Episode no. Season 6
Episode 11 Written by Trey Parker Original air date July 24, 2002 | Directed by Trey Parker Production code 611 | |
"Child Abduction Is Not Funny" is episode 90 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on July 24, 2002. This episode mocks moral panics, and was the last to feature Tweek as the "fourth friend" alongside Stan, Kyle and Cartman.
Contents
The parents of South Park will do anything to protect their children from kidnappers. They hire the owner and operator of the local City Wok, Mr. Tuong Lu Kim, to build a Great Wall around the city. They equip their children with Kid Trackers and even follow them to school. Just as Mr. Tuong Lu Kim is almost finished with the wall, Mongolians arrive to try to break through. When a study reveals that nine out of ten abduction cases are committed by the mother or the father, the parents send their kids out on their own so they won't have a fear of being kidnapped by their parents.
In the summer of 2013, fans voted Child Abduction Is Not Funny as the best episode of Season 6.
Plot
With the media full of school shootings, terrorist threats and child abductions, the parents of South Park grow excessively concerned about the safety of their children. Tweek is scared the most by the media reports, and his parents serve only to exacerbate his fears by turning their house into a virtual prison and playing cruel intellectual games with him designed by intention to increase his safety. Tweek loses his ability to empathise with others and refuses to assist a crippled person stuck on some train tracks. After a real child abductor (pretending to be the "Ghost of Human Kindness") fails to kidnap Tweek, the parents of South Park are put on high alert.
Taking advantage of expensive technology, the City commissions the owner of City Wok, Mr. Lu Kim to build a huge wall around the city similar to the Great Wall of China. Media reports continue to file in — it first convinces them they should not leave their children alone for a moment, prompting the parents to go with them anywhere they go. A later report convinces them they cannot even trust their own neighbors and family friends, forcing the parents to sever ties with each other. The kids, annoyed and embarrassed by their parents' actions, initially blame Tweek for their parents' paranoia, but soon decide that they'd have inevitably resorted to something this stupid eventually.
Despite trying to avoid being a stereotype and having no experience in construction, Mr. Kim reluctantly agrees to build the wall. He builds a very impressive one single-handedly. After he is finished a band of Mongols appear out of nowhere and attack the wall because: "Every time us Chinese put up a wall stupid Mongolians have to come and knock it down," as he puts it, in a reference to Chinese history. Although he tries desperately to rout the enemy by himself, he proves to be no match for the Mongols' increasingly clever tactics, which include redirecting a heat-seeking missile with a flaming baseball and making use of a Trojan Horse filled with sweet and sour pork. Enraged, Kim vows vengeance.
Meanwhile, back within the town a news report states that the parents are most likely to abduct their own children. Blindly believing what they have been told, they send their children from the city in a tearful ceremony in order to avoid putting their children in danger of being kidnapped by their own parents. As they leave, the children wonder about how stupid their parents are sometimes.
Within the week, the children join forces with the Mongols, having apparently learned their language, and expressing anger at their parents' irresponsible and irrational behavior. The Mongols then move on the wall again, where Mr. Kim is dressed for battle. He then does his "war dance", but while he is doing this, the children wheel a large cart laden with explosives in behind him and blow up the wall. The parents arrive to investigate the explosion, and are reunited with their kids, although the parents believe their children have forgotten them in the short space of four days. They realize that they overreacted to the news stories, and that to cut themselves off from the rest of the world with the wall denies new possibilities. Mayor McDaniels orders Mr. Lu Kim to "tear down this wall," angering him once more.
Home release
"Child Abduction Is Not Funny", along with the sixteen other episodes from South Park's sixth season, were released on a three-disc DVD set in the United States on October 11, 2005. The sets included brief audio commentaries by Parker and Stone for each episode. IGN gave the season a rating of 10/10.