Informative Murder Porn

"Informative Murder Porn"
South Park episode
Episode no.	Season 17 Episode 2
Directed by	Trey Parker
Written by	Trey Parker
Production code	1702
Original air date	October 2, 2013 (2013-10-02)

"Informative Murder Porn" is the second episode of the seventeenth season of the animated television series South Park and the 239th episode of the series overall. It premiered on Comedy Central in United States on October 2, 2013. The episode was rated TV-MA-L.

Plot

At South Park Elementary, student Peter Mullen gives a report on "Murder Porn", TV shows on the cable channel Investigation Discovery that employ reenactments of murders provoked by spousal abuse and adultery, which the students' parents enjoy watching; Peter states exposure to such programs leads to parents murdering each other. At the Marsh residence, Stan discovers his parents, Randy and Sharon, are watching "murder porn", which they explain as being documentary programs they enjoy. That evening, Cartman calls Stan, telling him that 1st-grader Aaron Hagen's father has murdered his mother. At the Hagen residence, Stan and the rest of his friends watch Aaron traumatized by seeing the removal of his mother's mutilated corpse from the house and his father's arrest (Aaron's father insists there was a burglar who killed "the nagging bitch" and that the police had made a mistake as he is led into the police car). Realizing Aaron should not be witnessing the removal of his mother's corpse, the police haphazardly toss a blanket over his head.

The next day, at the Community Center, Kyle Broflovski holds a town meeting with the rest of the children of South Park, discussing the murder and its connection to "murder porn". He informs the group that there is a cellphone application that can serve as a parental lock on certain TV programs and employs a password that only children would know. When Stan's parents discover the parental lock and are unable to answer the security question, "How do you tame a horse in Minecraft?" (which refers to the video game of that name), Randy calls the cable company and learns that Stan locked them out. Randy tries to coerce the answer out of Stan, who tells him they don't need to watch "murder porn", much to Randy's irritation.

Randy and the other parents go to the Get Cable company to ask that the block be lifted, but the agent they speak to rebuffs them, rubbing his nipples out of pleasure for inconveniencing them. The parents subsequently learn that a child named Corey Lanskin can be hired to teach anyone how to play Minecraft, and when they offer him one hundred ounces of silver to do so, he accepts.

The next day, Jimmy Valmer tells Stan and Kyle that some parents have broken their parental locks, and Butters has become grief-stricken because his father killed his mother in Minecraft, leading Kyle to realize that someone is teaching the game to their parents. Back at his house, Randy is asked by the police whether he has seen anyone performing vandalism typical in Minecraft. At the community center, the children discuss how their parents are now not only continuing to watch murder porn, but are ruining their online experiences in Minecraft as well, with Cartman suggesting the parental murders weren't caused by the murder porn. The police then appear at the community center, where Stephen Stotch has built a makeshift castle on the roof. Randy then appears with a pickaxe and vulgarly mocks Stephen's castle.

The next day, the boys go to Corey's house, having learned that he may have been the one teaching their parents. He denies this, but in a manner that arouses Cartman's suspicion. The boys discover Corey teaching parents in the basement, where they convince him about the negative effects Minecraft has had upon their parents and their use of it to keep their parents away from murder porn. Corey informs the boys that in order to protect their families, they will have to fight their cable company. At the Get Cable Company, the boys confront the company's representatives, who are unsympathetic (and again, rub their nipples) until they learn about the prospective displeasure the parents would have at being unable to access murder porn. The Get Cable representatives subsequently drop Investigative Discovery and other murder porn channels from their standard network lineup.

Angered that they have again lost their murder porn, Randy and Sharon resolve to play Minecraft, in which their avatars kill each other with great pleasure.

Critical reception

Andrew Wallenstein, writing for Variety, suggested that Discovery ID, the host of the "murder porn" programs in the episode, bears a striking resemblance to Investigation Discovery, which airs similar programming. Wallenstein also suggested that the logo of the Get Cable Company resembles the logo of Time Warner Cable. The cable-provider logo actually changes for a short period of time and displays the name "Time Warner Cable". This happens as the "Get Cable!" employee exposes his nipples and tells Eric, Kyle, Kenny and Stan that they are the only cable-provider in town.

IGN's Max Nicholson gave it a 7.8 rating, saying: "After last week's season premiere, South Park's 'Informative Murder Porn' was noticeably better, and depicted a simple but effective premise. The laughs weren't particularly gut-busting, but the jokes were nevertheless humorous and intelligent."

Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft, posted on Twitter, "Just saw the South Park episode with Minecraft in it, and I liked it a lot!" Persson said that he was asked for permission to include Minecraft in the episode and was sent out a rough outline of the episode. Persson told them "they could do whatever they want."

External links

• "Informative Murder Porn". South Park Studios.