Episode no. Season 10
Episode 9 Written by Trey Parker | Directed by Trey Parker Original air date October 11, 2006 | |
"Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" is the ninth episode in the tenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 148th episode of the series overall, it first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on October 11, 2006. The episode focuses on the 9/11 conspiracy theories, and was written by series co-creator Trey Parker.
Contents
Plot
When someone at South Park Elementary defecates in a urinal, Mr. Mackey searches for the boy responsible. Cartman begins to rant that it was a conspiracy, just like 9/11. When the police decide they can provide no further assistance, they hire the Hardly Boys.
Cartman performs an investigation, which he presents to his class in a presentation where he claims the true culprit behind 9/11 was Kyle. Despite the invalidity of Cartman's claims, he nonetheless convinces everyone that Kyle is guilty. Kyle enlists Stan's help, and they leave South Park to find an organization that can prove Kyle's innocence. The group they find, however, believes that the United States government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. A SWAT team attacks and takes Kyle, Stan, and the leader of the conspiracy organization to the White House where the presidential officials, along with President George W. Bush, reveal that the government really is behind 9/11. Bush murders the conspiracy leader and decides to kill Stan and Kyle as well, but they flee.
Stan and Kyle walk around a street, discussing what has happened, when they spot the conspiracy leader, revealing that he was not actually killed. The boys chase him to a dead end, and out of nowhere a man shoots the leader and tells the boys to follow him to his house, in which he reveals himself as a detective whose sons are the Hardly Boys. His sons got clues from the urinal at South Park which let them determine that the 9/11 conspiracy was a government conspiracy. President Bush and the rest of the politicians suddenly appear. Kyle knows that the government did not plan 9/11 but the Hardly father asks him how he knew their position and Stan points a gun to Kyle. He reveals that he was the one who defecated in the urinal. He decided to blame the government for the urinal deuce, and the government was happy to take the blame as long as it showed that they were the cause of the attacks because it will make people believe that they are all-powerful.
Soon after, Stan receives his punishment for defecating in the urinal: cleaning the urinal, while Mr. Mackey lectures him.
Production
Series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone revealed the inspiration for the episode on the DVD commentary. The aspects of the story which focus on the urinal defecation are based on an identical experience Stone had in elementary school. The 9/11 aspects are based on Parker and Stone's hatred of conspiracy theories regarding 9/11. The urinal defecation story was introduced into the episode late into production, when Parker and Stone realized the episode focused almost exclusively on 9/11. Before the urinal defecation story was implemented, the episode contained a parody of Duane Chapman and the television series Dog the Bounty Hunter, which was first intended for use in the season nine episode "Die Hippie, Die", and actually used in "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy", season ten's next episode.
Reception
IGN's Dan Iverson gave the episode a rating of 7.7 out of 10, calling it "topical and humorous". He did feel that the subplots involving the eponymous urinal deuce and the Hardly Boys were "awkward and really unfunny".