Proper Condom Use

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications.
Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page.
This article has been tagged since September 2007.

“Proper Condom Use”
South Park episode
Cartman plays Red Rocket
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 72
Written by	Trey Parker Matt Stone
Directed by	Matt Stone Trey Parker
Production no.	507
Original airdate	August 1, 2001
Season 5 episodes
South Park - Season 5 June 20, 2001 – December 12, 2001
Scott Tenorman Must Die It Hits the Fan Cripple Fight Super Best Friends Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow Cartmanland Proper Condom Use Towelie Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants How to Eat with Your Butt The Entity Here Comes the Neighborhood Kenny Dies Butters' Very Own Episode

← Season 4	Season 6 →
List of South Park episodes

"Proper Condom Use" is episode 72 of Comedy Central's South Park. It originally aired on August 1, 2001.

1 Plot
2 Reaction
3 Ratings and censorship
4 Kenny's death
5 Cultural references
6 References

[edit] Plot

The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

Stan and Kyle are melting their Jennifer Lopez doll with a magnifying glass when Cartman excitedly tells them to come with him to Kenny's house, where Cartman demonstrates something he has learned from the Fifth Graders. Repeating the phrase "Red Rocket", he masturbates Kenny's dog to the point of ejaculation, or, as he sees it, "milks the dog."

Stan demonstrates the technique "Red Rocket" on his own dog Sparky in front of his parents and their friends, for which he is grounded for ten months. Stan cannot understand why he is being punished, however his parents are too embarrassed to explain to him about Sexual stimulation. It is then decided by the parents at the next PTA meeting that the schools should be teaching the children about sex education at a younger age.

Mr. Mackey and Ms. Choksondik instruct the fourth graders on sex-ed and while Miss Choksondik is teaching the girls about the perils and horrors of sexually transmitted diseases, Mr. Mackey tries to teach the boys about male anatomy and the mechanics of sexual intercourse. Not having had sex himself since he was 19, 21 years previously, Mr. Mackey's inexperience means that he can't teach the boys anything, while Miss Choksondik tells the girls that they will catch an STD and die if the boys are not wearing condoms, without bothering to tell them that they first need to have sex.

The boys, not having learned anything, ask the girls what they had learned. The girls, still horrified from their lesson, back away since the boys are not wearing condoms. Scared they will catch a disease, the boys then go to the pharmacy where the male pharmacist refuses to sell them condoms. However, the female pharmacist is on the boys' side and sells them the condoms because she wants them to be safe if they are in fact having sex.

After hearing from the pharmacist that condoms were purchased the school believes this is due to the students being sexually active, whereas in fact they were just scared they will catch STDs if they don't wear them. Because of this, Ms. Choksondik claims that because the students are supposedly sexually active, they should start teaching kindergarten students about sex education (Chef is appalled at this decision). Therefore Mr. Garrison is tasked with teaching proper condom use to kindergarten children, and his preferred method of applying a condom using his mouth shocks his students.

Now more motivated than ever to scare the girls into getting boys to wear condoms, Ms. Choksondik teaches the girls about pregnancy, which scares them even more than before when she shows them a video of a woman giving birth. The boys then buy the condoms and wear them at all times, but after Cartman tries to put his on during class, Mr. Mackey tells them they only have to wear them when they are having sex. Angry that the girls misled them, they realize they must get rid of the girls. The girls, terrified by Ms. Choksondik's traumatizing lessons, build a massive fort to keep the boys out. The boys find where the girls are hiding and tell them to come out à la The Road Warrior. When the girls refuse, it leads to a violent confrontation. The boys and girls start fighting with improvised weapons and molotov cocktails, resulting in explosions which attract their parents' attention. What started the fight was Bebe throwing a boomerang that hits Kenny and slices his head open, killing him.

While preparing the lesson plan Miss Choksondik and Mr. Mackey become aroused by the sexual nature of their conversation, and admit to having sexual fantasies about each other. The two undress, perform oral sex on each other, and despite all of their teachings, decide to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse.

The aftermath of the battle between girls and boys lead to several casualties, and the parents think the children are the ones responsible. However, Ms. Choksondik takes full responsibility for the conflict and apologizes to the girls, since she never actually told them you must have intercourse in order to catch an STD. The children had been fighting purely out of fear as a result of having been misinformed about sex and catching STDs in their sexual education classes.

Chef, however, states that it is not Ms. Choksondik who is to blame but the parents, explaining that sex is an emotional topic and needs to be taught by family, rather than at schools through textbooks and diagrams. Also if learning sexual education at school, they might be taught by someone who isn't sufficiently knowledgeable about the subject to teach it, who has a bad opinion of it, or a total pervert (at that point, the camera pans to Mr. Garrison). He adds that sex ed. classes are being taught to younger and younger students, and all of this led to the confrontation. When asked when children are ready to have sex, he responds with an unconditional, "17 — you're ready." (a reference to the age of consent in Colorado). All of the children are relieved they don't have to worry about disease for at least 8 years (especially Stan and Wendy, who are in love, despite the fact that they are not virgins (according to an interview with Parker and Stone not long before the start of Season 5)), and the episode ends with Cartman playing "red rocket" with another dog.

[edit] Reaction

A study by the Parents Television Council on violence, sexual content, and profanity on cable television briefly referred to multiple scenes in this episode.^[1]

[edit] Ratings and censorship

In Australia, this episode received an MA rating (similar to the TV-MA rating on American TV) as opposed to the usual M rating (similar to the TV-14 rating on American TV), due to its strong sexual content throughout the episode and the graphic violence near the end of the episode (the sequence where the boys attack the girls at the fortress). Because of its content, this episode also aired at 9:00 at night instead of its usual 8:30 timeslot. However, the British satellite channel Sky One banned this episode for its strong sexual and violent content (despite airing a TV trailer with scenes from the episode). The UK terrestrial channel Channel 4, however, aired this uncut. Paramount Comedy 1 has also shown this episode. MTV UK has also shown this episode uncut.

According to DVD commentary, the Comedy Central censors told Trey and Matt to drastically shorten the part where Mr. Garrison demonstrates how to put on a condom by using his mouth with a condom around the lips and deep-throating the model penis used in the lesson. However, they ignored Comedy Central and put it in the episode anyway (though the scene still cut from Mr. Garrison putting his lips on the dildo to the children staring in shock at what Garrison is doing off-screen).

This episode has not been shown in syndication, possibly due to its strong sex-related content.

[edit] Kenny's death

Kenny dies when Bebe throws a boomerang at him and instead of saying the trademark phrase, Cartman says "Aw bitch!" This is a parody of a scene from The Road Warrior when "the feral child" kills an attacker in a similar way.

[edit] Cultural references

The Jennifer Lopez doll and car Stan and Kyle were playing with in the beginning is the same one from the episode Cartmanland. In this episode there are burn marks already on the car, caused by the firecracker the boys stuck in it.
The sex positions that Mr. Garrison describes – Hot Karl, Hot lunch, Filthy Sanchez, Glass bottomed boat, Fish Eye, Pile driver, Donkey punch, and Chili dog – are real, and many involve anal sex and/or feces.
In the television airings of this episode and the Best of South Park DVD, the afterbirth scene had a fart sound effect, but on the Season 5 DVD boxset, it was replaced by a squishing sound effect.
The outdoor battle scene between the boys and girls over the spread of AIDS mimics that of the 1981 film 'Mad Max 2', including Butters' masked speech.