Cartman Joins NAMBLA

"Cartman Joins NAMBLA" is episode 406 (#53) of South Park. It originally aired on June 21, 2000.

Synopsis
Cartman, in search of more mature friends, accidentally joins the "North American Man/Boy Love Association", and puts all the boys of South Park in jeopardy as a result. Kenny tries to stop his mother and father from having another baby.

Plot
Cartman wants to hang out with older males than Stan, Kyle, and Kenny, because he feels he’s too mature for them. So he starts looking through a chat room on the internet, and stumbles upon the topic: “Men Who Like Young Boys”. There, he converses with some eager men, (who are members of the North American Man/Boy Love Association) who act like they want to be friends with him.

In the subplot, Mr. and Mrs. McCormick are trying to get pregnant again, but this doesn’t suit well with Kenny, who’s afraid that the baby will soon take over his house, his family, and his life. So while playing catch with Stuart, Kenny deliberately throws the ball into Stuart’s crotch, hoping that this will deprive him of his fertility.

The next day Cartman meets Tony316, a very stereotypical pedophile, who is arrested for soliciting sex from a minor. The next day, Cartman learns that Mr. Garrison was the man behind the name “Mr. Hammerhead”, after he also gets arrested. Cartman assumes that Stan and Kyle have been trying to sabotage his attempts at making new friends, because he is too naïve to know what’s really happening.

Kenny tricks the pharmacist into selling him abortion pills, which he then mixes in with vodka into his mother’s favourite drink. Because she isn’t allowed to drink while pregnant, Stuart drinks it for her, and it causes him to have heavy diarrhea. Kenny then sees a commercial for the “John Denver Experience”, an amusement park ride which pregnant women apparently shouldn’t ride. He then takes his parents there, but Stuart ends up getting his nose broken. Frustrated and angry, Kenny finally takes a plunger and begins chasing his mother all around the town with it, Stuart following close behind.

Dr. Mephisto tells Cartman that he looks about right to join NAMBLA, and encourages him to do so. He takes this advice, and winds up as a poster model for the association. In his honour, a huge banquet is thrown. Cartman is supposed to invite all the boys in town, but in an act of revenge, he doesn’t invite Stan or Kyle.

The police raid a meeting of Dr. Mephisto's organization, but it turns out there are two NAMBLA’s (this group is the “National Association of Marlon Brando Look Alikes,” who are not affiliated with the North American Man/Boy Love Association). They all rush to stop the other NAMBLA's banquet.

When the boys have all arrived, (for some reason, Stan and Kyle showed up as well) the NAMBLA members take them to their hotel rooms. It’s now that the boys realize what they’re in for, and a chase ensues. Soon the police and the other NAMBLA arrive and start chasing the pedophiles. Next, Kenny, chasing his mother, and Stuart, chasing him, join in the scene. The pedophiliac NAMBLA members and Stuart end up alone in a dark room together, and they mistake him for one of the boys. He ends up having to be hospitalized because of the injuries he received during their anal sex orgy. In the end, all of the NAMBLA people are arrested, and despite their leader's impassioned speech about rights to all people, they're all taken away.

The ambulance which was taking Stuart to the hospital accidentally runs Kenny over. Afterwards, Mrs. McCormick gives birth to an identical child, which they name Kenny. Stuart claims this is the 50th time such has happened, and Mrs. McCormick corrects him, saying its the 52nd (a humorous explanation of Kenny's death and reappearance between the 53 episodes aired at the time.)

Incidental Music

 * The song playing during the chase scene is Page d'écriture by Yves Montand.
 * The music playing during the "North Park Funland" commercial is the same music from the commercials for "Wild Wacky Action Bike" and "Alabama Man" on the season 3 episode, Chinpokomon. Cartman took over the same theme park in Cartmanland, a future episode.

Censorship

 * The British satellite channel Sky One has banned this episode from showing due to the strong pedophilia references in the main plot (and the subplot being centered on Kenny killing his mom's unborn child). The digital channel Paramount Comedy Channel and terrestrial channel Channel 4, however, have aired this episode and it does appear on the UK DVD release of South Park's fourth season.

Pop Culture References

 * The dream that Kenny has is a spoof of the cult classic It's Alive.
 * The chase through the hallway is reminiscent of those on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Scooby Doo and other shows who use the same gag, such as Josie and the Pussycats and The Clue Club).
 * The hallway scene also references the Yellow Submarine with the surreal objects crossing from one door to another.
 * The sounds of the screaming people on The John Denver Experience sound similar to the screams heard on the computer game Roller Coaster Tycoon.

Goofs

 * In the opening scene where the boys are playing the Bill Kurtis-themed version of Monopoly -- Bill Kurtis's name is spelled correctly on the board, however, it is spelled incorrectly (as 'Curtis') on the box for the game. This game is seen again in Up the Down Steroid.
 * There was no plunger in the bathroom when Stuart went in after getting sick from the vodka/chocolate milk/abortion pill concoction, but the plunger appears when Kenny wakes up from his second nightmare and decides to kill the unborn baby himself.
 * Stuart's cap is missing the "Scotch" insignia when he, Carol, and Kenny are riding The John Denver Experience.
 * Throughout the episode, Carol McCormick's shirt changes from "I'm With Stupid" to "God Bless America," with the exception of the John Denver Experience sequence, where her shirt is green with no design on it.
 * In the sequence with The John Denver Experience, the soundtrack makes it sound like everyone was screaming, but the McCormick’s (Kenny's family) were the only ones reacting to the bumpy ride.
 * The web site name that the two NAMBLA's fight over in the episode is nambla.com but the real NAMBLA has nambla.org as their site.
 * After Eric begins typing on the man-boy chat site, on the ensuing responses, when slowed, some responses can be read. Some include, "this is gay", "tits", and "get a life".
 * When Kyle and Stan arrive at the NAMBLA party, the man Kyle is with has on a plaid jacket and gray undershirt, yet when he is sitting at the table, his shirt is black.