Starvin' Marvin in Space
| "Starvin' Marvin in Space" |
|---|
"Starvin' Marvin in Space" is episode 44 of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on November 17, 1999.
Plot
This episode begins with an alien landing on Earth to make First Contact in the African desert; it is instantly killed by a lion, and its ship is discovered by Starvin' Marvin. Marvin, who is fleeing from Christian missionaries who have taken over his village, goes in the ship in search of a place to relocate his people. Meanwhile, the American government, having found out about this spaceship and wanting it for themselves, track down the boys and demand that they tell them where Starvin' Marvin might have taken it. They then recruit Sally Struthers the monstrously obese leader, an obvious parody of Jabba the Hutt, she even speaks a language resembling Huttese, with subtitles given just like in "Return of the Jedi". She is a leader of an Ethiopian food drive that is more than anything a front for her to get food for herself.
Marvin and the boys team up, and by accidentally pressing a button, they fly to the home planet of the ship's former owner, the planet Marklar, whose inhabitants speak a language that is identical to English except for the fact that every noun is replaced with the word "Marklar." The Marklar agree to allow the Ethiopians to live on their planet. Back on Earth, the boys try to round up the Ethiopians, but the government agents seize the spaceship. The boys are able to take back the spaceship, letting Marvin load his people on while the boys distract the government agents, pretending to be Tom Brokaw. The agents aren't fooled by this front as the outline of the figure looks bumpy and his face is simply Cartman wearing a false mustache (Tom Brokaw does not have a mustache nor does he sound like Cartman). Despite this, the agents are distracted long enough to load the ship, but Kenny is lost and seized by the government agents when the boys try to make a break for it.
The boys try to make it to Marklar, but they are confronted by the missionaries, who have built their own ship and are trying to spread Christianity to Marklar. During this time, Pat Robertson is shown attempting to raise funds for various absurd weapons and vehicles to aid the missionaries while in space, most of which don't even exist. A space battle ensues, before the boys have to face the government agents. The agents have had Kenny frozen in carbonite and given to Sally Struthers so she can support them. Cartman convinces Sally that she has influenced the boys that they need to help people more, so she lets the boys go and captures the missionary ship. Then, the wormhole is opened again, and all the ships are taken to Marklar.
When they arrive on Marklar, the aliens are very confused by the humans' trying to explain their motives. Kyle explains the situation in the aliens' own language, and the Marklar are touched. They banish the missionaries and let the Ethiopians stay. The boys promise to visit again ("when Jesse Jackson becomes president", Cartman says sarcastically).
Trivia
- When the CIA shows up at South Park Elementary to interrogate the boys about Marvin's whereabouts, Cartman says, "Hey, that was Kyle that went number two in the urinal!" Kyle quickly replies, "No it wasn't, fatass. I saw you do it!" In the season 10 episode Mystery of the Urinal Deuce, the plot is kicked off when someone goes number two in the urinal.
- The missionary in Ethiopia attempts to quote the book of Psalms. However, the verse she attempts to quote (46:39) does not exist.
- Sally Struthers' character in this episode is an obvious homage to Jabba the Hutt from the original Star Wars trilogy. A further reference to Star Wars is that the Marklar planet is seen adjacent to two stars, indicating that it is part of a binary star system, much like Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine.
- The song "I am Chewbacca" played in the credits is a song by D.V.D.A. - a South Park creator's band.
- The interstellar cruiser piloted by the missionaries looks similar to the design of the Great Fox in the video game Star Fox 64.
- The interior of the interstellar cruiser looks a lot like the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek. Also various sounds in the episode, such as the sound when Marvin first enters the Marklar ship and when Sally Struthers disengages the tractor beam holding the Marklar ship, are taken from the same series.
- Like the following episode, "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics," the episode is dedicated to Mary Kay Bergman, who lent her voice to nearly all of South Park's female characters. Bergman had fatally shot herself in the head shortly after production was completed.
- The missionaries are a direct reference to CBN's flagship show, "The 700 Club". Pat Robertson, one of the show's hosts, is even used as an actual character.
- The Marklar planet is referred to by humans as "Alpha Ceti 6". This is reference to Star Trek II's Ceti Alpha 6.
Goofs
- When the kids reactivate the wormhole to try to get Marvin and his people back to Marklar, Kyle yells "It's pulling us in!" Kenny is in the cockpit with them even though it has already been established that he is frozen in carbonite and on Sally Struthers' ship. In the wormhole when the kids are screaming, Kenny is again there with them. But when they emerge from the wormhole, Kenny is no longer in the cockpit.
- The same button Cartman presses to send the ship into the wormhole later appears as the button to turn on the music. The next time he presses it, though, the ship goes into the wormhole.
- While Pat Robertson was talking about the missionary work in Ethiopia, he stated that it was located in North Africa, but in reality it's in East Africa.
Kenny's death
Kenny is frozen in carbonite by the CIA Agents as a gift for Sally Struthers so they can use her ship to catch Starvin Marvin, but he might not have died.
