Chef Goes Nanners
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"Chef Goes Nanners" is episode 55 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on July 5, 2000.
Plot synopsis
The episode begins with Jimbo and Chef in the Mayor's office, arguing over the South Park town flag. Jimbo wants to keep the flag that's been around since the time of their forefathers, while Chef insists it's racist. The Mayor requests that Chef point out what is racist about it as her assistants hold up the flag. Unfurled, the flag in question depicts four white figures hanging a black one on a gallows. The obvious racial characteristics incite Chef's indignation. This flag is actually based upon the flag of Patterson Township in Greene County Illinois, that still flies with pride over Patterson Township to this day.
In school, the class is assigned to debate the "Change the Flag" issue. Before deciding the teams, the children have a day to do some research. Stan, Kenny, and Kyle visit Jimbo and he tells them that the issue of the flag is really about history. Meanwhile, Wendy, Bebe, Clyde, and Butters stand alongside Chef outside the supermarket. Chef is gathering support for his cause but the majority of people do not feel strongly about the issue either way. Back at class, Stan and Kyle lead the team of the people who want to keep it the same, and Wendy and Cartman lead the side who want to change it.
During lunch, Kyle and Stan ask Chef for help. Upon hearing that they think the flag should be not changed, Chef - or rather, Abdul Mohammed Jabar Rauf Kareem Ali, which is the name he gave himself after converting to Islam - gets agitated and verbally abusive to the boys. Stan and Kyle are still clueless as to why Chef is upset about the flag.
Wendy leads her team in the library when Cartman suddenly interrupts the process with his own strategy. He gets the team to go dig info on Stan and Kyle, and thereby win the debate using Ad hominem attacks on their opponents' credibility.
The argument back at city hall gets a bit snafued when a group of the Ku Klux Klan marches up, loudly voicing their support for the current flag, citing it as a symbol of "white power." This makes Jimbo, Ned, and a number of the other flag supporters uneasy, not wanting to be on the same side of any issue as the Klan. In order to remedy this issue, Jimbo and Ned disguise themselves as members of the Klan, sneak into one of their meetings, and suggest that they switch sides and support the flag being changed. The leader is confounded on why they would do so, but Jimbo explains that in order to stop the flag from changing, they have to be on the side they oppose, thus forcing people on that side to switch since they would not want to be on the same side as the Klan. The leader embraces the idea, and the Klan switches sides. However, upon leaving the meeting, Jimbo and Ned are spotted by Chef, who drives off before they can explain themselves. A Visitor spies on this scene but makes no more appearances.
Later on, the mayor invites Chef to see the newly designed flag which she believes will be less offensive. In the redesigned flag the black man on the gallows is smiling. Chef leaves the room out of resentment. The mayor cops out, and decides not to make the decision herself, announcing that the outcome of the flag will be determined by the kids' debate. This puts a lot of pressure on Wendy, who, in study sessions, begins to manifest an attraction to Cartman. One night, Wendy has a nightmare about her and Cartman falling in love with each other. She wakes up terrified and screams. Bebe tells Wendy about sexual tension, where two people in close proximity become attracted to each other, and advises her to just kiss Cartman to get it out of her system.
During the debate, Wendy is distracted because she fell in love with Cartman, which builds up a lot of tension. Wendy cannot continue with her opening remarks until she walks over and kisses Cartman in front of the whole town to break the built-up tension. As she continues with her remarks, Stan is left with the same shocked expression on his face for the remainder of the scene while Cartman taunts him from across the room. Meanwhile, Chef and the rest of the adults find out Stan and the members of his team never even saw it as racist, thinking the issue at hand was capital punishment. Chef realizes that the children looked at the flag and only saw five people and is touched. After Jimbo and Chef decide to come to a compromise concerning the flag, Kyle declares that they don't need to do the debate anymore. He taps Stan on the back of the head, who is still in shock. In the end, ethnic diversity is added to the flag. People of all races are hanging the black man, including a black man among the mob, and all are happy and holding hands. Also, Chef delivers the moral of this story: that his inclination to anti-racism almost made him a racist and perceiving things according to race leads only to further racism. At the last scene, Wendy says she is glad that everything is over with and that all her feelings for Cartman disappeared. Cartman (obviously distraught and surprised) agrees and laughs nervously. Wendy chases after Stan, leaving Cartman completely alone, who then sighs and walks away sadly.
Kenny's Death
Kenny explodes after eating a bowl of Kyle's dad's antacids (thinking they were mints) and drinking a glass of water. Following a brief pause, everybody in the room bursts out laughing and clapping, and Stan says, "That was a good one." This is one of the few times that Stan and Kyle don't say "Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!" and "You bastards!", respectively.
Trivia
- This episode satires the controversy about the state flag of Mississippi and the Confederate Flag on the SC State House in South Carolina.
- When two men are talking about the ball game interfering with the date of the protest, two pairs of feet are seen next to them which connect to two women's bodies as they come out of the supermarket.
- Mr. Garrison insists he is not a racist or a Klan member in this episode. However, he was seen in Here Comes the Neighborhood trying to get the "richers" (who were all black) out of South Park using Ku Klux Klan techniques (Such as dressing up in their robes or burning crosses) and reveals with his last line of the episode that his intentions were purely racist. And, of course, every Christmas, he asks the Mayor if the town can get rid of all the Mexicans.
- This episode is the only one where Wendy is seen without her trademark beret.
- Chef's threat to burn a monk in protest is a reference to the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc in 1963, a Buddhist monk who burned himself in a similar fashion as seen above.
- During the episode, a news anchor is discussing a preliminary poll taken by the town's citizens, bringing the approximate adult population of South Park at that time to 4,388.
See also
