HumancentiPad (South Park)

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"HumancentiPad (South Park)"
You thought "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" was a bad way to begin a new season? Well, what about this satire done disturbingly wrong?!
Series: South Park Part of Season: 15 Episode Number: 1 (210th overall) Air Date: April 27, 2011 Writer: Trey Parker Director: Trey Parker Previous episode: "Crème Fraîche" Next episode: "Funnybot"

HumancentiPad (stylized as HUMANCENTiPad) is the first episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 210th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 27, 2011.

Plot

Kyle is kidnapped after agreeing to an iTunes user agreement and forced to become part of a "revolutionary new product" that is about to be launched by Apple. Meanwhile, Cartman, who has not acquired an Apple iPad, pesters his mother on the issue, drawing her ire.

Why It's a HumanCentiBad Episode That Can't Walk or Read

1. It's a harsh Kyle and Liane torture episode. Kyle was forced to be part of the HumancentiPad project, after accepting an agreement on his iPad without reading it first, not realizing he accepted something that he didn't want to happen. Meanwhile, Liane Cartman is treated as a sexual abuser by her son Eric Cartman as a result of her not being able to afford an iPad for him.
   • If you've seen The Human Centipede, then the torture aspect for Kyle is even worse, as he serves as the middle segment of the HumancentiPad, which is explained in the movie to be the most painful position in terms of healing (as both the mouth and rear being surgically altered), with the character that is placed in the middle in the original film getting that spot as punishment for how she tried to escape from the twisted experiment.
2. The episode is beyond disturbing and horrifying, even by South Park standards. It's a parody of The Human Centipede series of movies, which were already terrible and infamous movies about test subjects (3 in the first, 12 in the second, and 500 in the third) getting sewn together from mouth to anus. This concept makes for a disgusting and disturbing idea for an episode.
3. Cartman is at one of his absolute worst moments as he not only causes a commotion since he wasn't allowed to buy the iPad that he wants, but he ends up lying that his mother had "f**ked" him (which politely translates to sexually abusing him). Although Cartman is supposed to be written as an unlikeable character hilariously, this episode takes all the good things that made Cartman well-liked and turns him into an annoying brat.
   • More infamously, this particular scene would be reenacted in GoAnimate/Vyond's infamous "X Misbehaves at [Place]" videos.
4. The episode disturbingly overuses toilet humor, with the joke about people defecating into each other’s mouths being repetitive.
   • The episode also overuses jokes about pedophilia and incest, mainly through Cartman's accusations towards his mother.
5. It's never explained how Cartman got on the Dr. Phil show right after being chastised by his mother for his bad behavior at Best Buy.
6. The cuttlefish and asparagus/vanilla paste joke is unfunny and only serves to add to Kyle's torment. Even though Kyle tells the man he is connected to (Junichi Takiyama) that he wants vanilla paste as heard through his muffled voice, the man does not listen and eats the cuttlefish instead. This scene only exists to be mean-spirited to Kyle.
7. The scenes when Kyle along with two other people had to eat the pooping of one of them that poop, even by South Park standards, is extremely disgusting and some of the worst scenes you will ever see in a South Park episode, not to mention that they are only here to make the episode having scenes with Kyle, these are also the worst scenes of the entire episode due to how disgusting it is.
8. Stan, Kenny, and Gerald never even think about calling the police to try to have them help save Kyle, instead they go straight to the Apple Store.
9. The way the episode portrays the late Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, is vicious as it portrays him as a sociopath who decides to invent his HumancentiPad because he wants his iPad inventions to teach him to walk and read. This portrayal is also in bad taste, given that the episode aired five months before Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011. Yes, it was likely done to parody what it's like to work with him and deal with his temper/anger issues, but it wasn't executed well at all.
10. Liane Cartman while likable in the episode and also poorly treated acts very cold towards Cartman in the end after Cartman gets hit by lightning, Liane just sits by him in the hospital bed reading a magazine and coldly ignoring him while he cries while his hair is burned and has casts on. Sure, she does have every right to be mad at Cartman for his bratty behavior and his false accusations towards Liane of "f**king" him; still, it does not justify her neglect to ask Cartman if he is okay after the suffering he was put through. Although in her defense, this can be mostly understandable for the most part since Cartman treated her poorly in this episode most of the time, and he got what he deserved in return.

Qualities That Can Walk and Read

1. The first few minutes of the episode where Cartman was pretending to have an iPad was alright, which is the less gruesome moment in the episode overall.
2. Some funny moments, such as the scene where Cartman has a strop at Best Buy.
   • Likewise, some of the mean-spirited moments can make for unintentional comedy.
3. Despite being somewhat poorly executed, it does show how tedious it is to read Apple's lengthy end-user license agreements, and how Apple was putting tracking software built into their iPhones and iPads.
4. Satisfying ending: After Gerald convinces Steve Jobs, Jobs decides to cancel the HumancentiPad, releasing the victims from the device. At the same time, Cartman finally gets his comeuppance at the end by getting struck by lightning.

Reception

Despite its 7.7/10 rating on IMDb, this episode was not well-received by most fans for its disturbing and cruel nature and the annoying sub-plot with Cartman. As of his "10 Darkest South Park Episodes" video, PhantomStrider now considers it the worst South Park episode. He even finds it worse than "Ren Seeks Help", implying that it is now the worst cartoon he has ever seen.

Trivia

• The title and plot are a reference to the 2009 horror film The Human Centipede.
• The production of this episode is the focus of the documentary "6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park".

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