Towelie

This article is about the South Park episode. For the character, see Towelie.

"Towelie"

"Towelie" is episode 73 of Comedy Central's South Park. It originally aired on August 8, 2001.

Synopsis

While at Stan's house, Cartman discovers a used tampon which he mistakes for an aborted fetus in the garbage. In an effort to get the kids to never mention the tampon again, Stan's mother buys the kids a video game system, the Okama Gamesphere. The boys are completely fascinated by the Gamesphere, and intend to play with it for the entire weekend, without sleeping.

Kyle notes that he has to go to the lake, which interferes with their plan to play the Gamesphere all weekend. As soon as swimming is mentioned, a talking towel who calls himself "Towelie" comes in and reminds them to bring a towel, so they can dry off. An awkward pause follows this advice, and then Towelie asks the boys if they want to get high. When he learns the answer is no, Towelie walks off.

Kyle manages to make an excuse about why he shouldn't go to the lake (date-rape psychosis), but the boys were reminded that they still have to go to baseball practice. While playing the Gamesphere, Towelie shows up, gives them more towel advice, and asks them if they want to get high. Towelie walks off when they say they don't want to. They play all weekend after the boys say they are sick and can't go to school (Stan tells his mom that Kyle has cancer).

When Monday comes around, the boys are forced to go to school. Because they want to get back to playing their Gamesphere, they are worried that the day will drag on forever. At the bus stop, a car pulls up. A man in the car asks if the boys have seen a talking towel anywhere. When the boys ask if he is talking about Towelie, the man yells into a walkie-talkie, and drives off, watching the boys suspiciously.

After school, the boys run to Stan's house, but the Gamesphere isn't there. In its place is a ransom call, saying that if the boys want to get their Gamesphere, they'll have to take Towelie to a secluded gas station during the night.

Realizing that talking about towel-related subjects is the only way to get Towelie to appear, the boys say they are going to go water-skiing, and Towelie shows up to give them some towel advice. The boys grab Towelie and take him to the gas station. An elderly man is there, and he thanks the boys for bringing Towelie to him. The old man works for the company that made Towelie. When the boys ask for their Okama Gamesphere, the old man realizes that it is a trap, and the United States Military ambushes them. During the fight, Towelie and the boys escape. The military then declares that all towels within 1000 miles of that spot will be destroyed. In a montage showing the towels being destroyed, two army men storm Mr. Garrison's bathroom, and take the towel from around his waist. Mr. Garrison then leans up against the wall and, unconvincingly, begs the soldiers not to "have their way with him". He insults them loudly as they leave without touching him.

Before the episode goes to a commercial break, a fake commercial plays. The commercial advertises Towelie T-shirts. There are T-shirts that say "I love Towelie" for people who love Towelie, and there are T-shirts that say "I hate Towelie" for people who hate Towelie. It also shows a Towelie towel which looks like Towelie and says some of his catchphrases. The commercial assures the audience that the merchandise is not available, but will be sold soon. Though the original version of this episode used Comedy Central’s actual phone number (1-800-4-COMEDY), it was changed to a fake number (1-800-555-TOWL) in all reruns and on the DVD version.

The Towelie Towel from the commercial is actually being sold by Comedy Central here.

For the rest of the episode, the boys and Towelie go back and forth between a military base (aptly named "Secret Government Base") and the company that made Towelie in an effort to get their Gamesphere. At one point, Towelie plays the theme to "Funkytown" on a keypad, while trying to enter the base. The plot gets increasingly thick, involving aliens trying to take over Earth and genetically modified Towelies. All throughout the story, the boys say they don't care, and that they just want their Gamesphere; in spite of their utter indifference, the increasingly complicated plot continues to surround them.

In the midst of a confrontation between the military and the company that made Towelie, the boys find their Gamesphere and start playing and become oblivious of the events around them. Before they can play for long, the building is blown up in order to kill the aliens that want to rule the world. The boys end up above a pool of lava. The Gamesphere is below them; close to the lava. The boys are linked up, with each one holding onto another one's ankles, and Towelie sitting on safe ground at the top of the chain.

Kenny falls off and dies in the lava. The boys attempt to swing to the right to get the Gamesphere. Meanwhile, an evil, muscley towel comes and tries to get Towelie to drop the boys by exploiting Towelie's love of getting high. Towelie, however, manages to stretch himself and grab the marijuana - therefore being able to get high and hold onto the boys. A second explosion causes the evil towel to fall into the lava. The boys and Towelie go home and play the Gamesphere.

At the end of the episode, Towelie is very high and has no idea where he is at. As the video game progresses to an underwater level, Towelie spouts his catchphrase of "Don't forget to bring a towel." The boys all share a laugh, which leads Cartman to tell him, "You're the worst character ever, Towelie", to which Towelie complacently replies, "I know."

Kenny’s Death

Kenny falls into the lava pool and is cooked to death as the others are dangling from the railing, but no one really cares, except Cartman who shouts out "Kenny!" as he falls, something extremely off-character for Cartman. Kyle, seeing the Gamesphere about to fall, says “Oh my God, our Okama Gamesphere!”

Towelie

• On the episode commentary, Trey and Matt explain that the origin for Towelie began on a boat trip they took with several writers and friends, where people were constantly telling each other "don’t forget to bring a towel" and the phrase eventually morphed into "Towelie says to bring a towel.".
• Matt and Trey have asserted (in the VH1 special and elsewhere) that they were becoming increasingly aware as to how heavily merchandised and exploited their creations were becoming. Towelie was their way of poking fun at themselves. They designed Towelie as a shallow, two-dimensional (both literally and figuratively) character who has no real purpose except to "spout catch phrases and merchandise the hell out of". This is why they threw in the fake commercial during the show, and also why Cartman calls him the "worst character ever".
• In the scene where Towelie and the boys enter the military base they see a room which contains failed Towelie clones and one that's barely alive saying "kill me." This is a reference to one scene from Alien Resurrection when Ripley sees the failed clone attempts of her and one is barely alive, saying "kill me."

Cultural References

• The Okama Gamesphere is a parody of the Nintendo Gamecube which had recently been released at the time this episode aired. "Okama" is Japanese slang for Homosexual.
• Cartman says a few lines from the movie Sling Blade ("You shouldn't'a done that, he's just a boy," and "poor little feller") with an accent similar to that in the movie, when referring to Stan's mom's tampon he found in the trash.
• Some references can be seen to the 1982 movie Blade Runner such as the name of the genetically modifying towel organization Tynacorp, similar to the replicate-making company Tyrell Corporation from the movie, and the Tynacorp president's line "But then it started to show emotions". The shot of the Tynacorp building from the front is the exact design, albeit smaller, of the Tyrell Corporation building.
• One of soldiers wanting to capture Towelie suggests that the four boys may have a telepathic link with Towelie, like in Steven Spielberg's film E.T.
• When Towelie gets high in the car in an attempt to remember where his base is, the music to Popeye is played in the background. The same music is played in Popeye when he eats spinach, which causes his muscles to grow huge.
• There is a reference to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when Kyle is reaching for the Gamesphere while hanging above the magma.