Recap / South Park S5E4 "Scott Tenorman Must Die"

"You really care that much about sixteen measly dollars?"

— Scott Tenorman

Original air date: 7/11/2001

Cartman exacts revenge on an older boy who sold him his pubes and constantly tries to trick him out of his allowance. Said revenge is anything but pretty.

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"Scott Tenorman Must Die" contains examples of:

• Acquired Situational Narcissism: In something of a Call-Back to "Are You There God, It's Me, Jesus", the episode starts with Cartman gloating about his "pubes" and acting condescending and smug about becoming a man before the other boys. In this case however, his bubble is very quickly burst.
• Adam Westing: The members of Radiohead appear playing a fictionalized version of themselves that insult and ditch Scott when they see him crying.
• Adults Are Useless: There are multiple adults gathered around the table while Cartman is sadistically breaking down the news of Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman's deaths, yet not one of them takes any action against the kid.
• An Aesop: Playing mean pranks on people may come back to bite you at some point, so don't put out what you can't take back.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Happens when the rest of the boys explain to Cartman that he's supposed to grow his own pubic hair to hit puberty, not buy it:
  Cartman: But then why would Scott Tenorman sell me his pubes for ten dollars?
  Kyle: Because, retard, you're dumb enough to buy Scott Tenorman's pubes for ten dollars!
• Asshole Victim: While Scott's parents didn't deserve what happened to them, it's hard to feel too bad for Scott himself considering how many chances he had to back down from his petty tormenting of Cartman. Had he not tried to humiliate him a sixth time in the Chili Con Carnival, his parents would still be alive.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Scott is this to Cartman from Kyle's perspective, as he sides with him over the latter during their feud. At the end of the episode, he's proven right when Cartman crosses a line that Scott would've never dared to cross.
• The Bad Guy Wins: If you consider Cartman to be an outright villain in this episode rather than just an awful kid with some major Skewed Priorities.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The episode starts off with Cartman mistakenly believing he has pubes, seemingly setting up another "Cartman thinks he has become a man and acts narcissistic" plot line. The boys very quickly debunk this however, and the episode takes a very different turn...
  • When Cartman revealed that he knew about Scott's plan to make him eat his pube-laced chili, it seems to set up that Cartman swapped bowls so that Scott would eat it instead.
• Batman Gambit: A truly evil one from Cartman, almost bordering on a Xanatos Gambit.
• Berserker Tears:
  • Cartman has these after Scott burns his money in front of him.
  • Scott in turn bawls loudly after finding out what Cartman has done to his parents, complete with a couple Big Nos. It's enough to get him deemed a little crybaby by Radiohead.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Cartman's initial plans to get back at Scott were training a pony to bite his penis off and something to do with Radiohead (Scott's favorite band). After his first two plans failed, he told Stan and Kyle he plans on having the pony bite Scott's penis off in front of Radiohead and embarrassing him. The final plan however, was just a ruse to get Stan and Kyle to warn Scott and kick off the "turn Scott's parents into chili" plan.
• Bullying a Dragon: In hindsight, Scott would have been better off if he had just given Cartman back his money, which he didn't even need in the first place.
• Characterisation Click Moment: In the first four seasons, Cartman was more of a whiny and naïve Spoiled Brat who hated almost everybody, but was not a threat. This episode marked a major turning point for the character, turning him into the cunning, manipulative psychopath he is today.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Mr. Denkins, the farmer.
• Chekhov's Lecture: Jimbo makes it a point to inform Cartman (thinking he was trespassing) that Mr. Denkins shoots trespassers on sight. This detail becomes important at the very end of the episode.
• The Chessmaster: In this episode, Cartman orchestrates several moments that eventually leads to him feeding Scott his own dead parents.
• Create Your Own Villain: Scott scamming Cartman out of his $16.12 horrifically backfires on him.
• Darker and Edgier: Trey Parker and Matt Stone state this to be a milestone episode, as the point where Cartman went from being a Spoiled Brat to "the most evil kid in the world".
• Did You Actually Believe...?: After making Cartman humiliate himself thoroughly for his money, Scott promptly decides to burn it in front of him while gloating that 16 dollars is a mere pittance to him.
• Die Laughing: How Kenny dies in this episode. His ghost emerges from his body still laughing.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Cartman does NOT take serial humiliation well at all.
• Downer Ending: Cartman manages to manipulate Scott into accidentally getting his own parents killed, has him devour their corpses, and cements himself as a sociopathic demon.
• Escalating War: Between Cartman and Scott. At first they're fighting over the $16.12, then they just want to publicly humiliate each other.
• Evil Genius: Cartman becomes this in his plan to seek revenge on Scott. His plan is one full to the brim with red herrings. First, his plan is to have Scott's weiner bitten off by a pony owned by Farmer Denkins. However, he suspects that Stan and Kyle will try to warn Scott. He also figured that Scott be too much of a coward, and would send someone else to get the pony. Then, he finally told Denkins about crazy pony killers in the area, and... We all know what's next.
• Evil Is Petty: Scott burning up Cartman's money (which amounted to just $16.12) in front of him just for the sake of it, which is worse when you remember that his parents give him a weekly allowance of $50. Granted, what Cartman does to him in return isn't any better...
• Evil Versus Evil: A spoiled Fat Bastard is in conflict with a spiteful teen. Though at the end of the day, Scott proves himself to be the lesser of two evils.
• Failed a Spot Check: Scott apparently doesn't notice that the pony is at the chili cookoff, meaning his parents obviously didn't get it from the ranch. Cartman even tells him the pony is there, but Scott doesn't pick up on it.
• Familial Cannibalism Surprise: Cartman cooks Scott's parents into a chili and serves it to him.
• Foreshadowing: Right before Cartman and Scott eat their chili, Cartman makes a point to try and get Scott to go towards the pony. The same pony Scott's parents said they were going to rescue the previous night...
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Jack Tenorman spots Jimbo and Ned spying on him and his wife, he threatens to call the cops, and a bunch of people get out of the bushes and run. Among these people are Randy Marsh, Gerald Broflovski, and Stuart McCormick.
• Friendly Enemy: Scott to Kyle. The latter knows that he's a bully and advises Cartman to stay away from him early in the episode, but he still sides with him over Cartman when the latter is planning to humiliate him. When he calls him up to warn him, they speak in a rather friendly tone, nothing compared to Scott's behavior towards Cartman.
• Gambit Roulette: Cartman's entire scheme is a rather convoluted affair that required his pawns to act in a specific way to occur.
  • Firstly, that Stan and Kyle would tell Scott about his plan to make a horse bite off Scott's penis, though they had done similar stuff to him in the past, and them laughing at his humiliation earlier in the episode might've tipped Cartman off that they weren't completely on his side. Cartman also correctly guesses that Stan and Kyle wouldn't warn Scott that Mr. Denkins shoots trespassers on sight. It's possible that Stan and Kyle didn't know that (since Jimbo, Stan's uncle, was the one who told Cartman this earlier in the episode, this probably isn't the case) but they likely assumed that Scott would simply avoid the pony rather than try to do something to it. Which brings us to...
  • That Scott would actually take that seriously and try to do something about the horse by sending his parents in after it, out of fear that he would get his penis bitten off. Granted, any person Scott might've sent (his friends or himself), would've likely gotten shot by the paranoid farmer as well, and Cartman would've been satisfied regardless, but the plan relies on Scott taking Cartman's ridiculous pony trap seriously in the first place, which would've been unlikely considering how low of an opinion Scott has of Cartman.
  • That they would actually go get the pony themselves instead of calling an animal shelter or confronting the owner and get killed by Mr. Denkins in the process. Possibly Justified since Adults Are Useless in South Park, and the fact that, since Cartman is a Spoiled Brat and knows Scott is one too, he would know from experience that Scott's parents would do exactly what his own mother would've done had he asked her.
  • Finally, that Scott would even bother coming to the obvious trap that the cook-off was in the first place. Cartman would know that Scott wouldn't refuse the possibility to humiliate him a sixth time, but he fails to account for the fact that the pony was still there, so Scott would know that his parents wouldn't have done it. It's possible Scott sent his parents as an afterthought, and wasn't all that afraid that the pony would bite his penis off (which it didn't), but Cartman still should've accounted for that if he were to think he had fully tricked Scott.
  • For added effect, he even correctly anticipates small and generally pointless things to happen, such as Scott trying to trick Cartman into eating chili laced with pubic hair, though it's possible he was spying on him like he did earlier with Jimbo and Ned, since Scott's friends weren't particularly discreet with their massive bag of pubes.
• Genius Ditz: Cartman is at his most stupid and gullible in this episode. He doesn't realize pubic hair is grown naturally, repeatedly loses money to Scott through very obvious cons, thinks he can buy a movie ticket with pubes, and doesn't see through the lie about the nonexistent Pube Fair until he's traveled over a hundred miles to attend it. And yet at the same time, Cartman is at his most ingenius because he forms and flawlessly executes a complicated plan of revenge to get back at Scott in a tremendously diabolical way.
• Hate Sink: While Cartman's revenge at the end is far worse than what Scott did, his Laughably Evil qualities and elaborate plan make him entertaining. Scott has none of that, and is written throughout the episode as a sadistic bully played completely straight, who enjoys humiliating a fourth-grader he doesn't even know, just because he can.
• Hollywood Law: Mr. Denkins claims "self-defence" for killing Scott's parents as he thought they were "violent pony killers". In real-life, killing a human being simply to protect livestock would not be considered self-defence. The most Mr. Denkins would be allowed to legally do would be to fire warning shots at the couple to scare them off.
• Humiliation Conga: The beginning half of the episode is one long one to Cartman. The very end is one for Scott.
• Hypocrite: The members of Radiohead make fun of Scott for crying, even though they themselves were in tears when reading the letter about Scott supposedly dying of ass cancer. Though they did cry in a more dignified way than Scott did.
• I Ate WHAT?!: Averted with Scott's expected reaction from Cartman after revealing that his chili was pube-laced, as Cartman anticipated it (and switched his chili bowl with Chef's). Played straight with Scott realizing that Cartman's chili contained the remains of his parents.
• I Lied: Scott makes Cartman beg for his money back, only to burn it in front of him, while boasting about what a huge allowance he gets from his parents.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Scott's breakdown. When Radiohead see him, they shame Scott for crying in such an undignified manner. Keep in mind they themselves were shown crying, but with Manly Tears.
• Jerkass Ball: Butters is shown to laugh at Cartman's humiliation, even though he normally wouldn't insult Cartman (unless he was pushed too far). Granted, this was before his full characterization struck in.
• Kansas City Shuffle: Cartman's master plan hinges on Scott thinking he knows what his plan is, and reacting accordingly.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Cartman faced no consequences for his deplorable act of violence, and the incident has only very rarely been acknowledged in future episodes.
  • Mr. Denkins also supposedly faces no repurcussions for recklessly killing Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman on sight. He rather meekly tries to explain it as self defence upon The Reveal however.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Stan and Kyle show no sympathy for Cartman getting ridiculed by Scott and even rat him out to Scott. The latter was actually part of Cartman's plan. From their perspective, he might count as an Asshole Victim.
  • Burning Cartman's money right in front of him. Of course, Cartman massively one ups Scott by having his parents gunned down, then blended into his chili and finally having his favorite band insult him when all's said and done.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Cartman caps off his revenge by having Scott's favorite band make fun of him while he's sobbing over his parents being turned into chili.
• Killed Off for Real: Despite the show's propensity for unexplained recoveries, Scott's parents will remain dead.
• Kneel Before Zod: Scott makes Cartman kneel in front of him and beg him for his money back by oinking like a pig.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Scott's treatment of Cartman bites him in the ass at the end of the episode with Cartman's Disproportionate Retribution.
• Least Is First: Subverted. Cartman delivers a rousing speech in an attempt to persuade his friends to help him get his revenge against Scott, but it initially looks like he only succeeded in enlisting the help of the wheelchair-bound, mentally retarded Timmy. As Cartman decides for the two of them to get to work, Timmy changes his mind and quickly leaves.
• Men Don't Cry: Radiohead mock Scott for being a "little crybaby" when he's informed of his parents' deaths. In their defense, they didn't know that.
• Misplaced Retribution: Sure, Scott may have been a cruel jerkass, but his parents didn't do anything wrong to anyone and didn't deserve to be killed and made into chili.
• Mocking the Mourner: Cartman is absolutely vicious with his mockery of Scott as he mourns his parents.
• Mugging the Monster: Of course, no one, not even Stan or Kyle, knew how low Cartman would sink to get revenge.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kyle decides to let Scott know in advance that Cartman is trying to teach a pony to bite his penis off, prompting Scott to inform his parents of a "starving pony" at Mr. Denkins' farm that needs rescuing. This is the biggest linchpin in Cartman's plan...
• No Sympathy:
  • Stan and Kyle find Scott's treatment of Cartman highly amusing, and even rat him out to Scott near the end. Turns out, Cartman was planning on that.
  • Radiohead, finding Scott bawling with no context, come to the conclusion that he is a little crybaby and the most uncool kid they've ever met.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Cartman at one point dresses in a suit and glues the pubes onto his face so that he can pose as an IRS agent and trick Scott into giving him his money back. Scott isn't fooled at all, since the disguise can't hide the fact that Cartman is a short, fat kid who's younger than him.
• The Peeping Tom: Jimbo and Ned accompany Cartman as he spies on Scott Tenorman. Cartman notices Scott Tenorman's mom undressing, which prompts Jimbo and later Ned to grab the binoculars so they can watch. Mr. Tenorman confronts them, and it turns out a bunch of men are spying on his wife.
• Pet the Dog: When Cartman reveals that he swapped Scott's chili with Chef's, he takes a moment to reassure Chef that his chili is delicious.
• Ping Pong Naïveté: Within the same episode. Cartman is dumb enough to believe that buying Scott's pubes will make him start going through puberty, yet cunning enough to successfully execute an elaborate revenge plot that results in Scott eating a bowl of chili made from his parents' flesh and his favorite band calling him a crybaby in front of the entire town.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Cartman, an eight-year-old boy, is somehow strong enough to drag two adult corpses away.
• Plot Hole: It's never explained how Scott recorded footage of Cartman's "little piggy" routine since he didn't have a camera on-hand.
• "Psycho" Strings: They're heard several times during the final scene.
• Revenge by Proxy: Cartman's over-the-top revenge on Scott involves feeding him his own parents in a chili. Note that this scheme requires Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman dead, and they didn't do anything to piss off Cartman.
• Rousing Speech: Cartman gives one, but everyone except Timmy walks out before the end. Then Timmy leaves too.
• Say It: Scott forces Cartman to sing a self deprecating song and dance "I'm a little piggy" in order to get his money back (and he still doesn't).
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: "Do you like it? Do you like it, Scott? I call it 'Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman Chili'."
• Shout-Out:
  • Kenny's death is a parody of the weasels' deaths from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The reruns after the initial Wednesday airing even added an animation of his ghost rising out of his body still laughing, to further denote it as a parody.
  • The scene where Cartman gets a box from Scott full of his pubes parodies the scene from Se7en.
  • And the final scene comes from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: Cartman's first attempt to get his money back from Scott is to threaten to tell his mom. Scott points out that Cartman would have to tell his mom that he was stupid enough to pay for someone's pubes and wouldn't go through with it. Cartman could have either omitted that detail or lied about why he has someone else's pubes (Who would believe that he voluntarily bought them?), but this never occurs to him.
• Skyward Scream: Cartman screams incoherent rage into the rainy night sky after Scott burns his money.
• Smug Snake: Scott thinks rather highly of himself for being able to humiliate a fourth-grader several times. He has no idea who he's dealing with...
• Space Whale Aesop: The real message of this episode is to not fuck with Cartman. This is lampshaded when Kyle and Stan agree to never piss Cartman off again.
• Spanner in the Works: Downplayed^note to severe extremes, all things considered: Chef actually brought some chili to Cartman's chili con carnival, something he actually did not expect (along with how good it would be). However, it wasn't a big stumbling block as Cartman just chose to swap Scott's pube chili with it; it actually benefits Cartman since he loves Chef's chili and didn't have to eat Scott's chili.
• Start of Darkness: This is the episode that turned Cartman from an incredibly obnoxious (but still mostly harmless) brat into the downright evil sociopath he is now.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Kyle and Stan don't think too highly of Scott, but they're horrified when they realize that he had just had his parents murdered and fed to him, and that they were partly at fault for their demise.
• Teens Are Monsters: Scott is this in spades, though he later proves himself to be a saint compared to Cartman.
• That's All, Folks!: Cartman parodies the famous Looney Tunes closing... after he successfully completes his plot to have Scott eat his parents.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Kenny laughs himself to death when Scott plays Cartman's "Little Piggy" song in front of the entire town. His ghost can even be seen still laughing, even as it rises out of his body.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Kenny gets a relatively painless death in this episode, laughing himself to death at the video of Cartman singing "I'm a little piggy".
• Too Dumb to Live: Scott's parents. Scott tells them that Mr. Denkins is abusing his pony by starving it to death. Instead of asking Mr. Denkins what's going on or calling the authorities, Mr. and Mrs. Tenorman sneak onto Mr. Denkins' ranch in an effort to rescue the pony. Mr. Denkins sees the trespassers and guns both of them down.
• Tranquil Fury: Cartman is perfectly calm as he describes what he did to Scott.
• Understatement: In response to what Cartman's done to Scott.
  Kyle: (horrified that Cartman has succeeded in getting his revenge on Scott) Dude, I think it might be best for us to never piss Cartman off again.
  Stan: (horrified) Good call.
• Unwitting Pawn: Scott, his parents, Mr. Denkins, Stan, and Kyle all unknowingly play into Cartman's hands and advance his plan to get revenge on Scott.
• Villain Episode: The entire episode revolves around Cartman. This is also one of the only episodes to focus on only one character — in most episodes, two or more characters share the spotlight (Kyle/Stan, Kyle/Cartman, Cartman/Butters, etc.)
• Waxing Lyrical: Cartman says to Scott Tenorman, "Haha, charade you are." This is a reference to the Pink Floyd song "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" from Animals.
• Wham Episode: This episode marks the transformation of Cartman's character from a big-talking but largely ineffectual bully to a full-on sociopathic Enfant Terrible and Diabolical Mastermind who is willing to do anything to get revenge. Stan and Kyle summarize the shift when they remark that they'll "never piss off Cartman again," as they're now genuinely afraid of him.
• Wham Line: "What, you mean about how you put pubes in your chili?"
• With Friends Like These...: Stan and Kyle refuse to help Cartman, and ultimately try to sabotage his final revenge scheme by warning Scott of his plan. As if that wasn't bad enough, Cartman had prepared his scheme based on them betraying him, showing how little he thinks of them.
  Scott: How do you know?
  Kyle: Because we're his friends.
  Scott: Then... why are you telling me?
  Kyle: *flatly* Because we hate him.
• Worthless Currency: Cartman is conned into buying a teenager's pubic hair, believing it will grant him puberty. He becomes quite vengeful after the other boys inform him he is meant to grow his own pubes. With no money left, Cartman attempts to purchase a film ticket in "pubes":
  Clerk: That'll be six dollars.
  Cartman: Okay... and how much is that in "pubes"?
  Clerk: (Beat) We don't take "pubes".
  Cartman: (defiant) Listen, my money is as good as anybody's! Don't you, uh, discriminate against my people by not accepting these pubes.
  Clerk: We don't take pubes! End of story!!
  Cartman: (storms off) RACIST!!!

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