Insheeption
Encyclopedia
"Insheeption" is the tenth episode of the fourteenth season
of animated television series South Park
, and the 205th episode of the series overall. It premiered October 20, 2010 on Comedy Central
in the United States. In the episode, Stan
and Mr. Mackey suffer a hoarding disorder. In an attempt to find the cause for it, they get trapped in Mr. Mackey's dream.
The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker
, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States.
suffers from compulsive hoarding
, he agrees to have it checked. A group of "experts" help Stan go through his locker, which is quite stuffed with a number of disgusting items, including a maggot-infested sandwich and broken toothbrush which Stan, who soon loses his composure, refuses to give up. They send him to Mr. Mackey, who does not know what hoarding is; Stan discovers that Mackey is a hoarder himself.
Stan and Mackey, along with a sheep herder
named Mr. Yelman (repeatedly misidentified as a sheep "hoarder"), are hooked up to a machine which experts explain will help them figure out why they are hoarders by drifting them to their subconscious. Moments later in Mackey's subconscious he is being bullied by a boy named Billy Thompson, who threatens to attack Mackey at a field trip the next day. Mackey then runs into Stan and the sheep hoarder who, as the scientists explain in reality, are there because of the power of Mackey's dream. Within the dream, Stan goes home with Mackey and tries to talk him out of the dream, but Mackey instead plays with his Lite-Brite
and old toys and watches ZOOM. Randy insists he has to rescue his son from the dream despite the experts' warning he will be stuck there forever.
The dream moves on to the next morning where Stan, Mackey, the sheep hoarder and the kids board a bus for the field trip. Stan suddenly sees Randy, who is for some reason a butterfly. Stan asks if he has come to help but Randy reveals that, while that was his intention, he is more concerned with getting "butterfly poon". The experts claim that they have called in another group of "experts" in the form of the main characters from Inception (one of them shapeshifting into NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck
) to go into the dream to create a "dream within a dream" and rescue them, with one expert providing boombox sounds
recreating Inceptions music theme during the explanation. The second group, the cast from Inception, comes in shooting at people before going into the dream, where they proceed to shoot even more people in the woods as the group arrives. Stan, the sheep hoarder and Mackey are introduced to Woodsy Owl
, an owl with the tagline "give a hoot, don't pollute" before being put in with Billy and his two friends.
The experts are now seen courting firefighters to get into the dream and begin trying to explain the events to Sharon, who claims it all sounds ridiculous and stupid. A pizza guy arrives and is sent in as well, as Sharon is told she does not understand because she is not smart. Within the dream, Mackey and Stan are running from the bullies when Stan convinces Mackey to stand up for himself. Mackey prepares for a fight. Back in reality, the experts decide the dream has become too powerful, and at this point they must court "the most powerful dream infiltrator in the world" who is Freddy Krueger
. While Freddy Krueger does not wish to come back, they convince him to help out a final time.
Within Mackey's dream, the second group of experts arrive to kill Billy Thompson and the tormentors before the fire fighters arrive, which they assumed would cure Mackey and end the dream. But when they realized Mackey's not waking up, he remembers what happened, explaining he ran from the bullies and went into a shack, where someone talked nice to him but then touched him in a bad way. Mackey then comes upon that same shack and enters, revealing another young Mackey being sexually molested
by Woodsy Owl. Woodsy then turns into a nightmarish monster, killing the sheep hoarder and overpowering the experts before being killed from behind by Freddy Krueger. With Woodsy destroyed, everyone wakes up and Mackey explains he must have become a hoarder because of Woodsy's tagline about not polluting. Freddy expresses remorse because he could not save the sheep 'hoarder'. They suggest to Stan that he move on to his own therapy now, but he claims to have a better idea. He is then seen throwing out the items in his locker. Wendy and Kyle ask him what his problem was and Stan says that after what happened with Mackey, he does not want any therapy. Kyle suggests that maybe that "was your therapy". Finally, the first expert comes out again doing the Inception soundtrack as the episode ends.
, noted several similarities between Insheeption and his own Inception parody video, "Inception Characters Don’t Understand Inception," which he had made with David Young and first posted to the CollegeHumor website on August 2, 2010. He discovered that many lines from the South Park episode seemed to be lifted almost verbatim from their sketch. Matt Stone later issued an apology, admitting when they had intended to parody complexity of Inception, they did not have a copy of the film to reference, instead turning to the internet for information on the film. Stone explained:
Gurewitch has since said that their apology was accepted, and that he and Young plan to "meet up with Matt and Trey when they're in New York."
, making it the most watched cable television show of the night. The episode received a 1.8 rating/3 share, meaning it was seen by 1.8 percent of the population, and 3 percent of people watching television at the time of its broadcast. Among adult viewers between ages 18 an 49, the episode received a 1.6 rating/5 share, dropping three tenths in the ratings in stated demographic since the previous episode
. Among male viewers between ages 18 and 34, the episode scored a 3.4 rating/11 share.
gave the episode a B rating.
IGN
gave the episode a score of 7 out of 10 and wrote: "This episode had a great premise, and I did find myself laughing a couple of times (Cartman's few lines in this story are hilarious), but this installment gave me the impression that the creative team weren't really trying that hard. I've said it before, but it bears repeating – it seems like these new episodes are more like Robot Chicken fare (no offense to you RC lovers out there, though South Park is not to be compared to Robot Chicken), than the usual stuff we've come to expect from SP. Maybe the team is distracted by other things, or maybe the debacle with the Mohammed episode took some wind out of their sails, but the spark seems to be missing, and I'm hoping it returns soon."
TVfanatic.com rated the episode 4 out of 5 and said, "We thought the episode was actually pretty spot on and fantastic."
set and two-disc Blu-Ray
set in the United States on April 26, 2011.
South Park (season 14)
The fourteenth season of South Park, an American animated television comedy series, originally aired in the United States on Comedy Central between March 17 and November 17, 2010. The season was headed by the series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who served as executive producers along with...
of animated television series South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
, and the 205th episode of the series overall. It premiered October 20, 2010 on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
in the United States. In the episode, Stan
Stan Marsh
Stanley Randall "Stan" Marsh is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by and loosely based on series co-creator Trey Parker. Stan is one of the show's four central characters, along with his friends Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman...
and Mr. Mackey suffer a hoarding disorder. In an attempt to find the cause for it, they get trapped in Mr. Mackey's dream.
The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker
Trey Parker
Trey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...
, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States.
Plot
After Wendy expresses concern that StanStan Marsh
Stanley Randall "Stan" Marsh is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by and loosely based on series co-creator Trey Parker. Stan is one of the show's four central characters, along with his friends Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman...
suffers from compulsive hoarding
Compulsive hoarding
Compulsive hoarding is the acquisition of possessions in excess of socially normative amounts, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary...
, he agrees to have it checked. A group of "experts" help Stan go through his locker, which is quite stuffed with a number of disgusting items, including a maggot-infested sandwich and broken toothbrush which Stan, who soon loses his composure, refuses to give up. They send him to Mr. Mackey, who does not know what hoarding is; Stan discovers that Mackey is a hoarder himself.
Stan and Mackey, along with a sheep herder
Shepherd
A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
named Mr. Yelman (repeatedly misidentified as a sheep "hoarder"), are hooked up to a machine which experts explain will help them figure out why they are hoarders by drifting them to their subconscious. Moments later in Mackey's subconscious he is being bullied by a boy named Billy Thompson, who threatens to attack Mackey at a field trip the next day. Mackey then runs into Stan and the sheep hoarder who, as the scientists explain in reality, are there because of the power of Mackey's dream. Within the dream, Stan goes home with Mackey and tries to talk him out of the dream, but Mackey instead plays with his Lite-Brite
Lite-Brite
Lite-Brite is a toy, created by Hasbro in 1967, which allows the user to create glowing designs. It is a light box with small colored plastic pegs that fit into a matrix of holes and illuminate to create a lit piece of art. Using the colored pegs the user can create designs from imagination or by...
and old toys and watches ZOOM. Randy insists he has to rescue his son from the dream despite the experts' warning he will be stuck there forever.
The dream moves on to the next morning where Stan, Mackey, the sheep hoarder and the kids board a bus for the field trip. Stan suddenly sees Randy, who is for some reason a butterfly. Stan asks if he has come to help but Randy reveals that, while that was his intention, he is more concerned with getting "butterfly poon". The experts claim that they have called in another group of "experts" in the form of the main characters from Inception (one of them shapeshifting into NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck
Matt Hasselbeck
Matthew Michael Hasselbeck is a National Football League quarterback for the Tennessee Titans. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the sixth round of the 1998 NFL Draft, and traded to Seattle in 2001. After becoming the starter in 2003, Hasselbeck led Seattle to six playoff appearances and...
) to go into the dream to create a "dream within a dream" and rescue them, with one expert providing boombox sounds
Beatboxing
Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, and the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments...
recreating Inceptions music theme during the explanation. The second group, the cast from Inception, comes in shooting at people before going into the dream, where they proceed to shoot even more people in the woods as the group arrives. Stan, the sheep hoarder and Mackey are introduced to Woodsy Owl
Woodsy Owl
Woodsy Owl is an owl icon for the United States Forest Service most famous for the motto "Give a hoot — don't pollute!". His current motto is "Lend a hand — care for the land!". Woodsy's target audience are children five to eight years old, and he was designed to be seen as a mentor to...
, an owl with the tagline "give a hoot, don't pollute" before being put in with Billy and his two friends.
The experts are now seen courting firefighters to get into the dream and begin trying to explain the events to Sharon, who claims it all sounds ridiculous and stupid. A pizza guy arrives and is sent in as well, as Sharon is told she does not understand because she is not smart. Within the dream, Mackey and Stan are running from the bullies when Stan convinces Mackey to stand up for himself. Mackey prepares for a fight. Back in reality, the experts decide the dream has become too powerful, and at this point they must court "the most powerful dream infiltrator in the world" who is Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
. While Freddy Krueger does not wish to come back, they convince him to help out a final time.
Within Mackey's dream, the second group of experts arrive to kill Billy Thompson and the tormentors before the fire fighters arrive, which they assumed would cure Mackey and end the dream. But when they realized Mackey's not waking up, he remembers what happened, explaining he ran from the bullies and went into a shack, where someone talked nice to him but then touched him in a bad way. Mackey then comes upon that same shack and enters, revealing another young Mackey being sexually molested
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
by Woodsy Owl. Woodsy then turns into a nightmarish monster, killing the sheep hoarder and overpowering the experts before being killed from behind by Freddy Krueger. With Woodsy destroyed, everyone wakes up and Mackey explains he must have become a hoarder because of Woodsy's tagline about not polluting. Freddy expresses remorse because he could not save the sheep 'hoarder'. They suggest to Stan that he move on to his own therapy now, but he claims to have a better idea. He is then seen throwing out the items in his locker. Wendy and Kyle ask him what his problem was and Stan says that after what happened with Mackey, he does not want any therapy. Kyle suggests that maybe that "was your therapy". Finally, the first expert comes out again doing the Inception soundtrack as the episode ends.
CollegeHumor borrowings
Upon the episode's release, Dan Gurewitch from the humor website CollegeHumorCollegeHumor
CollegeHumor is a comedy website owned by InterActiveCorp and based in New York City. The site features daily original comedy videos and articles created by its in-house writing and production team, in addition to user-submitted videos, pictures, articles and links. In early 2009, CollegeHumor's...
, noted several similarities between Insheeption and his own Inception parody video, "Inception Characters Don’t Understand Inception," which he had made with David Young and first posted to the CollegeHumor website on August 2, 2010. He discovered that many lines from the South Park episode seemed to be lifted almost verbatim from their sketch. Matt Stone later issued an apology, admitting when they had intended to parody complexity of Inception, they did not have a copy of the film to reference, instead turning to the internet for information on the film. Stone explained:
"We thought their joke was that a lot of those lines were actually in the movie, and they were banging them against each other, and showing that theInception characters didn’t even know Inception. That was a mistake, and it was an honest mistake… It's just because we do the show in six days, and we're stupid and we just threw it together. But in the end, there are some lines that we had to call and apologize for."
Gurewitch has since said that their apology was accepted, and that he and Young plan to "meet up with Matt and Trey when they're in New York."
Cultural references
- The episode begins as a spoof of HoardersHoardersHoarders is an American documentary series that airs on A&E. The series depicts the real-life struggles and treatment of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding. The first episode aired August 17, 2009, and has since aired three full seasons. The fourth season debuted June 20,...
, a television series shown on A&E NetworkA&E NetworkThe A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
. - The episode's title and plot parody and make many references to the film InceptionInceptionInception: The Subconscious Jams 1994-1995 is a compilation of unreleased tracks by the band Download.-Track listing:# "Primitive Tekno Jam" – 3:23# "Bee Sting Sickness" – 8:04# "Weed Acid Techno" – 8:19...
, with the main characters from the film playing a major part on the episode. The movie's supposed complexity and subsequent critical acclaim are also satirized with Sharon claiming, "Just because an idea is overly convoluted and complex, doesn't make it cool." - Freddy KruegerFreddy KruegerFrederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
, the main character from the Nightmare on Elm Street filmsA Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
, makes an appearance and is described as the world's best dream infiltrator. - In the scene where Stan and Mr. Mackey are in his old bedroom, there are toys from several super robot anime including Great MazingerGreat Mazingeris a manga comic book and anime television series by manga artist Go Nagai, made as a direct continuation of the successful Mazinger Z series...
, Raideen, and Getter Robo GGetter Robo Gis a super robot anime series created by Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa and produced by Toei Animation. This direct sequel to Getter Robo was broadcast on Fuji TV from May 15, 1975 to March 25, 1976, with a total of 39 episodes .People familiar with Mattel's popular Shogun Warriors toy...
. - Mackey watches ZOOM, a children's television series that originally ran on PBS from 1972 to 1978, and recites the show's famous "Write Zoom" jingle.
Ratings
In its original American broadcast on October 20, 2010, “Insheeption” was seen by 2.891 million viewers according to Nielsen Media ResearchNielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
, making it the most watched cable television show of the night. The episode received a 1.8 rating/3 share, meaning it was seen by 1.8 percent of the population, and 3 percent of people watching television at the time of its broadcast. Among adult viewers between ages 18 an 49, the episode received a 1.6 rating/5 share, dropping three tenths in the ratings in stated demographic since the previous episode
It's a Jersey Thing
"It's a Jersey Thing" is the ninth episode of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 204th episode of the series overall. It premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on October 13, 2010. In the episode, New Jersey is rapidly taking over the...
. Among male viewers between ages 18 and 34, the episode scored a 3.4 rating/11 share.
Critical
Todd VanDerWerff of the The A.V. ClubThe A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
gave the episode a B rating.
IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the episode a score of 7 out of 10 and wrote: "This episode had a great premise, and I did find myself laughing a couple of times (Cartman's few lines in this story are hilarious), but this installment gave me the impression that the creative team weren't really trying that hard. I've said it before, but it bears repeating – it seems like these new episodes are more like Robot Chicken fare (no offense to you RC lovers out there, though South Park is not to be compared to Robot Chicken), than the usual stuff we've come to expect from SP. Maybe the team is distracted by other things, or maybe the debacle with the Mohammed episode took some wind out of their sails, but the spark seems to be missing, and I'm hoping it returns soon."
TVfanatic.com rated the episode 4 out of 5 and said, "We thought the episode was actually pretty spot on and fantastic."
Home release
"Insheeption", along with the thirteen other episodes from South Parks fourteenth season, were released on a three-disc DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
set and two-disc Blu-Ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
set in the United States on April 26, 2011.
External links
- "Insheeption" Full episode at South Park Studios
- "Insheeption" Episode guide at South Park Studios