Story

Description

At South Park Elementary, Cartman announces that he wishes to apologize to Kyle, saying that Kyle was correct the previous day when he told Cartman that humans are not the only animals that can have light skin and freckles. Telling them that he has discovered a ginger cow, Cartman takes his classmates to a nearby farm, where he shows them a cow that has been given a red wig and painted white with giant red "freckles". Though Kyle sees through this obvious prank, Cartman insists to his credulous classmates that it is real.

News of the cow spreads across the globe and is widely interpreted as the fulfillment of a Biblical prophecy regarding a red heifer that signals "the end", or the end times. Kyle is then called to Mr. Mackey's office, where he is introduced to three Israeli rabbis, who explain the prophecy to him. Kyle tries to convince them that the red heifer is a forgery on Cartman's part, but the farm where the cow is located becomes a pilgrimage site where large numbers of Jews, Muslims, and Christians congregate, each claiming the cow for their respective religions. However, when the three religious sects meet to plan Armageddon, they realize that they are negotiating in a civil manner and that the prophecy may have meant that the cow would signal the end of war, and not the end of the world. The congregants then agree to sacrifice the cow in order to fulfill the prophecy.

Peace is achieved in the Middle East among the three Abrahamic religions, who morph the cross, Star of David, and Islamic crescent moon into a new unifying symbol – the logo of the band Van Halen, which appears on a stage to commence a 10-year concert in Israel. Cartman then appears at Kyle's house and admits that the cow was a forgery and states that he intends to admit this publicly. Realizing that this revelation may ruin the interfaith peace that the forgery achieved, Kyle asks him not to. Cartman agrees to withhold this information, on condition that Kyle do everything that Cartman says, which includes indignities such as insulting his own mother Sheila Broflovski to her face, performing menial tasks and humiliating himself in public by allowing Cartman to fart in his face and claiming that he enjoys it.

Kyle, who is conflicted over the morality of the deception, experiences a vision of a spirit that praises his sacrifice and compels him to shave his head. However, Stan becomes critical of Kyle, telling him that while publicly claiming to like Cartman's farts is his prerogative, the self-righteous manner that he has adopted when doing so is not. Kyle is unmoved, and Stan, noting that Kyle's odd behavior began with the peace in the Middle East, seeks to investigate.

Kyle and Cartman travel to Israel, where Cartman intends to further humiliate Kyle by having him endure his farts and claim to enjoy it on a stage before thousands of people. Their demonstration is interrupted, however, by a broadcast hosted by Anderson Cooper, in which Stan intends to expose the truth about Cartman's red cow. Kyle, speaking to Stan privately by cell phone, explains why he has been enduring Cartman's abuse and convinces Stan not to expose the truth, in order to preserve the new peace. Acquiescing to this, Stan instead announces in the broadcast that he saw the cow descend miraculously from heaven. However, the prophecy stated that a fat child with a small penis would disguise a cow to look ginger, not that one would just miraculously fall from the sky. The short-lived peace among the three religions falls apart. Kyle, realizing that the prophecy really has occurred, tries to convince the rabbis that this is precisely what happened, but Cartman refuses to corroborate this.

Memorable Quotes

• "You were right, Kyle. A ginger cow. I shall never question your keen intellect again." (Eric Cartman)
• "I'm pretty sure that this cow could make ginger cheese…" (Eric Cartman)
• "You're a fat skank, mom and... And your tits belong in a morgue." (Kyle Broflovski)
• "I love having Cartman's farts in my tummy. I love it." (Kyle Broflovski)
• "OH MY HOLY SHMEAR!!!" (Hasidic Jew)
• "EPIIIIIC!!!!" (Muslim)
• "Kyle don't do this. Don't eat Cartman's farts in front of the whole world." (Stan Marsh)
• "Dick. That's a dick talking. You've had too much of Cartman's farts, you got sulfur poisoning & now you're a dick." (Stan Marsh)
• "Could I please have one of your piping hot farts in my mouth?" (Kyle Broflovski)

"I'M NOT A DICK, I'M LIKE GHANDI.".

"Hey, how about we get a little dessert to help cheer you up?"

"YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY, can I PLEASE have Cartman's farts in my tummy?"

Characters

Kyle Broflovski

Eric Cartman

Stan Marsh

Sheila Broflovski

Van Halen

Butters Stotch

Kenny McCormick

Mr. Mackey

Sheila Broflovski

Ginger Cow

Iran Announcer

Kenyan Announcers

NHK Announcers

Anderson Cooper

Character Debuts

This is Davin Milner's debut episode. For each new character, the Art Department creates front, back, and sideviews.

Locations

The Airport Hilton was also used for Coonicon '09, the Ginger Pride Rally & Cartman's AIDS benefit

Behind The Scenes

• The Farsi, Swahili, and Japanese voices aren't Matt or Trey -- all these languages voiced in the show were performed by native speakers who came into our studio to record.
• David Lee Roth stopped by the South Park offices the week before this episode. We got inspired.
• From Matt and Trey: “In the Writer's Room, we talked about the Biblical story of Job and compared it to Kyle having to endure Cartman's farts."
• Where Did The Idea Come From? Matt read a book about the history of the Temple Mount. It explained that some Jews believe a Red Heifer plays a role in the second coming.
• The "Red Heifer" is not only a real part of the Hebrew Bible, it also appears in the Christian and Islamic faiths.

Character Art: Kyle Sick in Bed

Check out this behind-the-scenes art of Kyle sick in bed. You can see various stages of production here — from storyboard to character design to animation…

Final Script Cover

After production finishes, we get a final script with the official curse count on it.

Character Art: Mr. Garrison

You may notice Garrison appears frequently in our character Corels. He's there for size reference.

Character Art: Kyle

Although the boys all shaved their heads for Blanetology in "Super Best Friends", Kyle got an updated look this episode…

Ancient Prophecy Drawing

Check out this killer drawing of the "ancient prophecy" done by our art department…

Storyboard

Check out the storyboard from this infamous scene of Kyle eating farts…

Script Excerpt

Check out the script for this epic scene…

Songs

• This episode features a couple classic Van Halen songs — during the big Van Halen reveal, they played the "Ain't Talking About Love". And later, they play "Hot For Teacher".

Bonus Factoids

• Kyle's "Yummy Yummy" ringtone is reminiscent of the Goth Kid's "DEATH AND DESPAIR" ringtone from “Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers”.
• Cows have been a part of South Park since the pilot episode, where Visitors turned them inside out. Also, the school's mascot is the "Cows".

Easter Egg: If you look closely in the Season 17 intro, you can catch Bradley and the Gay Camp counselor from "Cartman Sucks" fishing on the bridge.

We see a News Reporter covering the story in Israel throughout this episode. Lots of other news anchors have been parodied in South Park...the least successful being Cartman's "Tom Brokaw" from Season 3's "Starvin' Marvin in Space".

Kyle gets a visit from God in this episode (when he's in his bedroom, sick off of farts). We first met God in the Season 3 episode "Are You There, God? It's Me, Jesus".

Season 17

e1 Let Go, Let Gov

e2 Informative Murder Porn

e3 World War Zimmerman

e4 Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers

e5 Taming Strange

e6 Ginger Cow

e7 Black Friday

e8 A Song of Ass and Fire

e9 Titties and Dragons

e10 The Hobbit