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South Park episode
"Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods"
Episode no.	24
Airdate	September 2, 1998
South Park - Season 2 April 1, 1998 – January 20, 1999
Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut Chickenlover Ike's Wee Wee Conjoined Fetus Lady The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka City on the Edge of Forever Summer Sucks Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls Chickenpox Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods Clubhouses Cow Days Chef Aid Spookyfish Merry Christmas Charlie Manson! Gnomes Prehistoric Ice Man
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List of all South Park episodes

"Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods" is episode 211 of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on September 2, 1998.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Star Trek references 3 Roger Ebert references 4 Alien appearances 5 Kenny's death 6 Pop Culture References 7 Goofs 8 Kenny's Haiku 9 References 10 See also

In this episode, the kids are told that they will go on an excursion to the planetarium. Cartman is tempted to find a Cheesy Poofs truck after he sees a commercial on a video of Barnaby Jones that Mr. Garrison tries to show to the class. The people object to the "planeh'arium" (as pronounced by the planetarium director, Dr. Adams), but then want to go back after the field trip. Not only do they go back, they all start volunteering at the planetarium. This turns out to be because the director is using a brainwashing device on them.

Cartman sings the Cheesy Poofs song and then gets elected to sing it so he can be on TV, cheating and browbeating his way past the other contestants. His performance is so bad, though, that only one word of it is used in the final ad.

In the meantime, school counselor Mr. Mackey, who uses an ancient school counselor technique called a "mind meld", and school nurse Nurse Gollum have learned of the mind control device through a kid who escaped the planetarium named Van Gelder and race to stop Dr. Adams. A final showdown occurs at the planetarium, with Stan, Kyle, Mr. Mackey and Nurse Gollum against Dr. Adams and Officer Barbrady (brainwashed to believe that he is Elvis). The boys, Mackey, and Nurse Gollum are successfully captured, tied to the rugs and brainwashed too.

However, Cartman, angry at the boys for missing his commercial debut, kicks the star projector, sending the full blast of the mind control machine into Dr. Adams' brain. With no one around to say anything, Dr. Adams becomes a mindless shell of a man collapsed against the back wall. Cartman is elated that he not only was on TV, but saved the day as well.

• There are many overt references to the original Star Trek episode "Dagger of the Mind" in this episode, including the main plot and some of the names of the guest characters.

• The uniforms worn by the volunteers at the planetarium have the same design as those worn by the sanitarium staff in the Trek episode and there is a mind meld scene.

• The name of the planetarium is the "Tantalus V Observatory", a reference to Tantalus Penal colony in the Star Trek episode.

• The text "Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!" appears over an archway at the planetarium. This Latin phrase translates to "Bring me up, Scotsman" (see Beam me up, Scotty).

• The name of the boy who stows away on the school bus is van Gelder, the same name as the corresponding character in Star Trek.

• A news anchor refers to a news reporter as a "34-year-old Asian man who looks strikingly similar to Ricardo Montalban." Montalban played the title character in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, whose full name was Khan Noonien Singh, named after an Asian friend of Gene Roddenberry.

• Near the end of the episode, right after Dr. Adams has been hit by his mind control machine, Kyle's line "Can you imagine it, Stan? A mind...emptied by that thing..." is identical, in text and delivery, to Captain Kirk's line from the end of the episode Dagger of the Mind, when the same thing happened to the director of the sanitarium.

• After the constellation "The Crusades" is shown, Dr. Adam's voice fades into the background and Cartman begins to talk, but you can hear Dr. Adams say, "Stars are actually made of hot gas, which is exactly what comes out of Roger Ebert's mouth.", which gives the episode its title.

• He is represented in one of the constellations, providing the source of the episode title. He is shown with a scowl and a thumbs down.

• It can be noted that Ebert's review of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was less than entirely favorable (he called it "the year's most slashing political commentary," but also said that "it lacks a point to its message" and "alternates common sense with the truly and hurtfully offensive"^[1]), and that he strongly disliked Team America: World Police, which was a financial bomb; however, these reactions would not have influenced the writing of the episode, as both films were released after its broadcast. It is also worth noting that Ebert later revised his opinion of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut saying that he admired its criticism of the MPAA.

• At the very end of the episode, when Cartman says "Well, what a day this has been...", if you look closely, you'll notice an alien figure in the Planetarium machines (on Cartman's right).

Stan and Kyle are trying to figure out the brainwashing device while Kenny is in the main projector room, when they accidentally set the device to its highest setting. Kenny's head explodes when his brain is overloaded by the signal of the brainwashing device. Stan and Kyle then say:

Stan: Oh my god! We've killed Kenny!

Kyle: We're bastards!

• The "I Love Cheesy Poofs" song is sung to the melody of NPR's "All Things Considered".
• During Cartman's first audition, Cartman sings the Cheesy Poofs theme and adds, "I'm talking Night Court in its fifth season lame!"
• The poor child with her mother during the callback auditions looks like Cosette from the novel Les Miserables.

• Dr. Adams explains that he can't pronounce the "T" in "planetarium" because of a bone marrow disease, but he pronounces the word correctly when the class returns to the planetarium and are inside the theater.
• When Mr. Garrison is showing the class Barnaby Jones episodes, he mentions Episode #203 (third episode of the second season, not the 203rd episode), "Barnaby Under Siege". Episode 203 is actually titled, "Echo of a Murder."
• Dr. Adams describes The Big Dipper as a constellation, but it is actually an asterism formed by the seven brightest stars of Ursa Major.

When the kids are learning about haikus (before Cartman comes in with his certificate for the callback), Kenny recites a rather vulgar haiku which can't be heard since the hood of his parka makes it hard for him to speak clearly. Here is a translation(http://www.spscriptorium.com/ScriptGuideIndex.htm):

When you rub your dick
You might find a discharge that
Winds up on the floor.

This is why Stan asked after the kids laughed, "What's a discharge?"

• "Dagger of the Mind" (Star Trek: The Original Series episode)

Preceded by "Chickenpox"

South Park episodes

Followed by "Clubhouses"