Fat Camp (South Park)

"Fat Camp (South Park)"

"Fat Camp" is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of the animated television series South Park, and the 63rd episode of the series overall. "Fat Camp" originally aired in the United States on December 6, 2000 on Comedy Central. This is also one of the few episodes before "Kenny Dies" in which Kenny does not actually die, though someone impersonating him does.

Plot

During a science class, the boys dare Kenny to eat a manatee's spleen, which Kenny does in exchange for money. He then commences to eat his own vomit for money, and expands outwards into all sorts of bizarre acts; this leads to him getting his own program, The Krazy Kenny Show, to showcase his disgusting acts, such as giving his grandfather a full body massage and washing his hair with battery acid. He also appears on Jesus 'n' Pals, the local talk show, where Jesus comments on this behavior by saying that Kenny is a prostitute for simply doing outrageous acts for money that require no real talent. The boys try to discover what the term means, by asking Chef. After initial reluctance to explain (as Chef thinks Stan and Kyle are referring to the sexual connotations of being a prostitute), he sings "The Prostitute Song," with James Taylor in a parody of his song Your Smiling Face.

Meanwhile, Cartman's mother and others from the town pay to send Cartman (against his will) to fat camp. There, a pair of overenthusiastic counselors try to teach him and other overweight children to exercise and live a healthier life. Though Cartman resists, he soon reappears in South Park, looking scores of pounds thinner. The children are shocked by this, as well as the fact that this Cartman seems more mature and less mean. However, when nobody is looking, this character takes and collects junk food, and it is eventually revealed that this is a kid from the drug rehabilitation center next door to the Fat Camp. Apparently, he has escaped and made a deal with the real Cartman, in which he returns to South Park as Cartman's doppelgänger and collects food, then brings it back for Cartman to sell to the other fat campers in exchange for 20% of the profit, which the impostor gets. As a result, none of the kids get any thinner, and their parents (who are all obese and claim that their children's obesity is due to "genetics") are very unimpressed by the camp's efforts and decide to take their children home.

Along with shock comedians Tom Green (who, despite being Canadian in real life, is not animated Terrence and Philip-style) and Johnny Knoxville of MTV's Jackass, Kenny appears on The Howard Stern Show, where Stern attempts to prove that performing shocking and disgusting antics does not make them prostitutes by offering them money to perform oral sex on him. Kenny will do it for the least money, but afterward he gets arrested for prostitution. When thin Cartman delivers the episode's moralizing statement, saying that it was wrong for them to have encouraged Kenny, Kyle gets suspicious enough and discovers he is not the real Cartman. Back at Fat Camp, one of the kids reveals Cartman's plan, which saves the camp, and the fat kids decided to take another chance to lose the weight, to which their parents allow. After listening to a compassionate speech from them, Cartman says that he will no longer sneak in food, and together they all can lose the weight. However, for his actions, he is told that he is not welcome anymore. Cartman gets angry and calls the counselors and the fat kids a bunch of 'fatasses', but is left alone crying as he eats his remaining doughnut.

As punishment for impersonating Cartman, Kyle demands the impostor to replace Kenny by dressing up as him and spending six hours in Mrs. Crabtree's uterus. The impostor refuses to do it and starts to protest, but Kyle threatens him that if he does not do it, Kyle and Stan will blow his scheme with Cartman, and tell his parents he has not been in his drug rehab center this whole time. After six hours, Mrs. Crabtree pushes out the impostor, who has now died due to pressure inside the uterus.

Cultural references

When Cartman is in the kitchen making a Toaster Pastries Chocolate Mixed Butter Ball Surprise, he's heard humming the song "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine".

External links

• "Fat Camp" Full episode at South Park Studios
• "Fat Camp" Episode guide at South Park Studios
• "Fat Camp" at IMDb
• Template:TV.com episode