Rainforest Shmainforest

"Rainforest Schmainforest" is the first episode of the third season of South Park.

Synopsis
The boys are recruited for a rainforest saving choir by Mr. Mackey after showing poor behavior. Unfortunately for them, the group get lost in the forest...

Plot
Miss Stevens is in Mr. Garrison's class recruiting students for a tree saving choir tour called "Getting Gay With Kids." The boys cause trouble calling the choir names and belittling their cause and are sent to the office. Kenny has fallen for one of the girls in the choir, Kelly, so when Mr. Mackey punishes the boys by forcing them to join the choir, he is the only one who is happy about it.

The children are on their way to San José, Costa Rica. Kenny meets with Kelly, who calls him Lenny, Benny and any other name that rhymes with Kenny (not calling him Kenny). Miss Stevens also tells Cartman that she plans on changing him; she's got a lot of work ahead of her. Upon arriving, the children meet the Costa Rican President and do a preview dance routine, but Miss Stevens is dismayed by Kyle's lack of co-ordination.

On their tour of the Rainforest, the children see the 'wonders' of the Rainforest (which Cartman keeps beating with a stick, including at least one endangered species). Then their tour guide is killed when he is eaten by a man-eating coral snake. Miss Stevens and the children are on their own in the jungle. They run into a group of revolutionaries, and try to recruit the revolutionaries to their cause, to which the rebel leader replies: "We're not getting gay with any kids" and have to run away when government troops arrive and start a battle. With the group still wandering aimlessly around the rainforest, Cartman deciding to leave "this hippie", walks off and finds a friendly crew working on a deforestation project.

Back in San José, the concert is about an hour away from starting. The President stalls for time by telling Polack jokes. Meanwhile, Miss Stevens and the remaining children find a group of natives intent upon killing them, and sacrificing Miss Stevens. At this point, she finally changes her mind, and decides the rainforest is not such a good place after all, just as Cartman and the construction workers arrive to save everyone. Miss Stevens and the children are so happy to be out of the forest that they literally change their tune about the Rainforest. They do a different version of the original song, which rebukes the rainforest rather than praising it as the original did. At the end of the episode, a brief message is show which tells the viewer that multiple cancer-causing compounds come from the rainforest and that hundreds of people a year die has a result of the rainforest.

Controversy
Despite the episode airing in 1999 in the U.S. and a few years later in Latin America (except in Brazil, MTV Brasil aired it in 1999), the episode has caused a bit of controversy in February 2007 over the comments that Cartman made about Costa Rica saying that the town "smells like ass" and the way the creators show the country full of "prostitutes, shantytowns and trash." The Costa Rican Government was reportedly "not amused" with this episode.



Trivia

 * Kenny almost dies when he lies to Kelly and is struck by lightning. She actually revives him, while Stan and Kyle are dumbfounded. This marks the first time someone has ever tried to resuscitate Kenny, and the second time Kenny survives the whole episode.
 * Some of the choir members would return in subsequent episodes to become recurring background classmates: Bradley, an unnamed black-haired boy, Millie, Heidi (shown with black hair for most of this episode, with her hair appearing in its usual light brown color in a few shots), Esther, and Sally.
 * Though Jake appears to be eaten by a carnivorous flower, he's shown alive in a few shots afterward due to an animation error. It could still be taken that he is alive.
 * After Cartman leaves, he's mistakenly shown running from the Yanagopa with the rest of the group, also due to an animator's error.
 * During the first GGWK number Sally loses her clip on her hair and Heidi's hair shifts from black to brown and back.
 * In the final GGWK number, an unnamed orange-haired boy is shown in Jake's spot. He quickly disappears.
 * Kelly sat by Kenny for most of the trip. However, whenever the children looked out of the window she could be seen two seats behind Cartman.
 * In this episode we find out Stan is afraid of snakes.
 * Throughout the episode Kelly always said Kenny's name wrong
 * Cartman, who apparently belives people need to show nature who's boss can be seen whacking multiple animals on the head with a stick while chastising them. Including a Coral Snake (who had just eaten and crapped out their tour guide), a Three Toed Sloth, and an endangered species of Monkey. The snake, however, appears to decide not to take any crap from a fat nine year old and chases Cartman around after he smacks it.
 * This episode is listed as, "Choir Tour" in the Comedy Network full video lists.
 * Although cartman makes fun of kyle because hes a bad dancer and doesnt follow along but in elementry school musical he dances pretty good and keeps up with the rythme maybe he got dance lessons.