Hooked on Monkey Fonics
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"Hooked on Monkey Phonics" is episode 313 of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on November 10, 1999.
Plot
In preparation for a spelling bee, Cartman's mother buys him a "Hooked on Monkey Phonics" system. While at the spelling bee, the children face stiff competition from two home schooled children, Rebecca and Mark. Cartman asks the monkey to help him spell his word, chair, but instead the monkey masturbates, and Cartman misspells it as chare. In the final round, Kyle is unable to spell his word correctly (an extremely hard, made up word: krocsyldiphithic, apparently meaning "something that has krocsyldiph-like quality", and that "Krocsyldiphithic is a hard word to spell"), and Rebecca and Mark are declared the champions (much to Stan's uncle Jimbo's anger, who bet on Kyle to win).
Mark becomes intrigued by the interactions he sees between Cartman, Kyle, and Stan, and begs his father to be allowed to attend public school, who objects but relents. At the school, Mark is tormented for his haughty attitude and superior knowledge, and ends up duct taped to a bench during recess and a chair during lunch. This prompts Mark's father to speak with the adults in the bar about the incident. The adults are quick to dislike him as much as the kids dislike Mark, and proceed to duct tape Mark's father to one of the bar's benches just as their kids had done to Mark.
Meanwhile, Kyle develops a fascination and crush on Rebecca, wooing her through methods such as playing the guitar outside her window (which failed when she thought he was playing for money, so she threw some money into the guitar case). Ultimately he convinces her to explore the world of public schooling, and she agrees to go to the South Park Bay of Pigs Memorial Dance with him. He also explains what love is to her and convinces her to kiss him.
During the episode, Cartman, sick of Mark's know-it-all attitude, demands to be home schooled himself. To him, this involves a regimen of sleeping in and sitting in bed while snacking and watching television.
At the dance, the band Dio plays its song "Holy Diver" (with the Phonics Monkey quietly joining in on drums). The boys of the school hatch a plan to duct tape Mark to the flagpole (while the adults also hatch a similar plan for Mark's father), when Rebecca shows up dressed and acting like a slut (Kyle forgot to tell her that she was supposed to love him only). Mark attacks Kyle for doing this to his sister, which the other boys perceive as cool, and accept him as a friend. Rebecca and Mark finally earn the opportunity to regularly attend public school from their parents. Mark's father, however, is still duct taped to the flagpole by the adults, regardless of his change in attitude and opinion. At the same time, Rebecca changes her ways and decides to continue her relationship with Kyle (starting with a kiss that Kyle hadn't persuaded her to do).
Kenny's Death
Kenny and Stan visit Cartman at his home. When Kenny tries to take a Snacky S'more from the Phonics Monkey, the monkey goes berserk and kills him. As Kyle is not present during Kenny's demise, the standard Kyle/Stan reaction is altered:
- Stan: Oh my God! Phonics Monkey killed Kenny!
- Cartman: You're damn straight he did.
Trivia
- Krocsyldiphithic is not a real word. It sounds real on television.
- The title of the episode is a reference to the popular mail-order literacy aid, Hooked on Phonics. Though there seem to be two competing ways of spelling "Phonics" in this episode's title (one as "Fonics"), the official site and DVD releases spell it as "Phonics".
- Because this is one of Butters earlier episodes, he is portrayed as a mean spirited bully in this episode, which is in contrast to the shyer, sweeter, and naive nerd he is portrayed as the show progressed.
- In a scene that parodies the episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion" from the original Star Trek, Kyle convinces Rebecca to kiss him. This includes use of music from the original series, but not directly from the episode in question. It comes instead from the episode "Shore Leave," and was re-used in "This Side of Paradise."
- Rebecca is a parody of Rebecca Sealfon, a home schooled student who made hand gestures while spelling. She won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1997.
- Seeing Mark in a plastic bubble, Cartman describes him as having a John Travolta disease, a reference to The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, a film John Travolta starred in.
- This is the final episode with Mary Kay Bergman as a voice actress as she committed suicide the next day.
- This is the first time Kyle shows an interest in girls, and other characters have implied that he is gay. Also, this is the first time Kyle doesn't have a problem with kissing, while in a previous episode, Clubhouses, Kyle was disgusted after kissing Bebe.
- Rebecca and Kyle's relationship hasn't been mentioned since this episode.
- Rebecca has a diagram of a molecule of acetic acid framed on her wall and a Slovenian flag on the door.
- This is the first episode in which Butters swears. It is also the only episode in which he is seen as a bully.
- In this episode, along with "Tom's Rhinoplasty" from Season 1, it is revealed that Cartman can't spell.
- Rebecca spells one of her words "l-i-t-o-r-a-l" and is announced correct, although the actual spelling (based on the definition given in the episode) is littoral.
- The opening shot of the dance scene parodies the dancing in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Bebe, Wendy, and other students are dancing very similarly to the Peanuts characters.
- Kenny's Girlfriend, Kelly (from Rainforest Schmainforest), is seen in the dance, though Kenny is already dead at this point. It is possible he and Kelly planned to come to the dance together, but Kenny didn't turn up because of his death. This shows he and Kelly are still in love.
Goofs
- As Mark's father pulls the plug on the dance, the band is no longer able to play due to no electricity, but Mark is still able to speak with the microphone.