"Who wants sketti and butter?"
Translation: spaghetti and butter with ketchup. This is Honey Boo Boo's favorite food, at least in the eyes of South Park.
The episode focuses on Cartman's obesity. We've seen Cartman's obsession with food from powdered donut pancake surprise (from the pilot and repeated in last night's episode) to more than one reference to KFC, including a hot tub filled with KFC gravy dipping McDonald's French fries.
In Wall-Mart, we see Kyle and Cartman noting the increasing number of large people on mobility scooters. Cartman reaches for the candy corn Oreos (actual product). Kyle shames Cartman about how someday soon he'll be as large as the people in the mobility scooters. Cartman puts the cookies into the basket of a large woman who asks about the candy corn Oreos.
South Park portrays Honey Boo Boo as having had three heart attacks by age 6 and is searching for a pig heart. When her mother asks her during the actual pig heart transplant surgery what she will tell the beauty pageant judges about her new heart, Honey Boo Boo replied that she would tell them "my heart is sweeter than bacon."
Turns out that spaghetti with ketchup and butter is an actual favorite dish of the real Honey Boo Boo. The sauce in the "recipe," according to TLC (the cable channel that features Honey Boo Boo), is equal parts ketchup and butter that are zapped in a microwave. That same sketti is featured later in the episode as Cartman and Honey Boo Boo are sketti wrestling.
Michelle Obama was shown in a rather unflattering light, some of the details are best left shown on the screen. If you like Michelle Obama, you won't like what you see from her in the episode.
Chilchood obesity is a significant problem, not just for the readers in this blog, but as a society. Cartman isn't put up as a role model; South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker use Cartman to illustrate certain elements of society in its social satire.
Honey Boo Boo, in part because she is a real person, is held up as a role model. She's loud, sassy, and famous. I don't have the courage to watch her in reality; watching her in cartoon form was about as much as I could take.
A little spaghetti with ketchup and butter isn't the worst thing for a child. A signature dish for a child who hasn't grown into her body, and putting that on cable TV? She shouldn't be a role model unless we're talking about the degradation of reality TV.
Hidden within the episode are subtleties about the horrible nature of people dealing with the obesity issue. There are some serious messages within the episode, but you will have to look for them in between the sketti mentions.
photo credits: South Park Studios
We are having a gay epidemic too in your eyes too I guess. Just pray hard enough and you will cure gay too.
Posted by: JD | October 15, 2012 at 03:03 PM
Uh, talk about off-topic. This has nothing to do with childhood obesity. And we vehemently disagree with every element of your comment.
Posted by: Chad | October 15, 2012 at 05:15 PM
My son loves to eat spaghetti almost every day. I'm afraid he might suffer childhood obesity too because he's kind of heavy now. What should I do?
Posted by: Riche Roller | January 27, 2013 at 01:06 PM
Spaghetti isn't the reason your child might be obese. Food and exercise work in combination to lose weight and gain weight. Portion control is more crucial than any specific food (within reason).
Posted by: Chad | January 27, 2013 at 06:01 PM
Try to minimize your child by eating spaghetti if that's what you think the reason of having obesity.
Posted by: Grell Spooner | February 26, 2013 at 08:02 AM