Scott Tenorman Must Die

Template:Infobox South Park episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die" is episode 501 of the Comedy Central animated series South Park. It originally aired on July 11, 2001.

Plot

Cartman believes he has attained puberty by the acquisition of pubic hair. However, he has in fact merely purchased the pubic hair from an older boy, named Scott Tenorman, and feels conned when he is told that one actually has to grow pubic hair, not buy it.

After Cartman's attempts to get his $10.00 back result in failure, and indeed costs him an additional $6.12 in the process, he plots his revenge. At first he attempts to get his friends on his side, but because Cartman is the only person who has been humiliated by Scott, none are interested. He decides to carry out his revenge alone.

After discovering that Scott likes the band Radiohead, Cartman comes up with "a li'l old scheme" (as he says in a Cockney accent) that involves dubbing his voice over that of Radiohead to make it appear that the band is telling Kurt Loder that Scott Tenorman is "totally not cool."

This plan fails, and Scott further humiliates Cartman by showing the entire town a movie of Cartman pretending to be a pig in order to get his money back.

Eventually, Cartman comes up with perhaps one of the most diabolically brilliant plans to date, one full of cunning, treachery and double-bluffs.

He plans on having one of Farmer Denkins' ponies bite Scott's penis off. He trains one to attack a dummy. The pony doesn't bite it off the first time, but the second time, it does. Cartman invites Radiohead to come to South Park to meet Scott who is, according to the letter, dying from cancer in his ass if they are free "next Tuesday around 5." Scott later receives a phone call from Stan and Kyle telling him about Cartman's plan. Just then, Cartman shows up to invite Scott to a chili cookoff, telling him that there will be a pony. Scott who now knows what Cartman's plan is, tells his parents that there is a pony in trouble. They go to Farmer Denkins. Scott decides to once again humilate Cartman by having all the teenagers put their pubic hair in Scott's chili and watch Cartman eat it.

At the cookoff, everybody is waiting for Cartman to get humilated (except for Chef who brought his own chili). Scott eats Cartman's chili first, and then taunts Cartman to do the same. When Cartman has eaten most of a bowl of Scott's chili, Scott begins to tell Cartman what he did. However, Cartman informs him that he knew about Scott's plan, which shocks everyone. Cartman reveals that he switched Scott's chili with Chef's. Cartman says that Chef's chili is good and he admits that he didn't expect Chef to actually bring any chili. He explains that he knew that Stan and Kyle were going to tell Scott about his original plan. He also explains that he predicted that Scott wouldn't want his penis bitten off, so he had his parents go to Farmer Denkins to "rescue" the pony. What Scott didn't know is that Farmers Denkins shoots intruders on sight, especially after hearing Cartman's tales of violent pony killers. Thus, Scott's parents were accidentally murdered by Farmer Denkins, leaving Cartman just enough time to steal the bodies, chop them up and cook his "Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman Chilli", which he reveals he has just fed to Scott. After realizing this, Scott is absolutely devastated. At this point during the height of Scott's horror and grief (and right on Cartman's schedule), Radiohead shows up and, seeing the devastated and sobbing Scott, mock him for being a "crybaby" and "totally not cool."

Cartman laps up Scott's plentiful tears of distress, declaring "Yes! Yes! Oh let me taste your tears, Scott! Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness! My-yummy! My-yummy, you guys!" Kyle aptly confides to Stan, "Dude, I think it might be best for us to never piss Cartman off again." The episode closes with Cartman vindictively impersonating Porky Pig "That's all folks!"

Trivia

• The plot of this episode is based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant, and contains echoes of the novel Hannibal (Cartman licking and tasting Scott's tears, Cartman's first plan to have a pony bite off Scott's penis which backfired when the pony began sucking on the hotdog that Cartman placed on a mannequin of Scott; this plan was based on Mason Verger's plan to feed Hannibal Lecter feet first to a pack of man-eating pigs), and Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (Cartman chopping up the corpses and secretly adding them to food). This also echoes the story of Thyestes in Greek mythology, whose sons are killed and fed to him by his brother Atreus after Thyestes cheats with Atreus' wife Aerope. It should be noted that Shakespeare's play was influenced by the myth, and the story by Guy de Maupassant and the novel Hannibal were in turn influenced by Shakespeare.
• In the episode "The Death of Eric Cartman", Cartman tries to atone to Scott for this treatment (among many, MANY other sins), by bringing him a fruit basket.
• This episode is unique (and somewhat controversial) in the show's history in that it is one of the few times where Cartman gets his way in the end. In most other episodes, a Cartman plan will backfire somewhere near the end of the episode, but this time it instead succeeds flawlessly, producing one of the most memorable moments in South Park history.
• In October 2005, fans voted this episode #1 of Cartman's 25 Greatest Moments.
• "Scott Tenorman Must Die" was actually the first episode from season five of South Park. Its production number is 501. However, for unknown reasons, it was delayed for three weeks, until it was shown on July 11, 2001.
• In a part of the episode, Cartman tells Scott that his (Cartman's) grandma will die if he doesn't give the doctor $16.12. Two episodes later (in airdate order) in "Cartmanland", his grandma actually dies.
• Cartman's "That's all Folks!" parody of Porky Pig at the end of the episode is possibly an ironic reference to an earlier event in the episode in which Cartman gets on his knees and says, "I'm a little piggy, here's my snout."
• In the beginning of the episode Kyle says that Scott Tenorman is a 9th grader. Later in the episode, Kyle says that Scott Tenorman is an 8th grader. It is most likely that he is in 9th grade, as Cartman later states that he is fifteen.
• Even though having said to be in grade 8 or 9, in the episode "The Return of the Lord of the Rings to the Two Towers", Scott can be seen as one of the 6th graders, trying to acquire the porno.
• While Kyle says that it's better not to piss off Cartman, none of the boys show any increased respect for him in later episodes with the exception of the episode "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow", where Cartman tells Phillip "I'll make you eat your parents", and Stan agrees.

External links

• "Scott Tenorman Must Die" episode summary at tv.com
• Script to the episode at the South Park Scriptorium