The Ring (South Park)
In the episode, Kenny and his new girlfriend are encouraged by the Jonas Brothers to wear purity rings, which is secretly a marketing tactic by Disney to sell sex to young girls.
"The Ring" mocks Disney, depicted as a corporation led by a foul mouthed and sadistic Mickey Mouse, who is using the ruse of family-friendly morals to disguise their primary motive of selling lust to young girls for profit.
As Kenny subsequently becomes dull and ceases spending time with his friends, it is revealed that the Jonas Brothers' fearsome, greedy, sadistic, and foul-mouthed boss, Mickey Mouse, is forcing them to wear and promote purity rings in order to "sell sex to little girls", verbally berating them when they complain that the rings are overshadowing their music and projecting the wrong message.
Concerned for Kenny, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman attempt to confront the Jonas Brothers at a televised appearance in Denver (in which the Jonas Brothers douse the audience of young girls with "white foam") about their purity ring and sex influences, but Mickey, mistaking the boys for secret agents hired by DreamWorks (or Michael Eisner) to sabotage the televised appearance, tranquilizes them and takes them prisoner backstage.
When the boys reawaken backstage at the televised Jonas Brothers' 3D concert spectacular at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Mickey interrogates them and eventually threatens them with a chainsaw, refusing to believe they are not working for another company.
The show immediately cuts to Kenny's funeral, where the audience learns that he contracted syphilis after receiving a BJ from Tammy and died as a result.
[3] Parker and Stone argued over whether to start the season with a Jonas Brothers episode or a show about the economic recession, which they had been planning to do for some time.
[6] Parker and Stone were inspired to make the episode by the Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience film, which was released the previous month.
Because they were unfamiliar with the band, they spent a large amount of time watching Jonas Brothers concert clips online, which they found unoriginal and not very enjoyable.
Parker said one of the Comedy Central employees told them that after she took her young daughter to see the concert film, the girl said, "Mommy, my giney tickles".
[7] Reviewers and commentators have described "The Ring" as not just a parody of the Jonas Brothers and their songs (including "S.O.S" and "Burnin' Up"), but also of the ethos of the Walt Disney Company.
The script suggests that the rings are used to subliminally sell sex to young girls, while simultaneously appeasing the ethical standards of their parents and taking advantage of their fearful desire to protect their daughters, as Mickey explains in the episode.
[8] After watching footage of the Jonas Brothers, Parker and Stone said that they found their embrace of purity rings particularly fascinating, especially since they were simultaneously stirring sexual feelings in young girls.
[4] The episode further illustrates the greed of corporate culture by portraying Mickey as capitalizing on religion for profit, while secretly mocking it in a particularly contemptuous tone: "I've made billions off of Christian ignorance for decades now!
"[8] "The Ring" ends with a tongue-in-cheek cautionary message against engaging in oral sex, depicting Kenny's death from a sexually transmitted disease in the final moments of the episode.
In a television column written before "The Ring" was broadcast, Lisa de Moraes of The Washington Post suggested Parker and Stone were using the Jonas Brothers in the thirteenth season debut as a means of improving the show's ratings; Comedy Central executives insisted Jonas Brothers fans do not fit into South Park's demographic of males between the ages 18 and 49.
(Incidentally several actors and actresses connected to Disney have appeared in the Disney-produced Grey's Anatomy, broadcast on a Disney-owned network.)
Friday's, a real-life American restaurant chain, is referenced several times as the place where Tammy gave her ex-boyfriend a blowjob.
Entertainment Weekly writer Ken Tucker gave the episode a positive review, showing approval of Kenny's misadventure, saying "thus did South Park ultimately come down on the side of religion and sexual freedom, with lots of big laughs in the bargain.... Trey and Matt are off to a great 13th-season start.
"[19] Alan Sepinwall, television writer for The Star-Ledger, said he thought the Mickey Mouse character was used as an effective satirical device for corporate greed, but said he was not particularly impressed with the overall episode because "its targets — the Jonas Brothers, and the Disney company for using them to sell sex to little girls with impunity — were so easy to hit".
