The Passion of the Jew

"The Passion of the Jew" is episode 114 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on March 31, 2004.

The episode (and its title) is a satire of the movie The Passion of the Christ, which was released in 2004.

Plot
The boys are playing shuttlecraft Spontaneity in the new minivan that Cartman's mother has purchased. They go on an away mission and Cartman, as usual, gives Kyle a hard time about being a Jew, in this case a "Vulcan Jew." Cartman again tries to inform Kyle that in the movie The Passion of the Christ the Jews are the devil; he's seen the movie 34 times and he knows that the Jews had plenty of opportunity to save Jesus, but didn't. Stan and Kenny are tired of hearing them argue about the film and they decide to leave. Cartman accuses Kyle of being scared to learn the truth about the Jews as they are evil, evil people. Kyle debates and then decides to go and see the movie for himself. He endures the film and its depiction of the final hours of Christ's life in a state of constant horror and disgust. When he leaves the theater, he wonders how the Jews could have done that to Jesus, feeling enormous amounts of guilt mainly due to his membership of the religion in question.

He goes to Cartman's house and sadly tells Cartman "you were right," a statement that Cartman relishes. Cartman prays to a picture of Mel Gibson (in Braveheart) and promises to organize the masses and spread the word about The Passion. Stan and Kenny decide they need to see the film, but their feeling about the film is simply that it sucked and they want their money back. Stan calls it a "snuff film" and the guy at the box office tells them to go see the producer of the film if they want to get their money back; meanwhile Kyle is having nightmares about the film. Stan and Kenny try to get in contact with Mel Gibson by calling a 1-800 number they have found on a website. Stan dials the number which brings him in contact with someone who is running "Mel Gibson's The Passion Fan Club," and they want to know how to contact Gibson and get their money back. The guy on the phone, whom Stan does not recognize as Cartman, isn't any help other than telling them that Mel Gibson lives in Malibu. Stan decides that he and Kenny need to go there, because it's no longer about getting their money back, it's about holding the filmmaker responsible, which Stan says is how they got their money back for BASEketball.

Cartman is dressing in a brown Hitler-esque uniform and getting ready for the meeting he is holding in his backyard. People have gathered in the yard to celebrate their rediscovery of their Christianity, but it is actually a club Cartman plans to use to follow in Hitler's footsteps and create a second Holocaust. Cartman suggests those in attendance each take one more person to see The Passion before they begin "the cleansing." Out in Malibu, Stan and Kenny make their way into Mel Gibson's mansion. They see the man himself, but Mel Gibson starts going crazy while telling them that he won't be giving them their ticket money back, as well as being an obvious masochist. Back in South Park, Kyle talks with Father Maxi about Jesus, and makes up a fictitious friend in order to ask him how he can deal with his own guilt. Father Maxi suggests "atonement" for Kyle's friend, which gives Kyle an idea. Stan and Kenny manage to steal the money they want from Gibson's wallet and escape from the lunatic Gibson. In a rally outside the theater where "The Passion" is being shown Cartman begins speaking (poorly pronounced) German and his crowd of followers mistake his words for Aramaic, the language spoken in the film. He gets the crowd to march after him and as he exclaims "Es ist Zeit für Rache!" ("It is time for revenge") the crowd replies" Wir müssen die Juden ausrotten!" ("We must exterminate the Jews!")

Kyle goes to his synagogue and suggests to the gathering that as the American government had for racial segregation and slavery, and the Germans had for the Holocaust, the Jewish community needs to apologize for the death of Jesus. Kyle's parents and the other Jews are outraged at the suggestion that they should apologize and are disturbed by the effect the movie is having on people, claiming it stereotypes Jews (ironically, every Jew in the temple has a big nose and speaks in a thick Yiddish accent). The rabbi suggests that "...we live in a rational society where people will realize it is just a movie." Soon after saying this, Cartman is seen outside the temple with his followers, goose-stepping down the street. Meanwhile on the bus back from Malibu, Stan and Kenny realize that Gibson is chasing after the bus, recreating the famous truck chase scene from Mad Max 2, also honking his horn and shouting "Qapla!" (in reference to Star Trek) to get his $18 back. The Jewish congregation marches on the theater and demands that the movie be removed from the theater, while Cartman and his group come from the other direction. Their dialogue about the film is interrupted by the arrival of Stan and Kenny's bus being chased by Gibson. Gibson's tanker truck explodes in front of the theater. Cartman sees this and rushes over to offer the services of his following, but Mel has gone completely off the deep end. Seeing Gibson's behavior makes Kyle wonder why he was freaked out by his movie. Stan makes a speech about how Christians should follow the teachings of Jesus, not the way in which he died, stating also that hundreds of people were crucified that way during that era. In the end Gibson shows his insanity again by gleefully defecating into Cartman's face.

Censorship

 * The scene where Mel Gibson spreads feces on the wall and the ending where Gibson defecates on Cartman (after Kyle says that he's relieved that Mel Gibson was crazy and not taken that seriously) are cut in the syndicated version of this episode.
 * The explicit use of the swastika or "Hakenkreuz" as a Nazi symbol has been censored out in parts of Europe, because the symbol is illegal in some European countries (particularly Germany and Austria, where showing Nazi symbolism is illegal unless it's put into historical context). It also has been censored the second time it aired on Comedy Central, in American and Australian syndication, and in the version available on iTunes, showing instead a red flag with a white circle in the middle without the swastika.

Pop culture references

 * Mel Gibson's behavior through much the episode is a parody of Daffy Duck, specifically in a scene where Gibson parodies the cartoon Yankee Doodle Daffy, in which Porky Pig is trying to escape through multiple doors only to be blocked by Daffy in a different costume each time. Stan even refers to his behavior as "freaking daffy," at which point Gibson says, "You know, this means war!" a favorite saying of Daffy Duck.
 * When Stan and Kenny leave to get their money back from Mel Gibson, Stan says that they had done the same thing after seeing BASEketball, which starred South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
 * Gibson is heard saying "Gimme back my money", which is a reference to an often-used quote from the 1996 movie Ransom where Mel Gibson's character is heard screaming "Gimme back my son!" into a phone.
 * As Kyle's nightmare progresses the montage "speeds up", with the different Jesus and his crucifixion related scenes having less and less duration. He wakes up screaming after a split second "appearance" of Alan Alda.
 * Mel Gibson shouts the Klingon battle cry "Qapla'!" several times as he chases Stan and Kenny. The same cry was also used by George Clooney and other actors of the Film Actors Guild in Team America, which was also written, produced and directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
 * The truck that Mel Gibson is driving in when chasing after Stan and Kenny is modeled after the vehicle he drove in The Road Warrior.
 * When Mel Gibson is chasing Stan and Kenny through his house, he stops in front of a mirror and says, "Two days ago I saw a rig that could haul that tanker. If you want to get out of here, talk to me," a line from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. When the boys later find his wallet, he is heard to yell "Freedom!" offscreen while looking for them&mdash;a reference to Braveheart.
 * The Mel Gibson Fanclub Hot-line phone number, when dialed, sounds like the Asia song "Heat of the Moment". This marks the second time "Heat of the Moment" has appeared in a South Park episode.

Miscellaneous

 * This episode proved so popular that it was released on DVD long before the Season 8 box set. It came out on August 31, 2004, on a DVD including the episodes Christian Rock Hard and Red Hot Catholic Love. This was to coincide with the release of The Passion of the Christ on DVD.
 * This episode was re-aired August 9, 2006, following Gibson's recent arrest.
 * In spite of the episode's popularity, Trey Parker and Matt Stone noted on its DVD commentary that this was not one of their favorite episodes, saying that it would have been much better had they more time to work on it.
 * The "Looney Toon" Mel Gibson character re-appeared for a cameo in the first part of the Season 11 "Imaginationland" episodes, in which he's shown to be just as crazy as he's always been, but at least he knows story structure, unlike Michael Bay and M. Night Shyamalan.