Story

Description

One morning at the bus stop, Cartman tells Kyle, Stan and Kenny that he dreamed he was abducted by aliens and given an anal probe. The boys think it actually happened, but Cartman refuses to believe. After they board the school bus Kyle looks out the rear window and is horrified to see his baby brother, Ike, taken away by aliens.

During lunch in the cafeteria, Stan is confronted by his secret love, Wendy Testaburger, and gets so nervous he vomits on her. In spite of the fact that he always pukes in her presence, the two decide to meet later. Cartman emits a flaming fart, followed by a long metal stalk with a giant mechanical eye on its tip. It takes a quick look around before retreating back inside its host.

Though Cartman -- in spite of ample evidence to the contrary -- still doesn't believe in the "visitors," Chef does. He pulls the cafeteria's fire alarm so the boys can escape and head for the woods to look for Ike. En route Cartman gets zapped by a mysterious ray that causes him to perform a 1930s ditty called "I Love to Singa." When a UFO passes overhead, Kyle hits it with a rock. The ship retaliates by firing a death ray that, inevitably, strikes Kenny.

In an inaugural death scene that's only slightly less protracted than the one in Brian's Song, Kenny is first singed by the ray, then crushed by stampeding cattle, then run over by a police car.

Shortly thereafter Cartman abandons the quest. Stan also bails in order to keep his rendezvous with Wendy.

Kyle, dejected, tags along with Stan. Wendy suggests using "the fat kid" to lure the aliens. Cartman is rounded up and tethered to a tree, and an 80-foot satellite dish promptly emerges from his anus. The aliens arrive and a hatch on the side of their mother ship opens, revealing Ike. He jumps down into a snow bank. Meanwhile, the aliens begin a long conversation with a herd of local cattle. Via subtitles, we learn that of all earth's life forms, they respect cows most of all. They give them a strange-looking device, then return to their ship and depart. But not before beaming up Cartman. As the ship flies off he's heard screaming, "Heeeeeeelp! Sons a bitcheeees! Diiiiilllldooos!"

Stan repeatedly vomits on Wendy. Kyle and Ike go home. The next day Stan and Kyle wait for the school bus as usual. Suddenly Cartman falls out of the sky. He says he had another bizarre abduction "dream," during which Scott Baio, who was aboard the alien ship, gave him pinkeye.

Stan and Kyle point out that Cartman does, indeed, now have pinkeye. Finally, Officer Barbrady corners the runaway cows that met with the visitors. They promptly zap him with the alien device, which causes Barbrady to perform "I Love to Singa," just like Carman did.

What I Learned Today

"This morning you took my brother, Ike. He's the little freckled kid that looks like a football. At first I was happy you took him away. But I've learned something today, that having a little brother is a pretty special thing."

Memorable Quotes

• "Ow, my ass!" (Cartman)
• "I'm gonna make love to ya woman " (Chef)
• "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" (Stan)
• "You bastards!" (Kyle)
• "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" (Cartman)
• "No Kitty, this is MY pot pie!!!" (Cartman)
• "Kick the baby!" (Kyle)
• "I'm not fat, I'm big boned" (Cartman)
• "Yeah, I want Cheesy Poofs!" (Cartman)

Characters

Character Debuts

Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, plus Chef, Wendy, Mr. Garrison, Ike, Pip, Cartman's mom, Ms. Crabtree, Officer Barbrady, and Farmer Denkins, Visitors, Mr. Hat, Kitty

Body Count

Just Kenny and a couple of cows. Cartman causes potentially life-threatening injuries with his flaming farts, setting both Pip (the annoying English kid) and his own cat, Mr. Kitty, on fire.

Locations

Original Songs

The episode opens with the Boys singing "School Days" at the bus stop, and they also break into song after ditching school with "We got out of school ". But the real iconic tune from this episode is Chef's first song, "Gonna Make Love To Ya Woman." It's the first of many, many sexual lessons that Chef teaches the Boys through the magic of song.

Behind The Scenes

This is the only South Park episode that Matt and Trey animated themselves, using bits of cutout paper to create every . . . single . . . frame. It took three months to animate the entire 28 minute pilot in "stop motion". Yet, the pilot episode as you see it does have a few brief scenes in which computer animation was added - most notably, the scene where the 80-foot satellite comes out of Cartman's ass. After this episode, South Park switched entirely to computer animation. Otherwise they'd probably still be working on the first season.

Where Did The Idea Come From

Trey and Matt are fascinated with alien "visitors" -- specifically the tall, big-headed, black-eyed ones featured in everything from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to The X Files. They surface regularly in later South Park episodes, and appeared (in background) during numerous scenes in Cannibal! The Musical.

Pop Culture References

Shout Outs

The tune "I Love to Singa" is lifted from a 1936 Tex Avery cartoon. Weirdly, it also served as one of the inspirations for the movie Happy Feet. And when the local cattle, fearing they'll be mutilated by the aliens, try to escape on a train, the conductor tells them he can't allow "cows on a people train." It's an absurdly obscure reference to the children's book In a People House, which was written by Dr. Seuss under the pseudonym Theo LeSeig. While waiting for first contact with the aliens, Chef mentions that there's only 20 minutes before "Sanford & Son" is on. Apparently, Chef was a big fan of the 70's show starring Red Foxx.

Pwn'd

When Kyle pleads with Ike to take a gigantic swan dive off the alien ship, he tells him to "Do your impersonation of David Caruso's career." At the time Caruso had made the extremely unwise decision to ditch the TV show NYPD Blue and pursue movie roles.

When watching a news report about local UFO sightings, Cartman observes that a crop circle, when seen from overhead, "kinda looks like Tom Selleck". The crop circle is actually a picture of Cartman.

Although he's not seen in the episode, Scott Baio (star of "Who's the Boss" and "Joanie Loves Chachi") is reportedly responsible for giving Cartman pinkeye while aboard the alien space ship.

Bonus Factoids

Pointless Observations

Cartman Gets an Anal Probe, along with Damien are the only two South Park episodes to get a TV-14-DLV rating, instead of the show's customary TV-MA.

Season 1

e1 Cartman Gets an Anal Probe

e2 Weight Gain 4000

e3 Volcano

e4 Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride

e5 An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig

e6 Death

e7 Pinkeye

e8 Damien

e9 Starvin' Marvin

e10 Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo

e11 Tom's Rhinoplasty

e12 Mecha-Streisand

e13 Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut