Recap / South Park S 1 E 3 Volcano

"That lava is comin' right for us!"

Original air date: 8/20/1997 ^note Produced as the third episode, but aired second, before Weight Gain 4000.

Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny go camping and hunting with Stan's Uncle Jimbo and his buddy Ned. Stan ends up unable to kill any of the animals, but Kenny has no problem and Jimbo gives him more attention than Stan, which makes Stan unhappy. Meanwhile, a nearby volcano erupts and unless something's done, it'll destroy South Park.

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"Volcano" contains the following:

• Accidental Murder: Ned accidentally kills Kenny when he drops his gun to the snow and the impact causes it to fire, hitting Kenny in the chest.
• Ad-Break Double-Take: Stan aiming a gun at a disguised Cartman.
• Alcohol Is Gasoline: Inverted. Kenny drinks gasoline as if it were alcohol, complete with Alcohol Hic.
• Alcohol Hic: Kenny lets out one after drinking from Jimbo's fuel can.
• Anti-Hero: Randy's planning saves South Park from the volcano eruption, but gets Denver engulfed by the lava instead. He's somewhat disturbed by this, implying that he didn't completely think it through.
• Amusing Injuries: Ned being set on fire after pouring gasoline on the campfire, "the old Indian fire trick" as Jimbo calls it. Cartman cooks his weenies on Ned as he was rolling in the ground. Two scenes later, he's completely recovered.
• Answer Cut: When Randy's trench plan successfully diverts the lava into a canyon, the mayor asks where it exactly goes. As Randy stares into his plans, going, "Uhh..." the camera cuts to the lava engulfing Denver.
• Attention Whore: The Mayor, big time. Every other adult in town sans Chef also goes bonkers when there's a camera nearby.
• Beast and Beauty: Scuzlebutt has a moment of this with Mayor McDaniels, giving her a flower and calling her "friend".
• Big Damn Heroes: Scuzzlebutt appears at the end to save the boys by escorting them to the other side of the lava trench in his makeshift basket.
  Ms. Cartman: Scuzzlebutt saved the day!
• Big "NO!": Patrick Duffy when Scuzzlebutt is killed.
• Big "WHY?!": When Stan shoots Scuzzlebutt, Patrick Duffy lets out a Big "NO!" and exclaims, "Why, God, why?!"
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Mayor, who is a petty Mean Boss but puts on a caring and responsible front when on TV. She's not a very effective one either, as she frequently asks to do retakes 'on live televison.
• Bittersweet Ending: The volcano plot ends with South Park being saved from being torched, though the lava engulfs Denver instead.
• Butt-Monkey: As if Ned wasn't messed up enough (having a missing arm and a laryngectomy), he's set of fire halfway through the camp trip, with Jimbo laughing at his situation.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Scuzzlebutt bites it at the end: Stan blows his brains clean off with a shotgun.
• Can't Take Criticism: The Mayor, who doesn't allow any of her aides to correct her in anything, even when she's blatantly in the wrong.
• Chekhov's Volcano: The volcano introduced in this episode erupts during Jimbo's trip with the boys.
• Compulsive Liar: According to Stan, Cartman always makes stuff up, like his history in Vietnam and Scuzzlebutt's existence. The latter is revealed to be Real After All, though.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Stan's love for animals was established in the previous episode, when he expressed his fondness for dolphins.
  • Also like in the previous episode, it's hinted clear that Mr. Garrison and Cartman both operate on the same Insane Troll Logic, only here it's proved to be a Cassandra Truth since Scuzzlebutt was revealed to be Real After All.
  • When Stan expresses his concerns about Jimbo not liking him anymore to Kyle, he responds by farting, like what Stan did when Kyle was worried about Ike being kidnapped in the pilot episode.
  • Like in the previous episode, the townsfolk are portrayed as more excited about being on TV than worried about the catastrophe that surrounds them.
• Corruption of a Minor: Jimbo not only gives the boys high-power rifles for hunting, but he also gives them beer (because, after all, what's hunting without it?). He also teaches them illegal hunting tactics, including catching fish with explosives. In the end, his influence causes Stan to shoot Scuzzlebutt in cold blood.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Animal Lover Stan is pressured into shooting animals, culminating in killing Scuzzlebutt in cold blood, much to everyone's horror.
• Death of a Child: Kenny dies twice in this episode. Hunting trips would do that to a kid with his luck.
• Didn't Think This Through: Randy drives the lava away from South Park by getting the townsfolk to dig in a trench to redirect it. It never occurs to him that the lava would then go on to engulf its neighbor town Denver, not that anyone seems to care much.
• Dirty Kid: Early in the episode, Kenny quips that he would like Cartman's mom to suck his dick. For Jimbo, this is the first hint that he's the nephew he wishes he had.
• Disposable Intern: The Mayor fires her aide Johnson after he corrects her on a mispronounciation, hiring Ted in his stead.
• Dope Slap: Jimbo gives Stan one of these when he refuses to shoot Scuzzlebut (in reality, Cartman in disguise).
• Downer Ending: Stan's subplot ends with him giving in to peer pressure and killing Scuzzlebutt to everyone's horror, and realizing how easy it actually is to take a life.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Randy being so stoic, when it turns out a volcano is about to erupt, he just sips his coffee and sighs. If this were a later-day episode, he'd be freaking out and coming up with an insane plan to stop it himself. Also, this episode doesn't establish that Randy is Stan's father ("An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" would).
  • Mayor McDaniels is depicted here as being so incompetent that she can't tell the difference between a gynecologist, a geologist, or a geometrist, and such a Pointy-Haired Boss that she fires an aide purely for pointing out her mistakes. In most future episodes she's far saner and more competent...by comparison to the rest of the town, anyway.
  • Kyle says "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" instead of Stan, and nobody says "You bastards!" at any point in this episode.
  • People who've only seen the later seasons would likely be baffled at the sight of Stan being driven to shoot Scuzzlebutt and showing no remorse whatsoever after the fact, which is consistent with his characterization in the early seasons but he will grow out of it as a 4th grader.
• Enemy to All Living Things: Jimbo, full stop. Also Ned and Kenny to a lesser extent.
• Epic Fail: The "duck and cover" method of avoiding lava does not work after all, as three hapless men find out the hard way.
• Establishing Character Moment: While he's nowhere near as hysterical as later seasons would run with, Randy's first appearance sets up the first of many jokes revolving around him being ridiculously under-qualified for whatever occupation he's in.
• Everyone Has Standards: Jimbo is a trigger-happy lunatic, but he has a series of hunting rules that he abides by, don't ever walk with your gun unless the safety's on, don't shoot anything that looks human, and never spill your beer in the bullet chamber. The second one also triggers a Jerkass Realization when he realizes that the creature that he was about to shoot was in actuality Cartman in disguise.
• Extreme Doormat: Ted, Johnson's replacement. This allows him to keep his job for a little longer than the former.
• False Friend: The Mayor seems flattered when Scuzzlebutt gives her a flower. Then he dies, and she angrily tells the cameraman to stop recording.
• Faux Horrific: Scuzzlebutt has a piece of celery as an arm and Patrick Duffy as a leg. Cartman genuinely thinks that this is scary.
• Fire of Comfort: The boys, Jimbo, and Ned have one halfway through the camping trip. It's when Jimbo starts bonding with Kenny.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: The second time Kenny dies, absolutely nobody acknowledges him.
• Foul First Drink: Kyle and Stan claim that alcohol "tastes like pee". Kenny disagrees.
• Friend to All Children: Out of all the adults who are tasked with saving the boys, Chef is the only one who seems invested in actually helping them.
• Gentle Giant: Scuzzlebutt is revealed to be this.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • Cartman's attempt to prank the boys into believing that he's Scuzzlebutt works too well, to the point where he's almost shot to death by them.
  • Jimbo spends most of the episode trying to man Stan up by taking him on hunting, constantly egging him on to shoot several forest animals, and pushing him aside in favor of Kenny when this doesn't work. This backfires on him when he befriends Scuzzlebutt only for Stan to shoot him thinking it would make him proud.
• Good All Along: Scuzzlebutt. It initially seems like he wanted to eat the boys, but it's then revealed that he was trying to save them all along.
• Hidden Depths: As manly as he presents himself to be, Jimbo openly cries at Ned's cover of "Cumbaya".
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Cartman dresses up like Scuzzlebutt to scare Jimbo, Ned, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny. By doing so he learns the cardinal rule of hunting: Never dress as an animal on a hunting trip. He's lucky to have made it out alive.
• Honorary Uncle: After bonding with him, Jimbo makes Kenny his "honorary nephew". At the end, however, he tells Stan that he will always be his nephew (and besides, Kenny is dead by this point).
• Horrible Camping Trip: Although Jimbo, Ned, and the boys make the best of it, even when their car was accidentally blown up.
• Hypocritical Humor: While scolding Stan for shooting Scuzzlebutt when it saved them, Jimbo also tells him that he can't just shoot at anything, despite the fact he and Ned's been doing just that whenever they come across an animal throughout the episode. Earlier, Jimbo seemed to have almost learnt this lesson after nearly shooting Cartman dressed up as Scuzzlebutt, but the volcano's sudden eruption cuts him off.
• Intercourse with You: Chef's song "Hot Lava" is less about the actual volcano and more about this.
  Chef: Lava is so hot, it makes Lava so hot it makes me sweat. Lava so warm and red and wet. Lava! Brrrrr...
• Intergenerational Friendship: Jimbo forms one with Kenny when he proves to be the nephew he wanted Stan to be. Eventually, he confesses to Stan that it doesn't have to mean that Stan isn't his nephew anymore.
• Jerkass:
  • Mayor McDaniels, who uses the attention the town is getting and the fact that the boys are stuck on the mountain for her own benefit and doesn't really care about what happens to them.
  • Stan's uncle Jimbo, who tries to man-up his nephew (who completely idolizes him) by forcing him to drink alcohol and kill animals when he clearly doesn't want to, insults and yells at him when he fails to meet his expectations, shrugs him off in favor of his best friend, and even hits him halfway through the episode. He also laughs at his best friend Ned when he accidentally sets himself on fire, and recklessly poaches animals for sport. He has a Jerkass Realization when he comes close to accidentally killing one of Stan's friends while he was disguised as a creature, and later patches things up with Stan.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • Jimbo has one when he realizes that had Stan followed his order to shoot Scuzzlebutt, Cartman would be dead. He has an even bigger one when he sees that he pushed Stan to the point where he killed the real Scuzzlebutt (who turned out to be a Gentle Giant) to make him proud, meaning that the creature's death is on him.
  • Ned also has one when Stan shoots Scuzzlebutt, vowing to never touch a gun again in his life to prevent any more needless deaths. Unfortunately, when he drops his gun, it fires and kills a passing Kenny.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: The Mayor spends most of the episode acting like a blatant Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who only acts concerned about the kids' well-being when she thinks she has a camera pointed at her. When Scuzzlebutt saves the day, however, she seems to soften up a bit and even accepts a flower from him as a gift, only to angrily scream "turn off the cameras!" after Stan shoots him.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Stan doesn't get any punishment for killing Scuzzlebut, and goes to watch cartoons with his friends. He also doesn't feel any remorse, or understand Jimbo's lesson that "some things you don't shoot", since Jimbo himself had been shooting at almost everything on sight. Though he does get the worst karma a few episodes later.
  • Though they have two separate Jerkass Realizations, Jimbo and Ned don't face any repercussions for all the animals they illegally killed, using the Self-Defense Ruse to wash their hands off the issue. Ned also doesn't face any scrutiny for accidentally killing Kenny, nor does Jimbo for endangering and corrupting his nephew and his friends by with his dangerous habits.
• Karmic Death: Both of Kenny's deaths, in a way.
  • After he spent the entire episode killing some of the forest's wildlife for fun, it's fitting that he's the one to get squashed by the fireball when the volcano erupts.
  • Getting shot by Ned is also fitting considering he was the kid who enjoyed shooting creatures the most.
• Karmic Trickster: Cartman sees himself as this when he disguises himself as Scuzzlebutt to scare the pants off his friends for relentlessly mocking him and calling him a baby.
• Kick the Dog: Jimbo calling Stan a tree-hugger and a pansy, and Dope-Slapping him when he refuses to shoot Scuzzlebutt (actually Cartman in disguise).
• Kids Are Cruel:
  • Stan, Kyle, and Kenny make fun of Cartman for being a Momma's Boy. At one point, Stan and Cartman even threaten to shoot each other.
  • The boys, except for Stan, also show a lot of excitement at seeing Jimbo gunning animals down. Kenny especially as he partakes in the massacre, killing an entire bank of fish and a deer with glee, earning himself Jimbo's respect.
  • After being pressured into shooting an animal, Stan crosses a line in cruelty that not even Cartman had crossed before by shooting Scuzzlebutt in the head in a misguided attempt at making his uncle proud, while feeling no remorse for it. Even Jimbo is horrified.
• Lack of Empathy: Stan, Kyle, and Cartman aren't troubled when the former kills Scuzzlebutt, thinking it was what Jimbo wanted them to do.
• Laser-Guided Karma: A minor example that doubles as a Continuity Nod. After Stan literally farted in the face of Kyle's problems in the pilot episode, Kyle farts back to him in response to Stan telling him about his preoccupations with his uncle.
• Manly Men Can Hunt: Deconstructed. Jimbo and Ned live by this trope, as does Kenny. Throughout this episode, Stan finds himself stuck between his admiration for his uncle and his love for animals. He eventually chooses the former and shoots Scuzzlebutt like Jimbo wanted him to before, but by then the beast had revealed himself to be a Gentle Giant so Jimbo is instead horrified.
• Manly Tears: Jimbo cries during Ned's "Kumbaya".
• Master of the Mixed Message: What Jimbo is from Stan and Kyle's perspective, since he's mad at Stan for killing Scuzzlebut when he had been egging him on to shoot an animal since the beginning of the episode. However, that was before realizing that Scuzzlebutt was a Gentle Giant, making it a case of Poor Communication Kills.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Cartman's Vietnam War "flashbacks" could be just him messing with Ned... or genuine flashbacks from a previous life.
• Mean Boss: The Mayor fires her assistant Johnson through a speaker for correcting her on the proper pronunciation and meaning of "geologist". She's equally aloof towards her replacement Ted.
• A Molten Date with Death:
  • Kenny becomes the first victim of the volcano when he's unlucky enough to be squashed by a fireball. He later revives offscreen.
  • When the volcano erupts, three guys attempt to do the "Duck And Cover" maneuver when a lava flow heads towards them. Predictably, all three of them wind up getting fried to the bone when the lava passes over them.
• Moment Killer: A literal case when Stan kills Scuzzlebutt after he's flirted with the Mayor.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: For saving the boys, Scuzzlebutt is rewarded with a shot to the head by Stan.
• No Sympathy: When Stan tells Kyle that he's worried that Jimbo doesn't want to hang out with him anymore because of his hesitance to shoot animals, Kyle responds by farting.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Randy has a subdued one when he hears the news about the volcano eruption, but he then nonchalantly takes a sip from his coffee without paying it any mind.
  • The Mayor and Chef have this reaction when Randy tells them about the inminent doom that is the volcano.
  • Cartman when Jimbo believes his Scuzzlebutt disguise and tries to kill him.
  • Kyle has this reaction when not only does Scuzzlebutt turn out to be real, but he's likely a carnivore judging by how he tore some leaves off a tree and spat them out in disgust.´
  • Randy when he realizes that the lava has been driven away from South Park but is now destroying Denver.
  • Everyone when Stan kills Scuzzlebutt.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Jimbo apologizing to the boys for putting them in danger with Scuzzlebutt.
  • Kyle showing actual concern for Cartman when he "goes missing". He also recognizes he was right when Scuzzlebutt turns out to be Real After All.
• Real After All: Scuzzlebutt is dismissed as a lame campfire story until he appears at the end.
  Cartman: What?! Scuzzlebutt's real?!
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Jimbo and Ned's excuse of "They're coming right for us!" is inspired by an incident in Colorado in which a man shot three Rocky Mountain black bears (a protected species) down from a tree. His excuse was "They were coming right for us!"
• Rewatch Bonus: The story of how Ned lost his arm from picking up a live grenade in Vietnam would later come back in "The Mexican Staring Frog Of Southern Sri Lanka". The boys don't seem to notice.
• Running Gag: Jimbo, Ned and the kids assuming the volcano's rumbling is something else.
• Self-Defense Ruse: In order to get around hunting restrictions, Jimbo always shouts "It's coming right for us!" before shooting an animal.
• Ship Tease: There's a moment of this between Scuzzlebutt and the Mayor, but it's ruined when Stan kills the former.
• Skewed Priorities: It says something that the volcano is the overreaching threat of the episode and yet few people seem to bother with it.
  • Randy finishes his coffee before informing everyone of the impending doom that is the volcano.
  • When Stan and Cartman aim guns at each other, Jimbo stops them because "That's dangerous! You're gonna spill your beer!"
  • The Townsfolk are more invested in appearing on TV than the eponymous volcano.
  • Stan prioritizes Jimbo's perception of him over anything else in this episode, to the point of shrugging off events like Cartman's disappearance, the volcano eruption, Kenny's death, and Scuzzlebutt saving his life.
• Slave to PR: The Mayor and the entire town make a bigger deal out of appearing on TV than actually stopping the volcano or saving the kids. The Mayor at least pretends to be invested in them.
• Sociopathic Hero: After shooting Scuzzlebutt, Stan proclaims in front of everybody that killing things was easier than he thought.
• Sting: When Randy realises a volcano is about to erupt, and when he announces this to the mayor. A longer, more overblown sting is used when Randy shows the mayor how much the town is doomed.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: At first, the tale of Scuzzlebutt was presented as if it was just an invention of Cartman, but when Scuzzlebutt actually appears during the volcanic eruption...
  Mayor: What... is that thing?
  Chef: That's... Scuzzlebutt!
  Mr. Garrison: Yeah, he has Patrick Duffy for a leg, and weaves baskets.
• Take That!:
  • When the other kids don't find Scuzzlebutt having Patrick Duffy for a leg scary, Cartman retorts, "Haven't you seen Step by Step?"
  • Trey and Matt have admitted that this episode was inspired by the notoriously nonsensical movie Volcano.
  • The Mayor uses the threat of the boys getting incinerated by the volcano for publicity, even re-doing a speech on live television because she wanted to sound more distraught.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • Jimbo kills a deer by blowing it up with a bazooka. He also tries this with Cartman by shooting him with a pair of twin shoulder rockets, but Cartman dives out of the way.
  • Kenny kills fish with grenades, and later Ned uses a rocket to kill every fish in the pond.
• They Killed Kenny Again:
  • When the titular volcano blows its top, a fireball lands in front of Kenny. As he tries to warn his friends that he's fine, his arm catches on fire and then the fireball rolls unto him and crushes him to death.
  • After being revived and reuniting with the group, Kenny then dies again when Ned drops his gun, which fires one last shot as it hits the snow, hitting Kenny in the chest. When he's sent flying, rats follow his corpse to feed off of him.
• Toilet Humor: Kyle farts in response to Stan being worried about Jimbo and Kenny's relationship.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After refusing to shoot a bunny and Scuzzlebutt (in reality a disguised Cartman), Stan finally gives in to peer pressure and kills Scuzzlebutt, at the worst possible time. What's worse, he finds the experience surprisingly easy to accomplish.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • It really wasn't a good idea for Cartman to disguise himself as a dangerous forest creature to try and scare his friends, while they were on a hunting trip. Had it not been for Stan "being a pansy" and refusing to shoot him, Cartman would've ended like Kenny.
  • As mentioned above, three men take Officer Barbrady's obviously ridiculous PSA-styled "Duck and Cover" lava safety video seriously and do just that when lava floods towards them...they get cooked, obviously.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Jimbo (and Cartman and Kyle to a degree) tries to force Stan to shoot animals when he clearly doesn't want to. He also motivates him and the other boys to drink alcohol, and in general tries to be a masculine role model for him. It doesn't seem to be in effect at first, but in the end, it goes horribly right.
  Jimbo: What the hell are you talking about, 'you don't wanna shoot the bunny?' You're babbling, you're not making any sense, you're hysterical.
  Stan: I'm not hysterical, I just don't want to shoot the bunny.
  Jimbo: No nephew of mine is gonna be a tree-hugger.
  Cartman: Yeah hippie, go back to Woodstock if you can't shoot anything.
• Tough Love: What Jimbo believes he's doing to Stan. In reality, his influence messes up the boy in ways he couldn't have imagined.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
  • Even without his trademark foul speech and perverted comments, Kenny casually chugs a gasoline can, kills four fish with a grenade, and shoots a ram several times. This is precisely what makes him so popular in Jimbo's eyes.
  • In a successful attempt to outclass Kenny, Stan shoots Scuzzlebutt in the head after he had saved him and his friends, and later casually says that it was easier than he thought it would be, much to Jimbo's horror.
• Two Decades Behind: Spoofed when a volcano covers much of the town with lava and the city screens a 1950s "duck-and-cover" safety short that is so hilariously useless it actually gets more townspeople killed.
  Chef: That's got to be the most ridiculous load of pig crap I've ever seen!
  Officer Barbrady: That's enough out of you!
• Uncanny Atmosphere: When Jimbo, Ned, and the kids go out and search for Cartman...
  Ned: There's not many animals out today, Jimbo.
  Jimbo: Yeah, it's almost like something funny's going on.
  (The mountain quakes.)
  Jimbo: Christ, Ned. What'd you have for breakfast?
  Ned: I don't know, man, I've got some bad gas.
• Unexplained Recovery: After being Squashed Flat by a fireball, Kenny shows up at the end of the episode being no worse for wear, only to get accidentally shot by Ned.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Scuzzlebut saves Stan's life alongside the other boys. This doesn't stop Stan from shooting him in a heartbeat without any remorse in a misguided attempt to make Jimbo proud. Kyle and Cartman also don't mourn him after the fact.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Jimbo (and to a lesser extent Ned, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny) tries to man Stan up by forcing him into hunting. This ends up with Stan shooting Scuzzlebutt, the only creature Jimbo didn't want him to shoot, much to his horror.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Stan idolizes his uncle Jimbo and quickly gets jealous once Jimbo starts giving Kenny more attention. His search for approval leads him to killing Scuzzlebut at the end, much to Jimbo's horror.
  Stan: But I just wanted you to be proud of me! Like you were with Kenny!
  Jimbo: But Kenny's dead now, Stan, and you're always going to be my nephew.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Stan gets this after killing Scuzzlebutt since he had saved them. Only Kyle backs him up since Jimbo had previously told Stan to shoot it on sight (when he thought it was hostile).
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: In Jimbo's eyes, Scuzzlebutt threads the line between human and animal because he saved their lives, but Stan doesn't see it that way and shoots him thinking it's what Jimbo wanted.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Stan spends most of the episode being belittled for his inability to shoot creatures, and he ends the episode being belittled for shooting a creature.
• Yes-Man: Both of the Mayor's aides, though Johnson gets fired for correcting the Mayor on the proper meaning of "geologist"