Free Hat
Template:Infobox South Park episode "Free Hat" was episode 609 of South Park.
Plot synopsis
Template:Spoiler In the episode, the main four (with Tweek rather than Kenny McCormick), go to see a re-release of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Before the film, a trailer of the re-release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is shown, which points out the various edits made to the film (E.g. the guns have been replaced with walkie talkies). A trailer of Saving Private Ryan is then shown where similar edits have been made. The four complain about how directors edit their movies to make them more "family -friendly" or politically correct. Steven Spielberg justifies his changing of films as 'improving' history. The episode in this way has many George Orwell undertones. Finally, the film they came to see appears, however it has also been edited. They leave the theater and decide to form an organization to campaign against changes to classic movies. Cartman then writes "Free Hat" on the advert to persuade more people to come. The task of making the hats is given to Tweek, however he only makes 15, whereas many more people turn up. It turns out Hat is a criminal who many people want to free, claiming he "killed those babies in self defense". The main three (Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, and Kyle Broflovski) are later captured while trying to take the filmreel of a proposed remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark from George Lucas's house. Lucas confronts them and (in a homage/parody of Return of the Jedi) attempt to convince him to turn away from his evil master (Spielberg playing the part of The Emperor to Lucas' Vader), but they fail, and Tweek escapes. Later he comes back with a bazooka threatening to blow up the reel. He is convinced not to and he is also captured. Later at the premiere, Stan tells the guys to look away. When the movie is played, all the people watching it (everyone but the four protagonists) explode because of how terrible the movie is. This ending, starting with Tweek's failed threat, is a direct parody (or homage) of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, right down to the faces of the villains melting away.
Notes
- This episode pokes fun at the constant re-releasing of older movies with additional footage and other minor changes, examples being the Star Wars re-releases of 1997 and the 2002 E.T. re-release.
- To further the mockery, before the second commercial break, a fake commercial featuring South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone announces the digitally-remastered re-release of the show's pilot, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe." They explain that the episode drastically needs an upgrading from the crude construction paper cutouts used in early episodes to new computer generated spaceships and explosions. To specifically mock Star Wars, Parker and Stone explain that "we always meant to have Imperial walkers and giant dewback lizards in the background," but could not due to technical and budget limitations. [1]
- Soon after "Free Hat" aired, the real George Lucas and Steven Spielberg announced that they would not be altering Raiders of the Lost Ark for DVD release (contrary to rumors surrounding it).
- A scene from the remastered Raiders of the Lost Ark resembles gameplay from the Atari classic Pitfall!