Go God Go

Template:Infobox South Park episode "Go God Go" is episode 1012 (#151) of Comedy Central's South Park. It aired on November 1, 2006, and is part one of a two-part story arc. Part two is "Go God Go XII".

There has been some confusion regarding the name. Originally, many cable and satellite providers had listed it as Go, God. Go! Part II, despite the lack of a Go, God. Go! Part I. When the episode aired, the official South Park website simply listed it with the generic title TBA. Several days after its initial airing, it was officially designated Go God Go. The title is a joke on the famous children's book Go, Dog. Go!

Plot summary

File:1012 too soon.jpg

Cartman trying to freeze himself.

Cartman is unable to wait three weeks until the Nintendo Wii is released. He spends his time mindlessly pacing in front of a store called EV Games (a parody of EB Games), asking how long until it is released and suffers from extreme insomnia. Unable to wait any longer, he decides to go into suspended animation. Cartman gets Butters to bury him in the snow in the nearby mountains to ensure that he won't be disturbed.

Meanwhile Mrs. Garrison — strongly against her wishes — is forced to teach evolution ("I'm not a monkey. I'm a woman!"). However, she hates the theory and doesn't seem to know very much about it, and instead teaches the students about "five monkeys having butt sex with a fish-squirrel." Principal Victoria decides to hire Richard Dawkins to teach the theory along with her — they quickly get into an argument, and Mrs. Garrison decides to "act like a monkey" if she's related to one, ultimately throwing her own feces at him. However, Dawkins turns out to be infatuated with Garrison, and she becomes very excited about her first real date since becoming a woman.

Richard Dawkins

On their date, Dawkins and Garrison hit it off. Dawkins manages to convert Garrison to atheism (citing the Flying Spaghetti Monster, as a form of a logical fallacy). The two have sex; the next day, Garrison – just as outspoken about her new atheism as her former beliefs — denounces God to the class and makes Stan sit in the "dunce chair" after Stan makes the suggestion that evolution could be the answer to how and not why lifeforms are the way they are. Dawkins is at first reluctant to be so brazen, but Garrison tells him he was too soft on religious people in the past and that together they can rid the world of religion and all the violence it causes. To celebrate their new idea the two have sex again. Meanwhile Professor Chaos and General Disarray race to find Cartman, but he remains hidden for 540 years after an avalanche covers his body. Finally he is unfrozen, and despite his loved ones being dead, is most upset that the future people do not have a Wii console.

Cartman is told that his unfreezers might be able to retrieve an antique Wii from a technology museum. In the future, everyone is atheist and believes only in science (often saying things like "Oh my Science" and "Science Damn you!" but mocking Cartman for using similar, religious phrases). They tell Cartman that they think someone he knew caused the atheistic revolution, but before they can tell them who, they are attacked by another atheist group (the United Atheist Alliance, or Alliance Atheists), which kills the first group (the Unified Atheist League) and takes Cartman. They then contact a group of superintelligent sea otters (the Allied Atheist Allegiance) with whom they are also at war, who tell Cartman that the world will soon be theirs. The Allegiance demand Cartman and declare open war to possess the "time child" to usher in the dawning of the era of the sea otter.

Nintendo's response

Nintendo of America's President and Chief Operating Officer Reggie Fils-Aime responded in an interview on CNET TV regarding this episode: "Obviously we love it," he said, insisting that no permission was sought from Nintendo. "It's fantastic to be in popular culture that way. I'll tell you this: It's not going to be the last."

Starting the week of November 5, 2006, a poll on Nintendo.com has asked "How bad do you want a Wii?" With the responses being "Bad", "Way Bad", and "Worse than Cartman," with the third choice holding out with 80% of the votes.

Richard Dawkins' Response

• Richard Dawkins, in a Q & A session at the Free Library of Philadelphia pertaining to his 2006 book The God Delusion he stated: "I would have thought they could at least have got an actor that could draw a proper British accent."

• In his Internet journal Dawkins states: "Finally, I have repeatedly been asked what I think of South Park and of Ted Haggard’s downfall. I won’t say much about either. Schadenfreude is not an appealing emotion so, on Haggard, I’ll say only that if it wasn’t for people of his religious persuasion, people of his sexual persuasion would be free to do what they like without shame and without fear of exposure. I share neither his religious nor his sexual persuasion (that’s an understatement), and I’m buggered if I like being portrayed as a cartoon character buggering a bald transvestite [sic]. I wouldn’t have minded so much if only it had been in the service of some serious point, but if there was a serious point in there I couldn’t discern it. And then there’s the matter of the accent they gave me. Now, if only I could be offered a cameo role in The Simpsons, I could show that actor how to do a real British accent."

Cultural references

• The sequence depicting the passage of time while Cartman is in suspended animation is a reference to the 1979-1981 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, mimicking the show's opening sequence. The entire Buck Rogers theme plays through that sequence and the following scenes of Cartman being revived in the future. The awkward wobbling Cartman makes as he spins slowly is also replicated from that show.

• The episode makes reference to the satirical religion "pastafarianism" which is a portmanteau of pasta and rastafarianism, whose members profess to believe that God is a flying spaghetti monster. This is the first time South Park has dealt with "pastafarians" among their many religious satires.

• The restaurant scene with Dawkins and Garrison is strongly reminiscent of the "Carol!" sketches from Saturday Night Live.

• The scene in which Garrison convinces Dawkins to rid the world of religion is a reference to the way in which Number Six influences Dr. Baltar in Battlestar Galactica. The background music is also very similar to the music used in Battlestar Galactica.

• The M41A Pulse Rifle from the 1986 sci-fi/action movie Aliens is seen in the hands of the sea otters. They can also be seen wearing gear similar to the characters in Universal Soldier and the Marines in Halo: Combat Evolved.

• Some of the atheists in the future levitate upside down, much in the same way Marty McFly's father does in the year 2015, seen in the movie Back to the Future II.

• The confusions with the names of certain groups is probably taken from a similar confusion in Monty Python's Life of Brian. In both cases there are three groups with similar names who have a particular dislike for one another even though the only difference between the groups seems to be the name of the group itself. In Life of Brian the three groups were, The Judean People's Front, The People's Front of Judea and The Popular Front. While in this episode the three groups are The United Atheist Alliance, The Unified Atheist League and the Allied Atheist Allegiance.

• The scene in which Cartman freezes himself (a picture of which is shown at the top of this article) is a reference to The Shining.

• The final scene in this episode depicts a member of the Allied Atheist Allegiance (a sea otter) with an automated amber monocle, this is a reference to the Kodan officer in the film, The Last Starfighter.

References

• Official information on the episode
• Excerpt from Press Release

External link

• Watch a sneak peek of the episode (requires QuickTime)