Episode no. Season 2
Episode 9 Production code 209 | Directed by Trey Parker Original air date August 19, 1998 | |
Written by Trey Parker
Matt Stone
Nancy M. Pimental | ||
"Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls" is the ninth episode in the second season of the American animated television series South Park. The 22nd episode of the series overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on August 19, 1998. The episode was written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Nancy M. Pimental, and directed by Parker.
Contents
Plot
Park City, Utah is in the midst of the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance's founder, Robert Redford, has decided that Park City has become too commercialized by the annual migration of the Hollywood jet set, so he decides to move the festival to South Park, Colorado. The Sundance Festival relocates to South Park, which is immediately deluged by Hollywood tourists. In school, Mr. Garrison gives the students an assignment to see one independent film during the festival and write a report on it. Chef sets up a sales stand at the festival for his fudge cookie recipes.
At night, Kyle is sitting on the toilet, when he thinks he hears Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, calling to him from the toilet. Kyle persuades Stan, Cartman, and Kenny to help him find Mr. Hankey; they enter the sewer system to look for him. They soon find Mr. Hankey, who tells Kyle that the influx of all the Hollywood tourists, with their health-food diets, has disrupted the ecosystem of the sewer, which has made him deathly ill.
Kyle and the others appear before a film's showing, and Kyle pleads with the Hollywood visitors to understand that their presence is causing the death of his friend Mr. Hankey. However, they all think Kyle is trying to pitch a script, and they offer film deals. One agent approaches Cartman to buy the rights to Kyle's story; he readily agrees. A film is produced overnight, starring Tom Hanks as Kyle and a monkey as Mr. Hankey. The South Park locals are beginning to tire of the festival, seeing that it is causing the town to become overrun with commercialism and Hollywood kitsch. Redford reveals that he will make all small towns overrun with Hollywood culture, since he cannot escape it, so he wants to inflict it on everyone else.
Kyle tries to show Mr. Hankey to the crowd, but Mr. Hankey is pale and near death. Chef feeds Mr. Hankey one of his Chocolate Salty Balls, causing him to return to life. Stan, Kyle, Chef, and Mr. Hankey approach Redford as he is on a podium to announce the return of the film festival the next year. After he ignores their pleas to relocate the festival, Mr. Hankey causes the sewers to erupt over South Park, causing Redford and his wife's car to fill with feces, drowning them, and all the tourists flee the town.
Production
A soundtrack album, titled Chef Aid: The South Park Album, was released in 1998, during the broadcast run of the second season. It comprises songs featured in and related to the series, including "Chocolate Salty Balls", performed by Isaac Hayes as Chef, from this episode.