Reviews & Ratings for
"South Park" The Passion of the Jew (2004)

21 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
One of the classic "South Park" episodes that is on par with "Trapped in the Closet", 17 August 2006

Author: MovieAddict2013 from UK

Having picked up plenty of controversy in 2004 for airing this episode as the third part of season eight, many people - in light of the recent "Trapped in the Closet" incident - totally forget how outraged people were at this. Mel Gibson is presented as a sadomasochist who is as stupid as he is depraved, Cartman becomes the next Hitler (marching Christians through the street while chanting Nazi phrases) and Christians are made to look like complete idiots. A lot of harsh material for a television show, but they got away with it.

In my opinion it's one of the funniest episodes ever, and worth watching alone for the Mel Gibson appearance towards the end. That's just classic "South Park." Of course, Trey and Matt as always are good sports and take time to poke fun at themselves, too - Stan mentions how the last time they asked for a refund at a theater was when they went to see "BASEketball" in 1998.

If you're a Christian, a "Passion" fan or a Mel Gibson die-hard you'll probably be offended by this - but if you can open up a bit and take it as a joke, you may find yourself laughing a whole lot more than you'd expect.

14 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
South Park gets it right!, 24 January 2009

Author: freemantle_uk from United Kingdom

This is a classic South Park episodes, getting my feelings about the Passion of the Christ and Mel Gibson absolutely right.

The episode has three plots; first is Cartman who has seen the Passion 34 times and uses the film as a rallying point to get the town's people together, second is Kyle who sees the Passion and suffers guilt for being a Jew because of what happened to Jesus and finally Stan and Kyle who think the Passion is just a snuff film and demand that they get their $18 dollars back from Mel Gibson.

I personally think that the Passion of the Christ is one of the worst films ever made, at best pretentious art-house bulls**t, but really just anti-Semitic gorno with ambitions to be pretentious art-house bulls**t. Stan's view is most actuate of the film. It also gets my views about the Passion being anti-Semitic right and Cartman using the film as a Nazi rallying point.

The Passion of the Jew combines the best elements of South Park, there is an intelligent humour which South Park gained in later episodes. There is parody, especially of Mel Gibson and his films and of Cartman who worships Gibson (go on his message board and you will find a lot of people like that). I love the fact that Gibson is made out to be completely bonkers and this was later shown in the Kyle sucks Cartman's Balls trilogy. There is also good bit of self-referencing to BASEketball. It also gets the atmosphere about the Passion right with people thinking that is a bold religious masterpiece, and people following it blindly. I personal thought it was awful and can't believed I spent money on the DVD, now I tell everyone to avoid it.

South Park improved as a programme as it got older, maturing like a fine wine and gaining intelligence. This episode is a great example of it and a high point for Season 8.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
I liked Passion...and still GREATLY enjoyed this episode!, 17 April 2009
Author: S.R. Dipaling from Topeka, Kansas, USA

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.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
One of the best south park episodes, 13 September 2011
Author: carolinawrestler from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The passion of the Jew really depicts the anti Semitic and ignorant views that many Christians take in their depiction of the Crucifixion of Jesus.

The entire population in south park becomes obsessed on this movie as it goes to theater, and as the movie goes on there are numerous depictions of Jewish people yelling at Jesus and ordering his crucification to the point that everyone who watches it believes they must hate Jews to be a better Christian for all of the pain Jesus went through.

Unfortunately, kyle is caught in the middle of this and becomes the target of cartman and most of south parks population because of the anti semitic propaganda in the movie. Like many shows, kyle is the underdog who everyone is ganging up on, and becomes one of the most hated people in south park since hes Jewish.

Meanwhile, Eric Cartman watches the movie and becomes a huge fan. He is fat, ignorant, lazy and uninformed about anything and he rounds a group of people who mistakenly believe they are going to a Christian support group into becoming Nazis. He is chanting Nazi terms, making numerous references to the holocaust and these stupid people follow him around without knowing what he is talking about doing.

This overall depicts the bigotry many Jewish people go through and the way many people are too ignorant and stupid to know whats going on about some issues. Because this episode is more intense and factual, it is one of the better south park episodes.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Pretty good, 8 November 2008

Author: bunnindatpiff from Canada(Montreal, Quebec)

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Passion Of The Jew came in a DVD box set along with two other episodes.This is a pretty good episode and pokes fun at Mel Gibson and his film "The Passion Of The Christ".Cartman tells Kyle to see the passion to show how horrible Jew's are.Kyle does and gets angered at the Jews."If Jesus really was not the son of god, he was still a nice guy and did not deserve to be killed" as quoted by Kyle.Cartman also starts a passion fan club, which is actually a Nazi march(but the stupid townspeople do not know that).Meanwhile, Stan and Kenny view the film but hate it and demand their money back.They travel all the way to Mel Gibson's home to get $18 back from him.They take it but Mel(who is a bit of a nut) chases them all the way to south park! The episode is true to life, you will either love that film, hate it, or think about it.I think this is a fairly good South Park episode.

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