• South Park Poker Face Kyle
• South Park Poker Face Song
• Kyle South Park
• Poker Face South Park
• South Park Poker Face Episode

'Whale Whores' is the eleventh episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 192nd overall episode of the series, it aired on Comedy Central in the United States on October 28, 2009. In the episode, Stan joins an anti-whaling crew in order to save dolphins and whales from Japanese whalers.

The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, and was rated TV-MA LV in the United States. 'Whale Whores' addressed the topic of Japanese whaling, condemning both the whalers themselves and the activists who fight against them. The episode is particularly critical of the reality television series Whale Wars and its star Paul Watson, an environmental activist who is prominently featured in 'Whale Whores'.

Kyle Broflovski is a main character in the animated television series South Park.He is voiced by and loosely based on co-creator Matt Stone.Kyle is one of the show's four central characters, along with his friends Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman.He debuted on television when South Park first aired on August 13, 1997, after having first appeared in The Spirit of Christmas shorts. Kyman (also known as Cartyle) is the romantic pairing of Kyle Broflovski and Eric Cartman.As one of the most popular pairings in the South Park fandom, it is subject to frequent criticism. See also: Fanfiction involving Kyman.

In a response to the episode, Paul Watson said he was not offended by the portrayal, and was glad the show brought the issue of illegal whaling to a large audience. The episode also featured references to the show Deadliest Catch and a rendition of the Lady Gaga song 'Poker Face' sung by Eric Cartman on the game Rock Band. A downloadable version of the song was released for the game in March. 'Whale Whores' was released on DVD and Blu-ray along with the rest of the thirteenth season on March 16, 2010. The episode was nominated for a Genesis Award, but lost to the Family Guy episode 'Dog Gone'.

Plot[edit]

South Park Poker Face Kyle

The Marsh family is spending Stan's ninth birthday at a public aquarium in Denver. As the Marshes enjoy interacting with the trained bottlenose dolphins, Japanese armed with spears suddenly storm the dolphinarium and kill all the dolphins. The Japanese perform similar attacks at several other aquariums, and at an NFL game, where they kill members of the Miami Dolphins football team. Stan asks his friends Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny to help him take on the cause of saving the dolphins and whales from the Japanese. Kyle declines, feeling they can't change Japan's views on the issue, while Cartman and Kenny are much more interested in playing the video game Rock Band, professing they 'don't give two shits about stupid-ass whales'. Eventually, Butters (who is also too busy) informs Stan about the television show Whale Wars, stating that they can take volunteers to help them. Seeing this as his chance, Stan takes Butters' advice and joins host Paul Watson and his crew aboard the Sea Shepherd, but is underwhelmed by their method of throwing 'stinky butter' at Japanese whalers in an effort to deter them. After the Japanese whalers kill Watson with a harpoon, Stan destroys their ship by igniting their fuel barrels with a flare gun. Stan becomes the new captain and leads a more successful campaign in impeding the Japanese whaling effort by employing more aggressive methods. The crew ends up getting interviewed by Larry King, who describes Paul Watson as an 'incompetent media whore' and questions Stan on his intentions of increasing ratings with violence. Stan dismisses the charge and contends he is only interested in saving the whales, not ratings.

Wanting to be on television, Cartman and Kenny join the ship's crew under false pretenses of wanting to save the whales (especially, in fact, since they are more interested in the fame and fortune). After a brief run-in with Captain Sig Hansen and his crew from the show Deadliest Catch, Japanese pilots launch kamikaze attacks on the Sea Shepherd. The suicidal planes kill the Whale Wars crew except for Stan, Cartman and Kenny. The trio are captured and brought to Japan, where EmperorAkihito tells them retaliation for the bombing of Hiroshima is the primary motive for Japan's whaling efforts, with Cartman finding the whole nuclear drop and mass devastation hilarious. He shows them a doctored photograph—given to Japan by the United States after the bombing—of the Enola Gay piloted by a dolphin and a killer whale. According to him, Japan was so grateful the Americans gave the Japanese these photos they declared peace. Knowing the picture is a fake, Stan decides to reveal the truth about the bombing, but Cartman reminds him that the Japanese seek to drive the entire species of the perpetrators to extinction. Claiming the U.S. government has authorized him to show the 'original' photo, Stan presents the Emperor, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, and other Japanese officials with a new doctored photo showing a cow and chicken in the Enola Gay (created by Kyle, who Stan managed to phone beforehand). The Japanese become infuriated, now believing cows and chickens had modified the original photo to frame the innocent whales and dolphins. The Japanese agree to cease their whaling efforts and start slaughtering cows and chickens, storming farms full of the animals. The episode ends as Randy congratulates Stan for making the Japanese 'normal, like us'.

Theme[edit]

'Whale Whores' addresses the controversies surrounding Japanese whaling, which had been a subject of considerable media attention around the time the South Park episode first aired. The episode condemns all sides involved in the matter, including the Japanese whalers themselves and the activists who fight against them.^[2][3][4] By having the Japanese attack the dolphins at the Denver Aquarium in the middle of a dolphin riding demonstration, it has been suggested the episode highlights the link between visiting dolphins at marine parks and the reality of how aquatic wildlife are captured and slaughtered.^[5] In the final scene, the show also draws parallel between the Japanese whaling industry and the generally accepted meat and poultry industries.

However, the episode prominently features and mocks animal rights and environmental activist Paul Watson and his Animal Planet reality series, Whale Wars. Watson has received wide criticism for his method of disrupting whale hunts by at times attacking and sinking Japanese and Norwegian whaling ships. 'Whale Whores' presents Watson and his show in a way that mocks his attempts to garner media attention by simply lying rather than doing anything productive.^[2][4][6] The episode mocks Whale Wars and its attempts to present mundane ship-board activities as dramatic television. This is particularly illustrated in newspaper headlines after Stan takes over Watson's ship: 'New Captain Turns Vegan Pussies Into Real Pirates' and 'Whale Wars Gets Better: Things Actually Happen!'^[2][3] Watson himself is also portrayed in a physically unflattering way, with his stomach too fat to be entirely covered by his shirt.^[3] 'Whale Whores' also refers to the criticisms that Watson bends the truth in order to further his popularity. This is particularly reflected through the fictional interview with Larry King, who calls Watson 'an unorganized, incompetent media whore who thought lying to everyone was OK as long as it served his cause'.^[2][3][6] The fact that Whale Wars gets better ratings after Stan takes over and employs more violent tactics is a satire of the tendency in Whale Wars, and television in general, to exploit violence for money and viewership.^[2][3]

Cultural references[edit]

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are identified as the cause of Japanese whaling. The two Japanese cities were destroyed by atomic weapons during the final stages of World War II under orders by U.S. PresidentHarry Truman, which killed about 220,000 people. In 'Whale Whores', the Japanese are presented with a doctored picture of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The picture shows a dolphin and a whale piloting the plane to bomb the city.^[2][3] The Miami Dolphins, a National Football League professional football team, are killed along with real dolphins by the whalers in 'Whale Whores'.^[2] Near the end of the episode, Stan and the crew of the MY Steve Irwin encounter fishing ship captain Sig Hansen and his crew from the Discovery Channel reality series, Deadliest Catch.^[3] The scene with Paul Watson's crew throwing 'stinky butter' at the whalers refers to Watson and his crew's practice of throwing stink bombs containing butyric acid, an acid found in rancid butter and cheese, at Japanese whaling vessels, including the factory vessel, the Nisshin Maru.^[6]

An Entertainment Weekly magazine cover is shown with the headline, 'We’re STILL Remembering Michael Jackson', a reference to the extremely large amount of media coverage surrounding the then-recent death of pop singer Michael Jackson.^[7] During one scene, Stan frightens off a group of Japanese whalers by uncovering a large statue of Godzilla, the famous Japanese movie monster.^[8] During the episode Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are shown performing Lady Gaga's song 'Poker Face' on the video game Rock Band.^[7][8] On March 16, 2010, Rock Band developer Harmonix released this version of the song (along with the original version) as downloadable content for the game.^[9][10]

Reception[edit]

'Whale Whores' was controversial and received mixed reviews. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the criticism of the save-the-whales conservationists as a 'delightfully savage ridicule'.^[7] Brian Jacks of MTV complimented the show's focus on whale conservation, writing, 'Leave it to the hard-hitting folks at South Park to do more for conservationism than fifteen cable reality shows put together.'^[4] Josh Modell of The A.V. Club's said the episode was unfunny and mocked a television series that was 'culturally insignificant' and not particularly well-known. Modell wrote, 'The show's star, Paul Watson, seems to have really pissed off South Park's creators Parker and Stone [...] Fine, but could you make me laugh a few times while you beat me over the head with information about a guy that I couldn't care less about?'^[8]

Ramsey Isler of IGN called 'Whale Whores' an entertaining episode, but said the episode could have provided more meaningful satire and did not explain the whaling issue very well, especially considering the show's target audience was probably unfamiliar with it. Isler praised some of the individual jokes revolving around the Japanese attacks, and called Cartman's 'Poker Face' rendition a classic South Park moment, but dismissed the Enola Gay twist as 'stupid'.^[11] Carlos Delgado of iF Magazine said 'South Park swung and missed' with 'Whale Whores'. Delgado said many of the jokes were random and 'weird', particularly the Enola Gay twist and the Japanese kamikaze attacks.^[12]

Paul Watson said he was not offended by his portrayal in the episode, and was glad 'Whale Whores' brought the issue of dolphin and whale slaughter to a large audience, as well as the role of the Japanese in the deaths. Watson said, 'It's a tough situation we are in. We can't hurt the whalers and we have to stay within the boundaries of the law in opposing illegal whaling operations. If that makes us pussies, so be it. It's better than being portrayed as killers.' Watson said the episode failed to portray that his actions have hurt Japanese profits from whaling, but that the episode demonstrated how successful Whale Wars and the Sea Shepherd has been.^[13]

In February 2010, 'Whale Whores' was nominated for a Genesis Award in the television comedy category. The Genesis Awards pay tribute to news and entertainment media for outstanding work that raise public understanding of animal issues.^[14] 'Whale Whores' ultimately lost to the Family Guy episode 'Dog Gone'.^[15]

Home release[edit]

'Whale Whores', along with the thirteen other episodes from South Park's thirteenth season, were released on a three-disc DVD set and two-disc Blu-ray set in the United States on March 16, 2010. The sets included brief audio commentaries by Parker and Stone for each episode,^[16] a collection of deleted scenes, and a special mini-feature Inside Xbox: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of South Park Studios, which discussed the process behind animating the show with Inside Xbox host Major Nelson.^[17]

References[edit]

1. ^'South Park episode guide'. South Park Studios. 2009-10-25. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
2. ^ ^abcdefgMurphy, Dan (October 29, 2009). 'South Park puts spotlight on Paul Watson and his 'Whale Wars''. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
3. ^ ^abcdefgd'Estries, Michael (October 29, 2009). 'South Park 'Whale Whores' Manages To Hilariously Offend Everyone Equally'. ecorazzi. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
4. ^ ^abcJacks, Brian (October 29, 2009). ''South Park' Takes On Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face''. MTV. Retrieved January 29, 2010.
5. ^'South Park Whale Whores'. GreenMuze. October 27, 2009. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
6. ^ ^abcLoubet, Michel (October 30, 2009). 'Whaling, comedy and eco-terrorism'. Fish Information and Services. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
7. ^ ^abcTucker, Ken (October 29, 2009). ''South Park' and 'Whale Whores': Lady Gaga and Entertainment Weekly harpooned, er, lampooned'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
8. ^ ^abcModell, Josh (October 29, 2009). 'South Park: Whale Whores'. The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
9. ^Frushtick, Russ (March 9, 2010). 'Lady Gaga Finally Coming To 'Rock Band''. MTV News. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
10. ^'Lady GaGa Hits Rock Band'. Harmonix Music Systems. March 9, 2010. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
11. ^Isler, Ramsey (October 29, 2009). 'South Park: 'Whale Whores' Review'. IGN. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
12. ^Delgado, Carlos (October 29, 2009). 'TV Review: South Park – Season 13 – 'Whale Whores''. iF Magazine.
13. ^Fears, Jeers, Cheers, and Loathing for Sea Shepherd In South Park, Editorial by Captain Paul Watson on SeaShepherd.org
14. ^Kilday, Gregg (February 17, 2010). ''Up' among Genesis Award nominees'. The Hollywood Reporter.
15. ^'Nominees for the Genesis Awards'. Humane Society. Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
16. ^Foster, Dave (December 14, 2009). 'South Park Season 13 (R1/US BD) in March'. DVD Times. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
17. ^Liebman, Martin (March 5, 2010). 'South Park: The Complete Thirteenth Season Blu-ray Review'. Blu-ray.com. Retrieved March 25, 2010.

South Park Poker Face Song

External links[edit]

• 'Whale Whores' Full episode at South Park Studios
• 'Whale Whores' Episode guide at South Park Studios
• 'Whale Whores' on IMDb
• 'Whale Whores' at TV.com

'Pee' is the thirteenth season finale of the American animated television series South Park. The 195th overall episode of the series, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 18, 2009. In the episode, the boys visit Pi Pi's Splashtown, the local waterpark, where so many people urinate in the pools to the point that the entire park becomes engulfed in tsunamis of urine.

Kyle South Park

The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. 'Pee' served as a parody of the disaster film genre, particularly the movie 2012 which was released five days before 'Pee' was broadcast. According to Nielsen ratings, the finale episode was seen by 2.87 million households, making it the highest rated cable show of the night. The episode received generally mixed reviews.

Plot[edit]

One summer day, Cartman, and his friends, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Butters and Jimmy arrive at Pi Pi's Splashtown, the local waterpark. Cartman is distraught to discover that most of the park's attendants are people of different races, while Kyle is incredibly repulsed to learn so many people freely urinate in the pools. Based on his observance of more minorities at the park than white people, Cartman calculates there will be no white people left by the year 2012, and interprets this as a sign that Mayans accurately predicted the world would end the same year, and that the new world will be 'made up of minorities.' Annoyed by Cartman's racism, Kyle points out that since white people do not make up the majority of the park's attendance, then they are the new minority, but Cartman refuses to believe it, ignorantly thinking that a minority is someone who is 'black or brown.' At the same time, Kyle walks by an elderly man and woman and finds out that the man peed in the pool, which disgusts Kyle. A bespectacled male scientist tests the park's water and discovers it is 98% urine. He urges Pi Pi, the park's Venetian owner, to immediately close and evacuate his park, claiming the high urine content will soon trigger a cataclysmic event. Pi Pi dismisses the warning. But when a little girl relieves herself in a wave pool, the park is overcome and destroyed by tsunamis of yellow urine and volcanic eruptions. Hundreds of people drown in the subsequent flood, including Kenny, but the other boys manage to survive.

The destroyed park is quarantined, and the scientist advises against a mission to rescue those trapped inside, fearing their exposure to 'pee contamination' has turned them into dangerous, hate-filled mutants. To prove his theory, the scientist urinates onto a test monkey, which clearly becomes annoyed and enraged. An antidote to this reaction is then tested on other monkeys, but proven unsuccessful when the monkeys still become angered when urinated on. Meanwhile, Cartman clings to debris to stay afloat, while the other boys have reached higher ground. Cartman is rescued by the occupants of an inflatable raft from a water park ride. Noticing he is the only white person in the raft, Cartman assumes he is the 'last of his species,' and that his envisioned 2012 scenario has occurred three years early. He imagines a world in which he must speak in minority slang, is paid lower wages, and eventually forced to live in a concentration camp.

The other boys find Pi Pi, who informs them the park can be drained of the inundation if someone can swim through the pee to reach an emergency release valve. Kyle reluctantly agrees to do the job as he said at the start of the episode that he could hold his breath for the longest, but is horrified to learn he must drink some of the pee in order to offset the fluid pressure he will encounter at the depths. Outside, an antidote that keeps the monkeys calm during yet another urination test is discovered: bananas. Back inside the park, Kyle reluctantly drinks a jarful of pee in preparation for his plunge into the flood. Just after he finishes the jar, helicopters arrive as part of the rescue mission, which made Kyle extremely furious for drinking pee for nothing. After escaping the pee-filled water park, Cartman reunites with his friends, and is glad that he isn't the last of the species and he declares that he will live up to the fullest. Kyle angrily says that he has to get his stomach pumped at the hospital. Stan reassures that it's only a little pee. Kyle angrily complains that bananas are (in his opinion) 'more disgusting' than pee. The water tester doles out bananas to the kids. The fire marshal tells them that they must eat their bananas immediately, but a police officer aims his gun at Kyle, saying that he must do it, or he'll be put down and Kyle yells in frustration.

Production[edit]

'Pee', the South Parkthirteenth season finale, was written and directed by series co-founder Trey Parker, and was rated [TV-MA) in the United States. Since the episode takes place in a waterpark, all animation had to be drawn from scratch. The episode was conceived a mere week before its initial broadcast, and the animation was almost completely unfinished two days before airing.^[1] Parker and Matt Stone had the idea of a waterpark-themed episode for a long time and reminisced about Water World in Denver, Colorado during the episode's production.^[1] Initially, the name of the park in the episode was Pi Pi's Urine World.^[1] 'Pee' first aired on November 18, 2009 in the United States on Comedy Central. The episode marked the third time during the thirteenth season that Kenny was killed, a running gag throughout the series.^[2] He also died during the season premiere, 'The Ring' ^[3] and during 'W.T.F.' During one of the final scenes, an alien holding a banana is visible among the crowd in the background. The alien was placed in the episode as part of a contest offered by the show's official website, in which viewers who could find and identify the alien in the episode could enter a contest, with the winner getting an animated version of himself or herself placed in the South Park opening credits.^[4]

The episode featured a musical number sung by Cartman in which he despairs over the number of minorities at the waterpark. He also reminisces about the park before the ride instructions were also read in Spanish.^[5] The day after 'Pee' was originally broadcast, three different kinds of T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts based on the episode were made available on South Park Studios, the official website of South Park. One featured Butters standing next to a puddle of urine saying, '1 in 3 People Admit They Pee in Pools'.^[6] The second included Cartman and his quote from the episode, 'Your world is cold and void of any humanity'.^[7] The third featured Stan, Cartman, Kyle and Kenny wearing bathing suits and standing in front of a Pi Pi's Splashtown logo.^[8]

Poker Face South Park

Cultural references[edit]

The episode is a parody on the disaster film genre, which has been parodied in previous South Park episodes,^[2][9] like 'Pandemic', the twelfth season parody of the film Cloverfield.^[9] 'Pee' included a particularly large number of references to 2012, a science fiction film about the end of the world as predicted by the Mayan calendar, which was released only days before 'Pee' was originally broadcast. The episode parodies many common elements of such disaster films, including scientists struggling to figure out the source of the problem. The destruction of rides and park amenities by the tsunami of urine is a reference to the destruction of historical monuments in 2012,^[2][9] and other such disaster films by Roland Emmerich, the director of, White House Down, 2012, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.^[9] 'Pee' also includes several references to the 2012 phenomenon, the prediction that cataclysmic events would occur in the year 2012, which is said to be the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar.^[9][10] The scene in which Kyle is forced to drink three cups of urine in order to prevent his body from enduring the effects of fluid pressure before swimming down to drain it all out, is a parody of a scene in the 1989 film The Abyss, where the protagonist inhales a liquid breathing medium before venturing into the ocean depths.^[11]There is also a reference to the film Alive (1993) when Randy comes to rescue the children on a helicopter. He is holding a red baby shoe, just as Nando Parrado at the end of the movie.

Reception[edit]

In its original American broadcast on November 18, 2009, 'Pee' was watched by 2.87 million overall households, according to the Nielsen ratings, making it the most watched cable show of the night. It beat the second highest-ranked cable show, Bravo's Top Chef, by about 600,000 households.^[12] The episode received generally mixed reviews. If Magazine writer Carl Cortez, who was critical of the second half of season thirteen, said 'Pee' ranked as one of the best episodes of the season, and said it included several 'classic South Park moments'. Cortez called it a 'wonderfully twisted spoof' of disaster films and called the script 'pretty biting stuff ... without being wholly offensive'.^[2] Ramsey Isler of IGN said the emergency staff subplot working on a cure was not 'quite perfect parody'. But he praised Kyle in the ending scene, as well as the way South Park found a new, literal twist on 'toilet humor' by featuring rivers and tsunamis of pee.^[10] Sean O'Neal of The A.V. Club said that the episode was overly offensive, rather than an ironic commentary on racism. Although O'Neal said previous South Park episodes like 'With Apologies to Jesse Jackson' were effective, 'Pee' and its references to minority park attendees and the Italian waterpark owner 'came off less like ironic racism and more as good, old-fashioned, butter-your-cornbread-with-it racism'. An airing on August 4, 2017 featured a muffled version of the song.^[9]

Home release[edit]

'Pee', along with the thirteen other episodes from South Park's thirteenth season, was released on a three-disc DVD set and two-disc Blu-ray set in the United States on March 16, 2010. The sets included brief audio commentaries by Parker and Stone for each episode,^[13] a collection of deleted scenes, and a special mini-feature Inside Xbox: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of South Park Studios, which discussed the process behind animating the show with Inside Xbox host Major Nelson.^[14]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcParker, Trey (November 2010). South Park: The Complete Thirteenth Season: 'Pee'(Audio commentary)|format= requires |url= (help) (Blu-ray Disc). Paramount Home Entertainment.
2. ^ ^abcdCortez, Carl (2009-11-19). 'TV Review: South Park – Season 13 – 'Pee''. If Magazine.
3. ^Fickett, Travis (2009-03-12). 'South Park: 'The Ring' Review – The Jonas Bros. come to Colorado, ruin Kenny's would-be sex life'. IGN. Archived from the original on 2010-11-08. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
4. ^McDuffee, Keith (2009-11-18). 'South Park equates minorities in the U.S. with peeing in the pool'. Clique Clack TV. Archived from the original on 2009-11-22. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
5. ^'Not My Water Park: Cartman's Anti-Minority Ballad (Video)'. The Huffington Post. November 19, 2009. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
6. ^'southpark: 1 in 3 People Admit They Pee in Pools'. Zazzle. 2009-11-19. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
7. ^'southpark: Your World is Cold and Void of Any Humanity'. Zazzle. 2009-11-19. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
8. ^'southpark: Pi Pi's Splashtown'. Zazzle. 2009-11-19. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
9. ^ ^abcdefO'Neal, Sean (2009-11-18). 'South Park: Pee'. The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
10. ^ ^abIsler, Ramsey (2009-11-19). 'South Park: 'Pee' Review'. IGN. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
11. ^Finniss, David. 'South Park: Pee review'. ReviewStream.com. Retrieved 2010-01-02.
12. ^Seidman, Robert (2009-11-19). 'Wednesday broadcast & cable finals: Glee, America's Next Top Model tick up'. TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 2010-11-08. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
13. ^Foster, Dave (December 14, 2009). 'South Park Season 13 (R1/US BD) in March'. DVD Times. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
14. ^Liebman, Martin (March 5, 2010). 'South Park: The Complete Thirteenth Season Blu-ray Review'. Blu-ray.com. Retrieved March 25, 2010.

External links[edit]

South Park Poker Face Episode

• 'Pee' Full episode at South Park Studios
• 'Pee' Episode guide at South Park Studios
• 'Pee' on IMDb
• 'Pee' at TV.com