User Reviews

Having picked up plenty of controversy in 2004 for airing this episode as the third part of season eight, many people - in light of the recent "Trapped in the Closet" incident - totally forget how outraged people were at this. Mel Gibson is presented as a sadomasochist who is as stupid as he is depraved, Cartman becomes the next Hitler (marching Christians through the street while chanting Nazi phrases) and Christians are made to look like complete idiots. A lot of harsh material for a television show, but they got away with it.

In my opinion it's one of the funniest episodes ever, and worth watching alone for the Mel Gibson appearance towards the end. That's just classic "South Park." Of course, Trey and Matt as always are good sports and take time to poke fun at themselves, too - Stan mentions how the last time they asked for a refund at a theater was when they went to see "BASEketball" in 1998.

If you're a Christian, a "Passion" fan or a Mel Gibson die-hard you'll probably be offended by this - but if you can open up a bit and take it as a joke, you may find yourself laughing a whole lot more than you'd expect.

The boys see Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ and react thusly: Stan and Kenny dislike it,seeing it as little more than a big-budget snuff film;Kyle sees it last and is horrified by it,reading the Jewish arch(stereo?)types into the movie and deciding that he needs to bring this to light amongst his fello0w Jews;and Eric Cartman actually saw it before the other three--37 times!--loved it,and is moved to lead a "movement" to deal with the Jews that looks scarily familiar. That, the ensuing clash between the local Jews and Cartman's "Reichstag"-type mob and Stan and Kyle's confrontation of Mel Gibson(to get their $18 back,of course!)is basically this show in a nutshell.

Another poster said that this show,being so spot-on,was(and I'm paraphrasing here)not going to appeal to Gibson fans,the religious right or people who loved Passion. Well,I lost enchantment with Mr.Gibson a while ago,and I'm not much of a religious conservative,but I thought that the Passion of the Christ was actually a very well-made movie(albeit uber-bloody and NOT for all audiences)that I'm pretty sure(though I have a few doubts)was made with no real intention of anti-Semitism,yet I still enjoyed this ep quite a bit. Probably due to the fact that,among other reasons "Non-voting Republicans" Matt and Trey are able to break with their usual sense of putting the hard skepticism on only liberal stars/sacred cows for this ep,skewering this movie that was the pet of religious conservatives and,by that measure,people like FOX News.

At the risk of sounding like I'm parroting,this show is one of the truly best eps of the last seven or so seasons,right up there with "Tom Cruise in the Closet","The Whore-Off", the Hennifer Lopez episode(the name escapes me)and--so I'm told,I haven't seen this one yet--"Imaginationland". It's re-running somewhere,and it's worth seeing,first time or again.