YMMV / South Park S 1 E 3 Volcano

• Broken Base: The ending. Is it Black Comedy at its finest and a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome of pressuring kids to hunt against their will, or does it ruin the episode on top of aging poorly due to Stan's characterization in future episodes being far more sympathetic, especially since this event was never mentioned again.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Gruesome deaths and Volcano aside, the episode is a pretty straightforward story about a hunter learning to appreciate animals after being saved by a wild creature that he previously wanted to hunt... until his nephew shows up and blows the head off the creature following (what he thought was) his uncle's example. Stan quipping that killing the creature was surprisingly easy is just the icing on the cake.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Cartman is shocked that Scuzzlebutt was real despite telling the story while Chef and Garrison knew what it was right away. Seeing as Cartman is around both of them a lot at school, one of them must've told Cartman about Scuzzlebutt and Cartman either forgetting or having a Self-Serving Memory, thought he just made it up.
  • Jimbo being angry at Stan for killing Scuzzlebutt seems hypocritical, but it makes sense as one of the rules he told him was not to shoot anything that looked human. And for him, looking human includes one saving another's life.
  • Stan's more aggressive moments in favor of animal rights in future episodes may be a manifestation of his remorse for killing Scuzzlebutt in this episode.
• Fridge Horror:
  • Cartman's Vietnam flashbacks were implied to be made up. Implied being the key word. Considering how easily he and the other boys travelled to Afghanistan in a later episode during The War on Terror, his flashbacks being a case of Cassandra Truth is not far out of the realm of possibility.
  • Stan ends this episode by shooting Scuzzlebutt. Not only does this 8-year-old kid now have a body count, absolutely nobody (not even his father and uncle) bothers to get him any psychological help beyond a brief lecture from Jimbo (that Stan viewed as hypocritical anyway). They're lucky Stan matured on his own terms and had other positive influences in his life, or he would've easily turned out like Cartman.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • After Cartman teases Stan for being unable to shoot animals, Stan angrily says "I can shoot you, fat boy!". In two later episodes, Stan actually tries to shoot Cartman with intent to kill.
  • This episode is the earliest instance of Cartman's racism when he says that "[his] mom says there's a lot of black people in Africa" like it's a bad thing. While he likely didn't understand what he was saying in this episode, seventeen years later, he would go on to view black people as a plague.
  • The amicable relationship between Jimbo and Kenny becomes this when Jimbo kills him in "Damien" after he mistakes him for a duck-billed platypus and attempts to kill him again in "Cripple Fight" for an unknown reason. So much for being his "Honorary Nephew".
  • After being introduced to beer and gin by his uncle, Stan agrees with Kyle that alcohol tastes like "Cartman's pee". He would then become an alcoholic in "Ass Burgers" and as an adult in "Post Covid". Well done, Jimbo.
  • Early in the episode, Jimbo warns the boys to "never shoot anything that looks human". 21 years later, he would be ambushed by Manbearpig, a being that is "half man", and failing to kill him almost gets his best friend Ned killed.
• Heartwarming Moments: Jimbo makes Kenny his honorary nephew because he finds him to be cool, which makes him the first character in the show to bond with the poor kid onscreen. Kenny even says “Thanks”.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Cartman is hesitant at the idea of going to Africa. 5 episodes later, he would be transferred to Ethiopia against his will.
  • This episode has Jimbo try to teach Stan how to handle guns. 18 years later, the entire Marsh family except Jimbo would literally require pointing guns at each other to settle a family discussion. Seems like Jimbo actually taught Stan something useful after all.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Stan might've killed Scuzzlebutt in the end and shown no remorse for it, but he did it all in a severely misguided attempt to earn his uncle's praise, who had been pressuring him into shooting animals for the entire duration of the trip, with his friends showing no sympathy for his situation or outright mocking him for it. It's hard not to feel bad for him when he hears Jimbo constantly praise Kenny what would otherwise be Troubling Unchildlike Behavior while Stan is left feeling like there's something wrong with him because he couldn't bring himself to shoot a bunny. In the end, Stan doesn't even get the praise he wanted, and everyone hates him for doing what his uncle had scolded him for not doing earlier, leaving him terribly confused.
  • Kenny spends the entire episode acting like a "dirty little bastard", but he didn't deserve to die horrifically twice! his "Honorary Uncle" also completely forgets about him after the fact.
• Values Dissonance: In the commentaries, Trey Parker and Matt Stone noted that of all the early episodes, this is the only one that's more edgy after Columbine and which they probably wouldn't be able to get away with now because it features children pointing guns and threatening to shoot each other (being from Colorado themselves, the massacre also affected them personally). Twenty years later, however, they would have whole families pointing guns at each other to satire then-current second amendment debates.
• Shocking Moments: Stan killing Scuzzlebutt at the end, especially if you're more familiar with his portrayal in modern seasons.
• The Woobie: Scuzzlebutt. The poor creature shows up, saves everybody, and becomes the Mayor's friend; only to get shot in the head by one of the kids he rescued. To add insult to injury, the Mayor was only faking her interest in him because she was in live television.
• Woolseyism: In the Italian dub, Patrick Duffy is replaced with "Ridge from The Bold and the Beautiful". In the European Spanish dub, he is replaced with Ricky Martin.