Fat Camp (South Park)
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"Fat Camp" is episode 63 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on December 6, 2000.
Plot
The episode begins in class, where the children are dissecting manatees. During the class, the boys dare Kenny to eat a manatee's spleen, which Kenny does in exchange for money. He then commences to eat other disgusting things for money, and expands outwards into all sorts of bizarre acts; this leads to him getting his own program, The Krazy Kenny Show, to showcase his disgusting acts. He also appears on Jesus 'n' Pals, the local talk show, where Jesus comments on this behavior by saying that Kenny (for simply doing outrageous acts for money that require no real talent) is a prostitute. The boys try to discover what the term means, by asking Chef. After initial reluctance to explain, he sings them "The Prostitute Song," with James Taylor. This is based off of Taylor's song "Your Smiling Face".
Meanwhile, Cartman's mother and others from the town pay to send Cartman (against his will) to Fat Camp. There, a pair of overenthusiastic counselors try to teach him and other overweight children to exercise and live a healthier life. Though Cartman resists, he soon reappears in South Park, looking scores of pounds thinner. The children are shocked by this, and also that this Cartman seems more mature and less mean. However, when nobody is looking, this character takes and collects junk food, and it is eventually revealed that this is not Cartman, but a similar-looking kid from the drug rehabilitation center next door to the Fat Camp. Apparently, he has escaped and made a deal with Cartman, in which he returns to South Park and collects food, then brings it back for Cartman to sell to the other fat campers. As a result, none of the kids get any thinner, and their parents decide to take their children home.
Kenny (after a live appearance with Tom Green and Johnny Knoxville on The Howard Stern Show which culminated in him performing oral sex on Howard for $10) is charged for prostitution. This is right before a big show where he intends to go into Mrs. Crabtree's uterus and stay there for six hours. When thin Cartman delivers the episode's moralizing statement, saying that it was wrong for them to have encouraged Kenny, Kyle gets suspicious enough to pull off thin Cartman's hat — revealing that the boy underneath is not the real Cartman. At the same time, back at Fat Camp, one of the kids reveals Cartman's plan, which saves the camp. After listening to a compassionate speech from one of the kids, Cartman says that he will no longer sneak in food, and together, they all can lose the weight. However, because he was responsible for making the kids fatter, he is kicked out. Cartman gets mad, but after everybody goes in, he starts to cry and eats a donut. The imposter, however, is forced to dress up as Kenny and spend the time in Mrs. Crabtree's uterus.
After six hours, it turns out that the imposter has died. It is notable that Kenny does not die in this episode, though his proxy does; as Stan says, "They killed Kenny!...sort of." The episode ends when another kid (unknown) comes out of Mrs. Crabtree's uterus, also dead.
Censorship
- Multiple scenes from this episode involving Kenny's disgusting acts (such as eating his own vomit) are replaced with a black screen that reads "The following scene of Kenny [performing some disgusting act] has been edited for your protection" with smooth jazz music playing in the background when aired in syndication (similar editing is done on the syndicated version of the season six episode Red Hot Catholic Love).
Trivia
- This is the fourth episode before Season 7 in which Kenny does not die. However, the kid who did die at the end of the episode was wearing Kenny's orange parka. This gives us the illusion that death follows Kenny's parka and not necessarily Kenny himself (although Kenny does die in “The Jeffersons” and “Super Best Friends” without his parka. In Super Best Friends he committed suicide, so IT probably did not count as a natural death (although Stan and Kyle say their usual phrase to explain the situation). This is also evident in the episode “Cripple Fight” where Timmy gives Jimmy an orange parka, then we see planes crashing, bear attacks, and other various deaths that have killed Kenny narrowly miss Jimmy. Kenny must have survived this episode, that is, assuming he could survive three months in a New York prison.
- This is the show's first reference to manatees. Manatees would be referenced later in the two-part episode "Cartoon Wars" where Cartman discovers that the writers of Family Guy are manatees who use lottery ball machines to write the episodes.
- Kenny's seldom-seen mouth makes an appearance in this episode.
- The Krazy Kenny Show storyline of this episode satirizes The Tom Green Show and Jackass.
- In the background of the room where Howard Stern is interviewing Kenny, Tom Green and Johnny Knoxville, there's an Antonio Banderas blow-up sex doll from the episode "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery."
- Cartman sings "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" when preparing his toaster pastry chocolate-mix butter bar.
- The song that Chef sings with James Taylor sounds remarkably similar to "Your Smiling Face" by James Taylor.
Goofs
- Cartman's Mom states that he is the only fat member in the family. However, in the episodes "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson! and "Cartmanland", the rest of the family is shown. To be frank, Liane Cartman is actually the only member of the family who isn't even overweight, let alone morbidly obese.
- In the scene where the kids ask Chef what a prostitute is, Kyle's mouth is sideways in some scenes.
