Damien (South Park)

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" Damien " is the tenth episode of the first season of the American animated television series South Park . It was originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on February 4, 1998. In the episode, the boys' class joined a new student named Damien, who had been sent by his father Satan to find Jesus and set up a boxing match between the two. The majority of South Park residents bet on Satan to win the game due to his large and muscular size, but Satan eventually throws a fight and reveals that he bet on Jesus, thus winning everyone's money.

The episode was written by co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, with additional dialogue by Dave Polsky, and directed by Parker. This episode serves as a satire about religion, faith and good and evil nature, as well as comments on commercialism, celebrity cult in America and the nature of children. It was originally conceptualized as a special Christmas, but the original broadcast was pushed forward when Parker and Stone decided to make "Mr. Hankey, Christmas Poo" the holiday episode of the season.

"Damien" received generally positive reviews and was seen by 3.2 million households when it first broadcasted, making it the highest-rated cable program of the week aired. This episode marks the first appearance of Satan, which will become a repeating character of South Park, as well as Damien's own character, inspired by the antagonist of the 1976 horror film The Parkers and Stone also say this episode introduces some key characteristics of a Cartman character that has survived throughout the rest of the series. Michael Buffer, the famous boxing announcer for his slogan "Let's get ready to rumble!", Make a guest appearance as himself.

Video Damien (South Park)

Plot

Cartman was very interested in his upcoming birthday party and allowed everyone invited to know what gift he would expect to receive from each. When they protested, he threatened to forbid them to eat the food his mother made, something that immediately convinced them. They meet a new student named Damien, the son of Satan. The other kids scoffed at "the new kid" and, in response, Damien turned Kenny into a duck-billed platypus. Damien tells Jesus that Satan will rise for the final battle with him against the evil. South Park residents immediately began making bets on the fight. Cartman was furious to learn that the event was scheduled for the same time as his party, and the kids struggled to choose between the two events.

The whole city bet on Jesus to win the battle, but begins to lose faith when Satan appears to weigh. He is big and weighs a little over 320 pounds (150 kg), while Jesus weighs only 135 pounds (61 kg), and South Park residents are beginning to change their bets. Jesus confronts the people of South Park about the betting slips that change after learning only one person still bet on Jesus to win. Confused, Jesus asks Stan, Kyle, and Chef to help him practice. Damien was counseled by Mr. Mackey, who advised him to try to be nice no matter what other children do, just like the unpopular little kid in England, Pip. Damien tried to apologize to the children for burning the playground and turning Kenny into a duck-billed platypus, stating that he "did his father's orders" and he had no choice. However, the children still continue to act negatively against Damien. Cartman's birthday party begins, just like a fight. Damien and Pip arrive uninvited to the party, but the children finally receive Damien after he throws Pip into the air and makes it explode in the rain of fireworks. However, Cartman angrily ended his party early after opening Kyle's present to find that it was not what he had in mind.

Meanwhile, Jesus is disappointed by the lack of faith in the city, and he does not retaliate against Satan's attack against him, despite Satan's deceptively clear "hitting me". Chef and children make it to end the fight and offer Jesus words of encouragement. Inspired, Jesus finally throws a weak punch. However, Satan then takes the dive and descends to count. Afterwards, Satan reveals that his plan, in fact, is to bet on Jesus and then cast a struggle, winning him a lot of money and real estate from the inhabitants of South Park. The townspeople are angry with this, until Stan reminds them that Jesus told them not to bet on Satan. The whole city then apologized to Jesus, who accepted the apology. Kenny died when Jimbo identified him as a rare duck-billed platypus and shot him. Damien says goodbye to Stan and Kyle because his father "always moves" he has to leave. Meanwhile, Cartman has resumed his party even after expelling everyone and eating all the food himself.

Maps Damien (South Park)

Production

"Damien" was written by co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, with additional dialogue by Dave Polsky, and directed by Parker. The first "Damien" was aired on Comedy Central in the United States on February 4, 1998. It was greatly anticipated in part because it was the first episode of South Park in about two months, as it is very popular Christmas Special "Mr. Hankey , Poo Natal "aired on December 17, 1997. Before" Damien "even ran, Mike Duffy from Detroit Free Press said the episode" must have been one of the signature moments ". In fact, Parker and Stone originally intended for "Damien" to be a Christmas episode this season. Although they have long planned to show pieces of the stalk that speak in the show, called Mr. Hankey, they did not decide to make it a Christmas character until the middle of filming "Damien", during which time they decided to make it apart. holiday episode otherwise, centered around Mr. character Hankey. However, they decided to complete the production of "Damien" first, although it will not air until the episode "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo".

Parker said he and Stone did not intend to "Damien" to offend Christians or other religions: "In South Park, Jesus is a great guy, he's on our show, and in this episode he's a hero. not in a business that offends people We're in the business of making people laugh. "The average way Damien is treated by his fellow students when he joins the school, as well as Damien's reaction to care, inspired by Parker's experience in second grade, when he starts at elementary school Cheyenne, Wyoming in the last three weeks. school year. Parker said, "That's brutal... Everyone has their little group and the year is almost over, so I will not fit them, and I just want to destroy and kill, which is the inspiration for this show."

Michael Buffer, the boxing ring announcer famous for his slogan, "Let's get ready to rumble!", Make a guest appearance as himself in "Damien". Parker and Stone originally planned to use their slogan without Buffer, but when they learned that Buffer had legally trademarked the phrase, they put it in the episode since getting the right to cost the slogan is almost the same as hiring Buffers for guest appearances. Parker and Stone both say Buffer is friendly and they love to work with him. The voice actor Mike Judge, the star of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill, was originally scheduled to cast Damien's character, and even record a few lines for that section. However, because the Judge lived in Austin, Texas, it proved too difficult for him to go back and replay the line when the script and episode changed, so Stone instead cast a character vote. The judge then gave Kenny unlimited line when he took off his jacket at South Park: Bigger, Longer & amp; Not Cut .

By the time "Damien" was animated, much of the drawing and animation responsibilities previously handled by Parker and Stone were now delegated to the animator team. This duo is very proud of the animation during the boxing match between Jesus and Satan, which uses elements of perspective and three dimensions rarely used in the previous series; Parker says it's "definitely the most [oriented] action we've done [so far]". While animating Jesus, Parker and Stone deliberately leave a distraction in the animation that makes it appear the skin shows under the beard on the left side of the character's face. Parker says this is done because it is the way Jesus appears in rough animation The Spirit of Christmas, a 1995 animated short film by Parker and Stone that serves as a precursor to South Park , and they want to maintain a feel for the character.

Parker and Stone say a number of Cartman characteristics that have survived throughout the series of South Park started at "Damien". In particular, his voice picked up a higher, nastier tone than in the previous episode; Stone described it as a "pampering accent". Some of the usual vocal behaviors are also developed in the episode, including he uses the sound "Nyah" while saying the word "Here", and the way he says "Hey you guuuuuuys" while talking to his friends. Parker, who provided the sound of Cartman, said the characteristics appeared naturally when filming the episode: "This show is for some reason, for whatever reason, maybe I just lost interest, but I tried all this messing things up with him and all the stuff- things get stuck. "

"Damien" includes the first appearance of Satan, who will be a character that is often repeated throughout the series. Although Satan displays an evil and immoral personality in "Damien", he is depicted in later episodes as an attentive, sensitive, and often very contradictory character. "Damien" is the first episode written by Parker and Stone that includes a school counselor. Mackey and local Priest leader Maxi, but they are also included in "Mr. Hankey, Poo Natal", which was broadcast before "Damien" even though it was produced afterwards. Although Jesus has been introduced as a South Park character in the previous episode, "Damien" marks the first time he interacts with the main character outside his public access talk show, Jesus and Pals

Before the broadcast, Parker and Stone said "Damien" would be the first episode where Kenny would not be killed; Finally, however, Kenny was shot by Jimbo at the end of a pay-per-view battle. Kenny turned into a ducks-duck platypus in the episode, which Parker said was done because, "The duck-billed platypus is something that always makes me crazy, they're so weird." In the original manuscript, Pip, an unpopular British student inspired by a character of the same name in Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, was originally supposed to be killed and permanently removed from the show after "Damien", where Damien project Pip into the air and blow him in the fireworks showers. However, Parker and Stone decide they should not kill the character of the students except Kenny, so they decide not to kill Pip and bring him back for the upcoming episode.

"Damien" was later released, along with eleven other episodes, in a set of three DVDs in November 1998. It was included in the second volume, which also included the episodes "Elephant Making Love for Pigs", "Deaths" and "Infectious Diseases". This episode, along with the other twelve of the first season, was also included in the DVD release of "South Park: The Complete First Season", which was released on November 12, 2002. Parker and Stone recorded a trail of comments for each episode, but they were not included with the DVD because of a "standard" issue with multiple statements; Parker and Stone refused to allow the tracks to be edited and censored, so they were released in a CD that was entirely separate from the DVD.

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Themes

"Damien" has been described as a satire about religion, beliefs and good and evil traits, as well as comments on commercialism and celebrity cult in American culture. Parker said the authors sought to quip at the speed and ease with which the followers of Jesus lost faith in him and bet against him. Religious writer Michel Clasquin says that Jesus' neglect shows, "Like many people in the real world, the faith of the people of the city can not survive the hard times." Parker said, "Everyone puts their trust in Satan and eventually gets messed up.There's a bigger message - all of it, a pretty healthy message.That's why South Park works - sometimes we have a message."

Parker also said he and Stone deliberately wrote the episode to present Jesus as the hero of the "humanist approach"; Clasquin says this is demonstrated by the fact that Jesus became caught up in the hope of people to fight and be offended when people bet against him: "This satirical attitude is beautifully attracting attention to the real humanity of Jesus.He is really a man, just like us men and women, open to fear and uncertainty. "Some authors say that the episode also tarnished the way Americans alter anything, even religious situations, into commercially frenetic events. Matt Zoller Seitz of The Star-Ledger said: "They do not make fun of organized religion (even though they have been in the past).They make fun of those who will turn religion into entertainment and entertainment into a kind of religion. "Seitz says the episode mocks" the evil moral policeman personally "like Priest Maxi, who secretly bet the parish against Jesus even when he reprimands the members of the congregation for siding with Satan.

Religious writer Michel Clasquin says the episode also shows how easily people combine their religious beliefs with lessons from pop culture, especially with Stan's quandary about Star Trek quote with lessons from Jesus Christ. In addition, Clasquin said the fact that even Imam Maxi acknowledged Jesus as "the man of the public access event" shows that even the most religious person is not always the most open to true religious experience. Clasquin also said the element of the Crucifixion of Jesus alluded to in a boxing match with Satan.

In addition to religious themes, the cruel way in which Damien is treated by other children is an allusion to the tendency of schoolchildren to endlessly choose new students. Stone says this aspect of the episode, "The whole foundation of South Park is that children are little shitheads and civilizations and society control them." Instead of what many hippies and Democrats think, which we are born innocent and pure and society is destructive to us.We believe in the first way, that society controls you and makes you a better person, in the end, because when you're small, you're just a little bastard. "

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Cultural reference

The voice for Satan, provided by Parker, was inspired by the voice of the Pinhead character at the end of the 1988 horror film Hellbound: Hellraiser II, when Pinhead emotionally recalled his old life, when he was a good person. The animators go through some draft sketches for Satan because, in Parker's words, "There are so many ways to go with him and we can not find the right one for a long time". The appearance of a large and muscular character stems from the fact that the manuscript calls on Satan to massively defeat Jesus, and that view has persisted for characters throughout the rest of the series.

Damien's own character was also first shown in this episode; although he appears as a background character in several future episodes, he rarely has a speaking role and never again stands out as he does in "Damien". This character is inspired by Damien Thorn, the child's anti-christ character in the 1976 horror film The Omen . The music played in the episode whenever Damien performs magic is also instantly inspired by the music of the film; the same demon chorus will be reused in the twelfth episode of "Britney's New Look". (The lyrics of "Rectus Dominus" are repeatedly sung by the devil's choir in episodes translated from Latin as "Ass Master".) The scene in which children tell Damien that his mother is a "real dog" is also a reference to The Omen . In the film, the real Antichrist mother is a wolf.

In addition to Michael Buffer, American boxing promoter Don King featured prominently in "Damien" as a demon promoter. Parker says he and Stone decided to cheat the King just because "it was just the sort that irritated us that week.This is so random... there's no point for who we tear in. It's certainly not a personal matter." Nancy Kerrigan, an Olympic figure skater who was attacked on the orders of fellow skater Tonya Harding at the 1994 Winter Olympics, was mentioned in a small talk that Stan gave to Jesus. Stan wrongly claimed Kerrigan won a gold medal until Kyle reminded him that he won silver; Parker says this is done because he feels Kerrigan's perception is very high among Americans considering he's only really reached second place. During the small talk, Stan told Jesus, "You know, someone once said, 'Do not try to be great, be a man.'" Although Stan says this is a quote from Jesus himself, it is actually a line from the 1996 film, Star Trek: First Contact . "Damien" also includes references to singer Nancy Sinatra, daughter of legendary singer Frank Sinatra. Mr. Garrison, when discussing the great singers in the baroque period, goes on to say that "Nancy Sinatra is a pretty good choice."

The Jesus Vs. The pay-per-view "Boutin 'at the Mountain" demo event is a parody of the same advertised pay-to-watch boxing event featured on HBO's premium cable channel. Before Jimbo shot Kenny in his platypus state, he shouted, "It came just right for us!" This is a reference to previous "Volcano" episode of "South Park" Volcano, where Jimbo takes the children hunting and tells them to shout the phrase before shooting anything to get the limiting hunting law. Cartman insulted Damien by asking if he got his haircut from Stevie Wonder, a blind soul and an R & B. For his birthday, Cartman wanted the complete line of a series of action figures called Mega Man. Despite being named Mega Man, the multi-colored figures were actually inspired by Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a 1993 action series that was still popular during the original episode broadcast. The script was originally written with direct reference to Power Rangers, but Comedy Central asked Parker and Stone to rename due to copyright issues. Cartman received Ants in Pants , a real kids table game, as a birthday gift. Stone describes the as "the grimest game ever", which is why Cartman responds very negatively to the prize in the episode.

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Reception

"Damien" received a 6.4 Nielsen rating, the highest record for the show until it was broken two weeks later by the episode "Mecha-Streisand" (rated 6.9, translated to 5.4 million viewers in 3.2 million households). This is the highest ranked cable program of the week aired, with viewers between the ages of 18- to 49 years older than the number of households. The average network viewer rating of 276,000 households during prime time and, before South Park , the channel's highest rating is from the second season premiere Absolutely Fabulous , seen by 1.24 million households.

Parker said after the overwhelming success of "Mr. Hankey, Poo Natal", much of the live feedback he received for "Damien" was negative. Parker described it as his first "backlash" with South Park, with fans claiming the show has lost its lead and that Parker and Stone have been "sold out". Parker said, "We keep hearing that word so much We like, 'What does that mean, sold out? What do we get and what we do?' We continue to do what we think is funny, we do not start advertising or anything but everyone says we're sold out. "Nevertheless, the episode received generally positive reviews, and has been described as one of the classic episodes of South Park "".

Rolling Stone contributor Doug Pratt calls it "high point" in the first season. Kinney Littlefield of the Orange County Register said this episode, "All of this proves once again that the animated series is a great platform for hot topics that show the direct action of not daring to take over. South Park Good and evil allegories are more precise and knowing than those seen on ' Christy ' or ' Touched by Angels ' More funny too. "However, Littlefield also said some of the show's graphics dialogue, such as the phrase" dirt on the stick ", grew" very very much ". Gary Budzak of The Columbus Dispatch describes the episode "Damien" as perhaps "the most embarrassing". Virginia Rohan of The Records praised the episode, saying, "The episode is funny, and finally, a good conquering crime, though for all the wrong reasons." Chicago Sun-Times writer Lon Grahnke gives three-star episodes and calls them simultaneously weird and funny. Eric Mink of the New York Daily News called the episode "very funny" and complimented his satirical element, although he warned that it was potentially very offensive for some viewers: "A scene where children offer profanity between Encouragement at Around Matthew Seitz says, "The night episode is crazy, vulgar and blasphemous, and that too, if you're in a framework thinking right, very funny. "

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References

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External links

• "Damien" in IMDb
• "Damien" on TV.com

Source of the article : Wikipedia