South Park (TV Series) Dead Celebrities (2009) User Reviews

Well done, and original

[judahben_hur · 8/10 · 21 November 2009]

While there are many references to old ghost movies, the episode is original in its style. The celebrities, and the whole airplane idea, along with the Chipotle and Beauty Pagant sequences, this is highly good South Park.

Some people may balk at the use of the celebrities (in particular Davi Carridine's "sexy" outfit), but other than that, I found it highly funny, (though they could have given Cronkite some more respect with a better impersonation).

For a season premiere, it was the best choice because of all the celebrities' death, and despite what some may say: MICHAEL JACKSON GOT WHAT HE DESERVED (in this episode, not dying)!!!!!!!!!!

"I'm alive and I'm a child and I'm white"

[RainDogJr · 9/10 · 8 October 2009]

Boy, I think this episode will be part of the list of controversial ones. Almost three years ago having a joke on the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, who had passed away just a month or so before, was matter of controversy but now the South Park guys titled the mid-season premiere Dead Celebrities...I tell you, just don't be really surprised if you hear words from the familiars of Billy Mays, David Carradine, Adam Goldstein, Farrah Fawcett and of some others celebrities on South Park. But in the end that's another story, the stuff that really matters concerns if this is a funny episode, if South Park returned with worth watching stuff. And my humble opinion if the following: I laughed really hard with Dead Celebrities; it's a truly hilarious show, yet another one of this the thirteenth season.

I will forget the celebrities that appear in this episode for a moment since this is a show with hilarious bits that of course are not just random jokes but that are not quite with the dead celebrities. A part with the Ghost Hunters and the whole stuff with Cartman and his experiences with Chipotle are hilarious. And this time I wasn't one of those that while seeing the episode knew about Billy Mays or the Ghost Busters or Chipotle but still I laughed hard, nobody need to, it's just hilarious time with conversations about crapping blood (and the solution to the crapping blood problems; Cartman: "that product changed my life"), a very annoying salesperson and with ghost busters (the peeing thing was just brilliant!). And Michael Jackson, don't forget the king of pop, everybody knows him (well except Homer Simpson!), everybody knows that he died except well, himself! Basically it's all because of Michael Jackson: this episode begins with Kyle's parents having a nice night and a very scared Ike; he, Ike, is seeing dead people, more specifically dead celebrities. You gotta love the "I'm alive and I'm a child and I'm white" and the "Kyle, what the f*** is going on?", you gotta love the first of the last seven South Park episodes that will air in 2009. And finally RIP Michael, wait he wasn't a Mormon...

Fairly good opener to the second half of Season 13

[gangstahippie · 8/10 · 9 October 2009]

"Dead Celebrities" is the beginning of the second half of Season 13! After almost 7 months, it's finally here.Once again, the episode is a spoof of current events.This time, the episode spoofs the death of celebrities and how there deaths are over-mentioned in the media.The plot of the episode involves Ike seeing the ghosts of various dead celebrities such as Billy Mays.Kyle and the others try to get him help, but it does no good.Ike ends up in the hospital and a nurse helps the boys to be able to talk to the dead.Apparently, the dead celebrities cannot move on to purgatory because Michael Jackson will not accept the fact that he is dead.He ends up possessing Ike seeing as he always wanted to be a little white girl.So the boys enter him in a beauty pageant hoping he would move on and leave Ike's body.The episode had some hilarious moments such as the whole "Ghost Hunters" scene, as well as the various conversations about "Chipotle" and how it makes people crap blood.Overall, it's not the best episode, but it is still fairly good. Hopefully the rest of Season 13 will be even better!

The name of this episode would have

[cspilk89 · 8/10 · 21 May 2018]

This would have been better titled, "Ike see dead people".

A Genuine Guilty Pleasure

[michael_the_nermal · 7/10 · 9 March 2010]

If Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays had not died so close in time to one another, this episode would not have been made, and we would not have seen one of the funniest "South Park" episodes of Season 13. You feel dirty for a second for laughing at "Mr. Jefferson" one last time, but then you realize that at least Matt and Trey are not attacking Michael Jackson for being a pervert or an evil person; they simply mock his eccentricity----as it was displayed on the Martin Bashir special----a trait which is fair game for any comedy show to mock. Think of this episode as a mean-spirited mockery of Michael Jackson as he was known prior to his first molestation accusation in 1993, and this episode will make sense. Yes, it is a rather mean joke they have at the dead man's expense, but you'll laugh yourself blue; it's an exact copy of "Mr. Jefferson," right down to the spontaneous "shamons" and "hee-hees", not to mention Jefferson's comments on other people acting "ignorant."

The people who are really put under the microscope are mothers who force their toddler daughters to participate in bizarre beauty pageants. Matt and Trey are simply showing us what we are all thinking about this subject.

Finally, this show prominently features a Billy Mays parody! Did "Family Guy" even make a Billy Mays reference? Granted, the gag with chipotle was pretty lame, but Billy's presence was enough to make up for any lame gag tied to him just being on "South Park" as a "guest-ghost", plugging his products (I didn't even care if they were parodies of real products. Billy Mays was so damned campy that he was a self-parody: you can't really parody something that is so bizarre as to be beyond parody!) You'll feel evil for laughing at the visual gag that goes with David Carradine's presence, but then again, if you have any compunctions, why are you watching "South Park" in the first place?

Best Part: The "You are Not Alone" parody, titled "I'm Just a Little Girl."

Talk about poor writing

[jpov11 · 2/10 · 9 October 2009]

This episode is a poster child for a TV show "jumping the shark" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark). For some reason, it contains plot elements parodying The Sixth Sense, alluding to Little Miss Sunshine, and including Zelda Rubinstein from Poltergeist (the small, creepy woman).

It seems the primary reason this episode was produced was because of its inherent controversiality by referencing the deaths of many celebrities. This could have worked... but unfortunately, the jokes fall flat, the plot sucks limp D, and Ike's dialogue is often out of character... even when he's no longer possessed by Michael Jackson. And speaking of Michael Jackson, talk about a hollow reiteration. Yes, the joke where MJ calls others "ignorant" was funny in the first MJ episode. But seeing the joke run into the ground in another episode was pretty unnecessary.

I just hope I never see Rachel Powell or John Frank Rosenblum credited for writing another episode. South Park is better than being controversial for the sake of being controversial.