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Funnybot "Funnybot" "Royal Pudding" "T.M.I." T.M.I.
"Royal Pudding"
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S15E3-Thumbnail
Episode no. Season 15
Episode 3
Production no. 1503
Original airdate May 11, 2011
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"Royal Pudding" is the third episode of Season Fifteen and the 212th overall episode of South Park. It originally aired on May 11, 2011.[1]

Synopsis[]

The Prince of Canada is about to take a Princess and Ike is obsessed with the Royal Wedding.[1]

Plot[]

SPW pic -- Spoiler Spoiler warning!
Plot details follow.

At the school, Mr. Mackey is preparing a production with the kindergartners on the dangers of tooth decay. However, when it is time for "Tooth Decay" to come on stage, he is nowhere to be seen - apparently the actor is at home watching the Royal Wedding on the TV. Mr. Mackey wonders who could care about the Royal Family of Canada so much.

Ike is enjoying the program - in attendance of the wedding are Terrance and Phillip, the Queef Sisters, Bryan Adams and various other Canadian celebrities. However, partway through the ceremony, the roof begins to fall in, killing many spectators with debris, and the princess-to-be is kidnapped in some kind of isometric energy cube. Ike is, of course, utterly distraught, and cannot stop crying during the next day's rehearsal. An annoyed Mr. Mackey, not realizing that Ike is genuinely devastated but just portraying Tooth Decay incorrectly, sends him home, but commands him to better come back the next day with a different attitude.

A news report on the wedding incident mentions that Canadians are increasingly committing suicide out of despair since they cannot deal with the loss of the princess. A message from the prime minister of Canada says for all Canadian citizens who did not commit suicide are to open their "box of faith", whatever they are. Ike seems to know straight away and heads home. He finds a dusty old box labelled "FAITH BOX" and on opening, a pre-recorded video of the Canadian prime minister is projected onto the wall. He states that, if the box has been ordered opened, one of the Royal Family must be in danger. The order is to travel to Canada, take up arms and rescue the imperiled Royal. Inside the box is everything required for the operation.

With Ike's disappearance, Mackey goes apoplectic towards Kyle in the middle of a strange type of math class. Since Ike is his brother, it is his problem to deal with.

On the bus to Canada, Ike carries a shield, sword and helmet. Another Canadian - Ugly Bob recognizes Ike to be Canadian. Since his last appearance, Bob has moved to the US where he is seen as "just another Canadian" and not the disfigured monstrosity Canadians know him to be. Despite this, he still wears a paper bag on his head. He and Ike buddy up. At the rendezvous, the Canadians all face off with who they believe to be the culprit - Scott the Dick, who, since his last appearance, has turned into a "giant dick" due to radiation exposure (he has grown to abnormal size).

Scott correctly points out that he is probably the most patriotic Canadian there, and he has no reason to ruin the wedding - at this, the prime minister admits they got it wrong and everyone leaves aside from Ike and Bob. They team up with Scott to track down the princess' real abductor.

In order to make things up with Mackey, Kyle has stood in for Ike as Tooth Decay in the play - Mackey does not seem to realize that it is just a little kids' play, and constantly hurls abuse at everyone, particularly Kyle. He reveals that he is so passionate about it because his dad was killed by tooth decay two years before, much to everyone's surprise.

Scott believes that the abductors were the Aboriginal Canadians, primarily Inuit. They are eventually captured, and the Inuit say that they know who took the princess (with Bob translating for Scott and Ike). They take the three to a large castle, where they can see the princess through a window. They and their Inuk guide enter the castle, where the princess is chained to a wall. They realize that the culprit is actually Tooth Decay, who is exacting punishment on the princess for not flossing properly. Tooth Decay easily defeats the Inuk and Scott, but Ike warns the princess to look away, and turns Tooth Decay into stone by removing Ugly Bob's paper bag to reveal his hideous visage.

Meanwhile, Mackey's play is stopped by the South Park Police as a result of the demise of the actual Tooth Decay, much to his relief as he tells the kids to go home.

In recognition of their heroic deeds, the princess awards the Canadian Medal of Courage, the medal being made of white chocolate, to Bob, Scott, and Katuktuk of the Yukon, and Ike is granted Canadian knighthood, which Kyle finds very impressive - unfortunately, his friends are unimpressed and heavily downplay Ike's achievement, with Stan comparing it to his sister being head of the girl scouts and Cartman comparing it to his uncle being second in line to be manager at Gart Brothers. Meanwhile, Kenny says nothing. Kyle then agrees with them that Ike being knighted is not so amazing. The wedding finally continues as the prince tears off the princess' arm and inserts it into his anus, "as is tradition."

Critical Reception[]

AV Club gave "Royal Pudding" a "C-" rating saying: "But as with the quickie Osama Bin Laden gags from last week, I almost wish they had waited to do an episode that addressed their Broadway experience more directly (like “Helen Keller! The Musical” did, I guess, but with the added insight that only staging a massive pain-in-the-ass show can provide). Here it felt as though the story of Mackey's play existed merely to prop up their royal wedding parody, a feeling strengthened by (speaking of Bin Laden allusions) the episode's finale, which attempted to dovetail the plots by having Ike discover that it was Tooth Decay who’d kidnapped the princess all along and vanquishing him, much to the relief of Mr. Mackey and therefore the world. Granted, it was funny in that sort of knowingly contrived way, but I can't help thinking it would have gone down a lot easier had the whole episode not felt so bric-a-brac in its construction. I’m not sure having one of the kindergarteners call attention to its overall ridiculousness (“What?”) was enough, funny as it was.

Anyway, I know there will be dissenters—loud ones, even—who found this episode wall-to-wall hilarious, think I need to “chillax” or fuck myself or chill-fuck myself or whatever, and so on and so forth. Like I said up top, this episode is bound to be divisive. But while I think I’m not squarely in either the “character and story come first” or the “LOL random” camps when it comes to what I expect from South Park, what I do know is that it’s capable of balancing both of those better than it did here. That's all."[2] IGN gave "Royal Pudding" a "5.5" rating saying: "Despite some funny points, overall, this episode was disappointing. That's three stinkers in a row for this season, and I just don't know what to say. I really thought this season would hold up, but it seems like there are some serious problems at South Park Studios. Maybe Trey and Matt really are burnt out between trying to do this show and The Book of Mormon on Broadway simultaneously. Maybe they really were pissed about last year's censorship of "201" and are just going through the motions to fulfill their contract. Whatever the cause may be, it's clear that something is awfully wrong with this show right now. Maybe after the usual mid-season break things will be different. I certainly hope so, because right now it looks like we might be looking at the end of a comedy era."[3]

References[]


  1503: "Royal Pudding" edit
Story Elements

Tooth DecayBox of FaithRushPrince and Princess of CanadaInuit

Media

ImagesScriptWatch Episode

Release

South Park: The Complete Fifteenth Season

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