Cartman Gets an Anal Probe (South Park)
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 Even some of the best adult cartoons had some rough beginnings.
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"Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" is the first episode of Season One and the debut episode of South Park, excluding the Unaired Pilot, from which it spawned. It first aired on August 13, 1997.
Plot
At the very beginning of the episode, Cartman details his supposed dream of him being abducted by aliens and receiving an anal probe. The others try to convince him it is real, but Cartman assumes they are just trying to scare him.
Bad Qualities That Get an Anal Probe
- Despite not being a terrible episode by any means, the episode is a pretty weak way to start this series because the humor isn't as good or also because most of the jokes aren't funny, compared to the later episodes that are much better.
- As impressive as it may be, the animation looks rather terrible due to being made in stop-motion, which is incredibly hard to do, although it could look much better than the previous two pilot shorts.
- The pacing is way more boring than the majority of the South Park episodes since it is very slow-paced and could make this show have a bad first impression. Despite not being a bad show and being great, the episode itself is not the worst but not the most fun to watch either.
- For most of the episode, Kenny is severely underused and appears only for the first 5 minutes, and after that, he dies due to the aliens. This is a very bad way to start introducing characters since it's going to prevent a character from having character development in an episode, especially if a character is bad (although Kenny is a good character), which is a problem that would later get carried over to future episodes as well.
- Most of the jokes are unfunny and sometimes even gross, especially by the show's standards; although there are still some funny jokes and moments in this episode, an example of unfunny jokes would be the gag of Stan vomiting when Wendy talks. (see BQ#5).
- The running gag of the episode consists of Stan vomiting when Wendy talks is disgusting, especially when he vomits on Wendy herself, which gets old pretty fast.
- The plot is not that interesting, especially compared to the later episodes of this season.
- The color palette is very washed out, which doesn't help the poor animation either. Since the colors are not so colorful and look extremely bland and poorly colored, there are even some characters or backgrounds that have bad colors on them to the point that it's making them have unfitting colors.
- Animation errors: The HD remaster of this episode contains three brief shots when one of the animator's hands can be seen.
- Weird/Disgusting ending: When Stan and Wendy would get kiss together, Stan vomited on Wendy once again, but after that, Wendy looked at what was in the vomit along with Stan, and she first said, "Hey, look, a french fry," which is extremely weird and disgusting, which is mostly the reason why some people call this a weird first date.
Good Qualities That Don't Get an Anal Probe
- Some of the jokes are still funny such as the iconic "I Love to Singa" scene (a song from the eponymous 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon) and can make this episode redeemed from being completely bad since it is only a weak way to start the series.
- There are some memorable quotes in this episode, despite being mostly mediocre and a boring episode compared to the next episodes.
- The next episode is a major improvement, with a better plot, jokes, animation (despite still not being great), more screen time for Kenny, and character development for most of the characters, such as Wendy.
- The animation, while appalling, is pretty nice, even for 1997 standards.
- It introduces the characters decently, such as the main characters (except Kenny, who died at the beginning) and even Wendy, and how the characters would start to get more screen time and character development in the next episodes.
- It still makes some improvements over The Unaired Pilot, which was pretty much the same episode but unfinished.
- Some people may enjoy it due to some funny moments and some nostalgia about this episode.
- While he didn't get that much screen time, the death of Kenny in this episode is a bit funny.
Reception
While the episode did get positive reviews from critics, most fans consider it to be mediocre and unfunny, the episode currently has a score of 7.7/10.
Trivia
- This was the first full episode of South Park.
- During the opening sequence, a fight between Jesus and Santa from the second short is seen on a roadside billboard.
- Also seen is the part when Frosty kills Eric Cartman, who was originally named "Kenny" from the first shot, on a T.V. set in front of the City Hall and Jimbo's Guns.
- This episode made #9 on the list of 10 South Parks That Changed The World.
- This episode was parodied in other cartoons, Arthur titled "The Contest", Beavis and Butt-Head, and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.
- This is the only episode that was animated with construction paper and stop-motion; every single episode (including extra scenes produced for this episode which were not featured in the original pilot) starting from "Weight Gain 4000", except for a brief scene in "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", used computer animation.
- Despite this, however, the technique would be used again in the Season Six to Eleven intros, where animation director Eric Stough is seen designing the boys with construction paper over the background of episode clips played in the intro.
- This episode was made on a budget of $300,000.
- In a pan shot of the cafeteria, a voice identical to Kyle's cousin, Kyle Schwartz, can be heard, talking about his bad gas, coming from a Jewish kid with stringy black hair, which is not what Kyle Schwartz looks like. Cousin Kyle would not be introduced until four seasons later in "The Entity".
- Bebe Stevens and Red McArthur are shown on the bus, wearing different outfits than what they would wear for the rest of the series. They both take on their current appearances in the next episode.
- Stan is the first character to ever fart in the show; he does so on the bus and Kyle replies with "You farted!", to which Cartman replies with "Somebody's baking brownies!".
- Officer Barbrady's police car in this episode says "To Patronize and Annoy".
- This was the only episode where Mr. Hat has no eyes. His eyes are obscured by his hat.
- When it first aired, this episode was originally given a TV-14 rating. This similarly applied to other episodes in this season, such as "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo".
- In the new HD remastered airings of this episode, all the scenes are still formatted in construction paper and have a 4:3 aspect ratio, as opposed to 16:9.
- A picture of Matt Stone's sister can be seen in Cartman's house.
- This episode, along with "Make Love, Not Warcraft", were the only episodes on South Park Studios that were permanently free.
- According to Mr. Garrison, Christopher Columbus discovered America and was "good friends" with the Indians, he had helped them win a war against Frederick Douglass, then apparently freed the Hebrews from Napoleon and discovered France, all this before the year 1492.
- On the chalkboard, the following sentences are present: "Johnny threw the red ball", "I ate too much cous-cous", "Don't make fun of my grandpa", and "I'm not positive, but I think Cathy Lee Gifford is much older than she claims to be".
- This is the only episode produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone alone. This episode took 3 months to produce.
- In the classroom scene in the original version, Kevin Stoley (who was sitting next to Tolkien) is seen sitting next to Cartman as well. In the HD version, Kevin is still there but Tolkien takes Kevin's place in Cartman's closeups.
- Kyle's parents, Sheila and Gerald Broflovski are first mentioned by Kyle, but they do not physically appear until "Death" and "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", respectively.
- Wendy's voice is a little deeper-pitched in this episode than in later episodes.
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