Line #37 Recap/SouthParkS3E13StarvinMarvinInSpace


1	'''Original air date:''' 11/17/1999
2
3	Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny are approached by the CIA about an Ethiopian boy called Starvin' Marvin who has got hold of an alien spacecraft.
4	----
5	!! This episode provides examples of:
6	* AnAesop: Christian missionaries should focus on helping the communities where they are sent instead of just converting the population to Christianity.
7	* AnswerCut: Agent Connolly wonders what sadistic backwards Third-World country could get their hands on that ship!" Cut to the ship landing in Australia.
8	* ArtisticLicenseReligion:
9	** This episode forgets that half of the actual Ethiopian population is part of Ethiopian Orthodox [Tewahedo] Church or part of Oriental Orthodoxy, with a small yet important exception to ''P'ent'ay''[[note]]Which is Amharic and Tigrinya language term for a Christian of a Protestant denomination that uses their version of Evangelicalism[[/note]].
10	** Marvin himself and his tribe are portrayed as ''secular'' for some reason, instead of being a generic Traditional African religious minority or part of the other two major religions in Ethiopia, like again Oriental Orthodoxy or Sunni Islam, like in real-life.
11	* ChristianityIsCatholic: Averted with annoying and ignorant Christian (but seemly Evangelical in practice) missionaries, who try to convert Marvin's Ethiopian tribe into (evangelical) Christianity, and this makes Marvin rightfully mad at them for forcing his folk to their religion instead of actually helping them.
12	* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: The government forces the boys to give them information by having one worker rub his hand against a balloon to make a noise that is apparently hard for the ears. Cartman eventually cracks.
13	* DoesThatSoundLikeFunToYou: A pair of government agents tells the boys about Marvin obtaining an alien spacecraft.
14	-->'''Fed''': Earlier this morning, an ethnic child was seen piloting an alien spacecraft over Chinese airspace.
15	-->'''Cartman''': Cool!
16	-->'''Fed''': Cool?! That ship has enough plutonium on board to vaporize a small city. Is that "cool"?
17	-->'''Cartman''': Totally!
18	* EasyEvangelism: Averted, as the Christian (Evangelical) missionaries don't understand Marvin's tribe language and neglect the ''whole tribe'' by refusing to give them any aid as a means to converting them to their version of Christianity, such as giving them food, until they start making progress towards converting. This eventually causes the tribe to board Marvin's spaceship to find a new home-- this is solved by moving to Marklar, from where the missionaries are ultimately banished.
19	* HeelFaceTurn: Despite her antagonism in this episode and "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E8StarvinMarvin Starvin Marvin]]," Creator/SallyStruthers has a change of heart and turns against the missionaries once the boys remind her of her charity work and how she's inspired them to help the Ethiopians.
20	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: One of the agents mention watching a cartoon making fun of Sally Struthers. This could be a reference to "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E8StarvinMarvin Starvin' Marvin]]".
21	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: The boys enjoy the flight better after turning off the annoying background song.
22	* LoudOfWar: Cartman reveals information when the CIA agent scratches a balloon.
23	* MayTheFarceBeWithYou: The second half of the plot turns into a ''Franchise/StarWars'' spoof.
24	** The intro after the main credits FadeIn like in the Star Wars movies.
25	** Sally Struthers is depicted as Jabba the Hutt in contrast to previously being obscenely overweight in "Starvin' Marvin". She even has a Tiberian Junker.
26	** Kenny is frozen in carbonite like Han Solo.
27	** The CBN spaceship is modeled after the Rebel fleets' X-Wing fighters (with a little bit of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey).
28	** CIA agent Sphinx waves his hand in an attempt to use the JediMindTrick on Sally Struthers.
29	* MistakenForAliens: The people of Australia thought Marvin was an alien. Well, he did emerge from a spaceship.
30	* NoDelaysForTheWicked: Parodied and taken [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]]: the missionaries are somehow able to instantly conjure up a spaceship capable of interstellar travel and several upgrades for it out of thin air just because a fundraiser show is asking donations for those things without any plausible way of turning those donations into the required materials and labor in the ridiculously short span of time that passes from the fundraiser show requesting the donations to the missionaries receiving the end result, especially since the fundraiser is still taking place on Earth while the ship is off in outer space trying to stop the boys and Starvin' Marvin.
31	* OhCrap: The alien ambassador from Marklar when it realizes the lions it's addressing are in fact carnivorous animals.
32	* PapaWolf: During the battle, Chef tries to protect the kids, but Kenny still ends up getting killed.
33	* PlanetOfSteves: Marklar is the former trope namer. All named Marklar, and they replaced all nouns with Marklar.
34	* RecycledAnimation: When Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Marvin go through the wormhole again, they simply rehashed footage from earlier on in the episode. Notice how Kenny appears with them on the ship, even though we saw him frozen in carbonite on Sally Struthers' ship earlier.
35	* SequelEpisode: This is the second episode with Starvin' Marvin, the first being "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E8StarvinMarvin Starvin' Marvin]]". This is also the first one to feature him as the main character.
36	* ShoutOut:
37	** The CBN spaceship's bridge is loosely designed like the bridge of the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries USS Enterprise NCC-1701]].
38	** The scene where Marvin flies over Australia is reminiscent of ''Film/FlightOfTheNavigator''.
39	* {{Smurfing}}: All people, places, and things on Marklar are referred to as Marklar. Kyle even explains the situation in the Marklar's language.
40	-->'''Kyle''': Wait. Wait. I think I can explain this whole thing. Marklar, these marklars want to change your marklar. They don't want Marklar or any of these marklars to live here because it's bad for their marklar. They use Marklar to try and force marklars to believe they're marklar. If you let them stay here, they will build marklars and marklars. They will take all your marklars and replace them with Marklar. This marklar have no good marklar to live on Marklar, so they must come here to Marklar. Please, let these marklars stay where they can grow and prosper without any marklars, marklars, eh or marklars.\
41	'''Marklar''': Young marklar, your marklars are wise and true.
42	* TakeThat: Towards Christian missionaries (especially Evangelicals) and ''The 700 Club''. The former is depicted trying to bribe starving Ethiopians with food into adopting Christianity and ordering them to read the Bible in "God's language" (English). The latter, meanwhile, shamelessly asks their followers for money to buy space travel equipment to bring Christianity to the Marklar, who really don't give a crap about it after hearing a stirring explanation from Kyle.
43	-->'''Sister Hollis:''' But you will all burn forever in eternal hellfire.
44	-->'''Marklar:''' Yes, that's nice. Thank you for stopping by.
45	* TheTeaser: This is the first time that the series opened an episode with no credits. On the DVDCommentary, Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone refer to this as the first episode of ''Starvin' Marvin in Space'' instead of a ''South Park'' episode.
46	* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Subverted, as he only gets [[HumanPopsicle frozen in carbonite]]. We don't ever see him freed outside of the animation error mentioned above, though.
47	* TotemPoleTrench: The boys do this and pretend to be Tom Brokaw so they can distract the government while Marvin boards his people onto the spacecraft. When Kyle makes a comment from inside the costume, Cartman at the head tries to cover by saying that he had some bad burritos.

Context Recap / SouthParkS3E13StarvinMarvinInSpace