An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig

"An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" is episode 5 of Comedy Central's series South Park. It originally aired on September 10, 1997. South Park's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, refer to it as "An Elephant Fucks a Pig" on the Season 1 DVD.

Plot
The boys are waiting at the bus stop when Cartman notices Stan has a black eye. As it turns out, his sister Shelly has been beating him up and he doesn’t know what to do. Kyle has problems of his own, as his mom won’t let him keep his new pet elephant in the house. At school, Mr. Hat teaches the class about genetic engineering, which prompts Kyle to decide to splice his elephant with Cartman’s pot-bellied pig, Fluffy, to make little "pot-bellied elephants". Upon hearing this Terrance bets Kyle that he can clone a whole person before Kyle can get a pot-bellied elephant. Thus, the cloning war begins.

Mr. Garrison suggests the boys use their genetic modifications for the upcoming science fair and that Kyle and crew should check out the genetic engineering ranch outside of town. Mr. Garrison then asks Stan to stay after class talk to about his black eye. When Stan explains that bruise is from his sister, Mr. Garrison calls him a pansy and sends him home.

Once at home, Shelley again beats up Stan and throws him out the window, where the guys are waiting for him. They head off for the South Park Genetic Engineering Ranch.

While at the ranch, Dr. Mephisto shows them his genetically engineered collection, including several monkeys with multiple asses. Mephisto then explains that, just like the Loverboy song says, "pig and elephant DNA just won’t splice." He then steals a blood sample from Stan and the boys flee.

Back at school the boys learn Terrance has cloned a human foot. The boys go to Chef with their genetic engineering problem, and after he too cites the Loverboy song, he gives them the idea to try to have the animals "make sweet love" to breed. Stan goes home and gets beaten up by Shelley again. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mephisto and his assistant have created a human clone of Stan for Terrance (Mephisto’s son)'s science project. The boys attempt to get the pig and the elephant drunk to get them to make sweet love, but it doesn’t seem to be working until Chef stops by and sings to the animals with a little help from Elton John.

The cloned Stan breaks free from Mephisto's ranch and proceeds to terrorize the town. The boys eventually find the clone and take it to Stan’s house and convince it to attack Shelley, which it does after destroying the house and indirectly killing Kenny. Mephisto shows up and kills the clone, but Stan is afraid he’ll be in trouble for everything the clone did, but Shelley, in a brief moment of kindness, takes the heat (after which she beats up Stan again).

When the science projects are due Terrance presents a five assed monkey, but Kyle has nothing until the pig gives birth to a pot-bellied pig that looks like Mr. Garrison. Garrison quickly awards it first prize over Terrance's five-assed monkey.

Kenny's Death

 * The Stan Clone knocks Kenny into a microwave with a chair. He is then cooked by the microwave.

Trivia

 * Trey Parker claims the original title of the episode was "An Elephant Fucks a Pig", but under pressure from Comedy Central, they changed it. He maintains however, that if such a situation ever arose in real life, "the elephant wouldn't be making love to a pig, it would be fucking it."
 * This episode contains one of the first mentions of Cartman's mom's promiscuity. It also sheds a little light on Cartman's behavior possibly stemming from sexual abuse by Cartman's mom (such as being forced to dress like a mailman). Although the fact that Cartman rants about his mom "having sex with some guy I don't even know on my dad's bed" when Cartman has no father has been taken by some to imply that Cartman is simply going on a bizarre rant with no connection to reality, this reference is likely due to the fact that the creators had simply not decided that Mrs. Cartman was a single parent at this point of the series.
 * Half of a scene that takes place in the lunchroom appears in the same frame-by-frame cardboard cut-out style that the pilot episode was shot in. The style is notably different from the rest of the episode, including a noticeable difference in voices, mouth movement, scene coloring, and character positioning. The reason for this is that the scene was originally part of the pilot, but was cut for time and then inserted into this episode.
 * Mephisto is revealed in this episode to be a Buddhist. ("Oh, thank Buddha I found you boys!)

Mr. Garrison's Learning Plan

 * Splicing DNA
 * Science projects

Pop-Culture/Historical References

 * This episode was likely inspired in part by Dolly the sheep, who was the first successfully cloned mammal. Dolly was created on July 5th, 1996.
 * Cartman tells Kyle to go back to San Francisco "with the rest of the Jews." Cartman likely has the Jewish mixed up with Hippies, another group that he hates. The Hippie moviement still endures, or is at least a common stereotype associated with San Francisco.
 * The character Mephisto is a parody of actor Marlon Brando, who played the role of Dr. Moreau (a genetic engineer) in the 1996 film adaptation of the story The Island of Dr. Moreau.
 * According to both Dr. Mephisto and Chef there is a song by the band Loverboy titled Pig and Elephant DNA Just Won't Splice. In real life there is no such Loverboy song.
 * The fetal Stan clone in the incubater in Mephisto's lab resembles the baby fetus depicted at the end of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * While singing the song "Love Gravey", Chef is backed up by singer Elton John. This is an impersonation, and it parodies his singing style specifically his singing of the song Can You Feel the Love Tonight which was featured in the 1994 Disney film The Lion King.
 * Officer Barbradey suggests that the boys have seen too many episodes of the X-Files.
 * The 'four-assed' creations might be a reference to an episode of Father Ted, where locals are spooked by a 'monster' that, among characteristics, has four arses.

Hints for the future airs.

 * Cartman tells Kyle to go back to San Francisco "with the rest of the Jews." Cartman likely has the Jewish mixed up with Hippies, another group that he hates. The Hippie moviement still endures, or is at least a common stereotype associated with San Francisco. This is shown in details in Smug Alert 9 years later.

Quotes
Ms. Crabtree: Hey, wait a minute! What is that thing? [referring to the elephant]

Kyle: Uh, this is the new retarded kid.

Ms. Crabtree: Oh. I'm sorry, little girl, but you still can't get on. You have to take the Special Ed bus.

 Chef: Now, children, gather round and watch the wonders of life! The beauty of Mother Nature!

 Chef: Now I know how all those white women must've felt.

 Cartman: I would never let a woman kick my ass. If she tried something, I'd be like: "HEY! You get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie!"

 Kyle: Stan, you can use family love as a weapon against Shelley. The next time she's gonna kick your ass, just tell her "Shelley, you're my sister, and I love you."

Kenny: (unknown, muffled sentence. It sounds like "and I love you with my dick,"

Stan: (disgusted) sick dude! She's my sister!

 Cartman: If some girl tried to kick my ass, I'd be like, "HEY! Why don't you stop...dressing me like a mailman...uh, and making me dance for you...while you go and...smoke crack in your bedroom... and have sex with...some guy...I don't even know. On my dad's bed."

Stan: Cartman, what the hell are you talking about?

Cartman: I'm just saying you're just a little wuss, that's all.

 Tom(News broadcaster): It appears that the horrible, destructive creature is actually 8-year-old Stan Marsh of South Park. When asked why he was wreacking such havoc on his hometown, the little boy replied simply, "Me Stan, bachump, ba-chewy-chump, ba-chewy-chump." Back to you in the studio.

Hidden Visitor(s)
On the "Our Pets" pegboard in the upper center there is the head of the visitor.