The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka

"The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka"
[[File:File:206 msf1.gif|250px]]
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 6
Production no.	206
Original airdate	June 10, 1998
Episode chronology Previous Next "Conjoined Fetus Lady" "City on the Edge of Forever (Flashbacks)"
List of all South Park episodes

"The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka" is episode 206 of Comedy Central's series South Park. It originally aired on June 10, 1998.

Spoiler warning! Plot details follow.

Plot synopsis

In this episode, the boys are assigned to interview Vietnam War veterans, and interview Stan's Uncle Jimbo and his friend Ned. The two tell a story of American camps having amusement park rides and claim that they single-handedly defeated the entire Viet Cong army. When their report gets them an "F-", they plot revenge, and make bogus videos of the legendary Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka, which the two then show on their show, Huntin' and Killin.

The show becomes successful, which leads to a decline in ratings of their competitors, the talk show Jesus and Pals, starring Jesus. The show begins to alter because of the actions of one of the show's producers, despite Jesus' cynicism of the idea. Meanwhile, Jimbo and Ned go searching for the Staring Frog, which according to legend can kill with a glance; Ned sees the fake frog the boys set up and becomes comatose from pure fear, and when in the hospital the boys confess their misdeed. This leads to Jimbo, Ned (though still comatose), and the boys all being shown on Jesus and Pals, arranged by the show's producer.

Without Jesus' knowledge, the producer arranges for them to lie on the air to improve ratings, having Jimbo claim that Stan is a drug-addicted Satan-worshiper, and having Stan claim that Jimbo molested him, etc. When chaos breaks out on the show, Jesus screams "Shut the fuck up!" at everybody and discovers the truth about everything; he patches everything up with Jimbo, Ned and the boys, and as punishment to his producer, sends her to Hell. There, she meets Satan and with him, Saddam Hussein, foreshadowing events that will unfold in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and later the two-part episode "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?"/"Probably".

Trivia

• South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker met while the latter was making a film called The Giant Beaver of Southern Sri Lanka.Template:Fact
• This episode introduced Saddam Hussein as Satan's lover in hell.
• During the detention scene in which the boys think up their plan, you can see a poster with an alien head that says "Have you seen me?"
• When the general shows Jimbo the map of the area of Vietnam that they are stationed, it is just a map of Italy.
• When the boys and Ned and Jimbo leave the studio, Ned appears to be perfectly fine until Stan and Kyle apologize for setting him in a coma and the shot changes to Ned and Jimbo.
• As usual Craig gets detention, but he doesn't have a speaking role. He later disappears because in Season 2, he was a background character.

References

• Mr. Garrison has the class go out and do a report on the Vietnam War, a conflict to free Vietnam from Communist rule that ran from 1955-1975. It was controversial war both in the United States and abroad with many people dodging the draft and hiding out in Canada.
• Clearly there can be no such thing as a Mexican staring frog of Southern Sir Lanka, as Meixco and Sir Lanka are two different countries. Mexico of course is part of the North American continent while Sir Lanka is an island that is part of Southern Asia.
• During Ned and Jimbo's flashback to Vietnam the song Time of the Season by the band The Zombies is playing in the background. The song was released on their 1967 album Odessey and Oracle. The song is commonly used in popular culture as a reference to the late 60's.
• Ned and Jimbo refer to the Viet Cong army as "Charlie". "Charlie" is a slang term for the phrase "Victor Charlie" which was the NATO phonetic alphabet name for the Viet Cong Army
• When Jimbo learns about the positive ratings for his show "Huntin' and Killin'" he's convinced that the show could be nominated for an Emmy Award. The Emmy's are awards nominated to television shows on various point (much like the Oscars), South Park has been nominated 8 times for the Emmy's during it's run (Including 1998 the year this episode aired), and has won the award four times.
• When Jesus' show is revamped the first time it's turned into a late night talk show in the vein of the Late Show with David Letterman. His guest on the show is Bob Denver, best known for his role of Gilligan on Gilligan's Island.
• According to Ned, he won the Purple Heart of Bravery which is awarded to US soldiers who are either wounded or killed in battle. The award has been given out to such soldiers since April 5, 1917.
• Stan comes up with an idea based on an episode of the The Brady Bunch. The sit-com which ran from 1970-1974 was about two widows who had three children each (three boys and three girls) would get together as one big family. The episode that Stan is referring to is their "The Private Ear" wherein Greg and Marcia get revenge on Peter eavesdropping on them by tricking him into thinking there is a surprise party for him; or the episode "Welcome Aboard" where the Brady children try to get revenge against their Cousin Oliver over his klutzy behavior.
• The next revamp of Jesus & Pal's turns the show into a talk show in the vein of then popular talk shows such as Geraldo, The Jerry Springer Show. All commonly referred to as "Trash TV" based on their low brow entertainment value.
• One of the guests on the show looks suspiciously like musician Rick James oddly begins talking about how Michael Jackson didn't touch any children. This is in reference to the first time Michael Jackson was accused of molesting children. The charges came out in 1993 and were settled out of court in 1994. This man also calls Jesus "Montel", which is a reference to Montel Williams who had his own day-time talk show The Montel Williams Show which aired from 1991-2008.
• Cartman mockingly calls Kyle Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is a Jewish film producer/director known for making such iconic films as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
• In response to the latest ratings spike from Ned and Jimbo's show, the producers of Jesus & Pal's have a "Jesus & Pal's: Too Hot for TV" video released. This is a parody of the Jerry Springer Show: Too Hot for TV video series that featured uncensored clips of outrageous things that happened on his show. They were laced with nudity and profanity. The advertisement mocks the sensationalist advertisements asking people to order the videos as well.
• Ned mentions that he and Jimbo were stationed in Da Nang during the Vietnam War. This is one of the major locations where US forces were stationed during the war. It's unlikely that they had a log ride though.
• The cameraman talking to Ned states he was in "Tet", he was referring to the Tet Offensive. A three phase US military campaign during the Vietnam War running from January-September 1968.
• The book that Jimbo is reading to Ned in the hospital is The Outsiders. A 1967 novel written by S. E. Hinton.
• The final talk show segment of the episode is a commentary on the clear and obvious exploitation of guests on certain talk shows to entice additional drama, conflict and even drama. Most notably the Jerry Springer Show has been accused many times of staging fights.
• Saddam Hussein is depicted as being in Hell with Satan. Although fictionally dead as per the South Park mythos, in real life Saddam Hussein would rule as Prime Minister of Iraq until he was ousted in 2003 during the US invasion of Iraq and subsequently captured and executed on December 30, 2006.

Kenny's Death

• During the riot on Jesus and Pals, two people pull on Kenny until he gets ripped in half. Later, a rat comes and drags Kenny's upper body away.

"[[Conjoined Fetus Lady]]"

"The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka"

"[[City on the Edge of Forever]]"