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Good Times with Weapons
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"Good Times with Weapons" is episode 112 of South Park. The first episode of Season 8, it originally aired on March 17, 2004, which creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone jokingly referred to in their DVD commentary as "The Year From Hell". This was due to the fact that they were filming and premiering Team America: World Police while at the same time working on the season, which caused them a considerable amount of writer's block.
This was also one of ten episodes to be featured on South Park: The Hits DVD.
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Encyclopedia
"Good Times with Weapons" is episode 112 of South Park. The first episode of Season 8, it originally aired on March 17, 2004, which creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone jokingly referred to in their DVD commentary as "The Year From Hell". This was due to the fact that they were filming and premiering Team America: World Police while at the same time working on the season, which caused them a considerable amount of writer's block.
This was also one of ten episodes to be featured on South Park: The Hits DVD. In addition, it was voted the second best South Park episode of all time by fans in the United States, while being ranked the third best among fans in the United Kingdom.
This episode is also the only one available in high definition, available on Xbox 360's Marketplace. A promotional HD DVD was also released exclusively for Best Buy.
Plot
At the South Park County Fair, the boys come across a vendor dealing "authentic weapons from the Far East". After tricking him into selling them several dangerous ninja weapons, they pretend to be ninjas, each with his own individual powers and weapons. Stan wields a pair of tonfas, Kyle a nunchaku, Cartman a pair of "killer sais" and Kenny two cheap shuriken stars. The episode's animation switches from the usual cutout-and-solid-color style to a higly stylized anime theme. Asian-style ambience plays in the background.
After showing off their weapons to unimpressed classmates, the boys encounter Butters, who asks if he can play, too. The boys refuse, so Butters goes home, dons his foil-lined helmet and becomes his alter ego, Professor Chaos, then sets off to ravage the town. Soon after an argument about the rules of having ninja powers, the boys encounter Professor Chaos, unaware it is Butters even as he challenges them to battle. They then engage in a stylized anime fight. Kyle and Stan are immobilized by Professor Chaos' web. Cartman is granted powers by Kyle(after previously revoking them)which he promptly uses to transform Kyle into a chicken. The confrontation comes to an abrupt end as Kenny throws a shuriken into Butters's left eye. The animation style instantly reverts back from fast-paced anime to regular South Park style, showing the real-world outcome of the boys' fight as Butters cries in pain, the shuriken lodged in his eye. The boys realize what they have done and begin to panic, trying unsuccessfully to take the star out themselves. In order to prevent Butters from dying and avoid the punishment that would inevitably follow the questions asked at a regular hospital, the boys dress Butters up (poorly) as a dog (using fur shaved off Sparky) and begin their journey to a veterinarian.
They are waylaid, however, by Craig, Token, Clyde and Jimmy, who have bought their own ninja weapons from the naïve vendor, and challenge the boys to battle. The boys hide Butters in an abandoned stove before facing off with Craig's gang, but he escapes during the fight. After an epic battle, featuring the "Let's Fighting Love" song, the boys realize that Butters has disappeared and enlist Craig's gang to help them to find him before he can tell anyone about their weapons. Butters somehow makes his way to the hospital, but his disguise fools the doctor, who sends him off to the animal shelter. The elderly, myopic and sanguinary animal doctor, also fooled, makes no attempt to treat him, preparing instead to put him to sleep. Before he can do so, however, Butters escapes.
Fearing that they have lost Butters, the boys resolve to return their weapons to the vendor (rather than throw them away and lose the money that they have spent on them) to hide the evidence, but the vendor declares that he does not give refunds. Craig and the others inform the boys that they have seen Butters wandering around on the other side of the fair auction. In a misplaced show of bravery and heroism, Cartman decides to use his power of invisibility, taking off all of his clothes, to get to Butters undetected. Since he does not really have said power, however, he exposes himself to the entire audience. Butters stumbles onto the stage a few moments later and collapses. The final scene of the episode shows the townsfolk protesting at an emergency meeting about the outrage at the auction. The boys are under the impression that the outrage in question is Butters's wound, but it soon transpires that the real polemic is Cartman's public nudity (although they had reacted with shock when seeing Butters with the shuriken in his eye). The latter's ill-received explanation is that it was but a "wardrobe malfunction".
The townsfolk do not seem to care about Butters's now-bandaged injuries. Kyle, relieved, decides to go along with the protest, declaring that his "fragile little eight-year-old mind" cannot cope with what it has seen and that Cartman ought to be punished. Stan, Kyle and Kenny leave the adults to punish their friend, pleased to find that they care more about the effect of nudity and sex than violence. The episode ends with the three of them turning back into their ninja forms and the "Let's Fighting Love theme" plays during the credits.
"Let's Fighting Love"
This episode includes "Let's Fighting Love", a theme song that mixes Japanese and English lyrics, parodying the Engrish in certain J-Rock songs.
The song is performed by series creator Trey Parker, who is an admitted Japanophile, having majored in Japanese while attending CU Boulder. The less-than-authentic-sounding Japanese accent and occasional incorrect pronunciation are shown to be intentional, as seen by the tongue-in-cheek lines "Eigo ga mechakucha/Daijoobu, we do it all the time" ("English is incoherent, [but] it's okay, [because] we do it all the time"). The Engrish concerns are the phrases "Hey! Hey! Let's go!", "Protect my balls!", "So let's fighting!" and "Let's fighting love!"
Cultural References
The designs for the boys' ninja forms and Professor Chaos were modeled after various Street Fighter characters.
The arguments over Cartman's nudity is a reference to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy.
Censorship
In the syndicated version, the dogs' relieving themselves on Butters is bowdlerized: the scene cuts away just as the first dog is lifting its leg. Cartman's nudity receives similar treatment, the skin on his belly digitally extended to cover his penis. What little is visible is, like his buttocks, blurred.
Paramount Comedy and Channel 4
This is the first episode broadcast on the UK channel Paramount Comedy since Channel 4 decided to stop airing South Park. Channel 4 announced this after broadcasting the previous episode, "It's Christmas in Canada".
External links
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