"Probably" is the tenth episode of the
fourth season of the animated television series ''
South Park'', and the 58th episode of the series overall. It is also the 11th episode of Season 4 in production order respectively. "Probably" originally aired in the United States on July 26, 2000, on
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
. The episode was rated
TV-MA
The TV Parental Guidelines are a television content rating system in the United States that was first proposed on December 19, 1996, by the United States Congress, the television industry and the Federal Communications Commission, federal commun ...
. It is the second part of a two-parter, which concludes the story-line from the previous episode, "
Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?
"Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?" is the ninth episode of the fourth season of the animated television series ''South Park'', and 57th episode of the series overall.
Going by production order, it would be 10th episode of Season 4. "Do the Handicapp ...
"
In the episode, Cartman becomes an
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
preacher when the boys break off from their church. Meanwhile, the feud between Saddam and Chris continues.
Plot
The South Park children build a
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
-shaped shack to live in sinlessness, skip school, avoid home as much as possible, and listen earnestly to
Cartman, who acts like a
televangelist
Televangelism ( tele- "distance" and "evangelism," meaning " ministry," sometimes called teleministry) is the use of media, specifically radio and television, to communicate Christianity. Televangelists are ministers, whether official or self-pr ...
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
preacher
A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...
.
Kenny
Kenny is a surname, a given name, and a diminutive of several different given names.
In Ireland, the surname is an Anglicisation of the Irish ''Ó Cionnaith'', also spelt ''Ó Cionnaoith'' and ''Ó Cionaodha'', meaning "descendant of Cionnaith" ...
calls from
Ensenada,
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, where the bus that hit him in the previous episode dragged him. However, the boys believe that he is in
Hell and that he is calling from "beyond the grave". Cartman uses Kenny's description of Mexico as his profile of Hell for his next sermon.
In the real Hell,
Satan's love triangle situation with his former lover,
Saddam
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
, and his present one, Chris, has taken a turn for the worse. Chris and Saddam repeatedly murder each other, only to resurrect since they are already in Hell. Satan wonders if he should be with Saddam, whom he finds sexually attractive, or Chris, who is kinder and gentler.
JonBenet Ramsey suggests that he ask
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
for help.
The Hell director welcomes a group of new arrivals to Hell. Many of them are observant people practicing different religious faiths who express surprise at being there, but they are told that
they picked the wrong religion, and that the
Mormons were the right answer.
Satan goes to visit God for advice. God berates Satan for being so emotionally dependent on romantic relationships and is not at all like he was when God first cast him out of
Heaven. God suggests that Satan dump both lovers, spend time alone, and learn to appreciate himself, stating that this is how good relationships develop. Satan agrees and thanks God for his counsel before returning to Hell.
Meanwhile, Cartman has turned the children's church into an Evangelical-type cult and attempts to perform miracles during his services by slapping demons and curses out of his patients. Soon,
Stan and
Kyle
Kyle or Kyles may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Kyle, Saskatchewan, Canada
Ireland
* Kyle, County Laois
* Kyle, County Wexford
Scotland
* Kyle, Ayrshire, area of Scotland which stretched across parts of modern-day East Ayrshire and South Ayrshir ...
discover Cartman swimming in cash in the church rectory. Cartman confesses easily that the whole situation has merely been his latest scheme to make ten million
dollar
Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, ...
s by conning the other kids. Stan and Kyle are disillusioned by this, but they can't do anything about it as long as other children keep giving their money to Cartman. Sister Anne, however, asks
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
to visit. Jesus tells the kids that God does not want them to fear obsessively over Hell, or to spend every waking minute worshiping all day, but to help others and live good, happy lives. The children, touched by this, agree with Jesus and decide to leave and return to their normal lives. Jesus punishes Cartman for defrauding his friends by sending him to somewhere "worse" than Hell - Ensenada, Baja California - to think about his sins. Upon arriving there, he is greeted by Kenny.
Satan tells Saddam and Chris that he does not want to be with either of them and asks them to leave him alone. Chris agrees and leaves Satan, but Saddam refuses to go, and continues harassing him. Satan blasts a hole in Saddam's abdomen, and when Saddam taunts Satan that he will eventually regenerate and reappear whole as is commonplace with people injured in Hell, Satan informs him that this will not occur, as he asked a favor of a "friend". With that, Saddam finds himself suddenly transported in Heaven, where to his horror, he is greeted by Mormons.
Production
The episode begins with a flashback of the previous episode's plot, but also includes a depiction of the character
Fonzie
Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, better known as "Fonzie" or "The Fonz", is a fictional character played by Henry Winkler in the American sitcom '' Happy Days'' (1974–1984). He was originally a secondary character, but was soon positioned as a lea ...
from the TV sitcom ''
Happy Days
''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most su ...
'' figuratively and literally
jumping the shark
The idiom "jumping the shark" was coined in 1985 by Jon Hein in response to a 1977 episode from the fifth season of the American sitcom ''Happy Days'', in which Fonzie (Henry Winkler) jumps over a shark while on water-skis. The phrase is pej ...
from that show's 1977 episode "Hollywood, Part 3," albeit here being eaten by the shark. This is the first instance of Cartman developing a Southern accent. During production, Parker and Stone edited gay pornography into the show as a joke that had to be edited out in post-production.
References
External links
"Probably"Full episode at South Park Studios
*
{{South Park episodes, 4
Fiction about God
Fiction about the Devil
Television episodes about demons
Television episodes set in hell
Mormonism in fiction
South Park (season 4) episodes
South Park episodes in multiple parts
Cultural depictions of Saddam Hussein