Marjorine (South Park)

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"Marjorine (South Park)"
Oh please, torturing Butters is so Season 6... it was funny before, but now it is getting tiring at this point.
Series: South Park Part of Season: 9 Episode Number: 9 Air Date: October 26, 2005 Writer: Trey Parker Director: Trey Parker Previous episode: Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow Next episode: Follow That Egg!

Marjorine is the ninth episode of the ninth season of South Park. It was written and directed by Trey Parker, and first aired on October 26, 2005.

Plot

When the boys think the girls in their class have a "high-tech future-telling device", they disguise Butters as a new girl named "Marjorine" to steal it from them.

Why It Should Get Pushed Off the Building

1. It is just another Butters torture episode, but without any of the humor, charm, or insight that redeems the older ones, mainly the ones made during Season 6.
2. All the boys on the same show are incredibly stupid and much more senseless than usual in this episode, thinking a paper fortune teller is a high-tech instrument wanted by terrorists, the CIA, and Russia; all the girls are shallow and stereotypically catty.
   • Even Kyle, who is known for often being the rational voice of reason, goes along with the plan and does not object to anything the way he normally does.
3. This episode has too many plot points to where it feels a lot more unfocused and incoherent overall.
4. The scene where the other boys fake Butters' suicide by dressing a pig cadaver as him and dropping it off a tall building is extremely disturbing and mean-spirited, even for South Park standards.
5. Plot hole: How did the other boys get "Marjorine" enrolled in the public school system so quickly, and without any parents or legal records?
6. The girls, particularly Red, Bebe, and Heidi, and not including Wendy, are very mean-spirited to Butters when he was trying to disguise himself as a girl to avoid the girls being noticed, which is downright sexist rather than funny.
7. The boys coming to the conclusion that a simple object is too powerful for any mortal being to possess was already done much better in "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers", and Kenny blowing up the entire area because of the fortune teller's presence is complete overkill.
8. When Butters comes home as himself, his parents think he is an undead demon because his dad had dug his fake corpse up and reburied it in an Indian burial ground, which is also similar to something that happened in "Spookyfish" from Season 2, leading his dad to forcibly chain him up in the basement.
9. Butters' dad even brutally murders a door-to-door saleslady with a shovel out of nowhere to feed to "demon spawn" Butters with no apparent consequences.
10. The episode ends extremely abruptly with no explanation in any future episode of how Butters’ parents realized that the whole scenario with his "suicide" was a complete sham.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Calling Butters in drag "Marjorine" is a nice play on words.
2. The concept of Butters sneaking into the girls' sleepover is interesting, albeit executed poorly and mean-spirited.
3. "Marjorine" introducing "herself" to the class as "just a typical little girl" who likes "getting ["her"] snatch pounded on Friday nights" is really funny.
4. Butters is still likable as usual.
5. Stephen Stotch tries to be much nicer to Butters than usual, even trying to heartfeltly talk the fake version of him out of committing suicide.

Trivia

• Co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone admit that they completely ignore this episode and even find it painful to watch because it warranted a two-parter due to the complexity of its plot and the loose ends it never tied up, but they never got around to making the second part of the story.

Reception

It was ranked #4 on Jem Reviews' "Top 5 WORST South Park Episodes", with Jem Reviews criticizing the episode for its lack of focus in its plot. He claims that it goes against South Park's usual ability to "get so much out of such a little plot device," and compares this episode to "watching multiple South Park episodes, but [not gaining] anything out of watching them," due to how cluttered and incoherent the episode is.

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