Recap / South Park S14E6 "201"

"You see, I learned something today..."

Original air date: 4/21/2010

In the second part to "200," the celebrities that have been insulted and mocked for over 200 episodes continue their search for Mohammed so they can find the secret of why he's never been insulted. Meanwhile, Cartman discovers the horrible truth: He does have a father and the story that his mom is a hermaphrodite was a lie.

---

Examples:

• Accidental Murder: Stan and Kyle do this to Tom Cruise by sending him to the moon.
• Back for the Dead: Pip suddenly reappears after being absent for three seasons, only to get crushed to death by Mecha-Streisand.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The previous episode sets up a scenario where Muhammad is apparently disguised in a bear suit, and the gingers want him to step out of it to verify if it's really him. This episode reveals that it's really Santa Claus inside the suit.
  Stan: If we were gonna have someone in a bear costume, why would we actually have it be Muhammad, you fucking idiot?!
  • By the end of the episode, Cartman is in tears. Except he's not crying because he just found out he got his own father killed, but because he just found out that he's "half-ginger".
• Bathos: The team of holy figures riding on segways.
• Big "NO!": Cartman yells one when Scott reveals that he killed their own father, though he's actually upset that he's half-ginger.
• The Bus Came Back: Several characters who hadn't been seen in a while, such as Santa and Mr. Hankey, make appearances.
• Broken Aesop: The Spoof Aesop is that using violence will give you the power to not be made fun of. However, in context Kyle says this when Tom Cruise asks how the kids are still able to make fun of him despite him having Muhammad's "goo." Kyle says it's because the only true power is violence, but since Cruise and the celebrities have spent the entire episode using violence, this logically means they shouldn't have been able to make fun of him.
• But Now I Must Go: Mitch Connor leaves due to having a bounty on his head.
• Censor Box: When Tom Cruise steals Mohammad's "goo", a censor box appears over him. It disappears when it turns out he's not immune to being made fun of after all.
• Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Comedy Central not only censored any mention of Muhammad's name, but also Kyle's, Jesus' and Santa's speech near the end. For a while, Parker and Stone were not allowed to disclose what they said. The ending was eventually leaked.
• Double Standard: Parodied mercilessly throughout the episode, particularly in one scene which depicts Jesus looking at pornography and Buddha snorting cocaine.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": Everyone laughs at the Seaman/semen joke.
• Internal Retcon: Liane Cartman is revealed not to be a hermaphrodite as said in "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut", but she really had Cartman with Broncos player Jack Tenorman. The town just covered it up because they didn't want an illegitimate child scandal to tarnish the Broncos' good season. The series had a tendency to ignore the idea that Liane was actually Cartman's father, possibly Foreshadowing an episode like this which reveals she indeed isn't.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  Kyle: Dude, nobody gives a crap about who your stupid father is! Muhammad is an important issue with actual ethical ramifications!
  Cartman: I guarantee you people care way more about who my father is!
  • The true, uncensored ending about threats of violence being an effective tool; the other parts of the episode were censored at least partially due to threats of violence.
• "Lesson of the Day" Speech: Kyle, Jesus and Santa deliver one on fear and violence that was censored in the original version, but eventually leaked.

Kyle: You see, I learned something today. Throughout this whole ordeal, we've all wanted to show things that we weren't allowed to show, but it wasn't because of some magic goo. It was because of the magical power of threatening people with violence. That's obviously the only true power. If there's anything we've all learned, it's that terrorizing people works.
Jesus: That's right. Don't you see, gingers, if you don't want to be made fun of anymore, all you need are guns and bombs to get people to stop.
Santa Claus: That's right, friends. All you need to do is instill fear and be willing to hurt people and you can get whatever you want. The only true power is violence.
Stan: Yeah!

• The Reveal: Cartman's father is also Scott Tenorman's, meaning he mutilated his own father when Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman were shot by Farmer Jenkins, and that he's half-ginger.
• Self-Made Orphan: This episode reveals that thanks to his actions in "Scott Tenorman Must Die", Cartman is halfway there.
• Shout-Out: The climax is a parody of The Killing Joke.
• Skewed Priorities: Cartman is far more upset that he is "half-ginger" than he is about the fact he killed his father and fed him to his half-brother.
• Spoof Aesop: The bleeped speech near the end recommended using threats and violence to get what you want.
• Take That!: The episode continues the two-parter's ongoing potshot at not being allowed to show an inoffensive image of Muhammad, while Jesus and Buddha are okay to portray as engaging in sacrilegious behavior.
• Trampled Underfoot: Pip gets trampled to death by Mecha-Streisand.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The leader of the evil ginger separatists escapes airborne via Jet Pack.
• Villain Team-Up: The celebrities and the gingers agree to share their resources.
• Violence Really Is the Answer: As it turns out, stealing people's "goo" is not the way to get your way, because such goo doesn't exist.
• Wham Episode: This episode shed a lot of light on previous episodes.
• You, Get Me Coffee: When Jesus comes up with The Plan to save the day, he assigns each team member to a task except for Seaman who he orders to get sushi for dinner.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Kyle's reaction when Mitch Connor cheers Cartman up by telling him that although Cartman is "half-ginger", he's also "half-Denver Bronco".
  Mitch: Shut up Kyle, you dumb Jew.

---