"South Park" The Passion of the Jew (2004)

Director:

Trey Parker

Writers:

Trey Parker (creator) &
Matt Stone (creator) ...

TV Series:

"South Park" (1997)

Original Air Date:

31 March 2004 (Season 8, Episode 3)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy

Plot:

Cartman leads a campaign against the Jews after seeing "The Passion Of The Christ." Meanwhile, Stan...

Plot Keywords:

Anti Semitism | Nightmare | Religion | Reference To Mel Gibson | Hitler

Cast

Trey Parker	...	Stan Marsh / Eric Cartman / Randy Marsh / Mr. Herbert Garrison / Philip Niles Argyle / Timmy / Jimmy Swanson / God / Satan / Mr. Mackey / Tom the News Reporter / Clyde / Grandpa Marvin Marsh / Miss Diane Choksondik / Ned Gerblanski / Officer Barbrady / Big Gay Al / Mr. Hankey / Dr. Alphonse Mephesto / Dr. Doctor / Twong Lu Kim / Bill Clinton / George Bush / Additional Voices (voice)
Matt Stone	...	Kyle Broflovski / Kenny McCormick / Gerald Broflovski / Stuart McCormick / Jimbo Kearn / Terrance Henry Stoot / Leopold 'Butters' Stotch / Tweek / Jesus / Saddam Hussein / Pip Pirrup / Priest Maxi / Shlomo / Additional Voices (voice)
April Stewart	...	Liane Cartman (voice) (as Gracie Lazar)
Mona Marshall	...	Sheila Broflovski / Linda Stotch / Additional Voices (voice)
Isaac Hayes	...	Chef (voice) (credit only)

Runtime:

USA:23 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | UK:15 | USA:Not Rated (DVD rating) | Canada:14A

Company:

Braniff

Trivia:

In the episode "Passion of the Jew," Stan says that he saw the movie "Baseketball" and demanded a refund. Matt Stone and Trey Parker starred in BASEketball (1998)

Goofs:

Factual errors: Cartman tells Kyle that The Passion of the Christ (2004) is the highest grossing film ever made. Titanic (1997) is in fact the highest grossing film ever made with over 1.8 Billion US dollars made. "The Passion'" is the highest grossing non-English film ever.

Quotes:

[after seeing The Passion of the Christ]
Stan: Hey, we want our money back.
Ticket Seller: Huh?
Stan: That movie sucked ass. Give us back our $18.
Ticket Seller: I can't refund your money. You sat through the whole movie.
Stan: That wasn't a movie. That was a snuff film.
Kenny: [muffled] Yeah.
Stan: You can't charge people to watch a guy get tortured for two hours.
Ticket Seller: That guy happens to be Jesus and he went through all that to pay for your sins.
Stan: We go to church to learn that stuff. We go to movies to be entertained. We weren't entertained and we want our money back!
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Braveheart (1995)

I liked Passion...and still GREATLY enjoyed this episode!

The boys see Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ and react thusly: Stan and Kenny dislike it,seeing it as little more than a big-budget snuff film;Kyle sees it last and is horrified by it,reading the Jewish arch(stereo?)types into the movie and deciding that he needs to bring this to light amongst his fello0w Jews;and Eric Cartman actually saw it before the other three--37 times!--loved it,and is moved to lead a "movement" to deal with the Jews that looks scarily familiar. That, the ensuing clash between the local Jews and Cartman's "Reichstag"-type mob and Stan and Kyle's confrontation of Mel Gibson(to get their $18 back,of course!)is basically this show in a nutshell.

Another poster said that this show,being so spot-on,was(and I'm paraphrasing here)not going to appeal to Gibson fans,the religious right or people who loved Passion. Well,I lost enchantment with Mr.Gibson a while ago,and I'm not much of a religious conservative,but I thought that the Passion of the Christ was actually a very well-made movie(albeit uber-bloody and NOT for all audiences)that I'm pretty sure(though I have a few doubts)was made with no real intention of anti-Semitism,yet I still enjoyed this ep quite a bit. Probably due to the fact that,among other reasons "Non-voting Republicans" Matt and Trey are able to break with their usual sense of putting the hard skepticism on only liberal stars/sacred cows for this ep,skewering this movie that was the pet of religious conservatives and,by that measure,people like FOX News.

At the risk of sounding like I'm parroting,this show is one of the truly best eps of the last seven or so seasons,right up there with "Tom Cruise in the Closet","The Whore-Off", the Hennifer Lopez episode(the name escapes me)and--so I'm told,I haven't seen this one yet--"Imaginationland". It's re-running somewhere,and it's worth seeing,first time or again.