The Secrets of
"Fun With Veal"

"City kids get to go to museums for field trips. We get cow farms." — Well, they have gone to a planetarium before.

"Memememee!" — One change: Cartman responds in a rather low voice when Rancher Bob asks if anyone wants a free sample. In Saturday's airing of the show he answers in a more normal pitch. He still doesn't get the free sample, though.

"Yeppir." — collectors of Trey's early stuff know that this word figured prominently in "Time Warped." Jimbo has used the word on occasion, too.

"Then why the hell do they call it 'veal'??" — "veal" comes from the Old French "veel" (now "veau" in modern French), from Latin vitellus. In all cases, the word means "calf."

Stan channels Star Wars again when he calls Cartman their only hope.

Just to show how far Wendy is out of the loop now: she didn't join Stan in saving the calves or show moral support for his cause. But then, we have yet to meet her parents.

Stan's entry into the veal ranch does echo Mission Impossible. South Park Realm has a similar short with Stan breaking in to steal a CD. Butters guards the room the CD is in, so Stan makes sure to avoid being seen, so to see them both on the same side is kinda ironic. :)

Couple of continuing conflicts: The boys just don't get that Butters could get grounded for almost anything they could think of. And Butters really hasn't had anything to get behind until now, so this veal drama is his first big test of friendship with the other three. His parents are already friends with their parents and have been so since "Proper Condom Use," so Butters' place with Stan, Kyle, and Cartman seems secure. Still, Butters isn't sure yet just where he stands with the other boys, so he overcompensates when one of the others makes a statement that leaves him feeling low.

Stan has a new sign on his door: "NO GIRLS" This could be as much to keep Shelley out as a sign that he's gotten over Wendy.

Kyle finally calls his mom a bitch. Until now, he would fight anyone who called her that.

A small comparison

Stan, from this episode - on the riskiness of protecting the calves.	Christoph, from SP:BLU - on the riskiness of breaking into the USO show
When all is said and done you could all be looking at being grounded for three, perhaps even four weeks.	You realize that by doing this we could be grounded for two, perhaps even three weeks?

Butters says good night to the calves the way the Waltons did to each other in the show of the same name.

One Possible Timeline for the Veal Standoff 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. are both good times to begin the standoff. I chose 10 a.m. Hour 53 and the boys are still sleeping. They slept until mid-afternoon that day. :) Just the day before, at the same hour (29) they were enjoying a wonderful lunch provided by Cartman's mom. Hour 75, which is shown to take place at night, actually takes place in the middle of the day. Now, if it were hour 57, the nighttime setting would make much more sense. At hour 154, when the negotiator calls Cartman again, day turn to night in a flash.

Cartman feeding beef jerky to a calf echoes the "Bakin' Bacon wit Macon" intros that Trey and Matt made for the Wave 4 VHS tapes released on September 28, 1999. Trey and Matt made bacon dishes and serve them to Macon the pig.

John Walker — aka Taliban John and the American Taliban, he was found working for and with the Taliban when the U.S. went into Afghanistan to remove the Taliban and search for Osama bin Laden.

The two teen boys on drugs from "Ike's Wee Wee" and "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off The Fatty Foods" are seen among the hippies. One of them holds up a sign.

The same footage is used for the first and second nights the news arrives to cover the standoff between the boys and the adults - The police and fire department personnel move the same way both nights.

Do you get the feeling Barbrady doesn't want to be police chief, or even a policeman, anymore? On the other hand, shouldn't he be Police Chief Barbrady now?

Side shots of Stan's house show a lower roof, which makes the house look like a one-story house with attic, while aerial shots show the two-story house we're familiar with. Also, when the truck backs up to the front door, the driveway is made to lead to the front door while the path to the house leads into the garage. The same thing is done to the house next door. In the overhead shot, there's no house next door.

Butters now calls Cartman Cartman (he called Cartman Eric in "Jared Has Aides"). Another sign that Butters is in now?

Dr. Doctor is back!

Poor Stan. He's talked to a clitoris, grown boobs, and suffered vaginitis. May, O man.

Possible sources for Stan's vaginitis: In The Ramayana, in a sub-story, a woman's lover gets punished by her father, and the punishment is 1,000 vaginas. The vaginas on Stan's face and body may have been an indirect reference to the word Vaginatarian from the movie Say It Isn't So. Either way, you become a pussy. :)

Sometimes, learning a lesson isn't enough, especially when lost productivity is concerned. Even though the boys learned a lesson or two this time, they were still punished for the money the rancher lost in not shipping his veal out in time, not to mention all the trouble they put the authorities through. Oh yeah, and defying their parents.

There seem to be parallels between "Fun With Veal" and Dog Day Afternoon, including the airport sequence at the end, and Cartman's talks on the phone with the negotiator.

Saturday Changes

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