Quest for Ratings
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"Quest for Ratings" is episode 811 in the Comedy Central series South Park. Its original air date was November 17, 2004.
Plot synopsis
Cartman, Jimmy, Butters, Kyle, Token and Stan are taping "Super School News," a newscast airing on South Park Elementary's closed-circuit television system. Cartman and Jimmy play the leading roles as head anchors, Butters is the entertainment/celebrity reporter, Stan is another reporter, Token is the meteorologist and Kyle does sports. However after their news program premieres, their teacher tells them that they did horribly in the ratings, trailing far behind Craig's home-video show, "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens," which they consider senseless and banal.
The news team then pledges to make a program that will be a ratings booster and gain the attention of all students. They rename the show "Sexy Action School News" and add flashy elements (in a parody of various infotainment shows), including random "Panda Madness Minutes" in which the newscasters spontaneously dance with pandas. However, nothing seems to work and the ratings remain worrisome (falling behind Craig's followup series, "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens Wearing Hats.") To get ideas, the boys decide to get high on cough syrup. They hallucinate and wake up the next day with hangovers, but their notepads remain devoid of answers (although Kyle wrote down all the lyrics to the Happy Days theme song). Remembering that they had seen Craig's program while high and thought it to be brilliant, they realize that a majority of the school is perpetually high on cough syrup. They then head to produce a special report that gets cough syrup banned from school.
Soon after, the ratings soar and Craig's show is cancelled, as the children are no longer high. The AV teacher then suspends Craig from school and orders the removal of his testicles. Satisfied with their results, the "Sexy Action School News" team discovers the curse of a successful show: Each subsequent episode has to be just as good. Back in the writer's room, they come up with nothing and decide to leave.
Moral/point
Aside from making a parody of infotainment and various news shows (and the public's refusal to watch straight news), this episode may very well be a parody of South Park itself. The boys all sitting around a table, trying to come up with "the best idea for an episode ever," as well as their lack of good ideas, may be Matt Stone and Trey Parker commenting on their show's own lack of rational plots. This is best displayed by Cartman's suggestion that they do an episode about Crab People (see "South Park is Gay!").Notes
- This episode is somewhat notable because of name changes. In this episode, Clyde (whose last name had before been Goodman on merchandise) uses the last name Donovan, while Token's is given as Black (as opposed to the previously used Williams). Jimmy Vulmer's last name (which replaced "Swanson") is also reaffirmed.
- Token's role as the meteorologist is probably an homage to The Today Show's Al Roker. Also, Token's name is a play on the concept of a 'token' character (one that is the sole, or 'token', member of a specific subgroup).
- The background music for "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens" is a version of "Yakety Sax" that sounds like a MIDI composition with a GUS patch for the instruments.
- Stan appears to have no apparent resentment toward Token, even though he lost Wendy to Token.
- Stan mentions global warming killing everybody in the 5th grade. Even though they weren't in 5th grade in the next season, in the episode Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow they do a global warming episode.
- Cartman suggests they do an episode about killing Butters. In the episode Marjorine, which premiered the next season, the boys fake Butter's death.
- Although the boys change the name of the news show to "Sexy Action News" their shirts still have SSN on them, which stands for "Super School News."
| Preceded by: Pre-School | South Park episodes | Followed by: Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset |
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