The List (South Park)

"The List (South Park)"

"The List" is episode 1114 (#167) of Comedy Central's South Park, and was the eleventh season finale. It originally aired on November 14, 2007. The episode is rated TV-MA L.

Plot

The boys discover that the girls in their class have made a list of them, ordered by cuteness. The boys, after two attempts (because "girls don't have balls"), eventually succeed in stealing the list and post it on the wall of the Boys' Bathroom and discover the list ranks Clyde as the cutest, and Kyle as the ugliest, with Cartman just above him. Kyle's spirits plummet after this discovery, while Clyde's ego inflates dramatically and he starts flirting with many girls at school. He takes pity on Kyle and kindly reassures him that Abraham Lincoln, who was apparently ugly, accomplished so much. Kyle, in an act of depression, starts hanging out with the ugly kids in the school, and gets the idea from a boy named Jamal to burn the school down. He is visited by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, who shows him that ugliness is a gift and not a curse, as one who is ugly has nothing handed to them and must earn it themselves, while those who are attractive will be handed everything and thus will develop no redeeming character when their looks start to fade. Apparently ignoring this advice, Kyle decides to go ahead with his plans of arson.

Meanwhile, Stan watches Kyle's behavior with increasing unease. Eventually, he asks his ex-girlfriend Wendy why Kyle was voted ugliest. Wendy consults the other girls, and begins investigating. She discovers that the ballots don't add up and that Clyde is, in fact, in the bottom five of the list. Wendy tries to bring the evidence to the other girls, but the girls quickly reveal the plot that they are in on - Clyde's father owns a local shoe-store, and they wanted to make Clyde popular to justify dating him and getting free shoes. In order to do this, they hid the real list and forged a new one, the one the boys stole. Wendy steals the real list from them and she and Stan run off to find Kyle, who is about to set the school on fire.

Stan and Wendy explain the truth to Kyle, when Bebe shows up and holds them at gunpoint, while admitting that Kyle was a "casualty" of their plot. However, Wendy has called the police, who arrive almost at once. Bebe is shocked, which Wendy takes advantage of to wrestle the gun from her. However, a shot goes off; however, neither Wendy nor Bebe are hurt - the bullet flies all the way across town and kills Kenny as he eats cereal at home. Bebe is arrested and taken to prison. Despite the trouble gone through to get it, Kyle refuses to take a look at the real list, fearing an inflated ego that Abraham Lincoln's ghost warned him about. Instead, he uses some of his flammable liquid to burn it. Wendy admits to Stan that she has enjoyed hanging out with him and feels that he has changed a lot since their breakup. Wendy's attempt to kiss him is interrupted when he vomits in her face.

Trivia

• This is the first time Kenny has been killed since "Best Friends Forever".
• Despite having broke up in "Raisins", Stan and Wendy appear to get back together in this episode. They broke up "57 episodes ago"
• The part where Kenny dies is a reference to earlier in the episode, because Cartman said that nobody would marry Kenny because they wouldn't want to "have pop-tarts for dinner."
• This episode has an alternate ending. After Stan vomits on Wendy, Kyle mentions that everyone will want to know who was really last on the list. Wendy reveals that "The world will never know...except that she looked and it was Cartman." Cartman is then shown sitting with the Ugly Kids. Cartman say's it doesn't bother him as long as he's a good person on the inside. Before realising what he said and hitting his head on the table
• Damien, Bill, Terrance, Fosse, Dog Poo and Pip did not appear on the list of the cutest boy in the class. In Dog Poo's case, this may be due to his bad hygiene, and in Pip's case his exclusion is presumably because he has not been seen since season eleven, as well as the fact that he is generally unpopular and relatively disliked. None of them are consistently seen in the fourth grade classroom, with the exception of Pip.
• The Real List: A person on YouTube calculated the real list. This has not been verified by the shows producers or staff:

1. Craig
2. Token
3. Stan
4. Bradley
5. Kyle
6. Jason
7. Leroy
8. Kenny
9. Tweek
10. Kevin
11. Jimmy
12. Butters
13. Clyde
14. Timmy
15. Francis
16. Cartman

Here's how this person figured it out: 1) The cop said that Kyle wasn't the ugliest kid in his class. 2) Lola (The girl in the green sweater) said, "Unfortunately, the members voted Clyde in the bottom five of the list." 3) Bebe said, "To move Clyde meant that Craig had to be moved to number twelve, which moved Jimmy down and moved Jason up!" 4) On the list that the boys got from the girls, Jason was 5 and Jimmy was 10, so if Jason was moved up, that means he was number 6 and Jimmy was moved down so he was number 11. So there you have it. Craig is the cutest boy in the class!

• Some of the other lists seen in the background are "Girls We Hate the Most" "Hip Hop and Country" and "Do's and Don'ts on a First Date (holding hands is alright, no kissing, never pay for dinner)

Reception

IGN gave the episode a rating of 8.9, citing it "an excellent episode and a fine way to end the season".