The Death of Eric Cartman

In this episode, Stan, Kyle and Kenny become incredibly angry at Cartman for ruining their treat of KFC food by eating all the chicken skins (an event that causes Kenny to burst into tears). Realising that he thrives on the fact that they rip on him, they decide that the best way to deal with him is to completely ignore him. Cartman, however, discovering that nobody seems to see or hear him, believes that he has died and become a ghost. This seems confirmed when he goes home and sees a casket-like box coming out of his house, which the men carrying it mentioning that it was filled with chicken skins, when in reality, it is the toilet that Cartman destroyed with his last use of it. He also hears his mother crying, he thinks because he is dead, though she is actually laughing and having sex with the plumber.

While most of the kids in South Park soon join in Stan, Kyle and Kenny's resolution to ignore Cartman, Butters is unaware of the movement, and so greets Cartman as he passes by. They then both believe that Butters is somehow psychically able to see him, and set off to try to allow Cartman to go to Heaven (Cartman claims he can't go to hell because he is not black). First, Cartman has Butters apologize to everyone on his behalf; when that fails to allow Cartman to pass over, Butters makes a list of all of Cartman's sins, and they try making amends to various people Cartman has wronged via gift baskets. When this too fails, Cartman goes berserk, destroys Butters' room with a baseball bat, and ends up getting Butters thrown in an insane asylum, where Butters is anally probed by a machine for over 14 hours.

After breaking Butters out, the two consult a psychic, who suggests that God has kept Cartman on Earth to help with some kind of crisis. When they hear of a hostage situation at a Red Cross center, the two set off and Cartman manages to stop the criminals by moving things around. The robbers are merely befuddled at the child's behavior, which provides enough of a distraction for the police to end the hostage situation. Cartman is credited with saving the day, "armed only with the weapon of confusion," as a news reporter put it. After this, Cartman's classmates arrive and tell him they're willing to be his friend again, thinking he has truly changed. When they leave, Cartman — mortified and furious that he had apologized to everybody and been fooled — again goes berserk and inexplicably blames Butters. At the end of the episode, after Cartman has sworn revenge, it is suggested that Butters is sent back to the asylum.