The Hobbit (South Park)
| "The Hobbit" | |
|---|---|
| South Park episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 17 Episode 10 |
| Directed by | Trey Parker |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Production code | 1710 |
| Original air date | December 11, 2013 |
"The Hobbit" is the tenth and final episode in the seventeenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 247th episode of the series overall, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on December 11, 2013. The story centers upon Wendy Testaburger's attempts to raise awareness of media impact on body image, which leads to a crusade by rapper Kanye West to convince the world that his fiancée, Kim Kardashian, is not a hobbit. The episode received positive reviews from critics.
During cheerleading practice, South Park Elementary's fourth grade students realize that Lisa Berger, an insecure girl, lacks enthusiasm in her cheers. When the team captain, Wendy Testaburger, learns Lisa has a crush on Butters, she suggests asking him on a date to help boost her confidence. When Lisa does this, Butters turns her down. When Wendy excoriates Butters for this, Butters explains that he likes women who are gorgeous like his crush Kim Kardashian. Wendy angrily tells Butters that Kim has "the body of a hobbit", and that commercialized images of her are photoshopped to make her look attractive, and lead to poor body image on the part of average-looking females.
When Mr. Mackey speaks to Wendy and Butters, he instead criticizes Wendy for her comments about Kardashian, accusing her of being motivated by jealousy. As a result of this, Kardashian's fiancé Kanye West appears before the fourth grade class to explain that Kardashian is in fact not a hobbit.
Wendy subsequently tries to demonstrate to Butters how Photoshop is used to make people appear more attractive by altering a photo of Lisa, but instead of understanding Wendy's point that the popular image of Kim Kardashian is a fantasy, Butters instead thinks that the altered image of Lisa represents her true appearance. Horrified at the realization that he turned her down for a date, he uploads her altered photo to the Internet, and is about to ask her out when he discovers that she and Clyde Donovan are now dating. When Wendy sees that everyone else in the school now regards Lisa's photo-shopped image as her true appearance, she tries to tell them that Lisa is actually "fat and ugly". As a result of this, she is called before Mr. Mackey for her being jealous, and agrees to change her behavior in order to pacify him.
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