Rainforest Schmainforest
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| South Park episode | |
| "Rainforest Schmainforest" | |
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| Episode no. | 301 |
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| Airdate | April 7, 1999 |
| South Park - Season 3 April 7, 1999 – January 12, 2000 |
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| ← Season 2 | Season 4 → |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"Rainforest Schmainforest" (aka. Choir Tour) is episode 301 of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on April 7, 1999.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Miss Stevens is in Mr. Garrison's class recruiting students for a tree hugging choir tour called "Getting Gay With Kids." The boys cause trouble calling the choir names and belittling their cause and are sent to the office. Mr. Mackey punishes the boys by forcing them to join the choir, and Kenny is the only one who is happy about, after developing a crush on Kelly, a girl in the choir.
The choir goes to San José, Costa Rica to tour, where Miss Stevens tells Cartman that she plans on changing him. Upon arriving, the children get to meet the Costa Rican President and do a preview dance routine, but Miss Stevens is dismayed by Kyle's lack of co-ordination.
The children then take a tour to see the 'wonders' of the Rainforest, which Cartman keeps trying to beat with a stick. Then their tour guide is eaten by a huge snake, leaving Miss Stevens and the children on their own in the jungle. They run into a group of revolutionaries, who they try to sway to their cause. To this the rebel leader replies: "We're not getting gay with any kids!" and the choir has to run away as government troops arrive and start a battle. With the group still wandering aimlessly around the rainforest, Cartman decides to leave this "hippie" group; he walks off and finds a friendly crew tearing down trees.
Back in San José, the concert is about an hour away from starting, and the President stalls for time by telling "Pollack" jokes. Miss Stevens and the remaining children find a group of natives intent upon killing them, and sacrificing Miss Stevens. At this point, Miss Stevens changes her mind, and decides the rainforest is not such a good place after all - just as Cartman and the construction workers arrive to save everyone. Kelly, having been threatened with death multiple times and protected by Kenny, finally confesses her feelings for him, to which he is extremely agreeable. However, Kenny is then immediately struck and apparently killed by a bolt of lightning. After unsuccessfully trying to get Stan and Kyle, who are as usual indifferent to his death, to help him, Kelly manages to resuscitate Kenny, much to the surprise of the other children.
When they escape the forest, Miss Stevens and the children are so happy that they literally change their tune about the Rainforest. They do a different version of the original song, which rebukes the rainforest rather than praising it as the original did. Even still, Kyle has no co-ordination which according to his friends is because he's Jewish.
[edit] Kenny's Death
Struck by lightning. However, Kelly manages to revive him after debating just who killed Kenny with Stan and Kyle.
[edit] Trivia
- When Mr. Mackey speaks Spanish, he says "Mmmmbien" instead of "Mmmmkay", bien being Spanish for "good".
- On iTunes the name of this episode is simply "Choir Tour."
- The supposed "Yanagapa" people living in the rainforest is actually a direct reference to the indigenous people known as the Yąnomamö living in Brazil and Venezuela.
- As heard from the DVD commentary, Cartman's bad experience of the adventure and Stan's phobia of snakes are based on show creator Trey Parker's trip to the rainforest.
- Kelly makes an appearance at the dance in Hooked on Monkey Phonics.
- Jennifer Aniston provided the voice of Miss Stevens for the episode.
- A parody of King Kong happens in this episode when Miss Stevens is dressed in a skimpy outfit and tied to a pole to be sacrificed to the monster Yanagapa.
[edit] Goofs
- In an interview on the South Park Homepage (southparkstudios.com) one of the show's Editors Tom Vogt states that it was a hard episode to do, because there were many changes during the course of the production. A notable continuity flaw can be noticed when the group is trying to escape the native people (18:23 min) you can clearly see that Cartman is with them, even though he had left the group to find his own way and been rescued by loggers.
- The rainforest guide mentions that the snake on the tree is a coral snake. Coral snakes are not constrictors, meaning that the snake would not have strangled the man and swallowed him whole, but would have bitten him with deadly neurotoxic venom. (Although it is possible that the snake also bit the man on the neck.)
- The population of Costa Rica is mainly Caucasian, rather than the stereotype Hispanics depicted in the episode. Costa Rica also has no standing army.
- After the children get off the bus in Costa Rica, you can see Kenny standing next to a girl with black hair. However, after Cartman gets off the bus saying it "smells like ass", the scene that follows shows Kenny standing next to, and talking to Kelly, who starts picking her nose by the way.
- In the first scene that shows the children seated on the bus, Kenny is not there.
- Cartman says that Kyle has no rhythm because he's Jewish, but in the season four episode "Something You Can Do With Your Finger," Kyle is actually shown dancing very well.
- In one scene in which the students are running away from the natives Cartman can be seen, despite leaving the group earlier.
| Preceded by "Prehistoric Ice Man" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "Spontaneous Combustion" |
