The Secrets of
"Casa Bonita"

by Wild Willie Westwood, with sources from all over the Web


Casa Bonita and Casa Bonita. Casa Bonita = Cute House. An understatment for the restaurant with that name on it.

Check it out: Entering the restaurant, you immediately feel as though you are at a "Disney style" theme park. When will the largest Mexican city outside of Mexico get one?

Kyle turns another year older here - ten. Fifth Grade can't be far behind.

Casa Bonita is listed as airing on 11/12/03, but you should remember that Kyle's birthday is on May 26. This repeats the situation in "Damien," which aired on 2/4/98, but Cartman's birthday is on July 1.

Butters' first name is Leopold, and his birthday is a month before Kyle's. Butters is thus a Taurus, and a month older than Kyle. There's a corresponding change in the end credits of the episode as well: Director of Animation Eric "Butters" Stough was renamed Eric Leopold Stotch. :D

Episodes Kyle remembers where Cartman called him a Jew derisively:
the playground, with Craig instead of Kenny
the playground, by the school's back doors
in Cartman's room. Cartman is wearing a crown
at Kyle's house, on the front steps
singing the Dreidl song with Kyle's family, Stan, and Kenny
leaving his seat in class
at Cartman's house, with outfits
seated on a curb with the other boys
staking out a house
on Nightline, seated next to Stan
in Cartman's dining room
at the side of a road, with Tweek and with their parents
next to stacks of lumber, as Kyle is about to whack him
at a barn, through a hole on the roof
Stan's room. Kyle reads a Bible
At the Costa Rican rainforest, during practice
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Professor Chaos
Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo
Simpsons Already Did It
The Entity
Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics
Here Comes the Neighborhood
Something You Can Do With Your Finger
Do The Handicapped Go To Hell
Lil Crime Stoppers
Free Hat
Kenny Dies
Child Abduction is Not Funny
A Ladder To Heaven
Fun With Veal
Spontaneous Combustion
Rainforest Schmainforest

Cartman sounds like Star Trek's James T. Kirk at times.

At the gas station: Atomic Gas

Cartman gives Butters a box of Chips-A-Ho cookies.

Garbage truck provided by Ajax Sanitation.

Casa Bonita sits between Peter's Pet Shop and 97 Cent Store.

A Suntofu car?

The song Butters sings is Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now."

Butters' new society is modeled after the one in Road Warrior, complete with headband, shoulder-pads and Australian Cattle Dog. And Butters would be Mad Max.

DUMPING FEES
TRUCKLOAD
CARLOAD
TOXIC
APPLIANCES
VEHICLES
YARD WASTE
$10
$4
$40
$3 PER ITEM
$10 PER VEHICLE
$2 PER TON
NOTICE!!!

Among the junk in the dump you might notice the school's ladder with the broken step, from "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo."

The same building Butters plans to make into a restaurant in one scene is a hotel in the very next one. Or at least the buildings are identical.

Interesting that even though Butters calls Cartman Eric every time they speak to each other, he made the memorial with "Cartman" on the base instead of "Eric" or "Eric Cartman" on it.

Sopapillas, a Mexican pastry.

Cartman's attempted escape by dive is modeled on Tommy Lee Jones' attempt in

Casa Bonita stuff seen or heard about in the episode:
Cliff Divers
The Sheriff and Bad Guy Black Bart shoot-em-up, and caverns and caves filled with stalactites and stalagmites - these were combined to form Black Bart's Cave.
Puppets
Strolling Mariachis