The Secrets of
"Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants"

Towelie ban = Taliban

Someone needs a calculator: There are 59 stars on the flag draped over the Marsh garage and over the school entrance - 7x5 + 6x4. The actual flag has 50 stars - 6x5 + 5x4.

Under the sofa, among all the stuff Sharon put there, are two plates. One of them disappears when Stan enters to say the doorbell is ringing. It reappears when Sharon is shown watching TV again a few days later.

Sharon is watching SNN, but Randy clearly says CNN.

Randy wears a watch on his right wrist when he mentions CNN, but it's gone when Stan is told to play with his big brown package from Afghanistan outside.

"Dude, my mom won't even let me have a hamster." — In the first season, Kyle had a pet elephant. Guess he doesn't have it anymore.

The general from SP:BLU returns.

The soldiers confuse the goat for Stevie Nicks — It's the voice. Sometimes her voice trembles so much she sounds like a goat.

How did the Afghan boys survive the bombing of the theater they were about to enter?

It is observed that Afghanistan "looks like East Denver". The large city east of Denver is Aurora, which is often referred to as "Saudi Aurora" for the ethnic diversity there.

Star Wars reference: Jawas. But Jawas aren't sand people, as Cartman claims they are. Tusken raiders are the sand people Cartman had in mind.

"Dude, don't call me a Canadian!" — Cartman may love the Canadians Terrance and Phillip, but he himself would not want to be a Canadian.

Interesting that when the makeup artists came in to fix Osama's face and hair, two of them were women, and they weren't wearing chadors or burqas. These and other women without burqas are American.

The four Afghan boys somehow get a cable television feed into their home, as television is outlawed in Afghanistan in accordance with strict fundamentalist interpretations of the Quran.

All the Afghan kids and soldiers were speaking fluent Farsi (Persian), and Bin Laden was speaking gibberish. — Kamyar, at the SPS BBS.

"Tiny, ain't it!?" — It may be tiny, but it still rules. Bin Laden has several wives and children now. The following comes from alt.tv.southpark

From Legion1979: Many of the jokes are standard cartoon gags which are used quite a bit in Warner Bros. cartoons. The various signs ("screw-ball", ect) Cartman holds up at one point can be found often in these cartoons, although they never got as vulgar as they did tonight. "What's up doc?" and the various Osama/Elmer Fudd take-offs are obviously from the Bugs Bunny shorts, and both Bugs and Daffy regularly delighted in crossdressing for and kissing their opponents. Cartman's smart-ass "look" to the camera while Bin Laden dined with the camel is something Bugs would do quite often under the direction of Chuck Jones. The "Tiny, Isn't It" sign was a standard in director Bob Clampett's cartoons (see 1943's "Falling Hare" for a similar sign.) There are a few referances that were taken from specific cartoons, however. In a series of MGM cartoons directed by Tex Avery, a wolf would lose control over a sexy red-headed bomb-shell and go off in a series of wild poses called "takes". The takes Bin Laden uses when he sees a dolled-up Cartman are direct parodies of this. One gag was taken from a Bob Clampett masterpiece released in 1944. This cartoon, titled "Russian Rhapsody", delt with none other than Adolf Hitler. In this cartoon, the plane he is piloting is attacked by an army of small Russian gremlins, who proceed to demolish the plane, plummeting Hitler to his grave. His last line in the cartoon is, "Nutzies in de cwaziest people", delivered in the voice of 1930/40s star Lew Lehr. Considering this cartoon is not seen often today, the writers of tonights episode obviously did their homework for Osama's last line here. "Russian Rhapsody" is one of several 1940s cartoons dealing with WW2 themes, pitting animated characters against the likes of Hirohito, Stalin and Hilter. "In Herr Meets Hare" (1945) a Nazi soldier battles Bugs Bunny. At one point Bugs arrives in drag as Brunhilde, riding a horse. Cartman's entrance in drag astride a camel could be a take-ff of this. Considering these WW2 cartoons are very rarely shown today, it seems odd that an 9 year old like Cartman would be aware of them. The referances to them in "Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants", on the other hand, show an amazing amount of respect for the golden age of animation. Other wrote: That "Nutzies in de cwaziest people" line has been used in several old Warner Brothers cartoons... modified for whatever the theme of the cartoon was. "Musicians is de craziest...", "Squirrels is de...", etc. Any good fan of the old cartoons has seen that gag a few times. Bugs did the identical gimmick (riding a horse) in the "Ride of the Valkyrie" cartoon. It's much more likely Matt and Trey saw that one. You really have to look around to find the hardcore WWII cartoons since they never show them on TV. My observations: "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips." - Bugs whallops a sumo wrestler like Cartman did bin Laden, and the resulting sound is a gong. Earlier, Bugs comes walking in as a geisha to distract the sumo wrestler, much as Cartman distracted bin Laden by dressing as an Afghan woman later in the SP episode. "Ali Baba Bunny" - Bugs, dressed as a jinn, "grants" all the treasure in the cave to Ali Baba's dimwitted guard, Hassan. Among the words he says are "flippity flappity floop!" Daffy's reaction is even funnier, though. "Herr Meets Hare" - Bugs arrives dressed as Brunhilde riding a horse to distract a Nazi, much as Cartman arrives dressed as an Afghan woman riding a camel to distract Osama.

SP:BLU references: The four Afghan boys going to see a movie and ordering tickets. The Afghan boys rescuing the South Park boys through a trap door (instead of just breaking through the floor). The signs Cartman holds up (Screwball, Jackass, Shithead, Cocksucker), with the last one being Barbra Streisand (rather than a stream of spoken obscenities ending in her name)

Osama's teeth play some notes from "America, the Beautiful."

Stan's speech to the Afghan kids concerning America's goodness reminds me of the efforts the boys put in trying to show the Vladchick quintuplets just how good America is, but that didn't work out either, though the quints did go on a book tour and on Oprah. The Afghan boys' reactions remind my of the quints' reactions as well.

The Fleetwood Mac concert was to be held once the troops got to Afghanistan, but was held after the soldiers were victorious. And the lyrics to the song "Edge of Seventeen" were changed a little. :D

Stan putting his jacket around the base of the flag is like Linus putting his blanket around the bottom of the Christmas tree in the Peanuts Christmas special.

Commentary Afghan boy (wearing green hat): It is not just the Taliban that hates America! Over a third of the world hates Anerica! Stan: But why? Why does a third of the world hate us? Afghan boy: Because, you don't realize that a third of the world hates you!!! The Afghan boy's comment in the third line seems to be the general feeling among people in many other nations: Americans are so self-interested they have no idea how people in other nations feel about them. And when they hear negative comments about the U.S. they find them hard to believe. But Arabs have two points of contention with the U.S. 1) "America DID start this war! They started it YEARS ago, when they put their military bases on Muslim holy lands!" Many Arabs find it sacrilegious that foreign troops and bases representing a secular society should be present in Arab holy lands, especially as Americans would not tolerate foreign troops on American soil — why subject someone to something one would not accept himself? And this is only made worse by the fact that American troops are there to protect American interests (like oil), not Arab ones. 2) American support of Israel (something not addressed in the episode, and something bin Laden didn't show interest in until recently). Israel was carved out of the territory of Palestine before 1948, and in that area of the Middle East, Arabs and Jews have been at odds for centuries. The very existence of the new nation of Israel incensed the Arab world, and now Arab extremists want Israel eliminated, and for a start, they would like the U.S. to no longer support Israel. There are two other points of contention: nationalism and U.S. support of non-democratic governments. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, U.S. citizens rallied 'round the flag and responded to things from American viewpoints, a natural thing for a country that's been attacked, but failed to understand completely why anyone should have such hatred for the U.S. as demonstrated by the terrorists, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, and other Arabs. In this regard, the two sides are irreconcilable — the U.S. loves its freedom and the productivity and decadence it brings, the Arabs love their faith and the commitment it brings. Commitment has no room for decadence, and decadence has no use for commitment. And the U.S. is willing to support dictators if they can be of use to the U.S. somehow, rather than try to apply democratic principles in those nations ruled by the dictators. But as mentioned above, democratic principles seem to go against Muslim precepts.