The Poor Kid
"The Poor Kid" | |
---|---|
South Park episode | |
Episode no. | Season 15 Episode 14 |
Directed by | Trey Parker |
Written by | Trey Parker |
Production code | 1514 |
Original air date | November 16, 2011 |
Guest appearance | |
Kiara Lisette Gambao as Melisa Weatherhead | |
"The Poor Kid" is the fifteenth season finale of the American animated television series South Park, and the 223rd episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 16, 2011. In the episode, Kenny McCormick and his siblings are sent to a foster home after police discover a meth lab in their house. As a result, Eric Cartman is left with feelings of loss, since he no longer has someone to ridicule for their poverty.[1]
The episode was written by series co-creator
Plot
While searching for a new target for his taunts now that Kenny is gone, Eric Cartman is horrified to discover, through Butters Stotch's research, that he is now the poorest student in school. He fears that Kyle Broflovski will start making fun of him now. Despite Kyle's lack of interest in this endeavor, Cartman begins compulsively telling poor jokes about himself to beat Kyle to the punch. When Cartman complains to his mother Liane, she says that she is already working two jobs and cannot do more because of the economy. Wishing he were in a foster home like Kenny, Cartman frames her for running a meth lab, and despite her protests of not having done drugs in a long time, she is arrested, which is again documented by White Trash in Trouble. Despite anticipating being sent to an idyllic setting like Hawaii, Cartman is placed with the Weatherheads and attends the same school in Greeley as Kenny, where he is elated to discover that the poorest student there is not he or Kenny, but a boy named Jacob Hallery, whom Cartman takes delight in ridiculing.
After Kenny, as Mysterion, dispatches a bully who was harassing Karen, she and the other foster kids report what they saw to the Weatherheads, who torture one of the children by hosing him down with Dr Pepper for expressing such certainty. In response to the Weatherheads' cruelty, Cartman reports them to
Production
In the creator commentary for the episode, Trey Parker said they went through several ideas of the foster family, rejecting ideas of sending Kenny to a rich family or a family in it for the money before settling on the "militant agnostics." This is the first episode where Kenny's siblings are named.[4]
The episode prominently features the soft drink Dr Pepper, which commentators have noticed is often featured in the show's background.[5][6]
Reception
Ryan McGhee of The A.V. Club graded the episode a "B−". While he thought the Mysterion-Karen plot gave the episode true pathos, he thought Adams' jokes seemed recycled, and the parody of agnostics were funny but par for the course in terms of South Park's treatment of religion, and not very relevant.[7]
Katie McGlynn of
Lindsey Bahr of
Johnny Firecloud of
Ramsey Isler of IGN was disappointed that the McCormick siblings' placement in foster care turned out not to be a big turning point for Kenny, but simply another "joke of the week". Isler felt, however, that it was a decent episode with a long string of small but enjoyable gags, in particular those that poked fun at the rote repetition of stale jokes, and the treatment of agnosticism, which he found to be "fresh".[2]
Shirley Galdino of the Secular Humanist League of Brazil welcomed the depiction of the Weatherheads in the episode, saying: "Someone finally satirizes the agnostics for once".[12]
References
- ^ "Episode 1514 'The Poor Kid' Press Release". South Park Studios. November 3, 2011
- ^ a b Isler, Ramsey (November 17, 2011). "South Park: 'The Poor Kid' Review". IGN. Archived from the original on May 2, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. June 15, 2011. Comedy Central.
- ^ Parker, Trey (March 2012). South Park: The Complete Fifteenth Season: "The Poor Kid" (Audio commentary) (DVD Disc). Paramount Home Entertainment.
- ^ "South Park: "Eek, A Penis!"". May 10, 2008. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ Seema Gupta, Branding and Advertising, Global India Publications (Sep 27, 2009) page 291
- ^ McGee, Ryan (2011-11-16). "South Park: "The Poor Kid"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
- ^ McGlynn, Katie. "'South Park' Mocks Penn State Scandal Jokes". HuffPost. November 17, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2022
- ^ Semigram, Aly. "Pabst Blue Ribbon and Penn State subject to 'Sout Park' parody". Entertainment Weekly. November 17, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2022
- ^ Bahr, Lindsey (November 17, 2011). "South Park Recap: "The Poor Kid"". Vulture. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ Firecloud, Johnny. "SOUTH PARK 15.14 'The Poor Kid'".Mandatory. November 17, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ Galdino, Shirley. "South Park Savages Dogmatic Agnostics". The Flying Teapot Project. Secular Humanist League of Brazil. November 18, 2011
External links
- "The Poor Kid" Full episode at South Park Studios
- "The Poor Kid" at IMDb