An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig

Did You Know?

• The episode was released on VHS on May 5, 1998, alongside five other episodes, marking the first time South Park was made available on video.
• The song Tonight is Right for Love, sung by Chef, appears on the 1998 soundtrack Chef Aid: The South Park Album, with Meat Loaf singing alongside Isaac Hayes.
• The episode was re-released by Warner Home Video in 2002 as part of the DVD box set South Park – The Complete First Season.

Plot

At the bus stop, Eric Cartman notices Stan Marsh has a black eye from his elder sister Shelley, who beats him because she got new headgear. Kyle Broflovski's mother will not let him keep his pet elephant in the house. At school, Mr. Hat teaches about genetic engineering, prompting Kyle to decide to crossbreed his elephant with Cartman's pot-bellied pig, Fluffy, to create small pot-bellied elephants he can keep indoors. Terrance Mephesto bets Kyle he can clone a whole person before Kyle creates a pot-bellied elephant. Mr. Garrison suggests the boys use their genetic modifications for the science fair and sends them to the South Park Genetic Engineering Ranch. Dr. Alphonse Mephesto shows them his collection of animals with four pairs of buttocks, explains that pig and elephant DNA will not splice, and steals a blood sample from Stan. At school, the boys learn Terrance has cloned a human foot. They ask Chef for help, and after he cites the Loverboy song, he suggests having the animals mate. Mephesto and his assistant Kevin create a human clone of Stan. The boys try to get the pig and elephant drunk to mate, but it fails until Chef sings to them with Elton John. The cloned Stan escapes and terrorizes the town. The boys bring the clone to Stan's house and convince it to attack Shelley, but she defeats it. The clone destroys the house and kills Kenny by flinging him into a microwave. Mephesto shoots the clone. Shelley takes the blame for Stan, then beats him up.

Production

The episode was written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Dan Sterling. Parker and Stone originally wanted to call it An Elephant Fucks a Pig but changed the title under pressure from Comedy Central. The network also made them cut a scene where Shelley sets Stan on fire to avoid controversy like that surrounding MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head and Jackass. In early reruns, water appeared under Stan without explanation; it was removed when the episode was re-released in HD. During writing, Parker and Stone decided Kyle would be the good student and smarter than the other kids. The subplot of Stan being beaten by his sister came from Parker's real-life experiences with his sister Shelley, who is three years older. Parker said she regularly beat him up or locked him out, and the scene where Stan says You're my sister and I love you only to be beaten harder was based on actual events. Stan's fantasy of a larger version of himself attacking Shelley was also from Parker's childhood. The resolution, where Shelley takes the blame and then beats Stan, mirrored Parker's sister bailing him out of trouble. The giant mutant Stan was voiced by both Parker and Stone, who took turns saying phrases like Bubba chop, bubba chewy chomp. Isaac Hayes recorded Chef's lines via phone from New York City; Parker and Stone were nervous to ask him to repeat the line Now I know how all those white women felt, but he had no problem. The genetic mutations were inspired by things Parker drew in high school.

Cultural references

The Baltimore Sun writer Tamara Ikenberg described the episode as both a parody of genetic engineering and a statement against its potential evils, particularly through the giant mutant Stan. This episode introduced Shelley Marsh, Sharon Marsh, and Dr. Mephesto. Dr. Mephesto is based on Marlon Brando's character Dr. Moreau from the 1996 film The Island of Dr. Moreau, which is based on H. G. Wells' 1896 novel. Mephesto is named after Mephistopheles from the Faust legend. His companion Kevin is based on the small creature resembling Brando's character in the film. Elton John appears as a guest vocalist for Chef's song, one of the earliest celebrity spoofs on South Park; Trey Parker voiced Elton John, and many thought it was the actual singer. The episode references the Canadian rock group Loverboy, whose song is cited as saying pig and elephant DNA will not splice. The last line, That'll do pig spoken by Cartman, references the 1995 film Babe. When the boys tell Officer Barbrady about the clone, he suggests they have watched too many episodes of The X-Files. Pip's interrupted reply—my father's family name being Pirrip and my Christian name Phillip, my infant tongue—is the opening line of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

Reception

Several media outlets called An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig one of the most popular early South Park episodes. Tom Carson of Newsday said it was the most outrageous episode until Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo aired three months later. Many reviewers noted the title demonstrated the show's crudeness and originality. Chris Vognar of The Dallas Morning News wrote that with titles like this, there is not much on the air like it. Tamara Ikenberg of The Baltimore Sun said the episode addressed genetic engineering with imaginative, unconventional flair. Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times praised the episode and noted the bestiality hinted at in the final scene illustrated the show's outrageousness. Rick Bentley of The Fresno Bee said the biggest laughs came from Chef's song. In 2008, Alicia Wade of the Daily Egyptian said the episode still felt fresh over ten years later. In 2009, Travis Fickett of IGN rated it 8.3 out of 10, calling it quintessentially South Park.