Jared Has Aides

Jared Has Aides is episode #602 of South Park.

Plot
Jared Fogle, the ubiquitous spokesman for Subway, visits South Park, touting that "weight loss is easy" with a regimen of sub sandwiches. When Stan, Cartman, Butters, and Kyle visit Jared after his speech to the town, they are dismayed to find that his amazing weight loss is the result not of eating all the sandwiches he wanted, but of intensive consultations with a personal trainer and a dietitian (who he refers to as his "Aides"). Cartman suggests that the boys cut a similar deal with the local Chinese restaurant, City Wok, and that Butters should gain 50 pounds and then lose it, claiming that his weight loss was due to a strict diet of City Wok.

Meanwhile, after being confronted by the boys, Jared decides to tell the world his secret to weight loss. He informs his girlfriend Christine that he has had help from "aides", causing her to believe that he has Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome and sparking a running gag in which everyone mistakes the word "aides" for the disease AIDS for the rest of the show. He also comes clean with the people of South Park, suggesting that everyone who wants to lose weight should get aides. For this, Subway decides to fire Jared from his promotional duties.

The boys cut a deal with City Wok's stereotypical proprietor, Tuong Lu Kim, and the next phase of the plan begins. Unfortunately, Butters does not lose weight from exercise. The only remaining option is liposuction, which Cartman performs himself. However, after the procedure, Butters' parents come home, and Cartman, Stan, and Kyle manage to leave before they enter the house. Butters' parents immediately ground him, thinking he had self-performed liposuction surgery in the house after they had warned him four times to never do so.

Jared surmises that the reason for this turn of events is that others cannot afford to hire their own aides to assist in their weight loss. Thus, Jared devotes his money to the Aides for Everyone Foundation, dedicated to providing aides to everyone, including personally giving aides to every underprivileged child in the world. This does not go over too well with the townspeople, and Jared is chased through town by an angry mob. When he escapes, he vents his frustrations by (literally) beating a dead horse (the litterary "Dead Horse" being the running "Aides/AIDS" joke).

Stan and Kyle sneak Butters out of his house (with Cartman covering for him) and take him to City Wok, but the owner decides that he wants nothing to do with his "very own Jared" due to recent events. The boys run downtown to intercept the mob, but Jared is already at the gallows. Back at the Stotch residence, however, Cartman masquerades as Butters on the phone when Mr. Stotch calls home. When Mr. Stotch asks if he is watching TV, Cartman claims that he was just "jackin' his hot spicy boner" and proceeds to call him a "vaginal belch". After telling Mr. Stotch "Bring it on, queerbait," Cartman hangs up on Butters' father and laughs. Mrs. Stotch calls shortly after, telling him how upset her husband was. Cartman uses more trash talk on her before hanging up on her, saying "I'll be waiting with bells on, you old horse banging skank." Meanwhile, Kyle manages to stop the lynching by clarifying the running gag to Jared, the Subway executives, and the townspeople. Everyone determines that AIDS is finally funny, since it has been 22.3 years, and a monument is unveiled declaring it as such.

Now that Jared has returned to favor, the City Wok owner offers the boys $15 to use Butters in his advertising, which is rejected. Butters then runs home and thanks Cartman for covering for him, calling him a true friend. Cartman thanks Butters, then as soon as he gets outside, Cartman pulls up a deckchair outside of the house and happily listens as Butters' parents return home and beat him for what they believe to be his earlier manner on the phone.

Censorship and Bans
The British satellite channel Sky One banned this episode due to the sequence with Butters’ makeshift liposuction, the part where Butters eats his own vomit, the AIDS references, and Butters’ parents beating him at the end of this episode, but was shown uncut on the UK terrestrial channel Channel 4. Some syndicated versions cut out the scene where Butters eats his own vomit and the scene at the end where Cartman watches Butters getting beaten and comments that if he “was old enough, he would totally start jacking off right now.” In addition, the Cartman’s “Butters-like” conversation with Butters’ father was altered to remove references of “his hot spicy boner” and calling his dad a “pussy.”

Controversial Ending

 * This episode has rarely re-aired on Comedy Central. According to one report, the channel forbade ever showing it after its initial week, because of the scene at the end where Butters was heard being beaten by his parents. The implied abuse is never actually seen — the camera cuts to an exterior view of the Stotches’ home and Butters’ yells, punches are heard with even some glass breaking. Comedy Central is also believed to have forbidden many other episodes with Butters being physically abused by his family. Despite the Comedy Central ban, this episode and other episodes depicting Butters experiencing painful treatment have been shown in syndication (edited for content). Also, the episode is uncut on the Season 6 DVD. In the UK it has been shown on Paramount Comedy 1 and MTV.


 * Some fans, however, believe that the reason this episode doesn’t re-air is the controversial portrayal of Subway and its spokesmodel, Jared, while others believe that the episode was pulled because of how it made light of AIDS.


 * The episode is on normal episode rotation on The Comedy Network in Canada.


 * In the 10th season finale episode “Stanley’s Cup,” there are 3- and 4-year old children being beaten by several other adults on-screen. Strangely, Comedy Central did not say anything about the on-screen violence. There was also no controversy following “Butters’ Very Own Episode,” in which Butters’ mother actually tries to murder him.