Good Times with Weapons

Infobox Television episode
Title = Good Times with Weapons
Series = South Park


Caption = The boys in their imagined Ninja personae
Season = 8
Episode = 112
Airdate = March 17, 2004
Production =
Writer = Trey Parker
Matt Stone
Director = Trey Parker
Matt Stone
Guests =
Episode list = List of "South Park" episodes
Season list = Infobox South Park season 8 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"Good Times with Weapons" is episode 801 of "South Park". The first episode of Season 8, it originally aired on March 17, 2004, which creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone jokingly referred to in their DVD commentary as "The Year From Hell". This was due to the fact that they were filming and premièring "" while at the same time working on the season, which caused them a considerable amount of writer's block.

This was also one of ten episodes to be featured on "South Park: The Hits" DVD. In addition, it was voted the second best "South Park" episode of all time by fans in the United States,Fact|date=March 2008 while being ranked the third best among fans in the United Kingdom.Fact|date=March 2008

This episode is also the only one available in high definition, available on Xbox 360's Marketplace. A promotional HD DVD was also released exclusively for Best Buy.

Plot

At the South Park County Fair, the boys come across a vendor dealing "authentic weapons from the Far East". After tricking him into selling them several dangerous ninja weapons, they pretend to be ninjas, each with his own individual powers (Cartman's being to have any power he wants, which entails making them up as he goes along, but he ends up having them taken away by Stan), on an imaginary adventure through South Park. Each boy has his own weapon: Stan wields a pair of tonfas, Kyle a nunchaku, Cartman a pair of "killer sais" and Kenny two cheap shuriken stars. The episode's animation switches from the usual cutout-and-solid-color style into a stereotypical anime design, with the boys drawn as stylized anime characters. Asian-style ambience plays in the background.

After showing off their weapons to unimpressed classmates, the boys encounter Butters, who asks if he can play, too. The boys refuse, so Butters goes home, dons his foil-lined helmet to become his Professor Chaos alter ego, sets off to ravage the town and, after a maternally-supplied anti-climax, delivers a "Thank You" pie to the neighbors.

Soon after an argument about the rules of having ninja powers, the boys encounter Professor Chaos. They then engage in a stylized anime fight in which Professor Chaos displays his awesome powers: Stan shoots a jet of flame at him, only to have it turned back by his titanium cape, but Kyle catches the villain off guard with an icy blast from his nunchaku. Professor Chaos retaliates by trapping Stan and Kyle in his "Web of Holding". Cartman then tries to bring his powers into play but realizes that they remain subject to the aforementioned forbiddance. Kyle restores Cartman's powers (even though it was Stan who announced that he was no longer allowed to have any), only to have him transform him into a chicken. Finally, at Stan's bidding, Kenny throws a shuriken into Professor Chaos's left eye. The animation style instantly reverts back from fast-paced anime to regular "South Park", showing the real-world outcome of the boys' fight as Butters cries in pain, the shuriken lodged in his eye. The boys realize what they have done and start to panic, trying unsuccessfully to take the star out themselves. Cartman suggests that they "stay calm and do the right thing", kill Butters and bury him in Kyle's backyard, but his idea is rejected by the other boys.

In order to prevent Butters from dying and avoid the punishment that would inevitably follow the questions asked at a regular hospital, the boys dress Butters up (poorly) as a dog (using fur shaved off Sparky) and begin their journey to a veterinarian. They are waylaid, however, by Craig, Token, Clyde and Jimmy, who have bought their own ninja weapons from the naïve vendor. Thus begins the Battle of Tokagawa.

The boys hide Butters in an abandoned stove before facing off with Craig's gang, but he escapes during the fight. After an epic battle, featuring the "Let's Fighting Love" song, the boys realize that Butters has disappeared and enlist Craig's gang to help them to find him before he can tell anyone about their weapons. Butters somehow makes his way to the hospital, but his disguise fools the doctor, who sends him off to the animal shelter, where other dogs urinate and defecate on him. The elderly, myopic and sanguinary animal doctor, also fooled, makes no attempt to treat him, preparing instead to put him to sleep. Before he can do so, however, Butters escapes.

Fearing that they have lost Butters, the boys resolve to return their weapons to the vendor (rather than throw them away and lose the money that they have spent on them) to hide the evidence, but the vendor declares that he does not give refunds. Craig and the others inform the boys that they have seen Butters wandering around on the other side of the fair auction. In a misplaced show of bravery and heroism, Cartman decides to use his power of invisibility, taking off all of his clothes, to get to Butters undetected. Since he does not really have said power, however, he exposes himself to the entire audience. Butters stumbles onto the stage a few moments later.

The final scene of the episode shows the townsfolk protesting at an emergency meeting about the outrage at the auction. The boys are under the impression that the outrage in question is Butters's wound, but it soon transpires that the real polemic is Cartman's public nudity. The latter's ill-received explanation is that it was but a "wardrobe malfunction".

The townsfolk do not seem to care about Butters's now-bandaged injuries. Kyle, relieved, decides to go along with the protest, declaring that his "fragile little eight-year-old mind" cannot cope with what it has seen and that Cartman ought to be punished. Stan, Kyle and Kenny leave the adults to punish their friend, pleased to find that they care more about the effect of nudity and sex than violence. The episode ends with the three of them turning back into their ninja forms in preparation for a continuation of their game.

"Let's Fighting Love"

This episode includes "Let's Fighting Love", a theme song that mixes Japanese and English lyrics, parodying the Engrish in certain J-Rock songs.

The song is performed by series creator Trey Parker, who is an admitted Japanophile, having majored in Japanese while attending CU Boulder.Audio Commentary on "Good Times with Weapons" with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, "South Park: The Hits, Vol. 1," Comedy Central Home Entertainment, 2006.] Whether the less-than-authentic-sounding Japanese accent and occasional incorrect pronunciation are intentional or not is unknown. The Engrish concerns are the phrases "Hey! Hey! Let's go!", "Protect my balls!", "So let's fighting!" and "Let's fighting love!"

Censorship

In the syndicated version, the dogs' relieving themselves on Butters is bowdlerized: the scene cuts away just as the first dog is lifting its leg. Cartman's nudity receives similar treatment, the skin on his belly digitally extended to cover his penis. What little is visible is, like his buttocks, blurred.Fact|date=October 2008

Paramount Comedy and Channel 4

This is the first episode broadcast on the UK channel Paramount Comedy since Channel 4 decided to stop airing South Park. Channel 4 announced this after broadcasting the previous episode "Its Christmas in Canada".Fact|date=October 2008

References

External links

* [http://www.spscriptorium.com/Season8/E801secrets.htm Secrets of "Good Times with Weapons"]
* [http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103879/ Full Episode on South Park Studios]
* [http://www.clipstr.com/videos/TranslationOfSouthParksSongLetsFightingLove/ Translation of "Lets fighting Love"]