South Park season 1 episode 7 review

Pinkeye steps into the limelight, as our look back at South Park's maiden series continues...

7. Pinkeye

South Park gets its first of many hilarious Halloween specials. Events kick off innocently enough, with the school enjoying a Halloween costume contest in which half the class have turned up dressed as Chewbacca from Star Wars, while Cartman has shown up as Adolf Hitler.

Outraged, the principle attempts to fit him with a more suitable outfit – a ghost costume that makes him look more like a member of the KKK, much to Chef’s horror.

Despite Kyle trying his best to come up with a brilliantly original outfit, Wendy ends up winning the contest even though she, like everyone else, came dressed as Chewbacca.

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Things quickly shift, however, when people start coming down with a bizarre illness known only as ‘pinkeye’, which has people zombified and lusting for human flesh in no time. The reason for this, it turns out, is that Worcester Sauce was used by a careless embalmer as embalming fluid. We all know Worcester Sauce’s side effects include mild zombification, right?

So once again, it’s up to the kids of South Park to save the day in hilariously gruesome fashion, packing chainsaws and slicing their way through anything that moves and has puffy pink eyes.

There’s little subtext here, as this episode is purely all about fun, carnage and more fun. Gore splatters the screen, heads are sawed clean off and limbs fly all over the place.

When Kyle works out that Kenny was the original zombie all along, he chainsaws him clean in half, thus ending the curse. This being Kenny, however, he’s soon bursting from his grave and staggering through the snow, stitched up right down the middle.

Without a doubt, the star of the show is Cartman here, worshipping Hitler as only he can, and engaging in some brilliantly bitter taunts with his classmates over their costumes (“Wookies don’t live on Endor!”)

Another highlight, and favourite bit, comes in the form of Chef. Having helped the kids launch an attack on the zombies, Chef falls victim to pinkeye himself. Cue a Michael Jackson’s Thriller-style dance, complete with Chef clad in signature red jacket and warbling, “I’m gonna make love, even when I’m dead!”

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A brilliantly over the top episode.  Read our review of episode 6 here.