Episode no. Season 7
Episode 8 Production code 708 | Written by Trey Parker Original air date October 22, 2003 | |
Featured music "All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)" by Widelife | ||
"South Park Is Gay!" is the eighth episode of the seventh season and the 104th overall episode of the American animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on October 22, 2003. In it, Kyle struggles to understand a new metrosexual fad that has sprung around the men and boys of South Park and is the only one who does not want to conform to it.
Contents
The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker. In 2011, he and co-creator Matt Stone listed it as one of the worst episodes of the series.
Plot
After the TV show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy begins showing, metrosexuality becomes a major fad among both the men and the boys, and they all begin to act effeminate. At the school bus stop, instead of their usual winter clothing, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny wear unmasculine clothing. Kyle, who does not want to conform, is beaten up by Craig, Clyde, Token, and Jimmy at school. Cartman, Kenny, and even Stan abandon Kyle. Mr. Garrison and Mr. Slave, the town's gay couple, are opposed to the fad since they feel that the gay culture should be unique to gays. The women of the town are initially in favor of their husbands' improved hygiene and willingness to communicate, but soon tire of the men becoming increasingly self-absorbed.
Kyle, Mr. Garrison, and Mr. Slave go to New York to kill the Fab Five, the hosts of "Queer Eye", but their mission fails. They then talk to the nonchalant gay stars, who refuse to stop what they are doing. Mr. Garrison demands to know how gays could betray their own people, and then slowly realizes that they are not gay at all. The five suddenly gravely turn to the others and their human bodies burst open, revealing that they are an ancient race of "Crab People".
Captured by these Crab People (who chant "Crab People" repeatedly), the gay couple and Kyle are unable to stop the crabs from executing their plans of ruling the earth by destroying the human race (through changing men into metrosexuals) and the Crab People force them to become Crab People instead; however, the wives attack and kill the Queer Eye guys. They explain that men need to be masculine and that is what really makes them attractive, even if they are gross. The Queer Eye producers are about to press charges on the women until they discover that the Fab Five were not human, noting that the Crab People tried this before with The Jeffersons. They decide instead to "bring back the Latin fad"—which the citizens of South Park slavishly adopt.
At school, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman accept Kyle again, but when he expresses his anger that they previously forsook him, the others call him "gay" and go and play football. He walks away in the opposite direction, but then he stops, and as he turns and follows the other boys he mutters, "Goddammit."
Production
Parker and Stone have since been critical of the third-act twist of "crab people". Though they brainstormed for hours to improve the episode (after having deleted the initial subplot of Mr. Garrison leading the other gay people in South Park to "compete" with the metrosexuals), they were unable to come up with anything better than crab people. Executive producer Anne Garefino was particularly critical of the idea, deeming it "stupid." Parker later noted that "'Crab people' became this thing [in the writers' room]. It's like, you just know there's something better, but you can't think of it, and now you've just got to go with crab people."