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"'Hell on Earth 2006'" is episode 1011 (#150) of Comedy Central's animated series ''South Park'', aired on October 25, 2006 and marked the series' fourth Halloween episode. The episode's plot surrounds Satan, as he throws a huge Halloween party like in the My Super Sweet 16 TV show. However, Satan chooses to privately organize the party and doesn't invite Roman Catholic Church, angering them, while Biggie Smalls is invited but doesn't manage to get the party. Meanwhile, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy encounter trouble on bringing a Ferrari-shaped cake to the party per Satan's order.
The episode sparked controversy shortly after it was aired due to the Steve Irwin parodies it contained, and was panned by critics and Irwin's family. Despite the controversy, the episode received fairly high review ratings, as well as being favored among user-rated websites.

Contents

Plot

Trivia

Controversy

Reception

References

External links

Plot

Satan decides that since Halloween is essentially his holiday, he is going to have a huge party — as big as a sweet 16 party. He proclaims to the spirits of the damned that anyone who wants to get in must RSVP and get a blue wristband, they must wear a costume, and that not appearing will make you a loser. He also states that no one should come dressed as The Crow as that's his costume but later he makes his minion Zazul swap his Britney Spears costume with him, yelling "No one can look hotter than me!" He also invites many celebrities, and plots to have it become the greatest party ever by ordering a cake the size and shape of a Ferrari, which three notorious serial killers — Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy — are ordered to bring. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church, angered that Satan doesn't invite them to the party, plans to call the fire marshal the night of the party to complain, thus ruining it.
The South Park boys experiment with a Bloody Mary-type ritual to summon Biggie Smalls and Butters succeeds in summoning him. However, Biggie already has a blue wristband and, since he is on Earth and cannot use the inter dimensional vortex opened from Hell to get to the party, demands that Butters help him get to the party.

Finding out that Butters disappeared, the kids decide to try to see if the Biggie Smalls thing really works, and do the mirror trick again; Smalls, who was sitting next to Butters on a plane bound for Los Angeles where the party is located, teleports against his will to South Park again, and in a rage starts shooting at the boys because he is held up from attending the party once again. (He is later summoned against his will, once again, by Randy, Stan's dad.) The Catholic Church tries to call the fire marshal, but to their shock, they find that Satan has cleverly invited him — so they decide to crash the party. However, Satan's Security makes sure they don't get in at all.
The three serial killers, in typical Three Stooges fashion, run into trouble trying to pick up the cake: having killed the bakers. This is compounded as every time they enlist someone's help, Gacy (and once Dahmer) kills them and Dahmer performs necrophilia and cannibalism on the body. Ted Bundy's attempts to discipline them only slows progress down further. When an attempt to lift the cake fails, resulting in its destruction, the killers know they're in trouble. When trying to bake a new one, the three mutilate each other to the point where they cannot bake it, and Satan's minions wind up getting an Acura cake as a last minute substitute.
Satan flies into a rage over the Acura cake, screaming that the party is about him despite everyone having fun. The partygoers get upset, and Satan realizes that he has become like one of the girls on MTV. He tells the crowd that he is sorry and that his party is for all of the people who make his life so special ("And if I don't realize that, then I'm no better than a rich American teenage girl"). Now he wants everyone to enjoy his party so he invites everyone in. Butters makes it to the party and uses a makeup mirror to summon Biggie Smalls straight to the party, who invites Butters into the party as thanks. The episode ends with everyone dancing, including a group of Catholic priests with naked boys on leashes.

Trivia

★ The creators express that they feel My Super Sweet 16 is one of the most evil, foul shows on television.

★ The creators almost didn't add the Ferrari cake bits into the show, feeling they were a cop-out, a la Crab People.

Controversy

During Satan's party, he begins a conversation with Steve Irwin, who has a stingray sticking out of his chest. Satan does not realize that it's Irwin at first, thinking instead that it's someone else in a costume, and confronts the person telling him that it is in bad taste to wear such a costume so soon after Irwin's death. Finding out it actually is Irwin, Satan kicks him out of the party for not wearing a costume, as he shouts back: "Wait, I thought we were friends!" This scene has sparked controversy among the media as a parody of Irwin's death shortly after the press surrounding it. A friend of Terri Irwin, Steve Irwin's widow, has issued a statement about the episode:

"Terri is devastated Steve is being mocked in such a cruel way. Her worry is that Bindi and Bob will see it and break down. Steve had as big a sense of humour as anyone, but this goes too far too soon."^[1]

The episode has also received criticisms from press personalities. John Beyer, the director of mediawatch-uk, said that it's of bad taste to create such scene and the makers of ''South Park'' should review their decision to show it,^[2] while Irwin's fellow naturalist Mark Amey called the show "distasteful shit".¹
Comedy Central's Tony Fox has responded to this criticism by defending the show, saying "The ''South Park'' guys do inappropriate things all the time... Their goal is to make people laugh, not to offend people."^[3] Additionally, another spokesperson for the network has said that "''South Park'' has offended people in the past and probably will again. Regular watchers would not be shocked."
2 Steve Irwin references appear in the Season 10 episode Stanley's Cup as well.

Reception

The episode received fairly high review ratings. IGN originally criticized the episode for the lack of storyline development, but later stated that "the storylines were humorous enough that we were able to put aside that there was no real social commentary (like the last three episodes), but instead madcap comedy that was funny based on silly humor alone". IGN has also praised the episode for illustrating Satan as a spoiled child and for the Three Stooges scenes involving the killers, and concluded that "although "Hell on Earth 2006" isn't as good as a couple of South Park's other Halloween episodes, it is still a very funny episode." South Park: "Hell on Earth 2006" review

References

1. Steve Irwin's Wife 'Devastated' By South Park Lampooning
2. 'South Park' mocks Steve Irwin
3. Comedy Central Defend South Park's Steve Irwin Episode

External links

★ Official Information on the episode