Mr. Hankey, der Weihnachtskot

2007-10-06T13:26:53Z

Dylanlip: Editing section title to fit info.

{{Infobox Television episode
| Title = Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo
| Series = South Park
| Image = [[Image:Hankey flush.gif|200px|]]<br>Mr. Hankey in his native habitat
| Caption =
| Season = 1
| Episode = 10
| Airdate = [[December 17]], [[1997]]
| Production = 110
| Writer =
| Director =
| Guests =
| Episode list = [[List of South Park episodes|List of ''South Park'' episodes]]
| Season list = {{Infobox South Park season 1 episode list}}
| Prev =
| Next =
}}
'''"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo"''' is the tenth episode of [[Comedy Central]]'s [[animated television series|animated series]] ''[[South Park]]'' which originally aired on [[December 17]], [[1997]].

==Plot==
:''Related article: [[Christmas controversy]]''
This [[Christmas]]-themed episode of South Park opens as the school children rehearse for their Christmas play. They are performing a [[Christian]] [[Nativity]], and when Kyle's [[Gerald and Sheila Broflovski|mother]] hears of this, she is angered by the play, because her son, a Jew, plays the role of [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]] (never mind the actual on screen depiction of the birth of Jesus, with [[Wendy Testaburger|Wendy]] playing the role of [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]]). Mrs. Brovlovski is offended by the Christian imagery, and demands that the religious elements be taken out of the public school Christmas pageant. Kyle suggests they celebrate [[Mr. Hankey|Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo]] as a non-religious substitute for, but since he is the only one who believes in Mr. Hankey, his suggestion is rejected.

Mrs. Brovloski's demands trigger uproar in the town, and so it is decided that anything offensive to anyone will be removed from the Christmas celebrations, including Santa Claus, wreaths, trees, stars, lights, and candy canes. Kyle is embarrassed by his mother's actions, and turns to Mr. Hankey for solace, who, it turns out, is a real-life talking piece of [[Feces|poo]]. Kyle tries to introduce Mr. Hankey to the masses, but no one believes in him, and most are in fact horrified at the idea of a talking piece of poo. Kyle's efforts result in mishaps, such as flinging Mr. Hankey (who looks like a normal piece of poo to everyone else) at [[Cartman]] and slipping poo into Mr. Mackey's coffee. Mr. Mackey declares Kyle a "clinically depressed [[Coprophilia|fecalphiliac]] on [[Prozac]]" and has him committed.

Ultimately, the school Christmas pageant is stripped of all semblance of Christmas, as anything that does resemble Christmas is deemed offensive by someone. Instead, the children present a minimalist song and dance created by [[Philip Glass]]. The parents, astounded by how awful the pageant is, begin blaming one another for destroying Christmas, and a fight breaks out. Finally, Mr. Hankey reveals himself to everyone, and scolds everyone, saying that in spending so much time trying to find what's wrong with Christmas, they forgot everything that was "so right about it" - singing songs, cookies and goodwill towards men. The townspeople release Kyle from the asylum and apologize, and they all watch Mr. Hankey fly away with [[Santa Claus]].

==Kenny's Death==
* This is the first episode in which [[Kenny]] doesn't die. During the course of the episode, Kenny is told to unplug Christmas lights (plugs are by a dripping water tap), and also to climb to the top of a ladder to remove a star hanging above the stage with a shark tank below him, two actions where Kenny does risk his life. At the end of the episode, Stan and the others comment on something not being quite right, as if something is wrong with the end picture. When the words "The End" appear before the credits, Kenny cheers in relief, the first time a South Park character has broken the [[fourth wall]].

==Trivia==
{{trivia|width=full|date=June 2007}}
{{wikiquote}}
* Mr. Garrison asks Mayor McDaniels to get rid of all the Mexicans. He says this again in [[It's Christmas in Canada]].
* After the children's choir finishes singing, the episode opens with [[Stan Marsh|Stan]] arriving on the stage and reciting the story of the birth of Jesus from the [[Gospel of Luke]], in much the same manner as [[Linus Van Pelt|Linus]] did in the famous "[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]" special.
* Three popular South Park songs debuted in this episode: "[[Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo]]", "[[Kyle's Mom is a Stupid Bitch]]" and "The Lonely Jew on Christmas".
* Just after the fight at the Christmas play, there is a fake [[live-action]] commercial for the "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo Playset". It features a family of a mom, her son and two daughters. The mom uses a fish net to recover a piece of [[feces]] from their toilet, and they dress it up with clothes and accessories from the set. It is edited in syndication, though.
* Jesus can be seen after the end credits celebrating his birthday (Christmas) alone in his TV studio. This is often interpreted as society's apparent forgetfulness of the true meaning of Christmas celebrations.
* After this episode aired, [[John Kricfalusi]], of [[Ren and Stimpy]] fame, accused Parker and Stone of ripping off a character from his [[George Liquor]] flash cartoons called Nutty the happy dump. However, the court ruled out the case as "too ridiculous". Ironically, the episode actually featured a reference to Ren and Stimpy when Mr. Mackey calls Kyle a "sick little monkey".
* It is believed by fans of [[Marvel Comics]] that a pre-super-hero monster called [[Taboo]] featured in [[Strange Tales]] #75-77 was the inspiration for Mr. Hankey because it bore an unintentional resemblance to a humanoid lump of feces and was in fact re-colored and re-drawn in reprints to stop this confusion.
* As Kyle sings the [[Dreidel Song]], he says "Second verse, same as the first", which is from the [[Ramones]]' song "[[Judy is a Punk]]" and [[Herman's Hermits]]' song [[I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am|I'm Henry VIII, I Am]].
* When Kyle' mom asks why Kyle should play Joseph even though he's Jewish, she neglects the fact that Joseph ''was'' Jewish.

==External links==
* [http://www.southparkstudios.com/show/display_episode.php?season=1&id1=110&id2=10 "Mr.Hankey the Christmas Poo" at South Park Studios]

{{Episode navigation|parent=[[List of South Park episodes|''South Park'' episodes]]|prev=[[Starvin' Marvin (South Park episode)|Starvin' Marvin]]|next=[[Tom's Rhinoplasty (South Park episode)|Tom's Rhinoplasty]] }}

[[Category:South Park episodes: Season 1]]
[[Category:Christmas television episodes]]

[[fr:Monsieur Hankey, le petit caca Noël]]
[[hu:Kula bá, az ünnepi kaki]]
[[nl:Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo]]
[[ru:Мистер Хэнки, рождественская какашка]]

Wikipedia - Benutzerbeiträge [de]

Mr. Hankey, der Weihnachtskot