Super Fun Time
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"Super Fun Time" is the seventh episode in the twelfth season of the American animated television series '' South Park''. The 174th episode of the series overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 23, 2008. In the episode, Cartman and Butters narrowly escape a horrific hostage situation at South Park's Pioneer Village, where historical reenactors take their jobs far too seriously. The episode was rated TV-MA-LV for strong language and violence in the United States. The episode was written and directed by ''South Park'' co-creator
Trey Parker Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and '' The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Matt Stone. ...
. During pre-production, the episode was under a working alternative title "The Living Museum" until it was changed later on. The show's plot was largely influenced by the film ''
Die Hard ''Die Hard'' is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan, with a screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. Based on the 1979 novel '' Nothing Lasts Forever'', by Roderick Thorp, it stars Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Al ...
''.


Plot

Mr. Garrison Herbert Garrison, formerly known as Janet Garrison, Ethan F Garrison, and the President, is a fictional character and occasional antagonist on the American animated television series '' South Park''. The character is voiced by cocreator Trey ...
takes his fourth grade class on a field trip to Pioneer Village, a 19th-century themed
living history museum A living museum, also known as a living history museum, is a type of museum which recreates historical settings to simulate a past time period, providing visitors with an experiential interpretation of history. It is a type of museum that recrea ...
, where actors perform as if it was 1864 and never
break character In theatre (especially in the illusionistic Western tradition), breaking character occurs when an actor ceases to maintain the illusion that they are identical with the character they are portraying. This is a more acceptable occurrence while in ...
(much to the annoyance of the children). Since nobody wants to be partners with him, Cartman is forced as punishment to take Butters as his partner and Garrison tells Butters not to let go of Cartman's hand until they are back on the bus. Thieves led by Franz have robbed a Burger King and flee to Pioneer Village, taking everyone hostage. Stan,
Wendy Wendy is a given name now generally given to girls in English-speaking countries. In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity ...
, Jimmy 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 ...
flee with two townspeople to an office where Kyle calls the police. The thieves find a locked
mine shaft Shaft mining or shaft sinking is the action of excavating a mine shaft from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom. Shallow shafts, typically sunk for civil engineering projects, differ greatly in execution method from ...
door. They interrogate the workers to find the code, but none will break character (even after the thieves manage to kill one of the workers), and the one that does break character gets shot by his own employer. Cartman and Butters escape the village and go to an arcade called "Super Phun Thyme", but Butters stubbornly refuses let go of Cartman's hand, which leads to Butters being dragged around as Cartman plays games. When they return to Pioneer Village and see the entrance surrounded by police, they believe they are there because someone has noticed they left, so they decide to sneak back in and claim they were there all along. Franz threatens to kill the kids (specifically
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" ...
), but Stan portrays a time period character and gives the workers an in-character way to divulge the door code. Cartman and Butters jump the fence into the village, where one of the thieves promptly confronts them. The thief tries to make them put their hands on their heads, but Butters will not let go of Cartman. Butters uses Cartman as a weapon by flinging him at the robber, runs away and they are knocked out by a hand grenade. The blast makes the robbers investigate, leaving only the leader guarding the hostages. Stan points to him and gives the village criminal, Murderin' Murphy, an in-character reason to attack him. The police raid the camp, killing the robbers and catching Franz. As the workers finally break character (since their working shift is over) and leave to enjoy some festivities, an injured Butters stumbles out of the camp, still clutching Cartman's hand. Butters drags the unconscious Cartman to the bus steps and finally lets go of his hand, proudly proclaiming that his partner is accounted for before fainting from exhaustion.


Production

The idea of a pioneer museum that never breaks character started off as the idea for the Katrina episode that became "
Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" is the eighth episode in the ninth season of the American animated television series '' South Park''. The 133rd episode overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on October 19, 200 ...
". "Super Phun Thyme" was based on
Celebrity Sports Center Celebrity Sports Center (CSC or Celebrity's) was a family-oriented entertainment business and landmark in metropolitan Denver. Celebrity's was located in Glendale, Colorado at 888 South Colorado Boulevard near East Kentucky Avenue. It opened in ...
which both Parker and Stone visited as kids.


Reception

The episode received an average-to-positive response. Travis Fickett of
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
rated the episode an 8/10, stating: "A lot was in play here, and it's a well executed episode. They play on our expectation that Kenny would die, Mr. Garrison's cowardice, Cartman's troublemaking and Butters' steadfast compliance with the rules. There's a lot of fun stuff here, and it's a cool way to wrap up the 'half season' before we get new episodes in the fall". However, Josh Modell of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' graded the episode a C+, stating: "It was okay. Not great, not horrible. Funny, but not hilarious. There was a noticeable lack of proselytizing, which can be a good or a bad thing".


Home release

"Super Fun Time", along with the thirteen other episodes from ''South Parks twelfth season, was released on a three-disc DVD and
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
set in the United States on March 10, 2009. The sets included brief audio commentaries by Parker and Stone for each episode, a collection of deleted scenes, and two special mini-features, ''The Making of Major Boobage'' and ''Six Days to South Park''. Super Fun Time was also released as part of ''The Cult of Cartman'', a 2008 DVD compilation of Cartman-centric episodes.


References


External links


"Super Fun Time"
Full episode at South Park Studios * {{South Park episodes, 12 Hostage taking in fiction Television episodes about murder South Park (season 12) episodes