Rainforest Shmainforest

"Rainforest Shmainforest"

"Rainforest Schmainforest" (also known as "Choir Tour") is the 32nd episode of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on April 7, 1999. This episode features Jennifer Aniston as a guest voice.

This episode was inspired by Trey Parker's personal hatred towards rainforests that he formed after a visit to Costa Rica. Parker explains on the DVD episode commentary that, at the suggestion of Flea, member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Parker and his girlfriend went to Costa Rica and hated the area, and that everything Cartman says about the rainforests during the episode is how he (Parker) personally feels.

Plot

The episode starts with Miss Stevens (voiced by Jennifer Aniston), leader of the "Getting Gay With Kids" choir tour, trying to recruit more kids to the group. The boys cause trouble, calling the choir names and belittling their cause. They are sent to the office, where Mr. Mackey punishes the boys by forcing them to join the choir. Kenny is the only one who is happy about it, since he has developed a crush on Kelly, a girl in the choir.

The episode is filled with famous environmentalist cliché's, such as, "We must take only photos and leave only footprints", "It's more afraid of us than we are of it" and "We have to respect mother nature and she will respect us".

The choir goes to San José, Costa Rica to tour, where Miss Stevens tells Cartman that she plans on changing his views on third-world countries. Upon arriving, Cartman immediately starts to make trouble, such as yelling at Costa Ricans, directing everyones attention to prostitutes and commenting that San Jose "smells like ass", the children get to meet the Costa Rican President and do a preview dance routine, but Miss Stevens is dismayed by Kyle's lack of co-ordination.

The children then take a tour to see the 'wonders' of the rainforest (squirrel monkeys and a three-toed sloth). Eventually their tour guide is eaten by a coral snake, leaving Miss Stevens and the children on their own in the jungle. They run into a group of revolutionaries, who they try to sway to their cause. To this the rebel leader replies: "We're not getting gay with any kids!" and the choir has to run away as government troops arrive and start a battle. With the group still wandering aimlessly around the rainforest, Cartman decides to leave this "hippie" group; he walks off and finds a friendly crew tearing down trees. Kelly takes Kenny to one side and admits her feelings for him, but tries to stop herself from going too far, as she lives on the other side of the USA, which annoys Kenny.

Back in San José, the concert is about an hour away from starting, and the President stalls for time by telling poorly thought out"Polak" jokes. Miss Stevens and the remaining children are captured by a tribe of natives (causing Kelly to change her mind and be Kenny's girlfriend) who offer Miss Stevens, now dressed in a cheerleading outfit, to a giant native (à la Jabba the Hutt). At this point, Miss Stevens changes her mind, and decides the rainforest is not such a good place after all. Just then, Cartman and the construction workers arrive to destroy the village and save the kids. Kelly tells Kenny that, in order to keep up their "long distance relationship," they have to call every other day. However, Kenny is then immediately struck and apparently killed by a bolt of lightning. After unsuccessfully trying to get Stan and Kyle, who are, as usual, indifferent to his death to help him, Kelly manages to resuscitate Kenny, much to the surprise of Stan and Kyle.

When the group escapes the forest, Miss Stevens and the children are so happy that they literally change their song about the rainforest. They do a different version of the original song, which rebukes the rainforest rather than praising it as the original did. Despite the change, Kyle still has no co-ordination which, according to his friends is because he's Jewish.

Kenny's death

Kenny nearly died by being struck by lightning and was revived by Kelly. When Stan and Kyle said "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and "You bastards!" like usual, Kelly asked who they meant by "they," and Stan and Kyle's only reply they can give is "they're bastards." The boys are shocked not only by the idea of actually trying to help and revive Kenny, but also when Kelly succeeds.

Controversy

Despite the episode airing in 1999 in the U.S. and a few years later in Latin America, the episode has caused a bit of controversy in February of 2007 over the comments that Cartman made about Costa Rica saying that the town "smells like ass" and the way the creators show the country full of "prostitutes, shantytowns and trash". The Costa Rican Government was reportedly "not amused" with this episode. .A video of this report, in Spanish, is also available on YouTube [1]

Goofs

During the scene when the choir teacher and kids are running from the tribe, you can see Cartman running along with them although he has left the group and found safety.