Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants

Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants is episode 509 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired November 7, 2001. It is notable as the first episode to air after 9/11, as well as the American invasion of Afghanistan; it dealt with the latter and only tangentially made mention of the former.

Plot
South Park has changed since the events of 9/11. Now everyone is afraid of terrorists, and they wear gas masks for protection from anthrax, and Stan's mother simply sits in a catatonic state on the couch all day, endlessly watching CNN. She's apparently been doing this for "about eight weeks." At school, the kids each bring in a dollar in response to President Bush's request for charity to Afghanistan; Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny bring in money and send it to four Afghan kids who resemble them immensely, except of course that they're Afghan and speak Persian amongst themselves. Kenny's counterpart even wears a burqa which covers everything but his eyes. In response, the four send them a goat in the mail.

The boys realize they cannot keep the goat, and so try to send it back to Afghanistan; but since only American military planes are flying over the country, they can only do it by sneaking the goat aboard a military plane. They sneak into a nearby base, able to do so when the guards mistake the goat for Stevie Nicks there for a USO show; however, the boys wind up on the plane too, and arrive in Afghanistan.

The boys manage to find their Afghan counterparts, who refuse to take back the goat; furthermore, the two groups get into an argument over America. The boys assumed that most Afghans liked America, but the Afghan boys reveal that they hate the country. Stan later replies: "Oh... Well, I guess, maybe, someday, we can learn to hate you too..."

After the boys leave to try to get home, they get caught by terrorists and are brought to the hiding place of Osama bin Laden, who is depicted as completely insane. Osama makes a video tape revealing his hostages, and again the Army mistakes the goat for Stevie Nicks. The Afghan boys, finding out about this, go and rescue the American boys despite their argument, due to them thinking if they don't help the innocent they are no better than America; Cartman, however, goes to challenge bin Laden in a struggle of wits, which parodies old cartoons with Cartman as Bugs Bunny.

The US Army storms the cave to rescue "Stevie Nicks" and the boys escape, though Kenny and his Afghan counterpart die in the process. The boys wind up getting in yet another fight. Meanwhile, Cartman manages to trick bin Laden into dressing up like Uncle Sam. A bunch of terrorists crowd around to kill him, but they all end up getting killed. Bin Laden is shot by an American soldier. With the Taliban overthrown and bin Laden dead the boys say goodbye to the Afghan kids who, despite a somewhat schmaltzy moment, still hate them.

The troops celebrate their victory with a show by Fleetwood Mac and "Stevie Nicks." Before they leave, Stan sticks a small American flag into the ground, prompting Kyle to say to him, "Dude, I almost thought those Afghani kids talked you into not liking America." Stan replies, "No, dude. America may have some problems, but it's our home, our team. If you don't want to root for your team, then you should get the hell out of the stadium." The episode ends with Stan and Kyle saluting the American flag, saying "Go America," and finishing with "Go Broncos".

Awards
This episode was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding animated program, but lost to Futurama.

Trivia

 * In the commentary of the episode, Matt Stone states that he hates Stevie Nicks, hence the goat.


 * The episode’s first title was “Osama bin Laden Has a Really Really Small Penis,” a statement which is addressed during the Bugs Bunny-like chase scene.

References to popular culture

 * The song performed by Fleetwood Mac and the goat at the end of the episode is a parody of the 1981 Stevie Nicks song “Edge of Seventeen.”


 * Cartman parodies the Bugs Bunny cartoons with signs depicting two pictures — which, when saying the two words together, forms a humorous word or phrase describing the antagonist (Elmer Fudd-like Bin Laden). His signs describe Bin Laden as “screwball,” “shithead,” “jackass,” “cocksucker,” and “Barbra Streisand.” The first one of these (screwball) is the only one of true Looney Tunes vintage, the rest come from his string of curses at the end of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.


 * The scenes with Cartman and Osama also spoof the various Warner Bros./Disney cartoons during World War II, wherein the characters interact with animated versions of Nazis as to mock them. Osama’s last line (“Terrorists is the CRAZIEST peoplez!”) is directly from a Warner Bros. short called “Russian Rhapsody” where Hitler says “Nazis is the CRAZIEST peoplez.”[1]

Goofs

 * At the start of the episode, the four boys are seen wearing gas masks with only one breathing tube. Later, when they are checked before boarding the school bus, their gas masks are seen with two breathing tubes.