Fat Butt and Pancake Head

"Fat Butt and Pancake Head"

"Fat Butt and Pancake Head" is episode 705 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It was originally broadcast on April 16, 2003.

Plot

South Park Elementary School is holding a cultural diversity day. Kyle gives a report on the role of Latinos in American technology. A board of Latino community leaders (who are the judges) seem pleased with Kyle's report.

Cartman goes on stage to report on the effect of Latino culture on the arts in America. He says he has a special guest, Jennifer Lopez. However, Jennifer Lopez does not show up; Cartman merely does a ventriloquist act with his hand acting as the head of "Ms. Lopez". The racism of Cartman's report is quite obvious and upfront. His "Ms. Lopez" hand puppet has a heavily caricatured Mexican accent (despite that the real Jennifer Lopez is Puerto Rican) and constantly talks about eating tacos and burritos. (It is also a homage to the 1979 film The In Laws, in which a Latin American Military Dictator played by Richard Libertini talks to his hand, whom he calls "Señor Pepe" and regards as his closest advisor. Señor Pepe is himself a homage to Señor Wences, a famous Spanish ventriloquist.) "Ms. Lopez" is also nearly incapable of pronouncing the "J" in her name saying "Hennifer Hlopez" (which Cartman tries to correct unsuccessfully). Despite this, the board of Hispanics inexplicably give him first place for having the best report, and he wins a $20 gift certificate at the mall. This angers Kyle, as he thinks Cartman's speech is racist and immature, and because while Kyle had spent weeks labouring over his speech, it is implied that Cartman spent very little time in preparation.

Cartman further enrages Kyle by insisting that his hand has a mind of its own. When the children go to the mall, Cartman—at the apparent behest of Ms. Lopez—uses his gift certificate to record a music video (in which Ms. Lopez sings of her love of tacos and burritos, and of giving "taco-flavored kisses"). The video gets sent to the record company, proving a success and propelling Ms. Lopez to stardom. However, the executives agree that Ms. Lopez has too many similarities to the actual Jennifer Lopez and decide to replace the more difficult human performer with the puppet because they cannot have two Jennifer Lopezes.

When the actual Jennifer Lopez learns she's being fired, she is infuriated (all throughout the episode she is portrayed as extremely hostile and swears at random people), especially when she learns that her job has been replaced by a puppet. Jennifer Lopez and her husband-to-be, Ben Affleck, show up at South Park Elementary in a limousine. Lopez starts to beat up Cartman's hand until he pleads that he'll stop his ventriloquist act.

As the two celebrities leave, Affleck catches sight of (Cartman's hand) Ms. Lopez. He immediately falls in love with it.

The rest of the episode focuses on Cartman and Ms. Lopez. Originally, Cartman is happy because he was right about Ms. Lopez becoming a success and Kyle was wrong.

Cartman then begins to go insane due to the tension between Ms. Lopez and himself fighting for control over her actions. He starts to suffer from insomnia because Ms. Lopez forces him to stay up all night and help her write new songs for her upcoming album.

When not working on her music, Ms. Lopez becomes involved in an increasingly romantic relationship with Ben Affleck. Cartman disapproves of the relationship as he doesn't like him. After waking up one morning to discover Affleck naked in his bed (and Affleck's semen covering his hand, or rather Ms. Lopez's mouth), Cartman learns that the two are planning to get married.

The news of the wedding again angers the actual Jennifer Lopez. At the end of the episode, Cartman decides to make a run for it and leave everything behind. At a bridge, Jennifer Lopez, the police, Ben Affleck, the people from the recording company, Kyle, Kenny and Stan catch up with Cartman and Ms. Lopez.

Everyone (except the boys) starts to argue about Ms. Lopez. Ms. Lopez screams for everyone to be quiet. She then makes the confession that she is not 'Jennifer Lopez', but 'Mitch Connor', a con man who has been moving around from town to town. His voice is different from Ms. Lopez's, as well as identical to Cartman's, and he has no hair, unlike Ms. Lopez. He apologizes to Ben for playing around with his love and states that he will die, as he has recently consumed a cyanide pill.

The last thing Mitch does is look at the sunset and wonder if he will dream. He then "dies", and everyone goes away except for the boys. Kyle then asks Cartman who Mitch Connor is. Cartman says, "Look, I don't care what you guys believe. But with all the crazy stuff that goes on in this town, isn't it possible, just possible, that something I don't understand happened here?"

When Kyle admits that he believes it's kind of possible, Cartman starts singing, "Ha ha ha ha haa haa! I got you kind of!"

The episode ends with Jennifer Lopez working at a 'La Taco' restaurant. She complains she had several platinum records and starred in various Hollywood movies. The Mexican worker next to her is her only sympathizer, agreeing that he once had those achievements too. On the season 7 DVD Stone and Parker mention that altough its never stated the fellow worker is supposed to be Gerardo of "Rico Suave" fame.