ninja weapons out of envy. After an epic battle, the boys realize that Butters has disappeared and try to find him before he can tell anyone, enlisting Craig's gang in the search. Meanwhile, Butters makes his way to the hospital, but his disguise fools the doctor, who sends him to the animal shelter. At the shelter, the still-wounded Butters is urinated and defecated on by multiple other dogs. The elderly animal doctor, also fooled, makes no attempt to treat him, preparing instead to put him to sleep. Before he can do so, however, Butters escapes, so the doctor simply says, "Oh, well. Let's murder one of these other dogs."

The boys decide to dispose of the evidence and return to the fair to have the vendor refund their weapons, but Craig and the others inform them that they have seen Butters wandering around on the other side of the fair auction. Cartman pretends to be invisible to get to Butters undetected, unwittingly exposing himself onstage to the shocked audience. Butters stumbles onto the stage a few moments later and collapses. The final scene shows the townsfolk protesting at an emergency meeting about the outrage at the auction. The boys are under the impression that the outrage in question is Butters' wound (which has by this time been medically treated, much to Butters' relief), but it soon transpires that the real issue is Cartman's public nudity. Cartman explains that it was a "wardrobe malfunction," and the episode ends with the other three boys addressing the issue that adults are more offended by sex over violence, allowing them to keep their weapons.

Development

This episode features "Let's Fighting Love," a theme song that mixes Japanese and English lyrics. The song is performed by series creator Trey Parker.

Romaji	Episode Subtitles	Kana	Translation
Subarashii chin chin mono Kintama no kami aru Sore no oto sarubobo Iie! Ninja ga imasuuuuuuuu Hey hey let's go kenka suru Taisetsu na mono protect my balls! Boku ga warui so let's fighting... Let's fighting love! Let's fighting love! Kono uta chotto baka Wake ga wakaranai Eigo ga mecha kucha Daijoubu, we do it all the time!	素晴らしいチンチンもの 金玉の髪ある それの音　サルボボ いいえ！忍者がいます！ Hey, hey let's go!喧嘩する 大切な物　Protect my balls 僕が悪い　So let's fighting! Let's fighting love! Let's fighting love! この歌ちょっと馬鹿 訳が分からない 英語が滅茶苦茶 大丈夫、We do it all the time!	すばらしいチンチンもの きんたまのかみある それのおとサルボボ いいえ！にんじゃがいます Hey hey let's go けんかする たいせつなもの protect my balls! ぼくがわるい so let's fighting... Let's fighting love! Let's fighting love! このうたちょっとばか わけがわからない えいごがめちゃくちゃ だいじょうぶ, we do it all the time!	I have a wonderful penis And testicle hair. That's the sound of a sarubobo. No! It's the ninjas! Hey hey let's go fight! The important thing is to protect my balls! I'm bad, so let's fighting... Let's fighting love! Let's fighting love! This song is a little stupid It's hard to make sense of Its English is messed up That's OK! We do it all the time!

Also, in spite of the episode's popularity among fans, Parker and Stone openly admitted in the Season 8 commentary track that they did not think it was a very good episode. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone jokingly referred to 2004 in their DVD commentary as "The Year From Hell." They were filming and premiering Team America: World Police while working on the season, which caused them a considerable amount of writer's block.

External links

• "Good Times with Weapons" Full episode at South Park Studios
• "Good Times with Weapons" Episode guide at South Park Studios