Recap / South Park S 1 E 7 Pinkeye

Original air date: 10/29/1997

In the first Halloween episode, Kenny gets crushed by the MIR space station and comes back to life as a zombie (thanks to a morgue accident involving Worcestershire sauce and embalming fluid), causing a Zombie Apocalypse, which the town thinks is a pinkeye epidemic. Meanwhile, Cartman gets in trouble for wearing an Adolf Hitler costume to school and Stan breaks up with Wendy after she goes to school dressed as Chewbacca rather than Raggedy Ann.

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"Pinkeye" contains examples of:

• Adolf Hitlarious: Cartman dresses up as Hitler for Halloween. All the others call him out for it. Principal Victoria forces him to watch a documentary about Hitler to school him, but it's an incredibly shallow one that just tells the viewer that Hitler was "a very, very naughty man", without elaboration. The only thing it shows him do is deliver a speech in fake German with a comically high-pitched voice. As a result, Cartman ends up liking Hitler even more and imagines himself in his place.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite initially being angry at him for eating people who were going to give them candy, the boys all give Kenny a funeral after putting his zombie down. Cartman even cries at his grave.
• All Men Are Perverts: As a zombie, Chef would rather read Crack Whore Magazine than try to eat anyone.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Happens to Kenny, Clyde, Wendy, Pip, and Chef, and the morticians, alongside other townspeople. Chef is the most shocking example as he's shown turning within seconds with no implications of having been bitten beforehand.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • When he goes to the doctor for help, Chef tries to prove the zombies got no feeling by ripping the arm off the featured patient. It turns out the guy was just there for a routine check-up, and he bleeds to death.
  • Kenny loses both of his arms; the right one falls off during school, and the left one follows suit during trick-or-treating.
• Asshole Victim: Cartman sees zombie Wendy as this for getting Stan humiliated at the costume contest (and for donating her entire supply of candy to hungry children in Nairobi).
  Cartman: Finish her dude, she's a zombie now!
  Stan: I know, but uh-... but...
  Cartman: Come on Stan! Remember how she dissed you at the costume contest?
  Stan: Hey, yeah!
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The astronauts on MIR speak Russian-sounding gibberish which consists of Russian last names. Later on, when Cartman watches a video on Hitler, the German gibberish consists of made-up and reversed phrases, including "You don't know shit," and "You have lovely breasts," ending with "Goddammit!"
• Batter Up!: Stan kills his first zombie with a nearby baseball bat. He soon switches to one of Chef's chainsaws after the latter is infected.
• Bedsheet Ghost: Principal Victoria covers up Cartman's Hitler costume with one, although she only succeeds in making him look like a Klansman by doing so.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Stan tells Wendy to her face that he wished she was dead, and a few moments later, she's attacked and bitten by zombies. The next time he sees her in that state, Stan swallows his words, and admits to her that he didn't mean it.
• Big Bad: Zombie Kenny is the patient zero for the zombie outbreak, and the one who constantly stops the boys from getting candy by eating people. When Kyle kills him, they all turn back to normal.
• Big Damn Heroes: Kyle saves South Park by killing Zombie Kenny, who was the Patient Zero of the zombie outbreak, therefore curing everyone else of the curse.
• Bowdlerization: In-Universe. The educational video about Hitler that Victoria shows Cartman is incredibly superficial and barely touches on the man's actions (if at all), omitting its more disturbing content likely for the purposes of being child-appropriate. The result is Cartman only seeing the "cool" part of Hitler (a charismatic man who gets entire nations to do whatever he wants while everyone around him follows him around and repeats what he says), which doesn't change his mind on the man in the slightest.
  'Puffy the Bear: So remember kids, dressing like Hitler in school isn't cool!
• Brick Joke: Kyle and later Stan claim that Mrs. Cartman was on the cover of Crack Whore Magazine, much to Cartman's irritation. At the morgue, Kyle finds a copy of that issue and stuns Cartman.
• The Bully: Bill and Fosse are the kids who make fun of Stan's costume the most, and later point and laugh at him alongside the other kids.
• Bullying a Dragon: Subverted. The boys constantly bully Zombie Kenny, who could easily eat them in turn, but they're never attacked throughout the episode, not even when Cartman steals his pudding and eats it in front of him.
• Butt-Monkey: This was not the boys' best Halloween, and not just because of the zombies.
  • Stan is convinced by Wendy to go to school dressed up like Raggedy Andy (while she went as Raggedy Ann), only for her to bail on the idea without telling him and show up as Chewbacca instead. This not only caused him to end up last at the costume contest, but it gets him made fun of by absolutely everybody including Mr. Garrison. He doesn't even get Wendy's Smooch of Victory at the end, although that's mostly his own fault.
  • Kyle spends countless time and money prepping up his Halloween costumes, only for something to screw him out of the candy barrel. He tries to come in as Chewbacca; everyone else chose to come in as him as well. He comes in as the entire solar system; he's bizarrely ignored in favor of Wendy (who was also coming in as Chewbacca). He finally settles for a vampire costume, but by then Kenny kept eating all the people with candy so he never gets any recognition for it.
  • Cartman is constantly made fun of for his mother's prostitution, and everything he says to defend her ends up being squandered minutes later by proof that she's simply a slut. He's also made to change his hard-earned costume for reasons he didn't understand, though that's hardly unfair to him considering what the costume was.
  • Kenny is killed three times in this episode, and his reanimated corpse is constantly losing body parts. He also gets mocked for his family's poverty, although it's implied he couldn't hear that due to his zombified state.
• Cannot Kill Their Loved Ones: When Wendy shows up as a Zombie, Stan eventually decides he can't bring himself to kill her, despite having wished she was dead before. This ends up being the right decision as Kyle cures her seconds later.
• Chainsaw Good: Chef wields dual chainsaws to defend himself and the boys from zombies. After he turns, Stan and Cartman use one each to fend off the zombies at the morgue, and then Kyle uses one to slice Kenny in half to end the zombie curse.
• Characterization Marches On: As with a lot of other Season 1 episodes, Mayor McDaniels is shown to be corrupt and incompetent, being completely unaware that there's a zombie apocalypse taking place, and instead busying herself having sex with Officer Barbrady for reasons that somehow have to do with the Yakuza and a ton of money. This was before she was established as an Only Sane Woman who usually (and futilely) tries to do what's best for the town.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • When Chef and then Principal Victoria angrily confront Cartman in the school cafeteria about his being dressed up like Hitler, he mistakenly assumes they're complaining about his eating Kenny's pudding.
    Chef: What in the hell are you doing dressed up like that?
    Cartman: Eating Kenny's pudding.
    
    Principal Victoria: ...Gah! Eric, God bless it, what do you think you're doing?
    Cartman: Hey! He said I could have his pudding! Ask him yourself. [mimicking Kenny] That's right, Principal Victoria. It's okay with me 'cause Eric is kewl.
  • Upon seeing Cartman in his KKK-like ghost costume, Chef screams and flees.
    Cartman: Whoa, Chef's really scared of ghosts, huh?
  • In the end, Stan says he learned that Halloween is about being good to each other, giving, and loving instead of costumes and candy. Kyle says that's Christmas and that Halloween is about costumes and candy.
• Devoured by the Horde: Several townspeople are ambushed and Eaten Alive by the zombies, such as two joggers and a doctor.
• The Dog Bites Back: A minor example. After Stan and the other boys had bullied him relentlessly, Pip is among the group of kids who point and laugh at Stan for his Raggedy Andy costume.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: In-universe. The Hitler PSA never goes into detail on any of the monstrosities he committed and only succeeds in Cartman liking him more.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Cartman ends up explaining his "Kenny is poor" jokes to Kenny after being unresponsive to both of them. Then again, Kenny was zombified by the time Cartman uttered those jokes.
• Downer Ending: Most of the zombified Townsfolk are killed by Stan and Cartman before Kyle cures them, with only Wendy, Chef, Pip, and Clyde being confirmed cured. Stan managed to make up with Wendy but failed to kiss her, causing her to get mad and storm off. Kyle never got to win the costume contest, and it's heavily implied that the boys ended up quite short on candy at the end. The only solace is that a reincarnated zombie Kenny is killed again, preventing the apocalypse from being started a second time.
• Dragged into Drag: While Raggedy Andy isn't in drag per se, this is the case with Stan when Wendy talks him into going to school dressed up as him, and everyone basically treats him as if he were a girl as a result.
  Fosse: Heheh. Heheh. Hey Stan, you look almost pretty enough to kiss.
  Bill: Yeah, you want to be my girlfriend? Huhuh.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Cartman is seen without his hat for the first time, and appears to have black hair. Future episodes show light brown hair, presumably meaning he either wore a wig or dyed his hair as part of his Hitler outfit.
  • Bebe is shown wearing her pink jacket that she previously wore in "Weight Gain 4000" despite being shown with her usual red jacket in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", and "Death". It might've had something to do with it being Halloween.
  • The South Park Morgue, introduced in this episode, isn't seen again for the rest of the series, though it may have been destroyed in the zombie attack (or any of the subsequent town invasions) and they didn't bother rebuilding it.
• The End... Or Is It?: Parodied by having Kenny suddenly emerge from his grave laughing, only for a statue to fall on him. Then an airplane crashes on top of him.
• Establishing Character Moment: Cartman's antisemitism is first hinted at when he dresses as Hitler, to Kyle's disgust. Here, it's a little more ambiguous as to whether he's just oblivious as to the implications of his outfit, but future episodes make it far more explicit.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • As happy as he was killing zombies of adults, Stan can't bring himself to kill zombie Wendy, and it's implied at the funeral that he was somewhat upset with Kyle for killing zombie Kenny despite it saving everyone. Furthermore, though Cartman kept goading him into killing her, he never actually does it himself, implying he too was uncomfortable with killing his classmate.
  • Kyle is mildly taken aback at Stan's idea of packing a taser to shock people who give the boys granola treats.
• Faux Horrific: As far as Cartman is concerned, Wendy is insane for donating her barrel full of candy to hungry children in Nairobi.
• Felony Misdemeanor:
  • Wendy is fine with kissing Stan after he had killed many zombies and was surrounded by their mutilated corpses, but she draws the line at him puking. Granted, he had puked on her.
    Wendy: Gross, Stan. Sick. Barf is gross.
  • Similarly, Stan doesn't blink at all the blood that spouts from the people he killed, but a little PDA is too much for him to handle.
• Foreshadowing:
  • While it can be interpreted as Early-Installment Weirdness, Cartman's Imagine Spot of being Adolf Hitler could be viewed as this seven seasons later, when he rallies unsuspecting people into forming a "fan club" for The Passion of the Christ.
  • Garrison dressing up in drag for Halloween also foreshadows his sex change operation in Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina.
• Gag Echo: Kyle and Stan telling Cartman that his mother was on the cover of Crack Whore magazine. Cartman is shocked when his friends actually weren't trying to insult him.
  Kyle: See, Cartman? Your mom is on the cover.
  Stan: We told you, dude.
• Good Counterpart: Wendy is this to Cartman in 'Weight Gain 4000'', as they both unfairly win a school contest (Cartman cheated on his school paper, while Wendy came dressed as Chewbacca like everybody else and bizarrely still won). However, Cartman spent most of his episode bragging about his unearned victory and rubbing his prize (being on TV) in his friends' face, while Wendy not only didn't make a big deal out of her victory, but donated her candy barrel prize to hungry children in Nairobi.
• Group Costume Fail: Stan dresses up as Raggedy Andy for Halloween as part of a couple's costume with Wendy as Raggedy Ann. However, Wendy shows up at school dressed as Chewbacca instead because she decided their initial idea was stupid. She didn't tell Stan because she assumed he'd come to the same conclusion himself. The result is Stan becoming a laughingstock.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Zombie Kenny is cut in half vertically with a chainsaw by Kyle.
• Halloween Episode: The first in the franchise.
• Here We Go Again!: Subverted at the end, when Kenny returns only to immediately get killed again before he can bite anyone.
• High-Pressure Blood: Happens a lot in this episode, especially with Mr. Torres, the man Chef rips an arm off of.
• Hypocrite: Minor example. A previous episode had Wendy unfairly losing an essay contest to Cartman (when he had just copied another author's work), much to her chagrin. She then spent most of that episode trying to expose Cartman as a cheater, but is ignored by the townsfolk. Here, she's the one who unfairly wins a contest with a costume that looked like everybody else's, indirectly screwing someone (Stan) out of a potential victory, and leaving another someone who rightfully deserved to win (Kyle) frustrated over the results. However, this time she doesn't speak up or try to reach out to Kyle and Stan, instead telling the latter to "relax", and only apologizing later that night when he showed that he was still mad about it.
• Informed Flaw: Unless it was a joke about him being starving because he's poor, Kenny apparently has a tendency to bite people with food, if the boys' reaction to him biting Clyde is any indication.
  Kyle: Oh, good. Kenny's back to normal.
• Intercourse with You: zombie Chef's song, Make Love, Even When I'm Dead, including lyrics such as "My body might get cold, but it's always hot in my bed".
• It Can Think: Some of the zombies seem to at least somewhat retain their previous consciousness. For example, Kenny never attacks Stan, Kyle or Cartman, and continues to hang around with them when he's not biting anyone else that comes into contact with him. Also, Chef sings a parody of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" after he turns and later reads a porn magazine, instead of joining the other zombies in their rampage. Wendy's zombie also never attacks Stan despite having a wide window of time to do so, instead moving towards him at a snail pace while he apologizes to her for telling her that he wished she was dead.
• It's All About Me: Throughout the episode, the boys are only concerned with not getting candy for Halloween, and that is their main grievance with the zombie outbreak and Kenny's situation: He keeps eating people with candy.
• I Was Young and Needed the Money: What Liane said to Cartman about being on the cover of Crack Whore Magazine. Stan and Kyle quickly point out that it was this month's issue.
• I Wished You Were Dead: Stan says these words to Wendy following her inadvertently humiliating him at school. A few seconds later, she is zombified.
• Ignored Expert: Kyle's incredible Solar System costume is completely ignored in favor of Wendy's chewbacca costume and Kenny in his zombie state.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Prior to the episode, Wendy told Stan to dress up like Raggedy Andy so she would dress up like Raggedy Ann. However, she chooses to dress up like Chewbacca instead, and gets Stan humiliated at school, but doesn't apologize for it. Later that night, she does feel regretful and tries to apologize to Stan, but he angrily dismisses her.
  • Cartman, funnily enough. He has no idea why Chef finds his ghost costume so offensive, unaware that it makes him look more like a Klansman.
• Jerkass:
  • Even if dressing up as Hitler and a Klansman stem from ignorance rather than malice, Cartman still goes out of his way to mock his friends' Halloween costumes, provokes Kenny constantly for his sorry state (not knowing he was a zombie), eats the latter's pudding, and later tries to goad Stan into killing zombie Wendy just because he was mad that she donated all her candy to hungry children.
  • Mr. Garrison is clearly biased during the costume contest and gets the other kids to point and laugh at Stan for his "stupid clown thing costume".
  • The Mayor and Barbrady would rather have sex in her office than deal with the zombie problem, and even mock Chef for giving a damn about it.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Kyle is somewhat of a Sore Loser, but he's right that Wendy won unfairly, since she looked just like everybody else. His Solar System costume really was the most impressive of the bunch.
    Kyle: Up yours, Tina Yothers!
  • Though Stan is needlessly harsh on Wendy at the bus stop, he's right to call her out for not telling him about her changing her mind on going to the contest dressed up like Raggedy Ann and Andy, getting him humiliated at school.
    Wendy: Stan, I'm awful sorry you got dressed up like Raggedy Andy. Please don't be mad.
    Cartman: How can he be mad with such pretty hair and rosy cheeks?
    Stan: Trick-or-treat with yourself, Wendy!
• Kick the Dog:
  • Cartman's "your family is poor" jokes towards Kenny's zombie. Unlike in later episodes, Stan and Kyle join in in mocking him.
  • Wendy not telling Stan that she changed her mind about going in as a couple for Halloween, and then not apologizing to him after he gets bullied at school because of her. Stan then returns it by telling Wendy that he wished she were dead. Both apologize to each other afterwards.
  • Cartman encouraging Stan to kill zombie Wendy.
• Kids Are Cruel:
  • Most kids in class laugh at Stan for his Raggedy Ann costume. Mr. Garrison even incites them to do so!
  • The boys aren't any better, constantly making fun of each other for their costumes (especially with Kenny, who doesn't retaliate because he's a zombie), and are mostly unfazed by the zombie outbreak, only being worried about getting their candy.
• Mathematician's Answer: Chef and Cartman exchange two of these in response to the latter's Halloween costumes.
  Chef: (sees Cartman dressed as Hitler) What in the Hell are you doing dressed like that?!
  Cartman: Eating Kenny's pudding.
  
  Chef: (sees Cartman dressed as a Klansman) Damn it, boy! What in the Hell are you doing dressed up like that?!
  Cartman: I'm trying to trick-or-treat, Goddammit!
• Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody: Once Chef becomes a zombie he dances along with the other zombies and is dressed in Jackson's outfit. Instead of the actual song, there's a Suspiciously Similar Substitute with (this being Chef) lyrics about making love.
• Mirror Character: Kyle's story is this to Wendy's in Weight Gain 4000, as they both lose a contest to a rival who didn't deserve it despite all the effort that they had put to win (Wendy loses to Cartman who plagiarized his essay, while Kyle loses to Wendy who was dressed like everybody else), much to their chagrin. However, Kyle throws a hissy fit and leaves the issue be, while Wendy spends most of the episode trying to expose Cartman's cheating.
• Morality Pet: Despite initially being all too eager to kill zombies, Stan is eventually unable to kill zombie Wendy, even after they've had a fight and he's wished she was dead.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Played for Laughs when Kyle kills Kenny, whereupon he says his and Stan's Character Catchphrase to himself.
  Kyle: Oh my God, I killed Kenny! [shuts his eyes] You bastard!
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: All Stan and Cartman accomplished by killing zombies left and right was to ensure that the people would remain dead after being cured.
• Nightmare Fetishist: It's downplayed, but Wendy gets in the mood for kissing with Stan in the middle of a corpse-infested morgue.
• No Ontological Inertia: Played gruesomely straight. Killing the zombified Kenny magically turns all of the other undead denizens of South Park back to normal. Unfortunately, since Stan and Cartman sliced them all up, all the zombies apart from Wendy, Chef, and Pip remain permanently dead.
• No Sympathy: Cartman has no problem with killing zombie Wendy, and encourages Stan to finish her off for getting him humiliated.
• No Swastikas: Since the phrase "Sieg Heil" is illegal in Germany, Cartman instead says "Wie geil!" (How cool!) in the German dub (which does sound close to the phrase they were censoring). However, Cartman's outfit was not censored, and neither was the educational video about Hitler and Cartman imagining himself as Hitler.
• Noodle Incident:
  • After seeing the chaos on TV, Chef says he's seen zombies before, and seems to come across as more experienced at dealing with them than most.
  • Barbrady and the mayor apparently got a pile of money and lost their pants due to some activity related to the Japanese Mafia. Whatever it was, it's never elaborated on.
• No Time to Think: While Kyle uses the payphone to contact the Worcestershire Sauce Emergency Hotline, Stan and Cartman use chainsaws to kill off the zombies attacking them all. Apparently, they shouldn't be doing that:
  Worcestershire Sauce Emergency Hotline Operator: For regular sauce, the first thing you need to do is make sure you do not just go out and start decapitating zombies left and right! DO NOT go out and start decapitating zombies left and right!
  Kyle: Uh, okay. Then what?
• Oh, Crap!: Chef when he realizes he has accidentally killed a man.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Chef is the only one in town to recognize they've got a zombie problem. To a lesser extent, Jimbo and Ned could also count since they're shown actively fighting the zombies during a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
  • Chef and Principal Victoria are the only ones who try to do something about Cartman's Hitler costume, although Victoria invertedly makes it worse.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As a zombie, Kenny doesn't react at all to any of Cartman's insults, which the other boys find unusual. Kenny biting Clyde, however, is considered him being back to normal.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Because the school doesn't accept Cartman wearing a Hitler costume, he is forced to change his outfit. The principal makes him a ghost costume, which unfortunately doesn't make him look less offensive, because now he looks like a member of the KKK.
• Patient Zero: Kenny McCormick becomes a zombie due to an accident at the morgue and spreads the infection throughout South Park.
• Pet the Dog:
  • As a zombie, Kenny never made any attempts to eat Stan, Kyle or Cartman, and followed them around, as usual. It seems that even as a zombie, Kenny could still recognize who his best friends were. He does not extend said kindness to Clyde or most adults, however.
  • Wendy may have gotten Stan to come to school dressed up like Raggedy Andy (and is unapologetic about it until later), but she has the decency not to point and laugh at him like the other kids when Garrison tells them to.
  • As badly as they treat him throughout the episode, the boys still give Kenny a funeral and heartfelt eulogy, even if they later shrug it off and go eat candy.
  • The Klansmen give Cartman one tootie bar (presumably for being dressed like them). Cartman doesn't appreciate it, though.
    Cartman: One Tootie Bar? You cheap bastards!
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Zombie Pip is as small as he usually is, but he still destroys a Morgue window with one tap.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: As expected, Mr. Garrison doesn't blink at Cartman's Hitler costume. Ms. Cartman could also count for dressing him up like that in the first place.
• Poor Communication Kills: After mistaking him for a zombie, Chef rips an arm off of a nearby patient to show the doctor that the zombies how devoid of humanity the zombies are. When the misunderstanding is cleared, Chef meekly gives the man his arm back.
• The Quiet One: Exaggerated after Kenny is zombified, as he hardly talks at all except when attacking someone, which annoys Cartman to no end.
• Really Gets Around: Mrs. Cartman's promiscuity was further established in this episode and it's also mentioned that she's on the cover of Crack Whore Magazine.
• Rule of Three: Kenny is killed three times in this episode: Once by the MIR space station, once by Kyle, and once by a falling statue and a plane.
• Sadist Teacher: After declaring Stan the loser of the costume contest, Mr. Garrison outright tells the other kids to point and laugh at him, and he does so as well.
• Say My Name: After Chef is turned into a zombie, Kyle shouts his name.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Chef leaps out the window of the doctor's office when the zombies start storming the place.
  • Wendy storms off in a huff after Stan pukes on her, killing the mood.
• Shout-Out: Zombie Chef's song and the dance routine is a parody of Thriller by Michael Jackson.
  • Zombie Chef opening his jacket and going "OOOOOOOOH!" is from the music video of Michael Jackson's song "Black and White".
• Skewed Priorities:
  • The mortician and his assistant Marty are bitten by Patient Zero Kenny. Instead of reporting the zombie to the authorities, they instead go straight to the doctor, allowing Kenny to roam free and infect more people.
  • The kids (and Mr. Garrison) all make fun of Stan for his Raggedy Andy costume, but none of them say anything about the armless Zombie Kenny or Hitler/Klansman Cartman.
  • When the boys, save Kenny (who is a zombie) are told by Chef about the zombie attack on the town, they immediately come to the conclusion that if everyone's a zombie, there'll be no way for them to get candy from trick-or-treating.
• Smooch of Victory: Subverted. Wendy tries to give one of these to Stan after they make up, but he pukes on her like usual, killing the mood and grossing her out.
• Snark Ball: Dismissing claims of zombies, Officer Barbrady zings Chef's costume.
• Stylistic Suck: The video about Adolf Hitler being a naughty man.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: The Mayor and Officer Barbrady assure Chef that them being in her office with no pants on and a pile of money has absolutely nothing to do with the Japanese Mafia.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Stan tries to do this to Wendy's zombie by apologizing for their fight. It seems to work briefly, but it doesn't seem to matter in the long run because Kyle cures her by killing Kenny.
• Take That!:
  • A few jabs at Tina Yothers here and there. For what it's worth, she told Matt Stone that she thought it was funny.
    Chef: We've got to do somethin' about the livin' dead.
    Mayor: You mean Tina Yothers? [she and Barbrady laugh]
  • When Cartman's mom sings about decorating her house, she hangs a picture of Richard Nixon on the front door during the line "creepy, crawly things".
  • Kenny's zombified state is mistaken as an Edward James Olmos costume by Garrison, and wins the 2nd price as the spookiest costume.
• Teacher's Pet: Heavily implied to be the reason Wendy won the costume fair contest, since she was dressed as Chewbacca like everybody else.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Kenny is crushed by the MIR space station and due to the morgue accident involving Worcestershire sauce, is revived as a zombie. Kyle later kills him to end the zombie attack since he was the start of it. And then after being buried, he rises from the dead only to be crushed by a statue and a plane.
• They Look Just Like Everybody Else: Kyle angrily says this trope verbatim when Wendy wins the costume contest despite her costume being the same as everybody else's.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Stan has a moment of this when he declares that Halloween was about being with your loved ones all along, based on the experience he had with Wendy in this episode. Kyle has to remind him that that's what Christmas is about, not Halloween.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
  • Cartman arriving at school dressed up as Hitler and trying to quote him. However, since the costume had been made by his mother (and he doesn't seem to know much about what the man did), it's a lot more mitigated than most examples concerning him.
  • Nobody sees any issue with Kenny biting people. Since they don't know he's a zombie, apparently biting people for no reason is par the course for him.
  • When preparing for Trick or Treats, Stan packs a taser to shock people who give them granola treats. Cartman agrees with the idea.
  • Stan and Cartman are a little too eager to go around maiming zombies when defending Kyle.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • Mr. Torres, The man whose arm Chef rips off, passes out soon after the fact, though it's unclear if he died of shock or blood loss. Even if he didn't, he was probably Devoured by the Horde when the zombies storm in the office.
  • The mortician and his assistant are never shown going back to life after kenny is killed, making it unclear if they were killed by the boys or anyone else before the curse was broken.
• Undeath Is Cheap: After Kyle kills Kenny with a chainsaw, Wendy and all the other zombified victims become living again and the dismembered zombified corpses return to being lifeless. Hilariously, any tears in their clothes all magically mend as well, as shown with Wendy.
• Understatement: The educational video said Hitler was a "very, very naughty man".
• Undying Loyalty: Even as a zombie, Kenny never makes an attempt to eat his friends, regardless of how much they make fun of him.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The entire town of South Park sans for Chef (and Jimbo and Ned, as shown in a Freeze-Frame Bonus) is happy to continue their daily lives despite having zombies roaming around. At one point, Chef says that he's seen that happen before.
  • Chef rips off the arm of a man (who then promptly passes out from shock) in front of the doctor when he mistakes him for a zombie. After patiently clearing up the misunderstanding, the doctor doesn't bother to aid the man.
  • Nobody at school bats an eye to zombie Kenny biting Clyde, or zombie Clyde biting and almost drowning Bebe. Zombie Kenny losing his two arms also goes without notice. Unfortunately for Stan, his Raggedy Andy costume doesn't get the same treatment.
    Mr. Garrison: [when zombie Clyde tackles Bebe] Wait your turn Clyde.
  • While trick-or-treating, the boys happen to pass by the zombies running amok throughout the neighborhood. They don't even acknowledge it.
  • While searching for clues at the Morgue, Stan finds a dead body in one of the lockers, but doesn't even comment on it. Technically, Chef told him to look for something "suspicious", and a Morgue is a place to find a dead body.
  • When Wendy is turned back to normal, she doesn't blink at the pile of bodies around her, and neither does Chef when he arrives to congratulate the boys.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Although they were clearly cured since they appear on future episodes, Pip and Clyde aren't seen again after their introductory scenes as zombies. Bebe isn't seen either after being drowned.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • One of the Russian astronauts kickstarts the entire ordeal by pranking his friend who was manning the space station's systems, causing it to crash and kill Kenny.
  • The mortician's assistant Marty accidentally revives Kenny by dropping his Worcestershire sauce into his embalming fluid.
  • Minor example, but Victoria's educational video on Nazis only makes Cartman even more keen on Hitler, which doesn't impact this episode much but it surely impacts his character in later seasons.
• Villain Song: Make Love, Even When I'm Dead, sung by Chef after turning into a zombie.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Stan, Kyle, and Cartman mock each other's (and Kenny's) respective misfortunes (Stan getting humiliated, Kyle's costumes getting ignored, Cartman's mom being a whore, and Kenny being too poor to afford a costume), but still work together to solve the zombie problem once they're rallied by Chef.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: Cartman is upset when Zombie Kenny doesn't respond to his insults, and both him and the other boys are happy to see him bite Clyde's arm off because it means he's back to normal.
  Cartman: Eh, too bad drinking scotch isn't a paying job, or else Kenny's dad would be a millionaire. [Kenny doesn't respond] I said your dad would be a millionaire, get it?! Kenny?! Your family is poor Kenny!! Your family's poor!!! [to the boys] I don't like Kenny anymore, he, he just doesn't communicate.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Stan gives Wendy an earful after she doesn't go as Raggedy Ann when they were going to go as Raggedy Andy and Ann together but she decided to go for the Chewbacca costume. They make up after the zombie attack is over.
• Wholesome Crossdresser:
  • Downplayed with Mr. Garrison, who unashamedly dresses up in drag for Halloween but is as apathetic about it as he generally is with his class.
  • Subverted with Stan, who is Dragged into Drag by Wendy, though possibly downplayed in that he doesn't take the costume off even after he finds out Wendy bailed on the idea and everyone makes fun of him for it.
• Would Hurt a Child: Invoked when Chef says, "Remind me to whup your ass good next time I see you," to Cartman. Justified since Cartman was (unknowingly) dressed as a Klansman.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Decomposing bodies? Hungry for human flesh? Slow movements and speech? Yep, definitely pink eye.
• Zombie Apocalypse: After Kenny is killed by a falling space station and is accidentally infused with Worcestershire sauce at the morgue, he is revived as a zombie and bites the mortician and his assistant before being unleashed into the town. By the next day, most of South Park is infected as well.

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