Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow

Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow is the 70th episode of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on July 18, 2001.

Plot
The episode begins with the boys watching an episode of Terrance and Phillip; while they complain about all the reruns they see a commercial for Terrance and Phillip Live at the Denver Coliseum Thursday night. They are hysterical, and are determined to see the show. At school the next morning, Kyle tells the other three he got them all tickets. Ms. Choksondik announces that Earth Day is coming up on Friday and that the national Earth Day organization has chosen South Park to be the location of the Earth Day Brainwashing Festival. Three environmentalists speak to the class, using Jedi mind tricks to force their message upon the children ("You care very much about the earth, don't you?"). The boys, however, anger them, claiming they can't help set up for the festival since they'll be seeing Terrance and Phillip. When this fails to sway the environmentalists, Kyle claims that they will be there to get Terrance and Phillip to perform at the festival. The environmentalists agree to let them go, but warn Kyle that he had better not promise things to the Earth Day people that he cannot deliver.

At the show, the boys discover that Terrance has grown incredibly fat and is now performing with a Phillip stand-in who neither looks nor sounds like the real Phillip. Determined to find out what's going on, the boys try to visit Terrance in his dressing room, and end up sneaking through in the pants of an extremely obese groupie. Once inside, the boys ask Terrance about performing at the Earth Day festival and about Phillip's absence. Terrance grows upset at the mentioning of Phillip, and explains to the boys that he and Phillip have gone their separate ways, and Phillip is currently in Toronto, doing Canadian Shakespeare. Back in South Park, the boys tell the environmentalists that Terrance and Phillip are no longer performing together. The environmentalists become violently angry, as they have already heavily promoted the appearance. The boys are told to go to Canada immediately to convince Phillip to perform, or else. After sitting through a Canadian performance of Hamlet, the boys confront Phillip and ask him if he will appear at the Earth Day festival. Phillip is receptive until Kyle mentions performing with Terrance, which Phillip flatly refuses to do. Kyle again lies and says that the people of South Park only want to see Phillip anyway, not Terrance. This placates Phillip and he agrees to come, but all four boys worry about what will happen when Phillip finds out that Terrance is at the festival too.

At the festival, the boys assure the environmentalists that Terrance and Phillip will both be there any minute. Determined to keep up the pressure on the boys, the environmentalists use a meat cleaver to chop off Kenny's left arm. Kenny screams and cries as blood slowly pours out. A moment later Phillip shows up, followed quickly by Terrance. The two are initially furious to see one another, but they reluctantly agree to work together. During their rehearsal, Terrance and Phillip begrudgingly do a routine, which eventually boils down into an argument until they both leave in a huff. The boys are dismayed by this, but not nearly as much as the environmentalists, who tell the boys that they had better get Terrance and Phillip back together before the show starts, or else. For good measure, the environmentalists chop off Kenny's right arm and Kenny shouts out more in pain. When the show finally starts and Terrance and Phillip are introduced, Kyle instead puts on a video of the documentary Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow. The crowd seems pleased by this, but the environmentalists are furious and begin chasing the boys. While the chase is in progress, Terrance and Phillip both notice the film that is playing, and both stop to watch the story of their career.

As the boys are being chased, the environmentalists soon chop off Kenny's left leg and Kenny bleeds furthermore as he's hopping on his remaining foot to catch up to the boys. Back at the festival, Terrance and Phillip eventually happen upon one another in the crowd and, after seeing what an incredible career they've had together, apologize to one another and decide to perform for the crowd. At this point, the boys and the environmentalists both arrive back at the festival, where the environmentalists chop off Kenny's right leg. Kenny falls limbless and quickly bleeds. Just as the environmentalists move in to finish off the other boys, Terrance and Phillip take the stage and begin performing their routine. This thrills everyone, even Kenny, who was still alive.

Trivia

 * When attempting to get Philip to do the show, Cartman threatens to make Philip eat his parents. Philip dismisses the threat, however Stan warns him "He'll do it, dude!" This is a reference to Cartman killing his half-brother, Scott Tenorman's mother and their mutual father, in Scott Tenorman Must Die.
 * This is another time where hardcore liberals have used the boys to push their agendas. This happened before in Butt Out, My Future Self n' Me, I'm a Little Bit Country and Gnomes.
 * Stan mentions how they helped save Terrance and Philip. This is a reference to South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
 * Terrance mentions not needing another kid. This a reference to the daughter he has with Celine Dion, Sally, who appeared in Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus.
 * Despite the fact Cartman loves Terrance and Philip, he voices a great dislike for the actual town of Canada. This is seen numerous other times such as in Canada on Strike and It's Christmas in Canada.
 * This is the first time that the boys visit Canada. They have visited Canada two additional times, in Canada on Strike and It's Christmas in Canada.

Pop Culture References & Trivia

 * The Earth Day people and Kyle perform the Jedi mind-trick hand gesture from the Star Wars Films.
 * Behind the Blow is a parody of VH1's Behind the Music series.
 * Punky Bruster's Soleil Moon Frye never suffered drug and sexual abuse like stated in this episode.
 * The environmentalists chopping off Kenny's limbs might be a reference to the 1975 British satire film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where King Arthur chops off the Black Knights limbs during a battle.

Goofs

 * When the random slut appeared in the line, she was the fourth person in line, and the third was a woman in a green shirt. When she saw Terrance she came after the first woman in the line instead of the woman in the green shirt. However, the second and third women may have departed, or the fourth woman skipped two places in line.
 * As Carl prepares to mutilate Kenny for a second time, he seems to be lacking a mouth.
 * Clyde Donovan claims his father is a geologist. However, according to Spontaneous Combustion, Die Hippie, Die, Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow, its stated that Randy Marsh is the only geologist in South Park.