The Poor Kid
Encyclopedia
"The Poor Kid" is the fifteenth season
finale of the American animated television series South Park
, and the 223rd episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central
in the United States
on November 16, 2011. In the episode, Kenny
and his brother and sister are sent to a foster home
after police discover a meth lab
in their house. As a result, Cartman
is left with feelings of loss, since he no longer has someone to ridicule for their poverty.
The episode, which lampoons Pabst Blue Ribbon
, religious fundamentalism and the Penn State sex abuse scandal
, was written by series co-creator Trey Parker
and is rated TV-MA LV in the United States.
at their home, an event documented on the reality show White Trash in Trouble. As a result, Kenny
and his two siblings, Kevin and Karen, put into the foster care
system. Their caseworker, Mr. Adams, who insists on making constant jokes about the Penn State sex abuse scandal, places them with the Weatherheads, a militantly agnostic
couple living in Greeley
that forbids their numerous foster children from expressing any notions of certainty. Their agnosticism manifests itself in a number of peculiar ways, such as their edict that the children can only drink "agnostic beverages" such as Dr Pepper
, because no one can be certain as to what flavor it is, and hypothesizing that God could be "a giant reptilian bird in charge of everything." Because of Karen's sadness and fear over their new living situation, Kenny attempts to protect and comfort her by adopting his Mysterion persona
, whom she comes to see as her guardian angel.
While searching for a new target for his taunts now that Kenny is gone, Cartman is horrified to discover, through Butters'
research, that he is now the poorest student in school. Thus, he starts compulsively telling poor jokes about himself. Cartman complains to his mother, but she says that she is already working two jobs and cannot do more because of the economy. Wishing he were in a foster home like Kenny, Cartman frames her for running a meth lab, and despite her protests of not having done drugs in a long time, she is arrested, which is again documented by White Trash in Trouble. Despite anticipating being sent to an idyllic setting like Hawaii, Cartman is placed with the Weatherheads and attends the same school in Greeley as Kenny, where he is elated to discover that the poorest student there is not him, but a boy named Jacob Hallery, whom Cartman takes delight in ridiculing.
After Kenny, as Mysterion, dispatches a bully who was harassing Karen, she and the other foster kids report what they saw to the Weatherheads, who torture one of the children by hosing him down with Dr. Pepper for expressing such certainty. In response to the Weatherheads' cruelty, Cartman reports them to Child Protective Services
, while Mysterion plants Pabst Blue Ribbon
in their refrigerator, on which they get drunk, subsequently finding themselves arrested for being unfit guardians, as documented on White Trash in Trouble. Cartman is also arrested for filing a false police report, and Adams urges the police to return all the foster children to their parents, as the foster care system has been embarrassed. Kenny and Cartman return home, but on their first day back at South Park Elementary, a giant reptilian bird, as Mr. Weatherhead conjectured, rips open the school's roof and eats Kenny, prompting Cartman to burst into tears once again, finding himself re-established as the poorest kid in school.
graded the episode a "B-". While he thought the Mysterion-Karen plot gave the episode true pathos, he thought Adams' jokes seemed recycled, and the parody of agnostics were funny but par for the course in terms of South Park's treatment of religion, and not very relevant.
Katie McGlynn of the The Huffington Post
and Aly Semigram of Entertainment Weekly
enjoyed the episode's take on the Penn State sex abuse scandal
, complimenting the show's creators on satirizing the matter without coming across as insensitive, and for mocking not only the scandal, but the manner in which Cartman rebuked the jokes for merely recycling old Catholic jokes.
Lindsey Bahr of SplitSider also thought initially that the Penn State and "Yo mamma" jokes were lacking, and the plot jumpy and convoluted, but then perceived that to be the point of the episode, opining that the final act was "poignant", and the episode the most self-reflective since the mid-season finale.
Johnny Firecloud of CraveOnline
gave the episode an 8 out of 10, feeling that it was an improvement over the previous episode
, and said of its treatment of the Penn State matter: "Parker & Stone seem well within their lampooning grounds with this one, without trying to put a larger sociopolitical statement on an issue in which there is very little grey area." Firecloud characterized the episode's closing moments as "solid old-school Kenny death finish. Bravo."
Ramsey Isler of IGN
was disappointed that the McCormick siblings' placement in foster care turned out not to be a big turning point for Kenny, but simply another "joke of the week". Isler felt, however, that it was a decent episode with a long string of small but enjoyable gags, in particular those that poked fun at the rote repetition of stale jokes, and the treatment of agnosticism, which he found to be "fresh".
South Park (season 15)
The fifteenth season of South Park, an American animated television series, began airing on April 27, 2011 and ended on November 16, 2011. In response to reactions to the mid-season finale episode "You're Getting Old", which seemed to insinuate that creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were wrapping...
finale of the American 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 223rd episode of the series overall. It first aired 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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on November 16, 2011. In the episode, Kenny
Kenny McCormick
Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is one of the four central characters along with his friends Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman. His oft-muffled and indiscernible speech—the result of his parka hood covering his...
and his brother and sister are sent to a foster home
Foster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
after police discover a meth lab
Clandestine chemistry
Clandestine chemistry is chemistry carried out in secret, and particularly in illegal drug laboratories. Larger labs are usually run by gangs or organized crime intending to produce for distribution on the black market...
in their house. As a result, Cartman
Eric Cartman
Eric Theodore Cartman is a fictional character in the American animated television series South Park. One of four main characters, along with Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick, he is generally referred to within the series by his last name...
is left with feelings of loss, since he no longer has someone to ridicule for their poverty.
The episode, which lampoons Pabst Blue Ribbon
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Pabst Blue Ribbon is a brand of beer sold by Pabst Brewing Company, originally established in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but now based in Los Angeles. Pabst Blue Ribbon is contract-brewed in six different breweries around the U.S...
, religious fundamentalism and the Penn State sex abuse scandal
Penn State sex abuse scandal
The Penn State sex abuse scandal refers to allegations that former Pennsylvania State University football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulted or had inappropriate contact with at least eight underage boys on or near university property...
, was written 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 is rated TV-MA LV in the United States.
Plot
Kenny's parents are arrested for having a meth labClandestine chemistry
Clandestine chemistry is chemistry carried out in secret, and particularly in illegal drug laboratories. Larger labs are usually run by gangs or organized crime intending to produce for distribution on the black market...
at their home, an event documented on the reality show White Trash in Trouble. As a result, Kenny
Kenny McCormick
Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is one of the four central characters along with his friends Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman. His oft-muffled and indiscernible speech—the result of his parka hood covering his...
and his two siblings, Kevin and Karen, put into the foster care
Foster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
system. Their caseworker, Mr. Adams, who insists on making constant jokes about the Penn State sex abuse scandal, places them with the Weatherheads, a militantly agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
couple living in Greeley
Greeley, Colorado
The City of Greeley is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Weld County, Colorado, United States. Greeley is located in the region known as Northern Colorado. Greeley is situated north-northeast of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. According to the...
that forbids their numerous foster children from expressing any notions of certainty. Their agnosticism manifests itself in a number of peculiar ways, such as their edict that the children can only drink "agnostic beverages" such as Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper is a soft drink, marketed as having a unique flavor. The drink was created in the 1880s by Charles Alderton of Waco, Texas and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904 and is now also sold in Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, Australia ...
, because no one can be certain as to what flavor it is, and hypothesizing that God could be "a giant reptilian bird in charge of everything." Because of Karen's sadness and fear over their new living situation, Kenny attempts to protect and comfort her by adopting his Mysterion persona
Mysterion Rises
"Mysterion Rises" is the twelfth episode of the fourteenth season of South Park. It aired on Comedy Central on November 3, 2010 and is the second of a three-part arc that began with the episode "Coon 2: Hindsight"....
, whom she comes to see as her guardian angel.
While searching for a new target for his taunts now that Kenny is gone, Cartman is horrified to discover, through Butters'
Butters Stotch
Leopold "Butters" Stotch is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by series co-creator Matt Stone and loosely based on co-producer Eric Stough. He is a fourth-grade student who commonly has extraordinary experiences not typical of conventional small-town...
research, that he is now the poorest student in school. Thus, he starts compulsively telling poor jokes about himself. Cartman complains to his mother, but she says that she is already working two jobs and cannot do more because of the economy. Wishing he were in a foster home like Kenny, Cartman frames her for running a meth lab, and despite her protests of not having done drugs in a long time, she is arrested, which is again documented by White Trash in Trouble. Despite anticipating being sent to an idyllic setting like Hawaii, Cartman is placed with the Weatherheads and attends the same school in Greeley as Kenny, where he is elated to discover that the poorest student there is not him, but a boy named Jacob Hallery, whom Cartman takes delight in ridiculing.
After Kenny, as Mysterion, dispatches a bully who was harassing Karen, she and the other foster kids report what they saw to the Weatherheads, who torture one of the children by hosing him down with Dr. Pepper for expressing such certainty. In response to the Weatherheads' cruelty, Cartman reports them to Child Protective Services
Child Protective Services
Child Protective Services is the name of a governmental agency in many states of the United States that responds to reports of child abuse or neglect. Some states use other names, often attempting to reflect more family-centered practices, such as "Department of Children & Family Services"...
, while Mysterion plants Pabst Blue Ribbon
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Pabst Blue Ribbon is a brand of beer sold by Pabst Brewing Company, originally established in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but now based in Los Angeles. Pabst Blue Ribbon is contract-brewed in six different breweries around the U.S...
in their refrigerator, on which they get drunk, subsequently finding themselves arrested for being unfit guardians, as documented on White Trash in Trouble. Cartman is also arrested for filing a false police report, and Adams urges the police to return all the foster children to their parents, as the foster care system has been embarrassed. Kenny and Cartman return home, but on their first day back at South Park Elementary, a giant reptilian bird, as Mr. Weatherhead conjectured, rips open the school's roof and eats Kenny, prompting Cartman to burst into tears once again, finding himself re-established as the poorest kid in school.
Reception
Ryan McGhee of 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...
graded the episode a "B-". While he thought the Mysterion-Karen plot gave the episode true pathos, he thought Adams' jokes seemed recycled, and the parody of agnostics were funny but par for the course in terms of South Park's treatment of religion, and not very relevant.
Katie McGlynn of the The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
and Aly Semigram of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
enjoyed the episode's take on the Penn State sex abuse scandal
Penn State sex abuse scandal
The Penn State sex abuse scandal refers to allegations that former Pennsylvania State University football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulted or had inappropriate contact with at least eight underage boys on or near university property...
, complimenting the show's creators on satirizing the matter without coming across as insensitive, and for mocking not only the scandal, but the manner in which Cartman rebuked the jokes for merely recycling old Catholic jokes.
Lindsey Bahr of SplitSider also thought initially that the Penn State and "Yo mamma" jokes were lacking, and the plot jumpy and convoluted, but then perceived that to be the point of the episode, opining that the final act was "poignant", and the episode the most self-reflective since the mid-season finale.
Johnny Firecloud of CraveOnline
CraveOnline
CraveOnline is a male lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company AtomicOnline, the publishing division of Evolve Media Corp.- History :...
gave the episode an 8 out of 10, feeling that it was an improvement over the previous episode
A History Channel Thanksgiving
"A History Channel Thanksgiving" is the thirteenth episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 222nd episode overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 9, 2011...
, and said of its treatment of the Penn State matter: "Parker & Stone seem well within their lampooning grounds with this one, without trying to put a larger sociopolitical statement on an issue in which there is very little grey area." Firecloud characterized the episode's closing moments as "solid old-school Kenny death finish. Bravo."
Ramsey Isler of 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...
was disappointed that the McCormick siblings' placement in foster care turned out not to be a big turning point for Kenny, but simply another "joke of the week". Isler felt, however, that it was a decent episode with a long string of small but enjoyable gags, in particular those that poked fun at the rote repetition of stale jokes, and the treatment of agnosticism, which he found to be "fresh".
External Links
- "The Poor Kid" at South Park Studios.