Dances with Smurfs

"Dances With Smurfs" is the thirteenth episode of the thirteenth season of the animated television series South Park. It will air on Comedy Central in the United States on November 11, 2009.

Synopsis
Eric Cartman seizes the opportunity to become the voice of change at the school when he takes over the morning announcements. His target is South Park Elementary’s Student Body President, Wendy Testaburger. Cartman is asking the tough questions and gaining followers.

Plot
During the morning, the ginger boy, Gordon Stoltski, is killed while performing the announcements due to confusion with another man who had an affair with the killer's wife. Mr. Mackey leads the school body in a memorial service for little Gordon and asks for someone to replace him. Eric Cartman pulls a dirty trick on his best competitor, Casey Miller from 3rd grade, to win the competition to take over the announcements. The next day he calls out Student Body President Wendy Testaburger and with each passing day despite teacher protests, continues slamming her and referring to her as communist or "a socialist dunghole". This gets Butters attention and throughout the episode he gets drawn further into Cartmans machinations. Eventually Eric gets TVs installed into classrooms to do the professional looking EC Show. He says "I am a normal kid like all of you and as a normal kid I ask questions" then states unfounded attacks against Wendy using loaded questions. He walks to a chalkboard with KILL SMURFS down the two columns. They stand for: Keywords:, Integrated, Leftist, Liberal, and Socialist, Modern, Utopian, Reformed, Farce, School. Which is what he suggests is what Wendy Testaburger wants to do.

Eric refers to Butters Stotch as "Another person who cares about the future of our school", then sets up a table in the school hall and sell his book for $5 a piece. The book is over 500 pages of ripping on Wendy. Stan reads a passage of sexually explicit rumors about Wendy and Eric tells him to turn the page where he writes "or does she?" (More usage of the loaded question.) When the teachers of the class tell him to stop, he says "You're a lackey, Mackey!" and leaves the school, but returns the next day, weaving a story of how he chose to live with the gentle smurfs. In this story Cartman paints his face blue, wears a Smurf costume with his bare chest showing. The Smurfs teach him to pick Smurf berries and he falls in love with Smurfette. A very fat Wendy (Cartman in drag) comes to destroy Smurf village because the Smurf berries can power the school for a whole year. She runs down the Smurfs and their village in graphic cartoon violence. Cartman again uses a fallacy to convince the kids it all happened by saying "Go ahead and look outside, you won't see any Smurfs!" All of this is documented in Eric's new DVD: Dances with Smurfs.

Butters infatuation with Eric's views brings him to call the first cry of rebellion against Wendy. Butters organizes a group with similar t-shirts that state: "I ask questions" and leads the group to Wendy's house. There he climbs her steps and pees on Wendy's front door (and her father when he answers it) telling her to go on the EC show and defend herself. The next morning, Cartman is seated opposite Wendy and the sides of his hair has been dyed gray. He tells her he will take it easy on her yet begins with more loaded questions. He starts "How many Smurf berries is the life of each Smurf worth?" "If a Smurf dies when no one else is around does it still scream?"

Wendy turns the table with her own loaded questions, spinning a story about her plan to get someone on the inside of the Smurf village. She asks Cartman if he knew they would die and claims she has written a book, Going Rogue on the Smurfs, where she describes all the dirty details about the plan and how she used Eric on the inside to take down the Smurfs. She claims that she has already sold the movie rights to James Cameron. She steps down and gives Eric the class presidency. Eric runs to the theater to find James Cameron's Avatar playing and screams in dismay. Since Eric, as the class president, is not allowed to also do the morning announcements he sits in class and listens to Casey Miller as he takes over the morning announcer job and scathingly criticizes Eric as class president.

Trivia

 * The episode parodies Glenn Beck multiple times, particularly when Cartman repeatedly says, "I'm just asking questions." This is a common Glenn Beck phrase. His show intro and set are similar to Beck's. In the last part of the episode, the shape and color of Cartman's hair are similar to those of Glenn Beck.
 * Cartman references [[wikipedia:A_Clockwork_Orange|A Clockwork Orange] when reading an excerpt from his book, saying the "old in-out, in-out," a euphemism for sex.
 * Wendy's book Going Rogue on The Smurfs is a reference to Sarah Palin's book [[wikipedia:Going_Rogue:_An_American_Life|Going Rogue: An American Life].
 * Casey Miller's appearance, speaking style, and name is a reference to radio personality [[wikipedia:Going_Rogue:_An_American_Life|Casey Kasem].
 * Smurfs were last referenced - and seen - in the Imaginationland trilogy. An image of them can be found here.
 * The title is likely a reference to the film "Dances with Wolves".
 * This is likely going to be a reference or a satire of James Cameron's new film "Avatar" which features blue aliens and has a storyline seemingly very similar (according to trailers) to "dances with Wolves".
 * When they make the memorial for Gordon Stoltski Eric Cartman isn't smiling when the kid was a ginger, despite Cartman hating gingers.
 * The chime sound before Eric's announcements (E5-G4-C5) are similar to the NBC xylophone theme (G4-E5-C5) from the old days of Radio and TV.
 * Smurfette is actually Blonde