Line #17 Recap/SouthParkS1E8StarvinMarvin


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marvin_3.png]]
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3	'''Original air date:''' 11/19/1997
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5	The boys send money to an African charity to get a sports watch, but they instead get an Ethiopian orphan which they name “Starvin' Marvin”, while Cartman gets sent to Ethiopia. Meanwhile, mutant turkeys attack South Park and Chef rallies the townspeople to fight back.
6	---------------------------------
7	!!"Starvin' Marvin" contains examples of:
8	* AccidentalPun: Mr. Garrison is disappointed that his students brought nothing but cans of cream corn for the canned food drive. Realizing what he said, he [[ActuallyPrettyFunny has a laughing fit]], while the kids just stare blankly.
9	-->"Please bring more diverse food, children, or else Kenny's family is gonna have a pretty corny Thanksgiving."
10	* AdultsAreUseless: The agents sent to retrieve Marvin believe the latter's claim that Cartman is the one they were sent to retrieve. However, it could double as them not wanting to judge based on stereotypes of what an American and an Ethiopian look like (which Cartman and Marvin both are).
11	* AesopAmnesia: Mephesto didn't learn his lesson about leaving nature alone and tries to say the same Aesop and Chef cuts him off.
12	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Cartman spends most of the episode longing for a sports watch. When he finally gets one, its after being stranded in Ethiopia with no food and shelter, so it doesn't thrill him as much.
13	* BigBadEnsemble: Sally Struthers is the one exploiting the Ethiopians, while the mutant turkey leader is the one rallying its kind to destroy South Park. Fittingly, both are implied to end up eaten by the Ethiopians.
14	* BittersweetEnding: The turkeys are defeated, but Marvin's required to go back to Ethiopia, though he can take the turkeys with him to feed fellow Ethiopians. And even though Kenny's family got some canned food for Thanksgiving, Kenny was killed, and none of the living members of the [=McCormick=] family have a can opener.
15	* BoundAndGagged: Sally Struthers is tied up to a spit with an apple in her mouth serving as a gag.
16	* BorrowedCatchphrase: Starvin' Marvin borrows some of Cartman's while Cartman's been sent to Ethiopia.
17	* {{Bowdlerization}}: The original ending had Sally Struthers be torn apart after having been EatenAlive by the Ethiopians, but it didn't make it past the censors, much to Matt & Trey's frustration. Though the episode proper hints at this being her fate, the last time we see her is BoundAndGagged and waiting to be roasted.
18	* ButNowIMustGo: Subverted. When the agents return to retrieve Marvin at the climax of the episode, Stan and Kyle are bummed out that he has to live, then the agents ask him if he's ready to leave, with the implication that they might let him stay if he so wished. Then he takes a good look at the townsfolk, who all smile at him... [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere and readily nods his head]].
19	* ChildSoldiers: Ike actively participates in the fight against the turkeys. Stan, Kyle, and Kenny are also at the front lines but they mostly cheer. Ironically, the turkeys all gang up on Kenny for no reason.
20	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Stan says he's learned not to ignore commercials of starving people in faraway lands, noting they're real people and not just images on TV. Kyle agrees before adding that this must mean [[Series/MacGyver1985 MacGyver]] is a real person, too.
21	* CuckooClockGag: When Mayor [=McDaniels=] isn't taking Dr. Mephesto seriously about the pissed off turkeys, she pulls out a cuckoo clock behind her chair while her aides snicker.
22	* DeathOfAChild: After all the town makes a (relatively) big deal out of helping him and his family out during Thanksgiving, Kenny gets an eye plucked out by the mutant turkeys during their last stand, and is overall forgotten by the rest of town. He's later noticeably absent from his family's Thanksgiving dinner.
23	* DidntThinkThisThrough: South Park holds a canned food drive for Kenny's family, but it didn't occur to them his family might not own a can opener.
24	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: At one point [[https://i.redd.it/h9jo4pfgtxx61.png an Ethiopian baby]] who resembles Ike (with beady eyes and a flappy head) can be seen, as all babies were originally going to be styled after him. This was before the decision was made to have Ike be an adopted Canadian, with non-Canadian babies being shown to have normal eyes and mouths.
25	* EveryoneHasStandards: Mr. Garrison is mostly a {{Jerkass}} to his students, but even he's disappointed that nobody gave up anything other than cream corn for the Thanksgiving canned food drive.
26	* EvilVsEvil: Cartman vs Creator/SallyStruthers. They're both greedy, gluttonous bastards who only care about eating and they're both dead guilty of swindling food from others. Yet somehow Cartman winds up the protagonist and Sally the antagonist due to Cartman being the LesserOfTwoEvils as that he's not as bad as Sally and he stole food from far less people than Sally did. He only ratted out Sally because he wished ''he'' were in Sally's place.
27	* ExposedToTheElements: Inverted, Cartman is in the middle of Sub-Saharan Africa still in winter clothes but never complained about the heat, being too busy starving to care.
28	* EyeballPluckingBirds: Kenny is killed when one of the mutant turkeys pecks out one of his eyes.
29	* FastFoodNation: Marvin winds up in the United States, which is overflowing with restaurants and abundant food joints, as while Cartman winds up in Ethiopia. But then Cartman sees Ethiopia's not that different, because while it turns out Ethiopia ''does'' have a good supply of food as well, Sally hoarded it all for herself and hid it from the local residents.
30	* FatBastard: Cartman and Sally Struthers are both whiny gluttons who couldn't care less about the Ethiopians' predicament. Sally is a bigger one (both literally and on an immorality scale).
31	* ForgottenFallenFriend: The town mourns ''the turkeys'' more than they mourn Kenny.
32	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: As Stan delivers the moral of the story, Kenny's dead body starts twitching, and we see a rat emerge from where his eye used to be.
33	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Sally Struthers, who claims she's battling hunger in Africa. Turns out she's actually a major culprit in it by selling fake ads crying for donations in food.
34	* {{Homage}}: Before the big fight between the townsfolk and the mutant turkeys, there's a rather obvious spoof of ''Film/{{Braveheart}}''.
35	* {{Hypocrite}}: Minor example. Wendy heavily criticizes Cartman for not wanting to donate for the canned food drive, expressing a lot of worry for the poverty-stricken people. After the drive is finished, it's revealed that the box only had three cans of cream corn, so even if it was her who donated all three of them, she clearly didn't go out of her way to help them herself.
36	* ImAHumanitarian: Sally gets tied up presumably to be killed and eaten by the Ethiopians.
37	* InUniverseFactoidFailure: Kyle erroneously states that Sally Struthers starred in ''Series/FullHouse''.
38	* ItsAllAboutMe: The only reason the boys agreed to adopt an Ethiopian kid was to get a sports watch. However, once they get the kid (which they genuinely did not think through), they actually ''do'' follow through with taking care of him.
39	* {{Jerkass}}:
40	** Mayor [=McDaniels=], who chooses to ignore and mock Mephesto when he's trying to warn her about the turkeys.
41	** Cartman for stealing food from Starvin' Marvin's plate when they were at the All You Can Eat buffet.
42	* JustDesserts: After causing a nation to starve due to gluttonously hoarding food, Sally ends up a helpless, large meal for the Ethiopians.
43	* LaserGuidedKarma: Cartman getting sent to Africa in Starvin' Marvin's place and going hungry.
44	* {{Mooning}}: In keeping with the ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' parody, Kyle moons the turkey army.
45	* NoCanOpener: The ending of the episode has Kenny's family saying grace over their Thanksgiving dinner, a can of green beans Kenny got for them in the "Canned Food Grab". After that, they realize that they don't have a can opener.
46	* NotSoAboveItAll: Going out to an all-you-can-eat buffet, Cartman makes one of his standard jokes about Kenny and his family not being there because they're poor, which makes everyone -- including all of their parents -- laugh.
47	* ParentalNeglect: When Cartman is kidnapped, his mother simply continues the routine of delivering cheesy poofs with Marvin instead.
48	* PetTheDog:
49	** The boys except for Cartman are very nice to Starvin' Marvin. Kyle even defends him when Cartman insults his home country.
50	** Cartman gets particularly angry at Starvin' Marvin when he tries to take Kenny's cream corn.
51	** Cartman's exposing Sally Struthers' stealing food from the starving Ethiopians, even if it was partially due to his being hungry and pissed off.
52	* RuleOfThree: Regarding the couple on their date. They're both attacked by the turkeys before the man finishes his line on the third attempt.
53	-->'''Lady:''' It's so beautiful.\
54	'''Man:''' Not as beautiful as you.
55	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: By the time federal agents realize their mistake and show up to return him home, Marvin has seen how insane the town is and is quite content to leave.
56	* ShoutOut:
57	** The battle between the South Park townspeople and the turkeys had Chef doing the "They will never take our freedom" speech from ''Film/{{Braveheart}}''. A turkey then does it as well shortly afterwards.
58	** Wendy and Cartman's argument about the food drive is one big pastiche of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', with Cartman of course getting Scrooge's lines.
59	** Intentional or not, Cartman and his mother are [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons painted in yellow]] when they were in Mount Rushmore.
60	* SkewedPriorities:
61	** Chef gets really distracted by Mephesto's lab assistant Kevin when he's telling the people of South Park to arm themselves to fight the turkeys, and even when Mephesto tries to get him back on track, Chef still wants to know what exactly Kevin is.
62	** During the fight with the turkeys, [=Mayor McDaniels=] stops her aide on his tracks to ask him if her hair looks okay.
63	* TakeThat: Struthers was reportedly saddened and offended by her portrayal. While they did express ''some'' genuine remorse, Trey nonetheless still defended the cartoon's portrayal in the commentary:
64	--> "Dude, you're really setting yourself up if you're going to be that fat and go on the air talking about starving children. We don't think she's a bad person, she's probably nice to try to do this, but cut down on the Twinkies a little bit before going on the air."
65	* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Kenny is killed by the turkeys when they attack South Park.
66	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Cartman explains appetizers to Marvin as something they bring you to make you more hungry. When they bring out the main meal Cartman throws the appetizer away without even touching it, which horrifies Marvin to see somebody waste food like that.
67	* ThrowTheDogABone: Starvin' Marvin gets to bring the dead turkeys back to his people.
68	* UncertainDoom:
69	** Due to being spared by the censors, Sally Struthers' fate is not shown onscreen, and it's merely hinted that she was to be eaten by the Ethiopians.
70	** The Mutant Turkey leader with ''Braveheart'' makeup isn't shown getting killed, but with the implication that it was at the forefront of the battle, chances of its survival are slim at best, and it was likely among the turkey carcasses Marvin brought to his people.
71	* UnexplainedRecovery:
72	** The couple attacked by the turkeys earlier later appear fighting against the army of turkeys, in one piece and fully clothed.
73	** Despite the episode hinting at her being EatenAlive by the turkeys, Sally Struthers is seen again in "Starvin' Marvin' in Space" (albeit in a different form) and "The Death of Eric Cartman", where Cartman apologizes to her for the events of this episode.

Context Recap / SouthParkS1E8StarvinMarvin