Damien

"Damien" is episode 8 of Comedy Central's series South Park. It originally aired on February 4, 1998.

Synopsis
As Cartman's birthday approaches, a new student transfers into the boys class. His arrival signifies the foretold battle between Jesus and Satan, which may ruin the birthday party.

Plot
In anticipation for his birthday party, Cartman hands out invitations during class.

After he hands out the invitations, Mr. Garrison announces that a new student is joining the class. Damien introduces himself as from "the seventh level of hell". He continues that "now is the beginning of the end and the new reign of [his] father: the Prince of Darkness". After Cartman taunts him with a birthday invitation, Damien's eyes flame and he telekinetically throws Cartman's desk out the window, prompting Mr. Garrison to ask if he needs a "time out".

At lunch it's revealed that the birthday invitations are marked with a gift that each student is to buy Cartman:
 * Stan: Green Mega Man
 * Kyle: Red Mega Man
 * Kenny: Yellow Mega Man

The boys continue to mock Damien throughout lunch, and he turns Kenny into a Duck Billed Platypus before going into a rage and destroying the lunch room, demanding Jesus be brought to him.

While the rest of the boys go and find Jesus, Cartman revises his birthday gift list, making it clear that he needs all the Mega Men in order to combine them and create Ultra Mega Mega Man.
 * Wendy: Yellow Mega Man (formerly Mega Man Power Chopper)
 * Clyde: The Mega Cycle
 * (Unnamed children): Mega Man Beach House ("Two people at once since it costs more money")

Meanwhile Damien's wrath continues on the playground during recess. When Jesus arrives he tells Damien to let Satan come and he will face him. While waiting for Satan, the whole town manages to gather at the playground. Although Satan does not physically show, he informs everyone (through Damian) that the arrangements for the final battle will be made the next day, prompting Jimbo to make his way to his bookie, followed by the rest of the town.

It is decided that the final battle will be held at the South Park Forum and can be watched on pay-per-view for $49.95. Naturally, Cartman is angered that the final fight between good and evil will be held on his birthday. In anticipation of the fight; the entire town bets that Jesus will win, until Satan appears for the weigh in, appearing much larger than Jesus, sending the town back to the bookie to change their bets.

The boys take it upon themselves to train Jesus, drafting Chef into sparring with him. Chef reluctantly knocks out Jesus with a single punch.

At Cartman's party, Damien and Pip show up. In order for Damien to "warm up" to the boys, he opens a pit of fire and lets black ghosts throw Pip in the air where he is engulfed in flames. Impressed by the fireworks display, the boys welcome him to join the party. While opening his presents, Kyle, who was supposed to give Cartman a red Mega Man, gives him the game Ants in the Pants, saying the stores were all out of red Mega Men. Enraged that he can't get the Ultra Mega Mega Man, Cartman attacks Kyle and promptly cancels the party, ordering everyone out; they all go to see the fight.

At the fight, the referee informs Satan and Jesus that he, "want[s] a good clean fight, guys. No punching below the belt, holding, or miracles." Satan lands punch after punch on Jesus. Jesus is disheartened by the town's lack of faith in him and does not attempt to retaliate as Satan wears him down. When Stan shows up from Cartman's party, he gives Jesus a small pep talk about how Nancy Kerrigan wouldn't give up until she was #1. Kyle interrupts him to tell him that Nancy got the silver medal (second place). Instead, Stan tells him, "Don't try to be a great man, just be a man." When Jesus asks who said that, Stan tells Jesus that he did (but Stan later admits he heard it on Star Trek).

Inspired by Stan's words, Jesus punches Satan in the lower-forearm and Satan takes a dive, throwing the match. It is revealed that the only person who bet on Jesus to win was Satan. He had planned to inspire the crowd to bet on himself and get rich off their folly (and buy some real estate). The town asks for Jesus' forgiveness and he replies, "Aww heck, do I have a choice?" At the end Cartman is seen fater than usual while his mom asks him if he wants more pie.

Kenny's death
Shot by Jimbo Kern when he was a duck-billed platypus, on the usual grounds that "He's coming right for us!"

Trivia

 * The creepy chorus that is heard when Damien uses his powers can also be heard (with slight differentiation) in the episode Britney's New Look sung by the towns people.
 * Maxi, despite being a priest, refers to Jesus as "that guy on the public access show".
 * Whenever Damien appears onscreen, a choir of voices chants in what sounds like Latin. The voices say "Rectus… Dominus… Cheesy Poofs…" ("Rectus Dominus" is dog Latin for "Ass Master" which is an often used insult on the show, and Cheesy Poofs is Cartman's favorite snack)
 * Throughout the episode, whenever a shot of the 3rd grade class is shown the numbers "666" appear in red with the rest of the numbers on the wall. The black board reads some calculations and mathematical formulas, amongst them 2x + 3y + 1 = 666
 * Damien was originally going to be voiced by Beavis and Butt-Head/King of the Hill creator and voice actor Mike Judge. Due to the fast production on South Park, however, Judge was unable to record new lines.
 * According to the DVD commentary, Pip was originally supposed to die in this episode but they decided not to kill him off because they needed him for crowd scenes, until 201 where Pip really dies
 * First appearance of Craig Tucker and Brad Dixon.
 * When Damien sets the jungle gym on fire, Butters (at the time referred to as "Puff Puff" in storyboards) screams in an obviously female voice, somewhat similar to Bebe's.
 * This is the second episode since Cartman Gets an Anal Probe, to be rated TV14.
 * During the fight between Jesus and Satan, if you look at the members in the crowd you can see Sharon Marsh, Liane Cartman and Mayor McDaniels. However Liane should have been at home for Cartman birthday. However since Cartman said the party was off and kicked everyone out, she may have gone to watch the fight.
 * When Damien makes things fly around the cafeteria and Chef says "we have to do something children, he's tearing my cafeteria apart!" if you freeze it for a frame you can see Mr. Hankey fly across the screen.
 * First appearance of Satan.
 * When Damien knocks Butters off the jungle gym he screams like Bebe.
 * Cartman tells Jesus to not mind Kyle because he is Jewish, but Jesus himself is Jewish.

Pop-Culture/Historical References

 * The character Damian, and a lot of the plot elements and the spooky music are all parodied from the 1976 horror film The Omen.
 * Cartman's beloved Mega Man toys are a parody of The Power Rangers, a live action children's show which recycles footage from the Japanese Super Sentai series.
 * Megaman is a well-known video character.
 * Mr. Garrison is teaching the children about musicians of the Baroque era. This is was a period in 17th Century Rome, which spawned the works of various famous musicians including Johann Sebastian Bach.
 * Cartman asks if Damian got his haircut by blind musician Stevie Wonder. This is also a joke told by the famous British blue comedian Roy Chubby Brown (The joke being "Who dressed you ya scruffy cunt, fucking Stevie Wonder?").
 * The fight between Jesus and Satan is televised on Pay-Per-View, which is a common service provided by cable television services which are usually a one-time showing of a live event for a fixed price.
 * The advertisement promoting the Pay-Per-View match shows Jesus shooting fireballs from his hands much like he did in the The Spirit of Christmas short.
 * The weigh in and announcement for the fight is done by Michael Buffer. Buffer is the iconic boxing announcer who is best known for his trademark phrase "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" Buffer's contributed his own voice in this episode.
 * Satan's manager is apparently Don King. King is best known for his representation of boxer Muhammad Ali. The press interview with Satan parodies a lot of Don King's many interviews with the press.
 * A reporter during the press conference asks Satan what his involvement was in the Gulf War. This is a reference to the The Persian Gulf War that went from August 2nd 1990 to February 28, 1991 between the United Nations and Iraq.
 * When being trained by Stan and Kyle for the big fight, Stan tries to get Jesus to drink a glass of raw eggs. This is likely inspired by Sylvester Stallone's character Rocky Balboa doing the same thing in the 1978 film Rocky.
 * The referee in the match is based after famous boxing referee Mills Lane.
 * Instead of buying the Mega Man that Cartman specified, Kyle bought Eric the game Ants In The Pants, which is a real game.
 * When Stan tries to give Jesus a Pep-Talk and encourage him to give the fight his best, by citing figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, Kyle sours that motivation speech by mentioning that she won the silver medal. This is a reference to the 1994 Winter Olympics, in which Kerrigan was beat for the gold medal by 0.1 points.
 * Stan inspires Jesus with the quote "Don't try to be a great man, just be a man", and tells Jesus that he said it himself. When Kyle asks if it's true or not, Stan admits that he heard it on Star Trek. More specifically, the line is from the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact, the line is said by the character Zefram Cochrane (played by James Cromwell)
 * When Damien makes demons throw Pip into the air and make a fireworks display out of him it's similar to the scene in the Dragon Ball Z Anime where Vegeta kills Cui with an attack known as Dirty Fireworks.

Goofs

 * Stan gives Cartman a Blue Mega Man at the party, though he was supposed to give him a green one. (Though this might have been part of the rearrangement).


 * Ms. Cartman is seen at the fight, even though she is supervising the party.


 * Token is seen in the background but, when Jimbo sees Kenny he's white.

Hidden Visitors
Four alien visitors can be found in this episode:


 * In the twister as Satan talks to the crowd of people.


 * At the "Match for Spiritual Dominian" cheering along with the crowd.


 * Another visitor is hiding behind Mayor McDaniels at the fight.


 * On the "What We Dream" pegboard on the bottom right corner.

Trivia

 * Damien is seen again in South Park: Bigger,Longer & Uncut. You can see him in the front row of the movie theater the second time the boys see the movie.

Quotes
Stan: If my mom could cook like Cartman's mom I'd be a big fat ass too!

Cartman: That's right!

[Cartman realizes he's been insulted.]

Cartman: Hey!  Cartman: Oh really? Gosh, where could I have put Pip's invitation? Let's see… Pip's invitation… Pip's invitation… oh, I remember! I shoved it up my ass! Yes. That's right, I wrote it out, put it in an envelope, sealed it, and woop shoved it right up my ass, forever ruining any chance you had of coming to my party. Sorry, Pip 'ol chap!  Chef: Oh! That's one fudged-up little cracka!  Priest: Look! [points to Jesus] It's that guy from the public-access show.  Damien: Everybody hates me.

Mr. Mackey: Well, uh, why do you suppose that is?

Damien: Because I'm the son of the Devil?

Mr. Mackey: Uh-huh, that's a good start. Why else?

Damien: Because I burn them and kill them?

Pip: My name is Philip, but everyone calls me Pip because they hate me.

Damien: Then I will call you Pip.

Pip: Righto.  Pip: So, how'd it go, old chap?

Damien: The fat one farted on me and called me....

Pip: Fartboy? Oh, well maybe they won't call me that anymore.

 Mr. Garrison: [upon first seeing Satan] Holy poop on a stick!  Jesus: You're all a bunch of Judases!  Chef: I can't hit Jesus Christ! My mother would never speak to me again!

 Damien: The new reign of my father!

Mr. Garrison: Who's your father?

Damien: The Prince of Darkness!

Mr. Garrison: Oh wow, we have royalty in our class!  Referee: Okay guys, I want a good clean fight. No punching below the belt, holding, or miracles.

 Cartman: Ants in the Pants? Ants in the Pants?!

Kyle: It's a game, dude, it's really fun.

Cartman: You son of a bitch! [jumps on Kyle, hysterical] You were supposed to get me the red Mega Man! Now I can't make Ultra Mega Mega Man! You dirty, cheap-ass piece of crap!

Kyle: They were all out of them dude!

Cartman: I hate you! I want you to die! DIE!

 Mr. Garrison: And where are you from, Damien?

Damien: The seventh layer of hell!

Mr. Garrison: Ooooh, that's exciting, my mother was from Alabama.