Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls
Encyclopedia
"Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls" is the ninth episode of the second season
of the animated television series South Park
, and the 22nd episode of the series overall. "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls" originally aired in the United States
on August 19, 1998 on Comedy Central
.
is in the midst of the Sundance Film Festival
. Sundance's founder, Robert Redford
, has decided that Park City has become too run down by the annual migration of the Hollywood jet-set and commercialism, so he decides to move the festival next year to another small mountain town: South Park, Colorado.
The Sundance Festival relocates to South Park, which is immediately deluged by Hollywood tourists. In school, Mr. Garrison gives the students an assignment to see one independent film during the festival and write a report on it.
Chef
sets up a sales stand at the festival for his fudge cookie recipes, and finally settles on selling his Chocolate Salty Balls
, which do brisk business. Cartman objects to the films shown at this festival, insisting that they all feature "gay cowboys eating pudding".
That night, Kyle
is using the toilet, when he thinks he hears Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo calling to him from the toilet. He becomes convinced that Mr. Hankey needs his help. Kyle persuades Stan
, Cartman, and Kenny
to help him find Mr. Hankey, and they enter the sewer system
looking for him. They first find Mr. Garrison snorkeling amongst the sewage with Mr. Twig. They then find Hankey, who tells Kyle that he lives in the sewer during the year, but the influx of all the Hollywood tourists, with their health-food diets (Robert Redford and his wife are seen asking Chef for various yuppie
foods earlier in the episode, such as couscous
, steamed celery and tofu
), have disrupted the "delicate ecosystem" of the sewer, which has made him deathly ill.
Kyle and the others appear before a film's showing, and Kyle pleads with the Hollywood visitors that their presence is causing the death of his good friend Mr. Hankey, but they all think Kyle is trying to pitch a script, and they offer movie deals and script changes. One agent approaches Cartman and attempts to convince him to sell the rights to Kyle's story, and of course Cartman readily agrees (despite deriding independent films as being about "gay cowboys eating pudding
" which some South Park fans have called a prescient allusion to Brokeback Mountain
, despite being created a full year after the short story was published in the New Yorker.).
The South Park locals are beginning to tire of the festival, seeing that it is causing the town to become overrun with commercialism and Hollywood kitsch
. Even Chef realizes the large sales of his Chocolate Salty Balls is undercut by the fact that South Park is getting run down. Robert Redford's assistant points out that South Park is being slowly corrupted just as Park City was. Robert Redford reveals that this was his intent: to make all the small towns overrun with Hollywood culture, since he cannot escape it, so he wants to inflict it on everyone else.
A new film appears overnight, based on Cartman's "treatment" of Kyle's story, starring Tom Hanks
as Kyle and a monkey
as Mr. Hankey. Cartman starts selling "Mr. Hankey" movie T-shirt
s for quick cash. After the film is shown, the emerging crowd tramples Kenny to death. But instead of the usual "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" "You Bastards!" catchphrase, a man says, "Oh my God, I found a penny
!" followed by another man saying, "You bastard!"
Kyle tries to show Mr. Hankey to the moviegoers, but Mr. Hankey is pale and near death. Kyle and Chef stand vigil over the dying Mr. Hankey, but Chef feeds Hankey one of his Chocolate Salty Balls, causing Mr. Hankey to return to life.
The kids, Chef and Mr. Hankey approach Robert Redford as he is on a podium to announce the return of the film festival the next year. After he callously ignores their pleas to relocate the festival, Mr. Hankey rises above the crowd, donning a magician's hat
. Mr. Hankey causes the sewers to erupt over South Park, causing Robert Redford and his wife's car to fill up with feces
, killing them, and all the tourists to flee the town.
The South Park townspeople are relieved to see them all leave, and are grateful to have South Park "back to the way it was" - albeit now completely covered in raw sewage. This is followed by the mayor saying, "Oh yeah, now all we have is a town covered in shit. This is much better!"
South Park (season 2)
Season two of South Park, an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, began airing on April 1, 1998. The second season concluded after 18 episodes on January 20, 1999...
of the 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 22nd episode of the series overall. "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls" originally aired in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on August 19, 1998 on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
.
Plot synopsis
Park City, UtahPark City, Utah
Park City is a town in Summit and Wasatch counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,558 at the 2010 census...
is in the midst of the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. Sundance's founder, Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
, has decided that Park City has become too run down by the annual migration of the Hollywood jet-set and commercialism, so he decides to move the festival next year to another small mountain town: South Park, Colorado.
The Sundance Festival relocates to South Park, which is immediately deluged by Hollywood tourists. In school, Mr. Garrison gives the students an assignment to see one independent film during the festival and write a report on it.
Chef
Chef (South Park)
Jerome "Chef" McElroy is a fictional character on the Comedy Central series South Park. He was voiced by Isaac Hayes. A cafeteria worker at the local elementary school in the town of South Park, Colorado, Chef was generally portrayed as more level-headed than the other adult residents of the town...
sets up a sales stand at the festival for his fudge cookie recipes, and finally settles on selling his Chocolate Salty Balls
Chocolate Salty Balls
"Chocolate Salty Balls " is a 1998 song from the animated comedy TV series South Park, performed by the character Chef and featured on the soundtrack album Chef Aid: The South Park Album....
, which do brisk business. Cartman objects to the films shown at this festival, insisting that they all feature "gay cowboys eating pudding".
That night, Kyle
Kyle Broflovski
Kyle Broflovski is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by co-creator Matt Stone. Kyle is one of the show's four central characters, along with his friends Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman...
is using the toilet, when he thinks he hears Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo calling to him from the toilet. He becomes convinced that Mr. Hankey needs his help. Kyle persuades 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...
, Cartman, and 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...
to help him find Mr. Hankey, and they enter the sewer system
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
looking for him. They first find Mr. Garrison snorkeling amongst the sewage with Mr. Twig. They then find Hankey, who tells Kyle that he lives in the sewer during the year, but the influx of all the Hollywood tourists, with their health-food diets (Robert Redford and his wife are seen asking Chef for various yuppie
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
foods earlier in the episode, such as couscous
Couscous
Couscous is a Berber dish of semolina traditionally served with a meat or vegetable stew spooned over it. Couscous is a staple food throughout Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.-Etymology:...
, steamed celery and tofu
Tofu
is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
), have disrupted the "delicate ecosystem" of the sewer, which has made him deathly ill.
Kyle and the others appear before a film's showing, and Kyle pleads with the Hollywood visitors that their presence is causing the death of his good friend Mr. Hankey, but they all think Kyle is trying to pitch a script, and they offer movie deals and script changes. One agent approaches Cartman and attempts to convince him to sell the rights to Kyle's story, and of course Cartman readily agrees (despite deriding independent films as being about "gay cowboys eating pudding
Pudding
Pudding most often refers to a dessert, but it can also be a savory dish.In the United States, pudding characteristically denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, though it may also refer to other types such as bread and rice pudding.In the United Kingdom and...
" which some South Park fans have called a prescient allusion to Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
, despite being created a full year after the short story was published in the New Yorker.).
The South Park locals are beginning to tire of the festival, seeing that it is causing the town to become overrun with commercialism and Hollywood kitsch
Kitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
. Even Chef realizes the large sales of his Chocolate Salty Balls is undercut by the fact that South Park is getting run down. Robert Redford's assistant points out that South Park is being slowly corrupted just as Park City was. Robert Redford reveals that this was his intent: to make all the small towns overrun with Hollywood culture, since he cannot escape it, so he wants to inflict it on everyone else.
A new film appears overnight, based on Cartman's "treatment" of Kyle's story, starring Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
as Kyle and a monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
as Mr. Hankey. Cartman starts selling "Mr. Hankey" movie T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
s for quick cash. After the film is shown, the emerging crowd tramples Kenny to death. But instead of the usual "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" "You Bastards!" catchphrase, a man says, "Oh my God, I found a penny
Penny
A penny is a coin or a type of currency used in several English-speaking countries. It is often the smallest denomination within a currency system.-Etymology:...
!" followed by another man saying, "You bastard!"
Kyle tries to show Mr. Hankey to the moviegoers, but Mr. Hankey is pale and near death. Kyle and Chef stand vigil over the dying Mr. Hankey, but Chef feeds Hankey one of his Chocolate Salty Balls, causing Mr. Hankey to return to life.
The kids, Chef and Mr. Hankey approach Robert Redford as he is on a podium to announce the return of the film festival the next year. After he callously ignores their pleas to relocate the festival, Mr. Hankey rises above the crowd, donning a magician's hat
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
. Mr. Hankey causes the sewers to erupt over South Park, causing Robert Redford and his wife's car to fill up with feces
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
, killing them, and all the tourists to flee the town.
The South Park townspeople are relieved to see them all leave, and are grateful to have South Park "back to the way it was" - albeit now completely covered in raw sewage. This is followed by the mayor saying, "Oh yeah, now all we have is a town covered in shit. This is much better!"
External links
- "Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls" Full Episode at South Park Studios
- "Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls" Episode Guide at South Park Studios