VOLCANO (SOUTH PARK EPISODE)

'"Volcano"' is the third episode of Comedy Central's animated series ''South Park''. It originally aired on August 20, 1997.

Contents

Plot

Kenny's Death

Pop culture References

Celebrity legs

Goofs

Plot

Stan's Uncle Jimbo and his war buddy Ned take Stan, Kenny, Kyle, and Cartman on a hunting trip in the mountains. When they arrive in the wilderness (just outside of South Park), Jimbo gives each of the boys a gun (Kyle, Stan, and Kenny get shotguns while Cartman receives an assault rifle), a can of beer, and a pack of cigarettes, and the hunting festivities begin.
It soon becomes apparent that Jimbo and Ned's idea of hunting is to slaughter every living thing in sight via military weaponry. They get around the regulations by yelling "It's coming right for us!" in order to exploit the loophole that they can kill any animal in self-defense. Stan proves to not have the proper temperament to enjoy hunting (or at least Jimbo and Ned's idea of hunting), and finds himself unable to shoot a living target when provided the opportunity. While hunting the boys realize that one of the nearby mountains is rumbling, a fact Ned and Jimbo ignore until it is too late.
Back in town, at the ''South Park Center for Seismic Activity'', Stan's dad, Randy (though he isn't established as Stan's father), discovers that the mountain is a volcano and going to erupt. He reports his findings to the Mayor, who becomes even more shocked when Chef realises that the boys are camping on the same mountain. The Mayor then directs one of her aides to make appropriate calls about the crisis, as well as ones to ''Entertainment Tonight'' and her stylist.
Meanwhile, on the mountain, in an attempt to pour gasoline into the fire while the boys are roasting hot dogs, Ned accidentally sets himself on fire (Jimbo's jeep blows up in the process while Ned attempts to put himself out, effectively leaving them with no way to get home). Later, Jimbo tells the story of how Ned lost his arm in Vietnam. He then offers the boys some gin, only to become upset when the boys decline, saying it "tastes like pee". However, Jimbo appears impressed with Kenny, who drinks the gasoline straight from the can.
Then, Cartman tells the story of Scuzzlebutt. Cartman describes Scuzzlebutt as a creature that lives on the mountain and kills anyone who dares to climb to the top because it likes the taste of blood and to add pieces to its deformed body. Instead of a left hand he has a piece of celery and one of his legs is missing and has been replaced with Patrick Duffy, though Duffy would be replaced by other celebrities in international airings (see Trivia, below, for additional Scuzzlebutt legs). He also claims that he weaves wicker baskets as a hobby. The boys don't believe Cartman's tale, so he decides to dress up as the creature the next morning in order to scare them. As he does this, Jimbo has Ned sing campfire songs (Kumbaya, in particular) despite how monotone his voice comes out of his voice box.
The next morning, Stan is woken up by Kyle, who tells him that he can't find Cartman and that Jimbo is hanging out with Kenny. Stan then finds Jimbo, Ned, and Kenny fishing with grenades, and tells them that Cartman is missing, forcing them to cut their fishing short with a rocket. As they make their way back to land, Jimbo proclaims Kenny as his honorary nephew, which upsets Stan.
At a lower elevation, some of the townspeople are organizing a search and rescue mission for the hunting party (yet unaware that the mountain is about to erupt) while other South Park residents dig a trench, under the guidance of Randy, to divert the lava away from the town. As they do this, they are shown an education film called ''Lava and You'', which assumes that if a person ducks and covers if threatened by lava, it would pass harmlessly over the would-be victim. Only Chef realises how ridiculous this is.
Meanwhile, the hunting group is searching for Cartman, making note that there are fewer animals out than usual. Jimbo sees a ram and is about to shoot it, but Kenny fires at it first, prompting Jimbo to give him a bigger gun, and making his favoritism with Kenny more apparent. The boys then find Cartman in his Scuzzlebutt disguise, who becomes convinced that he has scared them. His plan backfires, however, when the others start shooting and giving chase. Eventually, they catch up with Cartman at the base of the mountain. Jimbo tells Kenny to kill "Scuzzlebutt", but Stan, willing to redeem himself in his uncle's eyes, takes Kenny's gun and takes aim, only to find he is unable to shoot his target as before. Jimbo takes the gun away from Stan just as Cartman manages to get his costume off, thus the mistaken identity is resolved.

Suddenly, the mountain erupts, and the hunting group tries to flee only to find themselves trapped on the other side of the trench. The search parties meanwhile try to apply the "duck and cover" tactic described earlier, only to die by the magma. The real Scuzzlebutt then appears, shocking Cartman in particular. Even Chef and Mr. Garrison are familiar with Scuzzlebutt. Jimbo apologizes to the boys about their seemingly imminent deaths, but then Scuzzlebutt weaves a wicker basket, carrying the hunting party to safety. The lava then flows through the trench and, due to Randy's miscalculation, destroys Denver. Stan then kills Scuzzlebutt in a misguided attempt to prove he can kill something and make Uncle Jimbo proud just like he was with Kenny. Unfortunately, Jimbo is less than impressed, telling Stan that he will always be his nephew, and saying that "some things you do kill and some you don't." Stan doesn't understand, since earlier in the episode, Jimbo would have shot an endangered species, and the boys decide that hunting is stupid and go home to watch cartoons.

Kenny's Death

★ When the volcano erupts, a ball of lava comes flying at Kenny, but misses. The kids and adults assume Kenny died, so Kyle says the catch phrase "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" Then, when Kenny comes from behind the rock of lava, the rock rolls a little and a squishing sound is heard, assumed to be Kenny getting squashed by the rock. Towards the end of the episode, Kenny comes out of nowhere, apparently not dead. After Stan kills Scuzzlebutt, Ned vows not to use a gun ever again, drops the gun, and the impact of the gun landing fires a single round and kills Kenny. Rats then come to eat the remains.

Pop culture References

★ In this episode, the townspeople are shown a volcano safety film which is a parody of ''Duck and Cover''

★ Happy Tarts are also mentioned in another Trey Parker work, Orgazmo.

★ When Kyle claims that Scuzzlebutt's Patrick Duffy leg isn't scary, Cartman replies "Haven't you ever seen ''Step By Step''?"

★ Scuzzlebutt says he wants to be "Friends" exactly like the character of Ludo from the movie Labyrinth, who is also a large, hairy beast.

Celebrity legs

★ In the Spanish language dub, Scuzzlebutt's leg is replaced with Ricky Martín instead of Patrick Duffy; in the Hungarian language dub, it is replaced with Tom Cruise, in the Italian one with "Ridge from ''Beautiful''".

Goofs

★ When the boys are shown laughing when Ned tries to scare Cartman, Stan's body overlaps his feet.

★ Jimbo has a can of gasoline, but he wouldn't need it as the Humvee that he's driving usually runs on diesel fuel.

★ In one short scene, where Cartman is describing Scuzzlebutt, Stan's arms are missing.

★ When Cartman tells the tale of Scuzzlebutt, his arms repeatedly flash to his side then back to holding the flashlight in front of his face. However, his hand and the flashlight remain stationary.

★ Ned attempts to shoot Scuzzlebutt and runs out of ammo. Later on, he drops the gun, and it goes off and kills Kenny. It could be assumed that the gun was jammed and dropping the gun dislodged the bullet stuck inside.

★ When Chef is talking to the Mayor about cutting school lunches, he refers to her as "Mr. Mayor". He also does this in Weight Gain 4000, but it's not known whether it's a running gag or unintentional.

★ When Uncle Jimbo sees the deer, he says, "looks like a 46-gauge," then he is seen with a rocket launcher. The shotgun gauge system works such that smaller numbers describe larger barrels, so a 46-gauge would actually be very small.

★ Randy Marsh is missing eyebrows for almost the entire episode. They appear near the end.

★ Cartman pretends he's in Vietnam when he's given a gun and claims to have flashbacks. However, in "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka", he knows nothing about Vietnam.

★ Jimbo says in this episode that Ned lost his arm in Vietnam when he picked up a grenade, but in "The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka", Ned lost his arm when he was about to ''throw'' a grenade.

★ When the group are saved the lava flows down, but it's going down in a line into the pit, suggesting the boys would have still survived the lava had they not been rescued by Scuzzlebutt.

★ When Scuzzlebutt is shot by Stan, in the shot where the news reporter comments on what just happened, Patrick Duffy is seen beheaded. Yet after Stan comments how easy it was to shoot something, Duffy was seen again in one piece, screaming in anguish.

★ When the boys are camping uncle Jimbo asks if they want some gin and when Kyle says "Nah, that stuff tastes like pee.", the fire is not moving.

★ When the boys are sitting around the campfire, before Cartman starts telling the story of Scuzzlebutt, the boys are sitting in a line. After Cartman starts telling the story, they are sitting in a circle and Stan is suddenly on the other side of Cartman.

★ When Jimbo is explaining the rules, he holds up a red beer can. Later when he gives the boys their own beer, the cans are blue. This may mean tht he gave them a different kind, but the cans still say "BEER" on both types, which would probably mean they are the same.

★ At the part where Jimbo tries to shoot Cartman with the rockets the mountain is green. In the next scene where Randy talks to the Mayor, it is brown. It remains like this until the next scene where Jimbo and the boys are still trying to shoot Cartman.