8. Butt Out
Season 7 Episode 13
Characters of the Week The obnoxious volunteers from
Butt Out are spot on examples of every motivational speaking group that ever visited your school or your childrens' school, performers with no link whatsoever to their youthful audience members. It must have been years since Parker was in School himself yet still he manages to capture the insanely over the top methods they use in order to exploit the minds of these poor young children. Butt Out's Wisdom
Butt Out Volunteer 1: Remember Kids, if you smoke you could grow up to be a failure.
Butt Out Volunteer 2: Worse yet, you could grow up to be dead.
Butt Out Volunteer 3: So don't believe what those evil tobacco companies tell you.
Butt Out Volunteer 4: Yeah, because if you don't smoke you could grow up to be...
Butt Out: Just Like Us! Celebrities Tarnished Rob Reiner Why This Episode Is So Good After the boys suffer through a visit from an anti-smoking motivational speakers they are found by Mr Mackey smoking behind the school. Now in a heap of trouble the boys are forced to blame the advertising of the cigarette companies in order to avoid being grounded for two weeks... This episode brings in so many clever elements. It's one of the most classic episodes for discussion of a hot topic, this time of course the smoking ban. How much right should the government have over peoples' right to smoke? The issue is not only dealt with hilariously but also very originally. The answers that they give are not quite what you'd expect. Through guest celebrity target Rob Reiner, a prominent anti-smoking activist they display the hypocrisy of the anti smoking wing of thought. Severely obese Reiner's constant eating combined with his continual insistence that second hand smoke is causing unnecessary danger to his health shows the audience the warped priorities of these people whose arguments focus on only a small issue. The big issue when it comes to smoking is the right that people should have over how they choose to live their lives. It's a very mature observation that puts to rest any debate there might be over whether South Park is just childish shlock.