The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka

Template:Infobox South Park episode "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka" is episode 206 of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on June 10, 1998.

Plot synopsis

In this episode, the boys are assigned to interview Vietnam War vets, and interview Stan's Uncle Jimbo and his friend Ned. The two tell a story of American camps having amusement park rides and claim that they single-handedly defeated the entire Viet Cong army. When their report gets them an "F-", they plot revenge, and make bogus videos of the legendary Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka, which the two then show on their show, Huntin' and Killin.

The show becomes successful, which leads to a decline in ratings of their competitors, the talk show Jesus and Pals, starring Jesus. The show begins to alter because of the actions of one of the show's producers, despite Jesus' cynicism of the idea. Meanwhile, Jimbo and Ned go searching for the Staring Frog, which according to legend can kill with a glance; Ned sees the fake frog the boys set up and becomes comatose from pure fear, and when in the hospital the boys confess their misdeed. This leads to Jimbo, Ned (though still comatose), and the boys all being shown on Jesus and Pals, arranged by the show's producer.

Without Jesus' knowledge, the producer arranges for them to lie on the air to improve ratings, having Jimbo claims that Stan is a drug-addicted Satan-worshipper, and having Stan claim that Jimbo molested him, etc. When chaos breaks out on the show, Jesus screams "Shut the f*** up!" at everybody and discovers the truth about everything; he patches everything up with Jimbo, Ned and the boys, and as punishment to his producer, sends her to Hell. There, she meets Satan and with him, Saddam Hussein, foreshadowing events that will unfold in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

Trivia

• It's interesting to note that at the end of the episode, while Jimbo admits that he lied about his and Ned's accomplishments during Vietnam, he doesn't mention his assertion about there being carnival rides in the American camps and such; in fact, at one point in the episode where Jimbo and Ned are talking to another Vietnam veteran, it is implied that, in the South Park universe, that really happened.
• Cartman doesn't know what Vietnam was before Mr. Garrison told them in this episode. However, in a previous episode, Volcano, he states he is having flashbacks of 'Nam.
• South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker met while the latter was making a movie called The Giant Beaver of Southern Sri Lanka. There is obviously some sort of correlation between that and this episode.
• The title of this episode is also a reference to Mark Twain's short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Also, in his stories, Sherlock Holmes would often refer to the story of the Giant Rat of Sumatra.
• The book that Jimbo is reading to Ned in the hospital is The Outsiders.
• During the taping of Jesus and Pals, a black man with a jheri curl continually interrupts Jesus, calling him "Montel", and defends Michael Jackson against his child molestation charges. This is a possible reference to funk singer Rick James.
• This episode, through Jesus and Pals, manages to lampoon talk shows, most particularly The Jerry Springer Show.
• When the producer of Jesus and Pals was eavesdropping, she puts a spy set aside and says that she couldn't help but listen to their conversation. The same joke is used in BASEketball in which the South Park creators starred in.
• This episode introduced Saddam Hussein as Satan's lover in hell. Probably due to the fact that he died on the Canadians bad gas in the earlier episode of this season, "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus." Bigger, Longer & Uncut contradicts this by saying that Saddam was killed by a pack of wild boars. Much later on in the series, he comes back to life. Since Kenny dies almost every episode, of course, this is not particularly surprising.
• In real life, Sri Lanka is located off the coast of India. It is nowhere near Mexico.
• In the flashback sequence, Jimbo says that they beat the whole Viet Cong army. The oppostistion, however, was wearing black uniforms, and the real Viet Cong did not.
• It's surprising how no one said anything about Kenny when he mooned the camera during the scene where Cartman's an old lady. This was the first episode to have him showing his buttocks.

Kenny's Death

• During the riot on Jesus and Pals, two people pull on Kenny until he snaps into two. Later, a rat comes and drags Kenny's lower half away.