"Royal Pudding" | |
---|---|
South Park episode | |
Episode no. | Season 15 Episode 3 |
Directed by | Trey Parker |
Written by | Trey Parker |
Production code | 1503 |
Original air date | May 11, 2011 |
"Royal Pudding" is the third episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series South Park and 212th episode of the series overall. "Royal Pudding" premiered in the United States on Comedy Central on May 11, 2011. [1] In the episode, which parodies the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, [2] the Prince of Canada's bride is abducted at the altar, leading Ike Broflovski to answer the call to rescue her. "Royal Pudding" was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. The episode aired twelve days after the wedding.
Mr. Mackey is making the kindergarten students perform a play about tooth decay and the importance of dental hygiene. He is furious when Ike Broflovski, who is supposed to portray tooth decay, misses a rehearsal to watch the Canadian royal wedding. During the ceremony, the princess is suddenly enclosed in a giant cube and spirited away. Ike is so distraught that he cannot stop crying during rehearsal and gets sent home by Mr. Mackey. People all over Canada commit mass suicide of despair for the princess' abduction and a candlelight vigil is held where Rush performs a version of "Candle in the Wind." The Prime Minister of Canada instructs all people of Canadian descent to go home and open their "Box of Faith", which contains – along with a location beacon, a first aid kit, and a sandwich – a video recording issuing a call to arms for all Canadians in fighting condition to "meet by the tree in Edmonton". Ike answers the call and, while riding a bus to Canada, meets a fellow Canadian named Ugly Bob: a former actor for the Terrance and Phillip Show who has immigrated to America. Bob claims he must wear a bag over his head because, even though he simply appears Canadian to Americans, other Canadians find his face frighteningly ugly.
Once the pair arrive, the first instinct of the member of the Canadian Armed Forces leading the gathered Canadians is that the princess was taken by a giant, who turns out to be Scott the Dick, who grew to seven feet tall – giant by Canadian standards – after a radioactive accident in Ottawa. When it turns out that Scott has been wrongly accused of taking the princess, most other Canadians go home, but Scott persuades Ike and Ugly Bob to follow him as he accuses the Inuit of kidnapping the princess out of his racial prejudice towards the "Native Canadians". The three of them travel to the Arctic tundra of the Yukon Territory to get information from the Inuit, who admit that their people do have a grudge against the Canadians for taking their land, but tribe leader reveals that the princess' abduction was foretold, and that the true kidnapper is one who attacks people of all nationalities. Throughout their journey, Scott espouses a variety of racist remarks towards the "Native Canadians", such as referring them to "polar gooks" and "ice beaners", and claims he once paid an Inuit to perform oral sex on him but she simply "[rubbed] her nose against [his] penis for 45 seconds and asked [him] to pay her!" much to Ike's annoyance. With an Inuit mother leading the three, they find a large dark castle, where the princess is held captive by the abductor: Tooth Decay. Eventually, after the monster hurls Scott and the Inuit woman across the room, Ike turns Tooth Decay to stone by exposing Ugly Bob's face to him.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mackey becomes increasingly irate with Ike's absence and blames the lackluster performance of the school play on Kyle Broflovski, who has been filling Ike's role in his absence. During rehearsals Mackey consistently loses his temper with the children for singing flat or without feeling, directing his most scathing remarks at Kyle, and reveals that the play means a great deal to him: as Tooth Decay killed his father. While the play is a success with parents of the kindergartners, Mr. Mackey verbally abuses his actors' imperfections backstage until the police intervene, telling Mackey to cancel the play: as Tooth Decay has been killed. Ike receives a knighthood from the Canadian princess, an honor that fails to impress any of the boys (with the exception of Kyle), and the royal wedding begins again. Both events (before and after the princess' abduction) involve bizarre traditions such as the prince putting his arms into a large bowl of butterscotch pudding, the princess scraping them clean and smearing the pudding on her own face, and the prince tearing one of her arms off and inserting it into his anus, "as is tradition."
According to the DVD commentary, series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker found both the royal wedding and the hype surrounding it to be peculiar, stating, "Whenever we talk about something no-one cares about we make it about Canada." The kindergarten play rehearsals were based on the rehearsals for The Book of Mormon. The voices for the "native Canadians" were provided by Native Americans. [3]
In its original American broadcast on May 11, 2011, "Royal Pudding" was seen by 2.435 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. [4]
Sean O'Neal, reviewing the episode for The A.V. Club, gave the episode a "C−", citing its "bric-a-brac construction", and calling it "one of the strangest half-hours in the show's history". O'Neal deemed the episode "pointedly silly", "polarizing", and "bound to be divisive". [5]
IGN's Ramsay Isler gave the episode a rating of 5.5 out of 10, calling it "disappointing", and saying, "It has been said that episodes without Cartman are often the worst, and that's certainly the case here." Isler felt that while the Canadian traditions depicted in the beginning of the episode provided some humor, it quickly wore out, that the rest of the episode was "rather boring", and that the bit with the severed arm at the end of the episode was ridiculous without being funny. [6]
Kyle Broflovski is a fictional character in the adult animated sitcom South Park. He is voiced by and loosely based on series co-creator Matt Stone. Kyle is one of the series' 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 created by Stone and long-time collaborator Trey Parker in 1992 and 1995.
"It's Christmas in Canada" is the fifteenth and final episode of the seventh season of the American animated series South Park and the 111th episode of the series. The episode originally aired on December 17, 2003 and was nominated for an Emmy Award. The episode parodies the film The Wizard of Oz.
"Jewbilee" is the ninth-aired and produced episode of the third season of the animated television series South Park. The 40th overall episode and the final part of The Meteor Shower Trilogy, the episode describes what happens to Kyle and Kenny as they attend a Jewish Scouting camp on the night of the meteor shower. The episode, which satirizes stereotypes about Jews, originally aired on July 28, 1999.
"Proper Condom Use" is the seventh episode of the fifth season of the animated television series South Park, and the 72nd episode of the series overall. "Proper Condom Use" originally aired in the United States on August 1, 2001 on Comedy Central.
"Ike's Wee Wee" is the third episode of the second season of the American animated television series South Park. The 16th episode of the series overall, it first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on May 20, 1998. In the episode, school counselor Mr. Mackey is fired, and turns to drugs. Meanwhile, the boys misconstrue what circumcision entails, and try to save Kyle's younger brother Ike from his upcoming bris.
"Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" is the ninth episode in the tenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 148th episode of the series overall, it first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on October 11, 2006. The episode focuses on the 9/11 conspiracy theories, and was written by series co-creator Trey Parker. In the episode, Mr. Mackey is determined to find out who defecated in the urinal, while Cartman manages to link it to 9/11. This causes Stan and Kyle to find the truth behind this terrible event in history.
"Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy" is the tenth episode in the tenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 149th episode of the series overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States October 18, 2006. In the episode, Cartman is appointed to the post of school hallway monitor at South Park Elementary, and takes it personally when an infraction is committed in his jurisdiction. Meanwhile, Kyle discovers that his little brother Ike is in a romantic relationship with his kindergarten teacher Miss Stevenson. Kyle and Cartman team up to put a stop to the inappropriate behavior. Written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, the episode features a parody of the television series Dog the Bounty Hunter.
The second season of South Park, an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, began airing on April 1, 1998. The second season concluded after 18 episodes on January 20, 1999; it remains the longest season of South Park to date. Almost all the episodes were directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, with the exception of two episodes directed by Eric Stough.
The fourth season of South Park, an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, began airing on April 5, 2000. The fourth season concluded after airing 17 episodes on December 20, 2000.
The fifth season of South Park, an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, began airing on June 20, 2001. The season concluded after 14 episodes on December 12, 2001. The 14-episode season length would become a standard for later years of the series, starting from the eighth season up until the sixteenth season.
The sixth season of South Park, an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, began airing on March 6, 2002. The sixth season concluded after 17 episodes on December 11, 2002.
Gerald "Jerry" Broflovski and Sheila Broflovski are fictional characters in the animated television series South Park. The two are an upper middle-class married Ashkenazi Jewish couple who raise their ten-year-old son Kyle and three-year-old Canadian-born adopted son Ike in the fictional town of South Park, Colorado.
"Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" is the fifteenth episode of the third season of the animated television series South Park and the 46th episode of the series overall. An album of the same name consisting of versions of songs from the show as well as a number of additional songs was released the week prior to the episode's original air date, December 1, 1999.
"About Last Night…" is the twelfth episode in the twelfth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 179th episode of the series overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 5, 2008.
"Bass to Mouth" is the tenth episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 219th episode overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on October 19, 2011. Much of the episode's plot alludes to WikiLeaks and its surrounding controversy.
"Taming Strange" is the fifth episode in the seventeenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 242nd episode of the series overall, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on October 30, 2013. This episode parodies Miley Cyrus' controversial performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards through the use of the children's television program Yo Gabba Gabba!, as well as the technical problems encountered during the launch of the HealthCare.gov website. The plot centers on Kyle trying to bond with his baby brother Ike, who is experiencing early-onset puberty.
"#REHASH" is the ninth episode in the eighteenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 256th overall episode, it was written and directed by series co-creator and co-star Trey Parker. The episode premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on December 3, 2014. The episode is part one of the two-part season finale. The episode lampoons the popularity of Internet Let's Play celebrities and the phenomena of Internet trending topics that lack actual relevance. The episode also references and intertwines multiple elements from previous episodes in the eighteenth season of South Park. YouTuber PewDiePie plays himself in this episode.
"Skank Hunt" is the second episode in the twentieth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 269th episode of the series overall, it first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on September 21, 2016. The episode satirizes trolling, cyberbullying and suicide prevention.
"The End of Serialization as We Know It" is the tenth episode and the season finale in the twentieth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 277th episode of the series overall, it first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on December 7, 2016.