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Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo (South Park episode)
Encyclopedia
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is the tenth episode of the first season
of the animated television series South Park
. It originally aired on Comedy Central
in the United States on December 17, 1997. In the episode, the Jewish
character Kyle
feels excluded from the rest of town during Christmas
, and is comforted by Mr. Hankey, a talking and singing Christmas poo
. Mr. Hankey does not come alive in front of anyone else, so everyone begins to think Kyle is losing his mind. Meanwhile, the townspeople remove all religious aspects of Christmas from South Park in order to remain politically correct and inoffensive.
The episode was written and directed by series co-founders Trey Parker
and Matt Stone
, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. The Mr. Hankey character was based on an idea from Parker's childhood; when Parker and Stone first conceived the South Park series, they wanted to make Mr. Hankey the lead character. Heavily influenced by the Peanuts
Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas
, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was the first South Park Christmas special and first musical episode. It served as a satire of political correctness and religious sensitivity. Parker and Stone felt the episode elevated South Park to a new level of popularity and relevance.
The episode received generally positive reviews and is largely considered one of the classic South Park episodes. It was viewed by about 4.5 million households during its original broadcast, the highest Nielsen rating
to that point for South Park and the fourth-highest overall basic cable entertainment program of 1997. In addition to Mr. Hankey himself, the episode introduced the popular South Park songs "A Lonely Jew on Christmas" and "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch". John Kricfalusi
, the creator of The Ren and Stimpy Show
, accused Parker and Stone of stealing the idea for Mr. Hankey from him, which the duo vehemently denied.
is playing Joseph of Nazareth
in the South Park Elementary School's Christmas
nativity play
, but he is forced to quit when his mother hears of the play and expresses outrage that her Jewish
son is being forced to participate in a Christian
production. She demands that the religious elements be taken out of the public school, and threatens to take her case to the mayor. Kyle instead suggests he sing the "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" song as a non-religious substitute, but he is rejected because nobody else believes in Mr. Hankey. Kyle leaves the school feeling lonely and outcast because he cannot celebrate Christmas with everyone else.
Mayor McDaniels decides that anything offensive to anyone will be removed from the Christmas celebrations, including Santa Claus
, wreaths, trees, stars, lights, candy canes and mistletoe. Kyle once again tries to suggest that they use Mr. Hankey, the living and talking Christmas fecal matter
, as a non-religious Christmas icon since he doesn't discriminate against anyone. At home, he is scolded by his parents for believing in Mr. Hankey. However, while Kyle is brushing his teeth, Mr. Hankey actually comes out of the toilet, spreading feces stains everywhere he goes, prompting Kyle's parents to blame Kyle for the mess. Kyle decides he will bring Mr. Hankey to school to prove he is real, but this only causes more problems as Mr. Hankey disguises himself as an unadorned, dried-out piece of poo when he's around people who don't believe in him, leading Cartman to ask if carrying around boxes with dried-out pieces of poo in them is some kind of Jewish tradition, and Mr. Hankey leaps at Cartman's face as he sings "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch" and Kyle is blamed. He is sent to talk to guidance counselor, Mr. Mackey, but Kyle only gets into further trouble when Mr. Hankey takes a bath in Mr. Mackey's coffee. Cartman, Stan
and Kenny
believe Kyle is insane and check him into a mental institution.
Like the whole town, the school Christmas pageant is stripped of all symbols of Christmas, and the children instead present a minimalist
song and dance created by composer Philip Glass
. The parents, astounded by how awful the pageant has turned out, begin blaming one another for destroying Christmas and a fight breaks out. When Chef
finds out where Kyle is, he reveals to the children that Mr. Hankey does actually exist. When all the children start believing, Mr. Hankey finally reveals himself to everyone and scolds them for losing sight of the good things of Christmas and focusing on the bad. The townspeople release Kyle from the asylum and apologize, then they all sing Christmas songs and watch Mr. Hankey fly away with Santa Claus. Cartman, Stan, and Kyle feel that something is still missing. "THE END" then appears, and Kenny is excited and relieved that he has survived the entire episode without getting killed in spite of being dangerous situations throughout it. During the end credits, Jesus sings "Happy Birthday
" to himself alone in his television studio.
's father created when he was toilet-training Trey as a child. Parker said he refused to flush the toilet as a child, so his father told him if he did not flush down his stool, which he called "Mr. Hankey", it would come to life and kill him. The concept stayed with Parker throughout his childhood; starting elementary school and throughout his entire education, he would often draw the character in class, wearing a sailor's hat instead of the Santa Claus hat he would later don in South Park. Parker shared the concept with future South Park co-creator Matt Stone
when the two met at the University of Colorado at Boulder
, and the duo immediately knew they wanted to create a film or production involving Mr. Hankey. The two discussed filming a three-minute short film involving a boy who befriended the talking stool, but Mr. Hankey would not come alive for anybody else, prompting others to believe the boy was crazy. They planned for the boy's parents to find him holding a stool in the bathroom and blame the child for smearing feces along the walls when it was actually Mr. Hankey's fault; they also planned to have him visit a school counselor, where Mr. Hankey would leap into the counselor's coffee mug and the boy would be blamed. At the end, it would turn out that the boy was indeed crazy and Mr. Hankey was not real at all, but a figment of the boy's imagination. Parker and Stone never made the short film, but practically all of its elements were included in the future South Park episode "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", with the notable exception of the ending. In the episode, Kyle would play the boy and Mr. Mackey would play the counselor.
Although the Mr. Hankey short film was never made, Parker and Stone made two Christmas-related animated short films called The Spirit of Christmas
, which served as precursors to the South Park series. When the shorts began to generate interest for a possible television series, Parker and Stone originally conceived the idea of a South Park-like show with four children characters, but with a talking stool named Mr. Hankey as the show's main protagonist; they planned to call it "The Mr. Hankey Show". They pitched the idea to friend Brian Graden
, then a television executive with the Fox Broadcasting Company
, but he rejected it and said, according to Matt Stone, "I'm not putting poo on my network". Parker and Stone adapted their original idea into a show revolving around the South Park town and four children without Mr. Hankey as a protagonist, but they planned to revive the character as a minor supporting role in a future episode. Later, when Comedy Central
expressed interest in the series, Parker and Stone brought up the idea of a Mr. Hankey episode during negotiations with the network executives. Parker claimed during a meeting, he said, "One thing we have to know before we really go any further: how do you feel about talking poo?" The executives were receptive to the idea, which Parker said was one of the main reasons he and Stone decided to sign on with the channel.
The elements of the episode involving Kyle's loneliness as a Jew during Christmas were inspired by Parker and Stone's perceptions of Jews growing up in Colorado during their childhood. Although the two went to different schools, they both witnessed Jewish children get beat up and bullied because both of their schools had very few Jewish students to begin with; although Stone is ethnically Jewish
, he was not raised a practicing Jew and so he did not experience much of the bullying himself firsthand. The unsuccessful efforts by the South Park Elementary School in the episode to include people of non-Christian denomination were inspired by similarly failed attempts Parker and Stone witnessed growing up. Parker cited as an example a chorus concert in which the single Jewish student was asked to sing her own Hanukkah
song while everybody else sang Christmas songs; although the idea was to make the student feel special, Parker said it only made her feel more lonely and isolated.
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was written and directed by Parker and Stone, and first aired in the United States on Comedy Central
on December 17, 1997, with a rating of TV-MA. It was the first official South Park Christmas episode. Television journalists said the Spirit of Christmas shorts were precursors to Mr. Hankey and that they shared some common traits, but that the television episode was considered tamer and more tasteful. Parker and Stone originally conceived the episode "Damien", which involves a boxing match between Jesus and Satan, as the first season's Christmas episode. Although they had long planned to feature Mr. Hankey in the show, they did not decide to make him a Christmas character until halfway through the filming of "Damien". Once they made the decision, they decided to make "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" the holiday episode instead; although it would not air until after the "Mr. Hankey" episode, Parker and Stone finished production of "Damien" before working on the "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo".
At the time they were writing the episode, Parker and Stone had seen a large number of news reports about government buildings refusing to allow the display of models of the nativity scene
and other Christian
holiday symbols, in an effort not to offend other religions. Parker and Stone, as two agnostics
who still appreciated the Christmas holiday, said they felt the idea was "ridiculous" and, according to Stone, "We just wanted Mr. Hankey to say Christmas was about good and about presents, and it doesn't have to be this religious (controversy)." The two sought to write an episode in the tradition of old classic Christmas specials with their own irreverent South Park twist, and so they watched the famous 1965 Peanuts
special, A Charlie Brown Christmas
, repeatedly during the production process. Parker said, "At this point, we just sort of wanted to do a Charlie Brown Christmas South Park version. That (special) was definitely a huge part of my life growing up."
The episode was considered the first South Park musical episode, and included such songs as "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", "A Lonely Jew on Christmas" and "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch". Parker and Stone were initially concerned about making a musical because, Parker said, "The general rule was people hated musicals". For the Mr. Hankey character, Parker and Stone adapted most of the elements from the Mr. Hankey short film they planned in college, except that Mr. Hankey would prove to be real, not a figment of Kyle's imagination. Parker said this was decided because of his frustration with the character Mr. Snuffleupagus
in the children's show Sesame Street
; for the first 14 years of the show, Mr. Snuffleupagus was an imaginary character seen only by Big Bird
, which Parker said "really bummed me out". Parker and Stone felt Mr. Hankey should embody the wholesomeness and morals of cartoons from the 1930s, so they designed him to resemble the version of Mickey Mouse
in the 1928
cartoon Steamboat Willie
, particularly in his eyes. For the scenes in which Mr. Hankey smears feces wherever he walks, the animators scanned images of spread out chocolate and fudge and inserted it into the episode. Parker and Stone had trouble deciding on a voice for Mr. Hankey, but Stone said it came to him while eating a Sausage McMuffin
at a McDonald's
in New York City
, while taking a break from promoting South Park to the press.
Although Comedy Central did not object to most aspects of the episode, they did require some edits to material they deemed potentially offensive. During rehearsal for a Nativity play
, a baby Jesus
resembling a fetus
pops out of Wendy, who is playing the Virgin Mary
, and is caught by Kyle, who is portraying Joseph of Nazareth. Although the scene was ultimately kept in the episode, Comedy Central executive had problems with it and Parker said they had to handle its animation "very carefully". Additionally, during filming of the live-action Mr. Hankey commercial, the baby originally held the Mr. Hankey stool (actually chocolate) and took a bite out of it. Comedy Central officials would not allow the scene in the episode and it was changed to portray the idea that the baby had already eaten the stool off-camera, which Parker said he felt was actually funnier.
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is the first episode in which Kenny was not killed. Parker and Stone deliberately included several scenes that looked like they might lead to Kenny's death, but they decided because it was Christmas that they would not kill him. The episode was also the first time Mr. Garrison
was portrayed as an anti-semite and racist
, particularly when he asks Mayor McDaniels if she can get rid of all the Mexicans
in South Park. Parker said this decision was made because, "Garrison at that point had already shown himself to be the most messed up person in the entire town, and there's obviously so much wrong with him mentally. A person that disturbed being a racist is funny to us."
set in November 1998. It was included in the third volume, which also included the episodes "Starvin' Marvin
", "Mecha-Streisand" and "Tom's Rhinoplasty". "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was also one of six episodes included on a 1998 VHS
called "South Park Festival Special", which included "Starvin' Marvin", "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!", "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics
", "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery
" and "Pinkeye". It was later released in the November 2007 DVD release "Christmas Time in South Park", which also included the episodes, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!", "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics", "A Very Crappy Christmas
", "Red Sleigh Down
", "It's Christmas in Canada
" and "Woodland Critter Christmas
". The episode, along with the other 12 from the first season, was also included in the DVD release "South Park: The Complete First Season", which was released on November 12, 2002. Parker and Stone recorded commentary track for each episode, but they were not included with the DVDs due to "standards" issues with some of the statements; Parker and Stone refused to allow the tracks to be edited and censored, so they were released in a CD completely separately from the DVDs.
Songs from "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" were featured in the October 2007 CD
soundtrack release called "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics". The Birmingham News
said the album "gleefully tramples on one of America's most cherished holidays (and) will likely make even cynical listeners gasp".
in Christmas, suggesting viewers should enjoy those elements of the holiday without taking religion too seriously. York University
Professor Alison Halsall said of this aspect of the episode, "Again, Parker and Stone blur the sacred and the profane, in this instance, to gut holidays of their traditional meanings."
The episode has also been described as simultaneously embracing and parodying animated Christmas specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman
and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
. It has also been described as a commentary on the way Jewish
children are overlooked during the Christmas holiday; this theme is overtly stated by Stan, who says at the end of the episode that Jews and Hanukkah "can be cool" as well as Christmas. M. Keith Booker, author of Drawn to Television: Prime-Time Animation from The Flintstones to Family Guy, said although the episode is irreverent in its treatment of Christmas, "even if spearheaded by a singing turd, (it) is about as close as South Park ever comes to being sentimental and nostalgic". Literary critic Mark Caldwell said the fact that Kenny survived the episode demonstrates the episode's "strong, albeit dutifully ironic, undercurrent of conventional holiday decency."
Alison Halsall said "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is the strongest example of a history of scatology
, the study of excrement, throughout the South Park series. Halsall said the use of fecal matter as a character, and especially its tendency to smear parts of itself around as it moved, directly confronts the viewer with "the inherent dirtiness of the human body, no matter how much we try to aestheticize it. Mr. Hankey's stains systematically mess up the cleanliness of the social order. ... South Park refuses sanitization through the gross-out factor."
reported that Comedy Central executives had plans to produce a Mr. Hankey chocolate bar
. Larry Lieberman, the channel's vice president of strategic planning and new business development, said a sketch of a Mr. Hankey candy bar was drawn and circulated, but mainly as a joke; he said no serious discussions were held about producing such an item. A stuffed Mr. Hankey became one of the most popular South Park tie-in products of the 1998 Christmas season.
In addition to the title character, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" included the first appearances of characters Priest Maxi and Mr. Mackey. Both characters appeared in "Damien", which was produced before "Mr. Hankey", but the Christmas episode aired first. Mr. Mackey was inspired by Parker's real-life school guidance counselor; Parker, who provides the voice for Mackey, said the real-life counselor was similarly thin and wiry and that Parker's voice for Mr. Mackey is an exact, unexaggerated version of how his counselor spoke.
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" includes several references to Peanuts holiday special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. A Christmas pageant features the same biblical quote spoken by Linus
in that special; additionally, the music featured in the pageant is very similar to the Peanuts special's musical score by Vince Guaraldi
, and the South Park kids go outside to catch falling snowflake on their tongues in the same way as in the special. A doctor prescribes Prozac, a real life antidepressant
, to Kyle for his apparent love for feces, which he describes as "fecalphilia", a fictional condition. Composer Philip Glass
composes the avant-garde musical score for the non-denominational Christmas play. Stone and Parker both strongly dislike Glass; Parker, who was a music major in college, said, "I really thought you could basically tell a third grader to sit down at a keyboard and mess around and sell it as a Philip Glass album, and no one would know the difference." The do-it-yourself kit in the live action commercial, in which families can make their own Mr. Hankey, is similar to the Mr. Potato Head
toy set.
In the episode, Kyle's mother tells Mr. Garrison that that because Kyle is Jewish, he should not be playing Joseph of Arimathea
. In reality, Kyle was playing St. Joseph, and the tradition of Joseph of Arimathea
is actually associated with the death of Jesus
, not the birth.
" as helping elevate the series, they felt "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" elevated South Park to a new level of popularity and relevance. Parker said of it, "This was the episode that just vaulted everything." Following the success of "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", a large number of celebrities started contacting Comedy Central with the hopes of making guest appearances in South Park episodes. This allowed Parker and Stone to practically take their pick of guest stars, and led to appearances by Natasha Henstridge
in "Tom's Rhinoplasty
" and Robert Smith
in "Mecha-Streisand
". Stone said although "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" has become less shocking with time, viewers at the time of the episode's original broadcast were shocked, and some were horrified, at the idea of a living and speaking Christmas stool. "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was the fourth-highest overall basic cable entertainment program of 1997. In its original American broadcast, the episode received a Nielsen Rating
of 5.4, meaning the episode was seen by about 4.5 million households. The rating was the highest yet for South Park, and was more than seven times the Comedy Central prime-time average. The episode also earned a 51 share of the male demographic aged between 18 and 24; a share represents the percentage of households using a television at the time the program is airing.
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" has been described as one of the classic episodes of South Park. Chris Vognar of The Dallas Morning News
described Mr. Hankey himself as "the most outrageous character yet on TV's most outrageous show". Charlie Patton of The Florida Times-Union
said the episode was "crude, nasty, irreverent and generally offensive -- also extremely funny". He also said of the Mr. Hankey character, "If you're the sort of person who didn't care for that scene in Trainspotting
where the Ewan McGregor
character dove down the toilet and into the sewer in pursuit of his lost suppository, the whole Mr. Hankey subplot is going to be deeply disturbing." Doug Pratt, a DVD
reviewer and Rolling Stone
contributor, said, "Technically, the Christmas episode might well be the show's best effort, artistically, because it tackles the PC-ification of Christmas head-on, and also has an interesting psychological subtext: does the hero actually see Mr. Hankey, or does he have some serious psychological problems?" Diane Werts of Newsday
said of the episode, "It's gross. It's yucky. It's probably offensive. It's also possibly the funniest holiday episode anybody's airing this year." Werts particularly praised the song "A Lonely Jew on Christmas". Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, author of Taking South Park Seriously, said, "This episode arguably pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable, both for Christmas specials and television in general, farther than any previous one." Weinstock said this was particularly true of the episode's fake live-action commercial.
Before the episode was released, Debbie Liebling
, then Comedy Central vice president of development and production, herself described the episode as "adorably offensive". Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
called the episode "a brilliant skewering" of political correctness and oversensitivity, and called it "at once hilariously satiric and extraordinarily foul." Sepinwall also Mr. Hankey in his 1997 list of most memorable TV moments, describing the character as the year's "most disturbing cartoon image" and as "a mythical holiday creature so bizarre and offensive it literally cannot be described in a family newspaper". Matt Roush of USA Today
praised the episode, which he described as "ribald, raunchy and riotous". A.J. Jacobs of Entertainment Weekly
said in January 1998 that the episode was "already infamous". Jacobs also said Mr. Hankey was so popular, he half-jokingly suggested Matt Parker and Trey Stone pursue a spin-off
revolving around the character.
The music in "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was also praised. "A Lonely Jew on Christmas" has been described as a "classic song", and "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch", which reviewers described as one of Cartman's trademarks, was included in the 1999 South Park film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
. Not all reviews of "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" were positive. Rick Marin of Newsweek
described the episode as "simply one long potty joke". Virginia Rohan of The Record
said he liked Kyle's song and some of Kenny's antics, but said the episode was not as funny as The Spirit of Christmas shorts. Rohan said South Park "can be brilliantly over the edge, but often tonight, it sorely needs a comic bungee cord".
In 2003, the Chicago
-based RedEye
ranked "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" the greatest South Park episode. In October 2004, the Comedy Central website held a poll to determine the top 27 South Park episodes for a television marathon; "Mr Hankey, the Christmas Poo" came third, just behind "Good Times with Weapons
" at number two and "Fat Butt and Pancake Head
" at number one. South Park Studios, the official South Park website, listed "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" at number four on its list of the Five Most Notorious Episodes.
, the creator of The Ren and Stimpy Show
, claimed the Mr. Hankey concept was stolen from his cartoon short, "Nutty the Friendly Dump", which was part of a cartoon book series viewable online. Kricfalusi said after the show aired, "I got nine or 10 messages from friends screaming, 'I can't believe this! They totally stole your story! ... This idea of [poop] singing or dancing and being friends, well, that is my idea." Kricfalusi said he felt other elements of South Park were lifted from his work, and he told media outlets his company Spümcø
was contemplating taking legal action against Parker and Stone. Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said Stone and Parker were not familiar with "Nutty the Friendly Dump" and that the claim was "ludicrous". Parker said he had never seen more than half an episode of Ren and Stimpy, which he said he did not enjoy because the characters were too over-the-top and the voice acting was too annoying. Parker said Kricfalusi eventually contacted the South Park creators: "He wrote a letter back saying, 'Oh, OK, I see how it could just be a coincidence, but you should just admit to the press that you're a big Ren and Stimpy fan.' I'm not a Ren and Stimpy fan."
South Park (season 1)
The first season of the American animated television series South Park initially ran for 13 episodes on the US network Comedy Central, from August 13, 1997 to February 25, 1998. The creators of the series, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, wrote and directed most of the season's episodes, while Dan...
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...
. It originally 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 on December 17, 1997. In the episode, the Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
character 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...
feels excluded from the rest of town during Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, and is comforted by Mr. Hankey, a talking and singing Christmas poo
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
. Mr. Hankey does not come alive in front of anyone else, so everyone begins to think Kyle is losing his mind. Meanwhile, the townspeople remove all religious aspects of Christmas from South Park in order to remain politically correct and inoffensive.
The episode was written and directed by series co-founders 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 Matt Stone
Matt Stone
Matthew Richard "Matt" Stone is an American screenwriter, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of South Park along with creative partner and best friend, Trey Parker....
, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. The Mr. Hankey character was based on an idea from Parker's childhood; when Parker and Stone first conceived the South Park series, they wanted to make Mr. Hankey the lead character. Heavily influenced by the Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was the first South Park Christmas special and first musical episode. It served as a satire of political correctness and religious sensitivity. Parker and Stone felt the episode elevated South Park to a new level of popularity and relevance.
The episode received generally positive reviews and is largely considered one of the classic South Park episodes. It was viewed by about 4.5 million households during its original broadcast, the highest Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
to that point for South Park and the fourth-highest overall basic cable entertainment program of 1997. In addition to Mr. Hankey himself, the episode introduced the popular South Park songs "A Lonely Jew on Christmas" and "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch". John Kricfalusi
John Kricfalusi
Michael John Kricfalusi , better known as John K., is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, its adults-only spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based...
, the creator of The Ren and Stimpy Show
The Ren and Stimpy Show
The Ren & Stimpy Show, often simply referred to as Ren & Stimpy, is an American animated television series, created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on the titular characters: Ren Höek, a psychotic chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, a good-natured, dimwitted cat...
, accused Parker and Stone of stealing the idea for Mr. Hankey from him, which the duo vehemently denied.
Plot
KyleKyle 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 playing Joseph of Nazareth
Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....
in the South Park Elementary School's Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
nativity play
Nativity scene
A nativity scene, manger scene, krippe, crèche, or crib, is a depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke...
, but he is forced to quit when his mother hears of the play and expresses outrage that her Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
son is being forced to participate in a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
production. She demands that the religious elements be taken out of the public school, and threatens to take her case to the mayor. Kyle instead suggests he sing the "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" song as a non-religious substitute, but he is rejected because nobody else believes in Mr. Hankey. Kyle leaves the school feeling lonely and outcast because he cannot celebrate Christmas with everyone else.
Mayor McDaniels decides that anything offensive to anyone will be removed from the Christmas celebrations, including Santa Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
, wreaths, trees, stars, lights, candy canes and mistletoe. Kyle once again tries to suggest that they use Mr. Hankey, the living and talking Christmas fecal matter
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
, as a non-religious Christmas icon since he doesn't discriminate against anyone. At home, he is scolded by his parents for believing in Mr. Hankey. However, while Kyle is brushing his teeth, Mr. Hankey actually comes out of the toilet, spreading feces stains everywhere he goes, prompting Kyle's parents to blame Kyle for the mess. Kyle decides he will bring Mr. Hankey to school to prove he is real, but this only causes more problems as Mr. Hankey disguises himself as an unadorned, dried-out piece of poo when he's around people who don't believe in him, leading Cartman to ask if carrying around boxes with dried-out pieces of poo in them is some kind of Jewish tradition, and Mr. Hankey leaps at Cartman's face as he sings "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch" and Kyle is blamed. He is sent to talk to guidance counselor, Mr. Mackey, but Kyle only gets into further trouble when Mr. Hankey takes a bath in Mr. Mackey's coffee. Cartman, 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 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...
believe Kyle is insane and check him into a mental institution.
Like the whole town, the school Christmas pageant is stripped of all symbols of Christmas, and the children instead present a minimalist
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
song and dance created by composer Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
. The parents, astounded by how awful the pageant has turned out, begin blaming one another for destroying Christmas and a fight breaks out. When 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...
finds out where Kyle is, he reveals to the children that Mr. Hankey does actually exist. When all the children start believing, Mr. Hankey finally reveals himself to everyone and scolds them for losing sight of the good things of Christmas and focusing on the bad. The townspeople release Kyle from the asylum and apologize, then they all sing Christmas songs and watch Mr. Hankey fly away with Santa Claus. Cartman, Stan, and Kyle feel that something is still missing. "THE END" then appears, and Kenny is excited and relieved that he has survived the entire episode without getting killed in spite of being dangerous situations throughout it. During the end credits, Jesus sings "Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to You
"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth...
" to himself alone in his television studio.
Conception and early history
The Mr. Hankey character was based on an idea Trey ParkerTrey 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...
's father created when he was toilet-training Trey as a child. Parker said he refused to flush the toilet as a child, so his father told him if he did not flush down his stool, which he called "Mr. Hankey", it would come to life and kill him. The concept stayed with Parker throughout his childhood; starting elementary school and throughout his entire education, he would often draw the character in class, wearing a sailor's hat instead of the Santa Claus hat he would later don in South Park. Parker shared the concept with future South Park co-creator Matt Stone
Matt Stone
Matthew Richard "Matt" Stone is an American screenwriter, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of South Park along with creative partner and best friend, Trey Parker....
when the two met at the University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
, and the duo immediately knew they wanted to create a film or production involving Mr. Hankey. The two discussed filming a three-minute short film involving a boy who befriended the talking stool, but Mr. Hankey would not come alive for anybody else, prompting others to believe the boy was crazy. They planned for the boy's parents to find him holding a stool in the bathroom and blame the child for smearing feces along the walls when it was actually Mr. Hankey's fault; they also planned to have him visit a school counselor, where Mr. Hankey would leap into the counselor's coffee mug and the boy would be blamed. At the end, it would turn out that the boy was indeed crazy and Mr. Hankey was not real at all, but a figment of the boy's imagination. Parker and Stone never made the short film, but practically all of its elements were included in the future South Park episode "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", with the notable exception of the ending. In the episode, Kyle would play the boy and Mr. Mackey would play the counselor.
Although the Mr. Hankey short film was never made, Parker and Stone made two Christmas-related animated short films called The Spirit of Christmas
The Spirit of Christmas (short film)
The Spirit of Christmas is the name of two different animated short films made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They are notable for being precursors to the animated series South Park. To differentiate the two, they are often referred to as Jesus vs. Frosty and Jesus vs. Santa .- Jesus vs. Frosty...
, which served as precursors to the South Park series. When the shorts began to generate interest for a possible television series, Parker and Stone originally conceived the idea of a South Park-like show with four children characters, but with a talking stool named Mr. Hankey as the show's main protagonist; they planned to call it "The Mr. Hankey Show". They pitched the idea to friend Brian Graden
Brian Graden
-Biography:Graden grew up in Illinois and graduated from Hillsboro High School in 1981. He graduated from Oral Roberts University in 1985 with a degree in business, and later graduated with an MBA from Harvard University....
, then a television executive with the Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, but he rejected it and said, according to Matt Stone, "I'm not putting poo on my network". Parker and Stone adapted their original idea into a show revolving around the South Park town and four children without Mr. Hankey as a protagonist, but they planned to revive the character as a minor supporting role in a future episode. Later, when Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
expressed interest in the series, Parker and Stone brought up the idea of a Mr. Hankey episode during negotiations with the network executives. Parker claimed during a meeting, he said, "One thing we have to know before we really go any further: how do you feel about talking poo?" The executives were receptive to the idea, which Parker said was one of the main reasons he and Stone decided to sign on with the channel.
The elements of the episode involving Kyle's loneliness as a Jew during Christmas were inspired by Parker and Stone's perceptions of Jews growing up in Colorado during their childhood. Although the two went to different schools, they both witnessed Jewish children get beat up and bullied because both of their schools had very few Jewish students to begin with; although Stone is ethnically Jewish
Who is a Jew?
"Who is a Jew?" is a basic question about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification. The question is based in ideas about Jewish personhood which themselves have cultural, religious, genealogical, and personal dimensions...
, he was not raised a practicing Jew and so he did not experience much of the bullying himself firsthand. The unsuccessful efforts by the South Park Elementary School in the episode to include people of non-Christian denomination were inspired by similarly failed attempts Parker and Stone witnessed growing up. Parker cited as an example a chorus concert in which the single Jewish student was asked to sing her own Hanukkah
Hanukkah
Hanukkah , also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE...
song while everybody else sang Christmas songs; although the idea was to make the student feel special, Parker said it only made her feel more lonely and isolated.
Episode production
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
on December 17, 1997, with a rating of TV-MA. It was the first official South Park Christmas episode. Television journalists said the Spirit of Christmas shorts were precursors to Mr. Hankey and that they shared some common traits, but that the television episode was considered tamer and more tasteful. Parker and Stone originally conceived the episode "Damien", which involves a boxing match between Jesus and Satan, as the first season's Christmas episode. Although they had long planned to feature Mr. Hankey in the show, they did not decide to make him a Christmas character until halfway through the filming of "Damien". Once they made the decision, they decided to make "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" the holiday episode instead; although it would not air until after the "Mr. Hankey" episode, Parker and Stone finished production of "Damien" before working on the "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo".
At the time they were writing the episode, Parker and Stone had seen a large number of news reports about government buildings refusing to allow the display of models of the nativity scene
Nativity scene
A nativity scene, manger scene, krippe, crèche, or crib, is a depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke...
and other Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
holiday symbols, in an effort not to offend other religions. Parker and Stone, as two agnostics
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....
who still appreciated the Christmas holiday, said they felt the idea was "ridiculous" and, according to Stone, "We just wanted Mr. Hankey to say Christmas was about good and about presents, and it doesn't have to be this religious (controversy)." The two sought to write an episode in the tradition of old classic Christmas specials with their own irreverent South Park twist, and so they watched the famous 1965 Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
special, A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
, repeatedly during the production process. Parker said, "At this point, we just sort of wanted to do a Charlie Brown Christmas South Park version. That (special) was definitely a huge part of my life growing up."
The episode was considered the first South Park musical episode, and included such songs as "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", "A Lonely Jew on Christmas" and "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch". Parker and Stone were initially concerned about making a musical because, Parker said, "The general rule was people hated musicals". For the Mr. Hankey character, Parker and Stone adapted most of the elements from the Mr. Hankey short film they planned in college, except that Mr. Hankey would prove to be real, not a figment of Kyle's imagination. Parker said this was decided because of his frustration with the character Mr. Snuffleupagus
Aloysius Snuffleupagus
Aloysius Snuffleupagus, more commonly known as Mr. Snuffleupagus or Snuffy, is one of the Muppet characters on the longest-running educational television program for young children, Sesame Street. He was created as a woolly mammoth, without tusks or ears, and has a long thick pointed tail, similar...
in the children's show Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
; for the first 14 years of the show, Mr. Snuffleupagus was an imaginary character seen only by Big Bird
Big Bird
Big Bird is a protagonist of the children's television show Sesame Street. Big Bird, like many of the other Sesame Street characters, is a Muppet character. He is sometimes referred to simply as "Bird" by his friends....
, which Parker said "really bummed me out". Parker and Stone felt Mr. Hankey should embody the wholesomeness and morals of cartoons from the 1930s, so they designed him to resemble the version of Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
in the 1928
1928 in film
-Events:Although some movies released in 1928 had sound, most were still silent.* July 28 - Lights of New York is released by Warner Brothers. It is the first "100% Talkie" feature film, in that dialog is spoken throughout the film...
cartoon Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, and as his girlfriend Minnie, but the characters...
, particularly in his eyes. For the scenes in which Mr. Hankey smears feces wherever he walks, the animators scanned images of spread out chocolate and fudge and inserted it into the episode. Parker and Stone had trouble deciding on a voice for Mr. Hankey, but Stone said it came to him while eating a Sausage McMuffin
McMuffin
The McMuffin is a family of breakfast sandwiches in various sizes and configurations, sold by the fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's. The Egg McMuffin is the signature breakfast sandwich; it was invented by the late McDonald's franchisee Herb Peterson in the late 1960s and was introduced...
at a McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, while taking a break from promoting South Park to the press.
Although Comedy Central did not object to most aspects of the episode, they did require some edits to material they deemed potentially offensive. During rehearsal for a Nativity play
Nativity play
A Nativity play or Christmas pageant is a play which recounts the story of the Nativity of Jesus. It is usually performed at Christmas, the feast of the Nativity.-Liturgical:...
, a baby Jesus
Child Jesus
The Child Jesus represents Jesus from his Nativity to age 12. At 13 he was considered to be adult, in accordance with the Jewish custom of his time, and that of most Christian cultures until recent centuries.The Child Jesus is frequently depicted in art, from around the third or fourth century...
resembling a fetus
Fetus
A fetus is a developing mammal or other viviparous vertebrate after the embryonic stage and before birth.In humans, the fetal stage of prenatal development starts at the beginning of the 11th week in gestational age, which is the 9th week after fertilization.-Etymology and spelling variations:The...
pops out of Wendy, who is playing the Virgin Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
, and is caught by Kyle, who is portraying Joseph of Nazareth. Although the scene was ultimately kept in the episode, Comedy Central executive had problems with it and Parker said they had to handle its animation "very carefully". Additionally, during filming of the live-action Mr. Hankey commercial, the baby originally held the Mr. Hankey stool (actually chocolate) and took a bite out of it. Comedy Central officials would not allow the scene in the episode and it was changed to portray the idea that the baby had already eaten the stool off-camera, which Parker said he felt was actually funnier.
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is the first episode in which Kenny was not killed. Parker and Stone deliberately included several scenes that looked like they might lead to Kenny's death, but they decided because it was Christmas that they would not kill him. The episode was also the first time Mr. Garrison
Herbert Garrison
Mr. Herbert Garrison is a recurring character in the American animated television series South Park. He is voiced by Trey Parker. For the first eight seasons of the series, the character was known as Mr. Garrison but underwent sex reassignment surgery in the season 9 episode "Mr. Garrison's Fancy...
was portrayed as an anti-semite and racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, particularly when he asks Mayor McDaniels if she can get rid of all the Mexicans
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in South Park. Parker said this decision was made because, "Garrison at that point had already shown himself to be the most messed up person in the entire town, and there's obviously so much wrong with him mentally. A person that disturbed being a racist is funny to us."
Home video and soundtrack release
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was released, along with 11 other episodes, in a three-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 in November 1998. It was included in the third volume, which also included the episodes "Starvin' Marvin
Starvin' Marvin (South Park)
"Starvin' Marvin" is the ninth episode of the first season of the American animated television series South Park. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 19, 1997. In the episode, Cartman, Kenny, Kyle and Stan send money to an African charity hoping to get a sports watch,...
", "Mecha-Streisand" and "Tom's Rhinoplasty". "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was also one of six episodes included on a 1998 VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
called "South Park Festival Special", which included "Starvin' Marvin", "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!", "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics
Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics
"Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" is episode 46 of Comedy Central's animated television series South Park. An album of comedic holiday songs, some featured in the episode, and others exclusive to the album, or featured in other episodes, was released the week prior to the episode's original air...
", "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery
Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery
"Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" is the twelfth episode of the third season of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on October 27, 1999...
" and "Pinkeye". It was later released in the November 2007 DVD release "Christmas Time in South Park", which also included the episodes, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson!", "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics", "A Very Crappy Christmas
A Very Crappy Christmas
"A Very Crappy Christmas" is seventeenth and final episode of the fourth season of the animated television series South Park, and the 65th episode overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on December 20, 2000. In the episode, Kyle awaits Mr. Hankey on Christmas, but he does...
", "Red Sleigh Down
Red Sleigh Down
"Red Sleigh Down" is episode 96 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on December 11, 2002. The episode is notable for the return of Kenny from his death in Season Five...
", "It's Christmas in Canada
It's Christmas in Canada
"It's Christmas in Canada" is episode 111 of the American cartoon series South Park. The episode originally aired on December 17, 2003 and was nominated for an Emmy Award...
" and "Woodland Critter Christmas
Woodland Critter Christmas
"Woodland Critter Christmas" is episode 125 of the Comedy Central series South Park, and originally aired December 15, 2004. It is currently the last South Park Christmas theme episode.-Synopsis:...
". The episode, along with the other 12 from the first season, was also included in the DVD release "South Park: The Complete First Season", which was released on November 12, 2002. Parker and Stone recorded commentary track for each episode, but they were not included with the DVDs due to "standards" issues with some of the statements; Parker and Stone refused to allow the tracks to be edited and censored, so they were released in a CD completely separately from the DVDs.
Songs from "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" were featured in the October 2007 CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
soundtrack release called "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics". The Birmingham News
The Birmingham News
The Birmingham News is the principal daily newspaper for Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and the largest newspaper in Alabama. The paper is owned by Advance Publications...
said the album "gleefully tramples on one of America's most cherished holidays (and) will likely make even cynical listeners gasp".
Themes
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is a satire on political correctness and religious sensitivity, particularly in its portrayal of the characters organizing "The Happy, Non-Offensive, Non-Denominational Christmas Play" in order to avoid offending anyone of any religious backgrounds. While many Christmas specials focus on the religious, spiritual and moral values of the Christmas holiday rather than the commercial aspects, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" actually embraces commercialismCommercialism
Commercialism, in its original meaning, is the practices, methods, aims, and spirit of commerce or business. Today, however, it primarily refers to the tendency within open-market capitalism to turn everything into objects, images, and services sold for the purpose of generating profit...
in Christmas, suggesting viewers should enjoy those elements of the holiday without taking religion too seriously. York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
Professor Alison Halsall said of this aspect of the episode, "Again, Parker and Stone blur the sacred and the profane, in this instance, to gut holidays of their traditional meanings."
The episode has also been described as simultaneously embracing and parodying animated Christmas specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman
Frosty the Snowman (TV program)
Frosty the Snowman is an American animated television special based on the popular song of the same title. The program, which first aired on December 7, 1969 on CBS , was produced for television by Rankin/Bass and featured the voices of comedians Jimmy Durante as narrator and Jackie Vernon as the...
and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a 1966 American prime time animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz....
. It has also been described as a commentary on the way Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
children are overlooked during the Christmas holiday; this theme is overtly stated by Stan, who says at the end of the episode that Jews and Hanukkah "can be cool" as well as Christmas. M. Keith Booker, author of Drawn to Television: Prime-Time Animation from The Flintstones to Family Guy, said although the episode is irreverent in its treatment of Christmas, "even if spearheaded by a singing turd, (it) is about as close as South Park ever comes to being sentimental and nostalgic". Literary critic Mark Caldwell said the fact that Kenny survived the episode demonstrates the episode's "strong, albeit dutifully ironic, undercurrent of conventional holiday decency."
Alison Halsall said "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is the strongest example of a history of scatology
Scatology
In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of feces.Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet , healthiness, and diseases such as tapeworms. The word derives from the Greek σκώρ In medicine and biology,...
, the study of excrement, throughout the South Park series. Halsall said the use of fecal matter as a character, and especially its tendency to smear parts of itself around as it moved, directly confronts the viewer with "the inherent dirtiness of the human body, no matter how much we try to aestheticize it. Mr. Hankey's stains systematically mess up the cleanliness of the social order. ... South Park refuses sanitization through the gross-out factor."
Cultural impact and references
Some writers consider Mr. Hankey one of the most easily recognizable and popular of the non-regular South Park characters. His high-pitched greeting, "Howdy-ho", was equally recognizable and became one of the most quoted lines from the show's first season. Several fan web sites were made about the character within months of the episode's broadcast. In January 1998, Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment 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...
reported that Comedy Central executives had plans to produce a Mr. Hankey chocolate bar
Candy bar
A chocolate bar is a confection in bar form comprising some or all of the following components: cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, milk. The relative presence or absence of these components form the subclasses of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. In addition to these main...
. Larry Lieberman, the channel's vice president of strategic planning and new business development, said a sketch of a Mr. Hankey candy bar was drawn and circulated, but mainly as a joke; he said no serious discussions were held about producing such an item. A stuffed Mr. Hankey became one of the most popular South Park tie-in products of the 1998 Christmas season.
In addition to the title character, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" included the first appearances of characters Priest Maxi and Mr. Mackey. Both characters appeared in "Damien", which was produced before "Mr. Hankey", but the Christmas episode aired first. Mr. Mackey was inspired by Parker's real-life school guidance counselor; Parker, who provides the voice for Mackey, said the real-life counselor was similarly thin and wiry and that Parker's voice for Mr. Mackey is an exact, unexaggerated version of how his counselor spoke.
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" includes several references to Peanuts holiday special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. A Christmas pageant features the same biblical quote spoken by Linus
Linus van Pelt
Linus van Pelt is a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. The best friend of Charlie Brown, Linus is also the younger brother of Lucy van Pelt and older brother of Rerun van Pelt. He first appeared on September 19, 1952; however, he was not mentioned by name until three days later....
in that special; additionally, the music featured in the pageant is very similar to the Peanuts special's musical score by Vince Guaraldi
Vince Guaraldi
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...
, and the South Park kids go outside to catch falling snowflake on their tongues in the same way as in the special. A doctor prescribes Prozac, a real life antidepressant
Antidepressant
An antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used to alleviate mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia and anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder. According to Gelder, Mayou &*Geddes people with a depressive illness will experience a therapeutic effect to their mood;...
, to Kyle for his apparent love for feces, which he describes as "fecalphilia", a fictional condition. Composer Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
composes the avant-garde musical score for the non-denominational Christmas play. Stone and Parker both strongly dislike Glass; Parker, who was a music major in college, said, "I really thought you could basically tell a third grader to sit down at a keyboard and mess around and sell it as a Philip Glass album, and no one would know the difference." The do-it-yourself kit in the live action commercial, in which families can make their own Mr. Hankey, is similar to the Mr. Potato Head
Mr. Potato Head
Mr. Potato Head! is an American toy consisting of a plastic model of a potato which can be decorated with a variety of plastic parts that can attach to the main body. These parts usually include ears, eyes, shoes, a hat, a nose, and a mouth. The toy was invented and developed by George Lerner in...
toy set.
In the episode, Kyle's mother tells Mr. Garrison that that because Kyle is Jewish, he should not be playing Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea was, according to the Gospels, the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after Jesus' Crucifixion. He is mentioned in all four Gospels.-Gospel references:...
. In reality, Kyle was playing St. Joseph, and the tradition of Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea was, according to the Gospels, the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after Jesus' Crucifixion. He is mentioned in all four Gospels.-Gospel references:...
is actually associated with the death of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, not the birth.
Reviews and ratings
Although Parker and Stone credit "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat RideBig Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride
"Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" is the fourth episode of the first season of the animated television series South Park. It originally aired on September 3, 1997 on Comedy Central in the United States. The episode was written by series co-founders Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and directed by Parker...
" as helping elevate the series, they felt "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" elevated South Park to a new level of popularity and relevance. Parker said of it, "This was the episode that just vaulted everything." Following the success of "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", a large number of celebrities started contacting Comedy Central with the hopes of making guest appearances in South Park episodes. This allowed Parker and Stone to practically take their pick of guest stars, and led to appearances by Natasha Henstridge
Natasha Henstridge
Natasha T. Henstridge is a Canadian fashion model turned actress. Her most notable on-screen roles include Species, The Whole Nine Yards, It Had To Be You, Ghosts of Mars, She Spies, the TV series Eli Stone, and the Canadian TV mini-series Would Be Kings, for which she won the Gemini Award for...
in "Tom's Rhinoplasty
Tom's Rhinoplasty
"Tom's Rhinoplasty" is the eleventh episode of the first season of the animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on February 11, 1998. In the episode, the South Park Elementary boys become infatuated with the new substitute teacher Ms. Ellen,...
" and Robert Smith
Robert Smith (musician)
Robert James Smith is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976...
in "Mecha-Streisand
Mecha-Streisand
"Mecha-Streisand" is the 12th episode of the first season of the animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on February 18, 1998. In the episode, Barbra Streisand obtains the Diamond of Panthios from the South Park boys and transforms into a...
". Stone said although "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" has become less shocking with time, viewers at the time of the episode's original broadcast were shocked, and some were horrified, at the idea of a living and speaking Christmas stool. "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was the fourth-highest overall basic cable entertainment program of 1997. In its original American broadcast, the episode received a Nielsen Rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 5.4, meaning the episode was seen by about 4.5 million households. The rating was the highest yet for South Park, and was more than seven times the Comedy Central prime-time average. The episode also earned a 51 share of the male demographic aged between 18 and 24; a share represents the percentage of households using a television at the time the program is airing.
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" has been described as one of the classic episodes of South Park. Chris Vognar of The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...
described Mr. Hankey himself as "the most outrageous character yet on TV's most outrageous show". Charlie Patton of The Florida Times-Union
The Florida Times-Union
The Florida Times-Union is a major daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the Florida Union in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when the Florida Union merged with another Jacksonville paper, the...
said the episode was "crude, nasty, irreverent and generally offensive -- also extremely funny". He also said of the Mr. Hankey character, "If you're the sort of person who didn't care for that scene in Trainspotting
Trainspotting (film)
Trainspotting is a 1996 British satirical/drama film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The movie follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980s economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life...
where the Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
character dove down the toilet and into the sewer in pursuit of his lost suppository, the whole Mr. Hankey subplot is going to be deeply disturbing." Doug Pratt, a DVD
DVD
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....
reviewer and Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
contributor, said, "Technically, the Christmas episode might well be the show's best effort, artistically, because it tackles the PC-ification of Christmas head-on, and also has an interesting psychological subtext: does the hero actually see Mr. Hankey, or does he have some serious psychological problems?" Diane Werts of Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
said of the episode, "It's gross. It's yucky. It's probably offensive. It's also possibly the funniest holiday episode anybody's airing this year." Werts particularly praised the song "A Lonely Jew on Christmas". Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, author of Taking South Park Seriously, said, "This episode arguably pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable, both for Christmas specials and television in general, farther than any previous one." Weinstock said this was particularly true of the episode's fake live-action commercial.
Before the episode was released, Debbie Liebling
Debbie Liebling
Debbie Liebling is an entertainment executive and film producer. She is currently President of Production of Universal Pictures...
, then Comedy Central vice president of development and production, herself described the episode as "adorably offensive". Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
called the episode "a brilliant skewering" of political correctness and oversensitivity, and called it "at once hilariously satiric and extraordinarily foul." Sepinwall also Mr. Hankey in his 1997 list of most memorable TV moments, describing the character as the year's "most disturbing cartoon image" and as "a mythical holiday creature so bizarre and offensive it literally cannot be described in a family newspaper". Matt Roush of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
praised the episode, which he described as "ribald, raunchy and riotous". A.J. Jacobs 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...
said in January 1998 that the episode was "already infamous". Jacobs also said Mr. Hankey was so popular, he half-jokingly suggested Matt Parker and Trey Stone pursue a spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
revolving around the character.
The music in "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was also praised. "A Lonely Jew on Christmas" has been described as a "classic song", and "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch", which reviewers described as one of Cartman's trademarks, was included in the 1999 South Park film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a 1999 animated musical comedy film based on the animated television series South Park, created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The film was directed by Parker, who also stars along with the rest of the regular voice cast from the series, including Stone, Mary...
. Not all reviews of "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" were positive. Rick Marin of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
described the episode as "simply one long potty joke". Virginia Rohan of The Record
The Record (Bergen County)
The Record is a newspaper in northern New Jersey. It has the second largest circulation of New Jersey's daily newspapers, behind The Star-Ledger. Owned by the Borg family since 1930, it is the flagship publication of the North Jersey Media Group. Stephen Borg is the publisher of The Record...
said he liked Kyle's song and some of Kenny's antics, but said the episode was not as funny as The Spirit of Christmas shorts. Rohan said South Park "can be brilliantly over the edge, but often tonight, it sorely needs a comic bungee cord".
In 2003, the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based RedEye
RedEye
The RedEye is a daily publication put out by the Chicago Tribune geared toward 18 to 34-year-olds. RedEye was created due in part to the loss of readership among young people of the Chicago Tribune and other major newspapers...
ranked "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" the greatest South Park episode. In October 2004, the Comedy Central website held a poll to determine the top 27 South Park episodes for a television marathon; "Mr Hankey, the Christmas Poo" came third, just behind "Good Times with Weapons
Good Times with Weapons
"Good Times with Weapons" is episode 112 of South Park. The first episode of Season 8, it originally aired on March 17, 2004. The episode's animation routinely switches from the usual cutout-and-solid-color style to a highly stylized anime theme. Asian-style ambience plays in the background.This...
" at number two and "Fat Butt and Pancake Head
Fat Butt and Pancake Head
"Fat Butt and Pancake Head" is fifth episode of the seventh season of the Comedy Central series South Park. It was originally broadcast on April 16, 2003.- Plot :...
" at number one. South Park Studios, the official South Park website, listed "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" at number four on its list of the Five Most Notorious Episodes.
Ren and Stimpy controversy
John KricfalusiJohn Kricfalusi
Michael John Kricfalusi , better known as John K., is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, its adults-only spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based...
, the creator of The Ren and Stimpy Show
The Ren and Stimpy Show
The Ren & Stimpy Show, often simply referred to as Ren & Stimpy, is an American animated television series, created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on the titular characters: Ren Höek, a psychotic chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, a good-natured, dimwitted cat...
, claimed the Mr. Hankey concept was stolen from his cartoon short, "Nutty the Friendly Dump", which was part of a cartoon book series viewable online. Kricfalusi said after the show aired, "I got nine or 10 messages from friends screaming, 'I can't believe this! They totally stole your story! ... This idea of [poop] singing or dancing and being friends, well, that is my idea." Kricfalusi said he felt other elements of South Park were lifted from his work, and he told media outlets his company Spümcø
Spümcø
Spümcø, Inc. was an American animation production company based in Los Angeles, California. The studio produced three traditionally animated series, two Flash-animated cartoon series, two music videos, five animated shorts, and a comic book. The company also went on to produce content for a few...
was contemplating taking legal action against Parker and Stone. Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said Stone and Parker were not familiar with "Nutty the Friendly Dump" and that the claim was "ludicrous". Parker said he had never seen more than half an episode of Ren and Stimpy, which he said he did not enjoy because the characters were too over-the-top and the voice acting was too annoying. Parker said Kricfalusi eventually contacted the South Park creators: "He wrote a letter back saying, 'Oh, OK, I see how it could just be a coincidence, but you should just admit to the press that you're a big Ren and Stimpy fan.' I'm not a Ren and Stimpy fan."
External links
- "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" Full Episode at South Park Studios
- "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" Episode Guide at South Park Studios