Original air date: 11/6/2002
Kenny died with the winning ticket to a candy store shopping spree, so the boys build a ladder to heaven to reclaim it. Unfortunately, the Japanese start building their own ladder to heaven, the government intervenes when they fear that Saddam Hussein is building weapons of mass destruction in Heaven, and the event is chronicled in a lame country music song.
Examples:
- Aborted Arc: In this episode and the rest of the season, Tweek is no longer treated as the fourth member of the main boys. While Butters got a whole episode dedicated to him getting kicked out of the group, Tweek received no such send-off — he's just suddenly not hanging out with Cartman, Stan, and Kyle anymore.
- Black Comedy Rape: The pedophile being asked if he believes in Heaven. His answer? "If Heaven is an 8-year old boy, and the ladder is my penis..."
- Brutal Honesty: While all the other adults are crying over how "sweet" and "beautiful" it is that the boys are building the titular ladder to see Kenny again, Mr. Garrison bluntly comments that he thinks the idea sounds "fucking stupid".
- The Bus Came Back: Sort of, as this episode begins the process of bringing back Kenny. Barring a flashback cameo in "Free Hat," Kenny is seen for the first time since "Kenny Dies." While he's still dead, he is seen through several flashbacks and starts to possess Cartman after he accidentally drinks his ashes. Kenny would ultimately come back to life by the season finale, "Red Sleigh Down."
- Call-Back:
- Kenny's death is spoken of again.
- Saddam's sentence to Heaven from "Probably" is also referenced.
- One of Cartman's Kenny flashbacks has Cartman singing "In the Ghetto", which Cartman had previously done in "Chickenpox" (although the exchange between Cartman and Kenny is new here).
- Censorship by Spelling: Cartman does this trying to tell Stan they can't see Heaven because Kyle is a "J-O-O".
- Comically Missing the Point: President Bush assuring Congress that he is not high when asked if he was that or incredibly stupid.
- The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right:
- Bush not only correctly guesses Saddam is in heaven, and the entire plot setup that led to him being sent there... but the closing gag reveals Saddam is indeed building bombs up there.
- Cartman is convinced that robot security drones are patrolling the McCormick home and stops to check for any, much to Kyle and Stan's annoyance. When Cartman leaves the house with Kenny's ashes, an actual robotic drone can be seen patrolling the room shortly after.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: After George W. Bush reveals the whole convoluted story on how he believes Saddam Hussein has started building WMDs in Heaven, the following exchange ensues:Congressman: Are you high or just incredibly stupid?
Bush: I assure you... I am not high! - Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: The boys become vehement on getting to heaven to see Kenny, their former friend they constantly spoke high of and compared to their previous fourth companions... so they can get a winning candy spree ticket from him.
- Journey to the Sky: The boys aim to build a ladder to meet Kenny's spirit in Heaven and retrieve a coupon he supposedly had until his death. How this action is viewed depends on each supporting character.note The ladder's construction ends when Cartman discovers where Kenny's coupon was, and the whole ordeal is wrapped up.
- Laser-Guided Karma: When interviewed about the boys' ladder to Heaven, Mr. Garrison is the only one to insult their idea. Later, Cartman breaks into his car and steals one of his seats to use as another step on the ladder.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the pedophile starts making yet another obscene remark to the news team interviewing him, the camera man tries to run off so it won't be broadcast.
- Serious Business: The candy shopping spree. As Cartman puts it "I've never heard the words only and candy in the same sentence before."
- Skewed Priorities: Stan, Kyle and Cartman attempt to build a ladder to heaven, as the episode's title implies, so that they can see their friend Kenny again. Not because they miss Kenny, but because they want to obtain the winning ticket for the candy shopping spree from him.
- Sharing a Body: Cartman becomes possessed with Kenny's soul after drinking his ashes, allowing him to occasionally interject his thoughts into a conversation.
- Shout-Out: Before the boys tell them they've run out of stuff to build the ladder, the townspeople are singing a nonsensical expy of "Welcome Christmas".
- Space Elevator: The whole plot of the episode is reaching heaven with making ladders which were treated like space elevators. Japan even has a ladder that looks like one.
- Special Effects Failure: In-universe, it's pretty obvious that the "heaven" the Japanese reached is a studio set, one of the "angels" crashes to the ground and shortly afterwards the whole set falls apart. No one seems to notice, though.
- Take That!: To Alan Jackson and his post-9/11 song "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" for cashing in on a national tragedy.
- Tap on the Head: The boys employ this to jog Cartman's memory about where the ticket is.
- Tear Jerker: In-universe. All the adults in town sans Garrison (who considers the idea "fucking stupid") are constantly holding back tears at the thought of the boys attempting to physically build a ladder to heaven in order to see Kenny again.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: The news anchor has to do this after they inadvertently interview a pedophile about the plot, and it's shown he's making static noises and holding a card with an image of TV static on it. When the same pedophile gets on camera again, he mutters "god-dammit," and starts making static noises again.
- Wham Line: "STOP CALLING ME POOR, YOU FAT DICK!" It's at that moment when everyone realizes that Cartman didn't just inherit Kenny's memories, but the two of them are now sharing the same body.
