A Ladder to Heaven

Infobox Television episode
Title = A Ladder to Heaven
Series = South Park


Caption = Cartman drinks Kenny's ashes
Season = 6
Episode = 91
Airdate = November 6, 2002
Production = 612
Writer = Trey Parker
Director = Trey Parker
Guests =
Episode list = List of "South Park" episodes
Season list = Infobox South Park season 6 episode list
Prev =
Next ="A Ladder to Heaven" is episode 91 of the Comedy Central series "South Park". It was originally broadcast on November 6, 2002.

Plot

The boys win an all-you-can-grab candy prize. However, they cannot claim it without the stub of the ticket they bought. After thinking hard, they realize that they gave the ticket stub to Kenny to hold on to before he died. Upon visiting Kenny's house, the boys find out that Kenny was cremated. Not understanding what this means, the boys hope to find the ticket in the urn that Kenny's parents say he is now in. They steal the urn and are disappointed to find it only contains black powder. Cartman assumes it must be some kind of chocolate milk powder. He mixes the ashes with milk and drinks Kenny.

The boys decide to build a ladder to heaven to find Kenny so he can tell them where the ticket is. Of course, when questioned why they're building the ladder, the boys neglect to mention that candy is involved and merely say they want to see Kenny again. As a result, the adults, thinking that the boys desperately want to see their dead friend again, are touched (aside from Mr Garrison, who calls it 'A fucking stupid idea'). The whole country gets involved in supporting the ladder to heaven. When the boys announce they have run out of stuff to build the ladder, the adults consider telling them the truth that they're not actually going to reach heaven. However, just then the United States military arrives and starts to build a reinforced tower in order to beat the Japanese (who have started building a ladder of their own) to heaven.

Suspicious photos taken of heavenly clouds are reported to the President as indicating a potential factory making WMDs run by Saddam Hussein, and permanently living in Heaven. The US decides to bomb heaven, believing Hussein to be building nuclear warheads there.

Meanwhile, Cartman starts channeling Kenny, while the adults try to tell the boys to get back to their lives. When the boys express their urgency to see Kenny, the adults inform them about Kenny's cremation. When they try to show Kenny's ashes, they discover that it has been replaced by kitty litter. Cartman then admits that he drank Kenny's ashes, to the disgust of the others. Now realising why he has been channeling Kenny, Cartman goes to an abortion clinic in an attempt to get rid of Kenny from his body. His subsequent argument with the nurse there causes a woman to reconsider her own abortion. Cartman ends up getting hit by the woman's boyfriend and remembers where the ticket is. The boys lose interest in the ladder after they get the ticket and their confectionery.

Meanwhile, it is announced via television that the Japanese have reached heaven, and although the "heaven" depicted is obviously set in a studio, this convinces the adults that heaven is real. They continue building the ladder and preparing an attack on heaven when they spot the boys. They are disappointed to find out the boys were "only interested in candy", to which Cartman replies, "I've never heard the word 'only' and 'candy' in the same sentence before."

The boys explain that heaven is not some white fluffy place. In fact, Kyle adds, "Maybe heaven is this moment right now." The general responds by ordering his subordinate to hold off on firing on heaven, and instead he issues an order to "Fire on this moment right now." Before he does, Randy Marsh stops him and says, "Instead of waiting to get into heaven, we should be trying to create heaven here on Earth." The crowd sighs in acknowledgment of this pithy truth and disperses. As the boys are about to go home to count their confectionery, Kenny starts speaking through Cartman.

The episode ends with a shot of heaven, where Saddam Hussein "is" in fact building a WMD factory, disguised as "Saddam's Heavenly Chocolate Chip Factory". When God suspects this, Hussein uses reverse psychology by saying, "Look God, if I was building a chemical weapons plant, I wouldn't make it look like a chemical weapons plant, would I? No! I would make it look like a chocolate chip factory or something," which God prompty falls for. Saddam exits laughing as he mutters "stupid asshole."

Censorship

* The two news reports where a fat man on the street compares the boys climbing the ladder to Heaven to a little boy climbing his penis and the U.S.A bombing Saddam Hussein to his penis bombing a little boy (with the camera steering away to cut him off before he got too graphic and him trying to get back on screen followed by the anchorman imitating static to fully cut him off) was cut in the syndicated version.Fact|date=August 2008
* When Cartman has one of his Kenny-visions, 'blood-belching vagina' is changed to 'belching vagina' in syndication. It is later referenced in season eleven's "Le Petit Tourette" where one of Cartman's outbursts is "bloody vaginal belch!"Fact|date=August 2008