| "Jared Has Aides" | |
|---|---|
| South Park episode | |
 Jared and his aides. |
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| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 1 |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Directed by | Trey Parker |
| Production no. | 602 |
| Original airdate | March 6, 2002 |
| Season 6 episodes | |
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| ← Season 5 | Season 7 → |
| List of South Park episodes | |
"Jared Has Aides" is the 80th released episode of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on March 6, 2002.
Contents |
Plot
In this episode Butters has his premiere as the substitute of Kenny after Kenny's death. Jared Fogle, the ubiquitous spokesman for Subway, visits South Park, touting that "weight loss is easy" with a regimen of sub sandwiches. In the opening, the boys are prank calling the "City Wok", a Chinese restaurant in South Park. They order the "City Beef" and "City Chicken"--when the owner Mr. Kim pronounces the word "city" with his Chinese accent, it comes out as "shitty" and the boys crack up and fall down laughing.
When the boys visit Jared after his speech to the town, they are dismayed to find that his amazing weight loss is the result not of eating all the sandwiches he wanted, but of intensive consultations with a personal trainer and a dietitian (whom he refers to as his "Aides") as well as eating only the six inch turkey subs without mayo, cheese, or other high fat dressings (or as Jared whispers "you gotta read the fine print at the bottom of the screen"). Cartman suggests that the boys cut a similar deal with the local Chinese restaurant, City Wok, and that Butters should gain 40 pounds and then lose it, claiming that his weight loss was due to a strict diet of City Wok.
Meanwhile, after being confronted by the boys, Jared decides to tell the world his secret to weight loss. He informs his girlfriend Christine that he has had help from "aides", but she misunderstands and thinks that he means that he has Acquired Immunal Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and sparking a running gag in which everyone mistakes the word "aides" for the disease AIDS for the rest of the show. He also comes clean with the people of South Park, suggesting that everyone who wants to lose weight should get aides. For this, Subway decides to fire Jared from his promotional duties. This scene refers to the film Philadelphia where Andrew Beckett gets fired for having AIDS. Jared is seen leaving the Subway headquarters while a parody of Bruce Springsteen's song Streets of Philadelphia plays.
The boys cut a deal with City Wok's stereotypical proprietor, Tuong Lu Kim, and the next phase of the plan begins. Unfortunately, Butters does not lose weight from exercise. The only remaining option is liposuction, which Cartman performs himself. However, during the procedure, Butters' parents come home, and Cartman, Kyle and Stan manage to leave before they enter the house. Butters' parents immediately ground him and ban him from watching television, thinking he had self-performed liposuction surgery in the house after they had warned him four times to never do so.
Jared surmises that the reason for this turn of events is that others cannot afford to hire their own aides to assist in their weight loss. Thus, Jared devotes his money to the Aides for Everyone Foundation, dedicated to providing aides to everyone, including personally giving aides to every underprivileged child in the world. This does not go over too well with the townspeople, and Jared is chased through town by an angry mob. When he escapes, he vents his frustrations by (literally) beating a dead horse (the figurative "dead horse" being the running "Aides/AIDS" joke).
Stan and Kyle sneak Butters out of his house (with Cartman covering for him) and take him to City Wok, but the owner decides that he wants nothing to do with his "very own Jared" due to recent events. The boys run downtown to intercept the mob, but Jared is already at the gallows. Back at the Stotch residence, however, Cartman masquerades as Butters on the phone when Mr. Stotch calls home to check on him. When Mr. Stotch asks if he is watching TV, Cartman claims that he was just "jackin' his hot spicy boner" and proceeds to call him a "bloody vaginal belch". After telling Mr. Stotch "Bring it on, queerbait," Cartman hangs up on Butters' father and laughs. Mrs. Stotch calls shortly after, telling him how upset her husband was. Cartman uses more trash talk on her before hanging up on her, saying "I'll be waiting with bells on, you old horse banging skank." Meanwhile, Kyle manages to stop the lynching by clarifying the running gag to Jared, the Subway executives, and the townspeople. Everyone present suddenly realises the confusion and laughs. It is then determined that AIDS is finally funny, since it has been 22.3 years, and a monument is unveiled declaring it as such.
Now that Jared has returned to favor, the City Wok owner offers the boys $15 to use Butters in his advertising, which is rejected. Butters then runs home and thanks Cartman for covering for him, calling him a true friend. Cartman thanks Butters, then as soon as he gets outside, Cartman pulls up a deckchair outside of the house and happily listens as Butters' parents return home and beat him up for what they believe to be his earlier manner on the phone.
References To Pop Culture
Many aspects of the episode are a parody of the film Philadelphia. Jared Fogle is fired because his employers believe him to have both AIDS and the intent to give AIDS to everyone. However, he means "give aides" to everyone, as in personal trainers who "aid" him, not the immune deficiency syndrome. Andrew Beckett's "Excuse me, am I being fired?" is parodied. There is a 17-second Streets Of Philadelphia song parody, which also pokes fun at the cream cheese of the same name and Springsteen's "mumbling" singing style.
Controversy
Comedy Central felt that Parker and Stone had gone too far with their treatment of Butters. In a rare bit of creative interference, the network told Parker and Stone that they were not allowed to do any episodes where Butters was physically abused by his parents and banned "Jared Has Aides" from being shown on their network ever again, but it was seen again on June 17, 2009, and has aired multiple times since. The episode was also banned from Sky One in the United Kingdom in 2003 but shown on Channel 4, Comedy Central (UK) and MTV ONE. Despite the Comedy Central ban, this episode has been shown in syndication and worldwide and appears on the Season 6 DVD boxset and is available for streaming on South Park Studios.[1]
References
- ^ http://www.tv.com/south-park/jared-has-aides/episode/122567/trivia.html?tag=overview;trivia;see_all_link#trivia
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jared Has Aides |
| Preceded by “Butters' Very Own Episode” |
South Park episodes | Followed by “Asspen” |
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