Go, God. Go!

Template:Infobox South Park episode "Go God Go" is episode 1012 (#151) of Comedy Central's South Park. It aired on November 1, 2006, and is part one of a multi-episode arc. The next and/or concluding episodes will air during the next two weeks.

There has been some confusion regarding the name. Originally, many cable and satellite providers had listed it as Go, God. Go! Part II, despite the lack of a Go, God. Go! Part I. When the episode aired, the official South Park website simply listed it with the generic title TBA. Several days after its initial airing, it was officially designated Go God Go[1].

Plot

Template:Spoilers Cartman is unable to wait three weeks until the Nintendo Wii comes out, spending his time mindlessly pacing in front of a store called EV Games (a parody of EB Games) and asking how long until it comes out at intervals of about five seconds. Unable to wait any longer, he decides to go into suspended animation and get unfrozen as soon as the Wii comes out. Cartman gets Butters to bury him in the snow in the nearby mountains to ensure that he won't be disturbed until the release of the Wii.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Garrison — strongly against her wishes — is forced to teach evolution; however, she hates the theory and doesn't seem to know very much about it, and instead teaches the students about "retarded fish frogs having butt sex." Principal Victoria decides to hire Richard Dawkins to teach the theory along with her — they quickly get into an argument, and Mrs. Garrison decides to "act like a monkey" if she's related to one, ultimately throwing her own feces at him. However, Dawkins turns out to be infatuated with Garrison, and she becomes very excited about her first real date since becoming a woman.

On their date, Dawkins and Garrison hit it off, and Dawkins manages to convert Garrison to atheism (citing the Flying Spaghetti Monster), before the two have sex; the next day, Garrison – just as outspoken about her new atheism as her former beliefs — denounces God to the class and makes Stan sit in the "dunce chair" for suggesting God could exist along with evolution, after Stan makes the suggestion that evolution could be the answer to how and not why lifeforms are the way they are. Dawkins is at first reluctant to be so brazen, but Garrison tells him he was too soft on religious people in the past and that together they can rid the world of religion and all the violence it causes. To celebrate their new idea the two have sex again. Meanwhile Proffessor Chaos and General Disarray race to find Cartman, but remains hidden for 540 years after an avalanche covers his body. Finally he is unfrozen, and despite his loved ones being dead, is most upset that the future people do not have a Nintendo Wii.

Cartman is told that his unfreezers might be able to retrieve an antique Wii from a technology museum. In the future, everyone is atheistic and believes only in science (often saying things like "Oh my Science" and "Science Damn you!," but mocking Cartman for using similar, religious phrases). They tell Cartman that they think someone he knew caused the atheistic revolution, but before they can tell them who, they are attacked by another atheist group (the United Atheist Alliance, or Alliance Atheists), which kills the first group (the Unified Atheist League) and takes Cartman. They then contact a group of superintelligent sea otters (the Allied Atheist Allegiance) with whom they are also at war, who tell Cartman that the world will soon be theirs.

The episode ends, to be continued.

Trivia

• Trey Parker and Matt Stone have said that they are very excited about the Wii themselves.
• Richard Dawkins was asked if he was aware that he had been featured on South Park. He answered, "Yes" and said that they could have at least hired an actor to do a proper British accent.
• EV Games is a parody of EB Games, a video game store in the United States and Canada.
• The year 2003-2006 is also the year 2546 in Thailand. The reference point for Thailand's calendar is Lord Buddha's birth, 543 years before Jesus Christ
• It seems Butters has dropped his openly evil side as Professor Chaos.

References to other episodes

• South Park also mentioned evolution in "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce," also with the implication that it is true, and the admission that the process is not completely understood.
• This episode has a sub-plot similar to the episodes "Best Friends Forever" and "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000" in which Cartman is so eager to have the new video game system (PSP/Dreamcast/Wii) that he takes extreme measures to get it. (tries to "kill" Kenny/ steal tooth fairy money from other kids/freezes self)
• Professor Chaos makes his first appearance since the season 8 episode "Good Times with Weapons". General Disarray hadn't been featured since "Krazy Kripples".
• Inside the store the games seen along with the Wii are Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Diablo II, and StarCraft (all Blizzard games, see Make Love, Not Warcraft) as well as Bratz and Okami.
• Nintendo's previous console, the Nintendo GameCube, was parodied through the "Okama Gamesphere" in the season 5 episode "Towelie". The plot of the aforementioned episode is very similar to the plot that unfolds in the future in this episode.
• The restaurant "Buca di Fagaccini" was previously seen in "Erection Day".

References to pop culture

• A shelf of "O-Box" games can be seen at EV Games, a reference to the Xbox.
• This episode features the well-known Richard Dawkins teaching evolution, much to Mrs. Garrison's dismay.
• The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity in the parody religion, Pastafarianism.
• Mrs. Garrison's relationship with Richard Dawkins is quite similar to the relationship between Gaius Baltar and Number Six in Battlestar Galactica (re-imagining). In the series, Baltar is a man of science while Six believes strongly in religion. Number Six's musical theme also appears in South Park when Mrs. Garrison tries to persuade Richard Dawkins to get rid of all religion.
• When Cartman finds out that there are no video games in the future, he turns upward and the camera suddenly pulls back to his scream "Nooooooo!" This mirrors the scene at the end of Star Wars Episode III when Darth Vader is told that he killed Padmé and turns upward to scream as the camera suddenly pulls back.
• The horn the sea otter blows makes a similar noise to the horns of the tripods in the modern film version of War Of The Worlds.
• The music and video montage of Cartman's "time travel" to the future is a spoof of Buck Rogers.

References

• Excerpt from Press Release

External links

• Watch a sneak peek of the episode (requires QuickTime)