The second half of the new season began with a bang, literally (sooo sorry). Kyle’s littler brother, Ike, bursts into his parents’ room and informs them that he is seeing ghosts. Like all good parents who have been interrupted mid-coitus, they send him back to his room. Though upset, Ike obliges, gets in bed and proceeds to look around his room, with everything looking extra-scary as it is filtered through the little child’s eyes. Suddenly, a specter enters his room and morphs into Pitchmen star Billy Mays, who goes into salesman mode and tries to sell his new Mega Scrub Cleanser. Freaked out, Ike runs out of his room where he comes across Farrah Fawcett and David Carradine.
Ike, in his best brown suit, is sent to a psychiatrist. In a scene wonderfully reminiscent to The Sixth Sense, Ike informs the psychiatrist that he sees dead celebrities. Taken aback, the psychiatrist asks when he sees them. He tells him all the time, and in fact, Ed McMahon has been standing right next to him the entire time. Episode setup complete.
The second act of the show involves Kyle, Stan, Kenny and Cartman trying to get to the bottom of Ike’s new problem. After Cartman informs the gang who Mays is—by showing them a commercial for Chipotlaway, a cleaner that removes blood stains from underwear after eating at Chipotle Mexican Grill—he has a plan. With the help of the Ghost Hunters, “the gayest show in the f***ing world,” the gang tries to solve Ike’s worsening condition. After being thoroughly torn a new one, by the general tone of the scene not just the boys, the ghost hunters run out of Kyle and Ike’s home leaving trails of urine and excrement.
Now in a hospital, Ike has fallen into a coma caused by the ghosts of the dead celebrities. The doctor, aware of his meager qualifications in dealing with the paranormal, seeks the counsel of Dr. Phillips, a specialist in “spooky things.” The doctor, a copy of the little, old creepy lady from Poltergeist, informs the boys that the spirits are stuck in purgatory because they are in unrest, they cannot accept that they have died. Dr. Phillips describes it as being stuck on an airplane, waiting for it to take off.
After making contact with the dead celebrities, using such devices as the Ectograph 500 (yay, Ghostbusters!), it is revealed that there is in fact one dead celebrity who is being uncooperative and preventing “the plane from taking off.” Michael Jackson. After Kyle tries to convince him that he is dead and needs to accept his fate, Jackson still cannot accept it: “No, you’re being ignorant. I’m alive. And I’m a child. And I’m white.” After killing Dr. Phillips, The Exorcist-style, Jackson posses the body of Ike. Heightening of tension complete.
The boys figure out that in order for Michael Jackson’s spirit to cross over, for a better explanation of crossing over checkout the South Park episode “The Biggest Douche in the Universe,” it must be recognized by the living for what it always wanted to be. Cartman deduces that they must let Jackson become a child, female and white. So of course, Ike is entered in The Tiny Miss Pageant contest. After giving the business to pageant moms, Cartman is able to sway the one remaining judge—the two male judges were removed by the police after performing inappropriate acts upon themselves while watching the girls (they went there)—by introducing her to Chipotlaway. Ike wins the contest and is exited by Jackson who returns to purgatory, complete with tiara, sash and trophy. Distraught by what he is wearing, Ike lets loose a diatribe filled with South Park’s favorite words. Back on the flight, the plane takes off and arrives at its destination: Hell. Story complete.
Razor's Edge Only Getting Razier and Edgier
As always, South Park did an amazing job at taking a topical, and often controversial, idea and adding their own layer of absurdity, gross out-ness and common sense. Mapping the first half of Ike’s experiences over that of Haley Joel Osment’s character in The Sixth Sense gave a very dramatic and powerful sense to the episode, even thought the regular South Park craziness was going on around it. The realism made the insane premise that followed only that much funnier because of where it started.
There were a large number of targets in this episode: Billy Mays and the Discovery Channel, Ghost Hunters, Michael Jackson, Toddlers & Tiaras and the whole child pageant circuit in general, Chipotle and religion. But there was never a sense of too much, or too soon for that matter. The show said exactly what it wanted to say without leaving the audience wanting more—in the bad sense, not the good way. The very concept of this episode makes it remarkably entertaining to watch, and the execution only makes it that much better.
South Park airs Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. EST on Comedy Central.
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