Template:Infobox South Park episode "ManBearPig" is episode 1006 (#145) of Comedy Central's South Park which originally aired on April 26, 2006. It revolves around the hunt for an imaginary and elusive "ManBearPig" as a spoof of Al Gore's belief in and fight for global warming awareness. At the end of the episode, when he says he wants to make a movie starring himself about a subject other than "MBP" (ManBearPig) it refers to the 2006 global-warming documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. His appeal to the boys can be compared with his attempts at winning youth support through his television network, Current TV.
Plot
Template:Spoiler Al Gore visits South Park Elementary, and talks about the terrible ManBearPig, who roams the Earth. ManBearPig is "half-man, half-bear and half-pig," or half-man and half-bearpig. It is also suggested that he might be half bear, half man-pig (what is most likely is one-third man, one-third bear and one-third pig). Stan's Dad says the former VP is desperate for attention; Stan feels sorry for him because he has no friends. Al Gore begins pestering Stan, however, and when Gore breaks down on the phone, Stan agrees to go to a meeting about ManBearPig. Al Gore declares that ManBearPig is hiding in the Cave of the Winds, and when he explains that he will excuse the children from school, they agree to go with him.
In the cave, Al Gore forces the kids to follow him off the path and gives the "ManBearPig call" by yelling out, "GWODE!" Gore begins shooting wildly with a shotgun he brought along, causing a cave-in that leaves the kids trapped in the caverns. While there, the boys search for a way out, and Cartman discovers a small cavern filled with gold, pearls, and other treasures. He attempts to keep the others from locating it, and comes up with a plan to get the treasure out of the cave by ingesting it.
Meanwhile, a rescue team has assembled to find the boys, despite Al Gore's pleas that the caves should be filled with molten lead in order to kill ManBearPig (presumably in reference to the ending of Alien³), as the children have undoubtedly been killed by the beast and it must be killed. He then decides to divert the flow of a nearby stream in order to cause a flood that fills the cavern in an attempt to kill the monster. It is also revealed around this point, by the searchers, that the boys are probably near Smugglers' Den — a room full of fake treasure which was set up by the Cave of the Winds staff as a photo op for visitors. The boys, meanwhile, believe that Cartman — bloated with fake gold and jewels — is really ill, and try to find a way out, carrying him. The cave soon floods, and Kyle actually risks his life to get Cartman to safety. The boys manage to escape just as a memorial is being held for them. They scream at Al Gore for using ManBearPig to get attention—he is too full of himself to care—and, when Cartman defecates all the gold—which he learns is fake—they scream at him too. At the end of the episode, Al Gore dons a superhero cape and exclaims "I'll make a movie starring me. Then people will take me serial." This could merely be a jab at An Inconvenient Truth, but the cape and the exclamation "Excelsior!" are references to the "Godfather of Comics," Stan Lee who used the line as his signoff in editorials for Marvel Comics. The phrase has recently been revived for the Stan Lee hosted reality show Who Wants to be a Superhero?.
Trivia
- The term "ManBearPig" has become a political neologism that skeptics on conservative political blogs frequently use in place of "global warming." Sometimes "ManBearPig" is also used as a substitute for Al Gore himself.[citation needed] ManBearPig is shown above Gore in Al Gore's Penguin Army, a video posted on YouTube and presented as an amateur effort, which was later proved to have been made by DCI Group, a Republican marketing firm tied to ExxonMobil. It is unknown whether the makers of South Park authorized DCI Group to use the image.
- The boys visit the Cave of the Winds, which is an attraction near Colorado Springs. This is the second episode based around a visit to a real-life Colorado ___location (the first being "Casa Bonita"). It might be noted, however, that the real Cave of the Winds entrance is near the rim of William's Canyon, with no sizeable rivers uphill. (The nearest is Fountain Creek)
- The crisis of the boys getting trapped by the cave-in, as well their appearance at their own funeral, is reminiscent of the events in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, where Tom and Becky Thatcher are lost in a cave. There is also gold hidden in that cave, the stolen property of Injun Joe.
- The fake treasure in the Cave of the Winds is reminiscent of the "gold" in City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (however, real hidden gold is discovered at the conclusion of City Slickers II).
- There is no real ManBearPig in this episode. The only times ManBearPig appears in the episode are in Gore's drawing or when it turns out to be Gore in costume. This is in contrast to the earlier episode "Volcano", in which Scuzzlebutt is a real monster.
- The Cave of the Winds is filled with stalactites, and stalagmites shaped like male genetalia
- Al Gore uses the word "serial" (The closed captioner captioned every occurrence of this word in the episode as "cereal") in place of "seriously/serious". This is in reference to his gaffe on The Oprah Winfrey Show when he was asked for his favorite cereal and his answer was "Oprah", mistaking the word "cereal" for serial. [1]
- Al Gore's ManBearPig campaign is not taken seriously by anyone. This represents one of the very few times in South Park when adult characters (other than Chef) actually disbelieve a bogus threat.
- The "Excelsior" tag line that Al Gore uses is a nod to the "Godfather of Comics," Stan Lee; the line was his signoff in his "Stan's Soapbox" editorial column in Marvel Comics. "Excelsior!" is the state motto of New York, which is presumably why Stan Lee used it.
- The "Excelsior Hotel" in Little Rock, Arkansas is where Al Gore asked for Bill Clinton to endorse his bid for president in 1988, which he did not get. It is also the hotel where Clinton allegedly groped Paula Jones. [2]
- Much of the episode is an offshoot of the movie Volcano. The initial disbelief; "Excuse me, Excuse me, this cave in wasn't no accident, and it isn't going to stop unless we move fast!" "What do you mean, the cave in is over" "I'm afraid you have a much bigger problem" and eventual flooding.
- Al Gore has also appeared in episode 314 "The Red Badge of Gayness". He is seen measuring curtains in the background of the oval office and says, "I'm so glad I don't have your job," to the then President Bill Clinton after a large Confederate rally is held outside the White House.
- In the cave, when they are sleeping, Cartman behaves just like Humphrey Bogart's delusional and greedy character in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
- There is a very similar episode of Married... with Children where Al Bundy and family discover gold in a stream in the mountains and Al ends up going mad and taking everyone hostage, only to find out that it is fool's gold planted by the rangers as part of a mine experience.
- Al Gore laughed off his sensationalized depiction in this episode, calling the creators "nuts": "Their comic sensibility is aimed at a different demographic than the one I inhabit, but I still find a lot of what they do hilarious." [3]
- The water bottle Cartman uses to help ingest the fake treasure has the label "wottur", a poke at the many varieties of bottled waters.
- If you look closely during Al Gore's eulogy to the four boys, the flower pot to his right moves up between the scenes.
- In Al Gore's base of operations, a box bearing the Apple logo, possibly that of an iPod, a Mac Mini, or other Apple product, can be seen in the background. This is most likely a nod to the fact that Gore is a part of the board of directors of Apple
- The sequence in which Gore "stalks" the boys while dressed as Manbearpig may be a reference to the 1977 movie Snowbeast, which features similar music and presentation to that segement and whose tagline is "The legendary creature is half man... half animal... and a cold blooded killer!"