This page contains trivia for "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut". Remember, trivia must be factual, provable, and it is always best to cite your source for not-so-obvious trivia. If you would like to dispute a trivia point, please discuss it in the talk page.
Trivia
- After Mephesto gets shot, Kenny gets to deliver the "Oh my God! They killed Mephesto!" line. This is the first time he gets to say this, considering that most of the "Oh my God! They killed..." lines are referring to him.
- A voice-over announcer asks questions throughout the episode, giving three possible answers to each question. The first two are logical questions, being "Who is Eric Cartman's father?" and "Who shot Mephesto?" This sets up a running gag throughout the episode of seemingly random questions that have nothing to do with the plotline, up until the end, when Mrs. Cartman is revealed to be Cartman's father instead of Cartman's mother, and the voiceover asks, "Who is Eric Cartman's mother?" This question is never answered. The voice-over easily gets on Cartman's nerves and at the end finally prompts him to yell at everybody to just forget it.
- On the compass for the back up generator S and the E on the map are reversed.
- The Map to the back up generator is the same as the USO Show base map on South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
- The receptionist at the abortion clinic Liane goes to has similar features to Eric Cartman.
- The issue of Cartman's parentage is brought up again during the episodes "200" and "201", where it is finally solved (and it is revealed that the entire hermaphrodite story was a farce - Cartman's father is one of the Broncos).
- Before revealing who Cartman's father was, Mephesto asked if anyone had seen the Terrance and Phillip episode "last month." This is a reference to the April Fool's joke that Matt and Trey played on their audience by airing an unrelated episode to open the second season instead of this one, an act that enraged many of South Park's fans.
- Starting with this episode "Shit" is now uncensored on future airings on Comedy Central and on the website.
References to Popular Culture
- The lights going out and Mephesto getting shot in the dark is a common cliche of detective and murder mysteries where just as someone is about to tell an important bit of information they are shot by a mystery attacker. Climax building "Who is" is another cliche that is used as a running gag throughout the episode.
- Present in this episode are the 1991 Denver Broncos.
- Chef doesn't want Mehpesto to bleed on his Meredith Baxter-Birney memorial towel. Meredith Baxter is an actress best known for her roles on the shows Family and Family Ties. Chef refers to her as Meredith Baxter-Birney, even thought she divorced her first husband, actor David Birney in 1989.
- In this episode Cartman admits that once he hears the song "Come Sail Away" by the band Styx he has to sing the rest of it. The band known as Styx were formed in 1970, their song "Come Sail Away" was on their 1977 album The Grand Illusion, and debuted at #8 on the pop charts upon its release.
- South Park is visited by Sid Greenfield, the director of the television series America's Most Wanted. America's Most Wanted is a television program hosted by criminal investigator John Walsh alerting the public of fugitives at large and showing reenactments of crimes that were committed and ask the public to help assist in the capture of the criminals featured on the program. In real life, the program was never produced by an individual named Sid Greenfield.
- The receptionist at the abortion clinic states that aborting a child after the second trimester of pregnancy is illegal. This is a federal law in the United States. The issue of abortion in this episode was topical around the time of its airing as in the years surrounding this episodes release the Republican Party attempted to pass a Bill to make Partial birth abortions illegal. Both attempts were vetoed by President Bill Clinton.
- Dr. Doctor is a parody of actor George Clooney who at the time played the role of Dr. Douglas Ross on the medical drama ER.
- The doctor has a patient injected with sodium pentathol which is a general anesthetic commonly used in medical procedures.
- Mrs. Cartman sleeps with a Congressman named O'Reilly. However, during the time this episode aired, none of the district congressmen of Colorado had the last name O'Reilly.
- One of the actors picked for a role of the Dr. Mephesto shooting reenactment on America's Most Wanted is actor Eric Roberts, brother of actress Julia Roberts. Roberts was best known for his starring role in the 1983 film Star 80 and his supporting role in the 1985 film Runaway Train. However, at the time this episode aired, he had gained a reputation as an actor who appeared in as many roles as he could possibly get—while starring in a TV series, he was also starring in one movie in theaters and two more in coming attractions (all flops).
- When Eric Roberts begins making up his own lines, he is in reality reciting a line from the 1559 play The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus written by Thomas Dekker.
- When they cut America's Most Wanted it's replaced with the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit a 1988 film produced by Steven Spielberg.
- Mrs. Cartman sleeps with the Governor of Colorado. At the time this episode aired, in real life that would have been Roy Romer who was governor of Colorado from 1987-1999.
- Chef states that he got his medical experience from the television series Quincy, M.E. which ran from 1976-1983.
- The residents of South Park cannibalize the crew of America's Most Wanted because they are trapped inside during the blizzard. This is a common cliche regarding people being snowed in together. This is likely a reference to two of the most well known cases of cannibalism in American history: The Donner Party and the case of Alferd Packer. Trey Parker and Matt Stone's first film Cannibal! The Musical told the story of Alferd Packer. The could also have been lampooning the 1993 film Alive.
- The quest for Kenny to reactivate the hospital's generator, the map of the hospital and the possible danger of velociraptors are all a parody of the film version of Jurassic Park released in 1993.
- When it's suggested that nobody knows who built the Pyramids the suspense building narration asks if it was the Babylonians, Officer Barbrady or the Samaritans. The Pyramids were built in the 23rd Century BC, while the Babylonians came into existence over 1200 years later in the year 1696 BC, they also existed in what is modern day Iraq. It's not the Samaritans either, who first appeared in 722 BC and were from Israel.
- Mrs. Cartman manages to hook up with Bill Clinton. At the time this episode aired, Clinton was President of the United States. Also at this time he was involved in allegedly having an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, allegations that almost led to his removal from the office as President!
- When the South Park residents pull themselves out of the community center following the blizzard the entire scene, is a parody of the 1993 film Alive, using similar dialog as is recited at the end of the film, and the song "Ave Maria" by Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) playing over the scene.
Goofs
- In the episode, the 1989 Denver Broncos are potential fathers of Cartman. However, the narrator keeps referring to them as the 1991 Denver Broncos.
- Kenny places the suction cup into the man's incision, but in the next shot, he is seen standing normally not holding the suction cup (which has vanished). The sucking sound continues though.
Kenny's Death
- Kenny has to restore power to the hospital to save the life of all of the patients who are on life support inside (including Mephesto), so in an act of self-sacrifice, he grabs both electrical connections, resulting in his own death, but the restoration of power. After being left out, dead, in the cold for so long, Eric describes him as a "Freezy Pop", given the fact that he has completely frozen solid. Additionally Stan, Kyle, and Eric (after giving their brief respects) decide to hit him with a snow shovel to see if he will shatter.
Hidden Visitor(s)
- When Dr. Mephesto is about to announce the father, a visitor is seen between Ned and Chief Running Water.