AWESOM-O
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| South Park episode | |
| "AWESOM-O" | |
AWESOM-O applies Butters' suppository. |
|
| Episode no. | 116 |
|---|---|
| Airdate | April 14, 2004 |
| South Park - Season 8 March 17, 2004 – December 15, 2004 |
|
|
|
|
| ← Season 7 | Season 9 → |
|
|
|
| List of all South Park episodes | |
"AWESOM-O" is episode 802 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on April 14, 2004.
[edit] Plot synopsis
Cartman disguises himself as a robot named "AWESOM-O" (patterned after the robot ASIMO built by Honda) and puts himself in a crate on Butters' doorstep, planning to befriend a gullible Butters and thereby discover Butters' embarrassing secrets; but, to Cartman's shock, Butters tells "AWESOM-O" that he has a tape of Cartman dressed up like Britney Spears, making out with a cardboard cut-out of Justin Timberlake, and he plans to show it to the town next time Cartman plays a prank on him. Cartman, terrified about this, searches Butters' room furiously for the tape -- but cannot take off the robot suit, or Butters will know "AWESOM-O" was another prank. Butters' parents (knowing who "AWESOM-O" really is but thinking it's an elaborate game that Butters is in on) decide to let "AWESOM-O" come with Butters on a trip to Los Angeles to visit a relative. Left with no alternative, Cartman is forced to go, or else reveal his disguise.
In Hollywood, movie producers hear about the "robot" and decide to hire him from Butters to create movie ideas; Cartman, as the robot, pitches one thousand nonsensical ideas (800 of which star Adam Sandler), while Butters and the movie producers are gullible enough to buy them. Meanwhile, the U.S. Military hears about "AWESOM-O", and decides to capture him (using, for some reason, a van marked with the CIA seal) to make him into a weapon; they get Cartman, and hold him in a secret base.
Cartman tries to explain that he's really a kid, but when Butters shows up to rescue him, he has to stop, allowing the military to kill a scientist. But the military believes that he is a robot with A.I that made it think it was human. He gets rescued, however, in the end: Cartman's fart reveals that he's really human. Butters' discovery of Cartman's plan leads to the entire town watching a video of Cartman as Britney Spears.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode took only three days to create.[1]
- This episode was advertised as "The Return of Lemmiwinks". However, no such episode exists. This disclaimer appeared before the episode began:
- "Due to this week's tragic events in Hawaii, the Lemmiwinks episode of South Park will not be shown tonight. Instead, we present the all new and slightly better episode, AWESOM-O."
- On the creator's commentary, Matt Stone said that the idea for this show came from the idea of Cartman saying "lame" in a robot voice.
- Mrs. Cartman's reference to Cartman being grounded for "trying to exterminate the Jews two weeks ago" refers to "The Passion of the Jew".
- We learn at the start of the episode that Butters' birthday is September 11. We also learn he wears a diaper to school due to sphincter problems.
- Attached to the costume of AWESOM-O is a phone cord, six type D batteries, a television antenna, a can opener, construction paper shapes, a blinking red light, a green Christmas light, a power strip, and a garage door opener.
- Stan, Kyle and Kenny only appear in three scenes in this episode.
- In the movie studio, the stand selling souvenirs misspells the word on its banner.
- On the commentary for this episode on The South Park Hits DVD, It is revealed that Trey Parker and Matt Stone will release a South Park DVD call "South Park: The Best of Butters And Cartman." This episode will likely be on it.
- Butters remembers the events from "Casa Bonita" where Cartman convinced Butters to hide in a bomb shelter, and "Jared Has Aides", where Cartman imitated Butters on the phone to his father, verbally bashing him.
- The first movie Cartman made up might have been a more subtle reference to The Succubus when Chef was in love with a woman, but then she turned out to be a Succubus.
- During the L.A. montage of clips, Butters and Awesom-O are seen in a log ride that looks exactly like the Yeti ride in Colorado's Funland. In the previous shot from the Season 5 episode, there are trees and bushes in a mountain-like atmosphere. In this episode, the tree(and one of the bushes) was changed into a dinosaur.
[edit] References to Pop culture
- Konnichi wa is japanese for "hello".
- The song which Butters sings, "My Robot Friend", is based on the 1964 hit "I'm Into Something Good" by Herman's Hermits and its lyrics pay homage to the theme to the TV show The Courtship of Eddie's Father.
- The scene where the military captures AWESOM-O is similar to R2-D2 getting shocked in the Star Wars film, and even falls over the same way.
- The scene in which Cartman (while bound to an upright operating table) asserts to the Military that he is human may be a reference to a similar scene in the 1996 film Ghost in the Shell.
- Most of the end-section of this episode is a parody of the common hollywood cliche of science fiction movies, particularly B-Movies.
- One of the movie ideas suggested by Awesom-o, coined "Punch-Drunk Millionaire", has a similar title with Punch-Drunk Love and has a partially similar storyline with Mr. Deeds. Adam Sandler plays the lead role in both movies.
- When "My Robot Friend" ends a second time, AWESOM-O and Butters goes to the Catamount Pictures, which is a parody of Paramount Pictures (which owns the DVD rights to South Park, and the US rights to the South Park movie).
| Preceded by: "Good Times with Weapons" |
South Park episodes | Followed by: "Up the Down Steroid" |
