Pinkeye (South Park)
In the episode, Kenny is killed and brought back to life as a zombie through a freak accident, terrorizing South Park residents who believe that the rise of the living dead is an epidemic of "pinkeye".
The boys are waiting for the school bus as usual when the Mir Space Station crashes and kills Kenny whose body is then taken to the local morgue.
One of the men at the morgue accidentally leaves a bottle of Worcestershire sauce open and its contents mix with the embalming fluid, turning Kenny into a zombie.
Back home, Chef, who sees the outbreak on TV, tries to warn both the doctor and Mayor McDaniels (who is having sex with Officer Barbrady), but his pleas are ignored.
As soon as the boys leave, Kenny comes back to life and emerges from the grave with his body sewn together, but an angel statue falls onto him, followed by an airline jet crashing into him, killing him once more.
However, when the show proved to be a success, they requested an additional seven, the first ones of which creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had to produce quickly.
For the final scene when Kenny comes back to life a second time, the dramatic music was inserted at the last moment by Parker with a synthesizer.
Although they ultimately settled on having Kyle kill the "main zombie" to bring back the others, Parker did not feel the resolution made sense and described it as a deus ex machina.
Parker said, "We were pretty bummed out, and we kind of thought, well, we're going to have a bad episode go on the air, and hopefully it won't alienate too many people, and we'll try to get our viewers back for Thanksgiving.
"[3] Stone said he felt the episode solidified major characteristics embodied by the Chef character, particularly the fact that he is one of the only adults in South Park who always understands the truth of any given situation and believes the children almost all of the time.
"[3] "Pinkeye" was also the first episode in which Eric Cartman's mother Liane was portrayed as a promiscuous woman who previously engaged in drugs and prostitution, and is willing to engage in pornographic sex for money; during the episode, she is mentioned and featured on the cover of the fictional men's magazine Crack Whore, much to her son's disappointment.
[4] Parker and Stone appeared on The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn on October 27, to promote the episode and the first season in general.
In its original American television broadcast, "Pinkeye" received a Nielsen Rating of 3.8, meaning the episode was seen by about 1.75 million households.
Her appearance is based on Comedy Central executive Debbie Liebling, who served as a South Park producer at the time of the episode's broadcast.
Once the episode aired, however, the two received very few letters from upset viewers over the costume; Parker attributed this to the fact that people were becoming more familiar with the Cartman character, and thus recognized that most of what he said and did was usually wrong.
More than Hitler, however, Comedy Central executives were worried about the use of Chewbacca costumes throughout the episode because of George Lucas' well-known tendency to file lawsuits against unauthorized Star Wars references or parodies.
[3] Kenny is turned into a zombie after a mortician accidentally knocks Worcestershire sauce, a fermented liquid condiment, into his embalming fluid.
"[3] The zombie-version of Kenny is said to resemble Edward James Olmos, the American actor who played Lt. Martin Costillo in Miami Vice.
"[12] Eric Mink of the New York Daily News complimented the episode, which he felt illustrated many of the outrageous and shocking elements that had made South Park so popular.
"[1] Mike Higgins of The Independent said this episode helped "cement (Eric Cartman's) position as one of the great, obnoxious characters of the Nineties", particularly through his Adolf Hitler Halloween costume.
[16] Matt Roush of USA Today said of the episode, "Absurdly nihilistic and savagely derisive ... South Park's twisted take on a holiday special will delight anyone who favors SweeTarts over candy corn.
"[17] Kevin M. Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times described the episode as "a Halloween-themed tour de force of crudeness, a wild romp with blood, brains and gore.
[5] The Baltimore Sun also described the episode as offensive and said of it, "Looking for sophisticated humor, finely honed satire and superior animation in your cartoons?
