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12 All About the Mormons?

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First aired: 11/19/2003 Production Code: 712

A new student, Gary Harrison, joins the 4th grade. Gary is a Mormon from Utah. The children decide he needs to get his ass kicked, and they choose Stan to do it. After an awkward exchange of words, Stan is invited to Gary's house, where he learns all about Mormons.

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1 Plot
Written by BOT, on 09-24-2007 20:41
In this episode, a new family moves into South Park, and their son Gary, stereotypically depicted as unusually perfect (achieving high grades, being perfectly polite, etc.), invokes the wrath of the other boys. Stan is drafted into the job of beating him up by the other children, but Gary's sheer politeness leads Stan to discover himself walking away with an invitation to dinner that night. After dinner, the five-child, two-parent family has "family home evening" where they play games, do performance art, and read from the Book of Mormon. Stan is intrigued and confused by all this, and asks his parents about the Mormon family's beliefs. His father concludes that they must be religious fanatics attempting to brainwash Stan, and heads over to confront them and beat them up (but only upon determining that Mr. Harrison is white). Instead, he too finds himself quelled by the family's perfection and politeness, and in the end, actually decides to convert to Mormonism himself. The next day, Kenny, Cartman and Kyle cruelly mock Stan for hanging around with Gary and his family, accusing Stan of going on a date with Gary. When the Harrisons and Gary show up, the three children walk off lying about going to "put in some volunteer work at the homeless shelter".

The episode is noteworthy for its approach to the religion in question. Throughout the episode, characters ask questions about Mormonism, and the story then breaks off to a sub-story about Joseph Smith and the founding of the religion. For satirical purposes, the show deviates from the original accounts of Mormonism's founding by adding extra to stories originally left vague (e.g. the precise location where Martin Harris lost the transcript of the Book of Lehi given to him by Joseph Smith); furthermore, during the narration, an upbeat tune plays in the background, with voices repeatedly interjecting "Dumb" and "Smart" at appropriate moments. The show asserts assumed flaws in the religion's founding, which especially concern Stan (for example, that Joseph Smith offered no proof to the general public of finding the Golden Plates, and that he claimed to have translated from a slightly different plate after the first translation was lost while in the possession of Martin Harris). Stan ends up shouting at the Mormons that they're ridiculous for believing in it without proof; they smile patiently and explain that it's a matter of faith, while Stan argues that it should be a matter of empirical evidence. He further lashes out at them for acting unusually nice all the time, claiming it blindsides stupid people like his father into believing in Mormonism (to which Randy Marsh unwittingly responds "Yeah!"). Afterwards, Stan's family apparently chooses to convert away from Mormonism and goes back to Catholicism, at Randy's insistence.

Stan's anger doesn't much upset anyone in the Mormon family other than Gary, who confronts Stan and the other boys the next day, pointing out that his religion does not need to be factually true, because it still supports good family values. Gary condemns their bigotry and ignorance, stating:

"All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls."

He walks away, and the episode ends as Cartman (with a new-found respect for him) says, "Damn, that kid is cool, huh?"

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2 Trivia
Written by BOT, on 09-24-2007 20:41
Kyle McCulloch again provides the voice of a one-time use character by voicing Gary Harrison. Coincidentally, he himself is Mormon.

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3 Inaccuracies
Written by BOT, on 09-24-2007 20:42
According to many Mormons, some of the episode's details regarding Mormonism are either inaccurate or derived from readings separate from the most common understanding of the story:

* The "four golden plates" depicted in the episode appear as massive tablets, perhaps echoing traditional depictions of the two stone tablets containing the 10 commandments. However late in life Smith and some of the witnesses described the golden plates as a collection (the exact number was never specified) of thin, metal sheets approximately 6" x 8".[1]
* The episode claims that Mormons believe all Native Americans are descended from "white people" who came from Jerusalem, and that another Israelite tribe killed them and was cursed with "red" skin as a result. The episode is broadly reflective, however, of a repeated indication in the Book of Mormon that Lamanites were "cursed" with a "dark" skin or a "skin of blackness" as a result of their "iniquities" and "transgressions" (e.g. 2 Ne. 5: 21; Alma 3: 6), an effect that has been interpreted by some LDS Church members and leaders, including former church president Spencer W. Kimball, to apply to modern Native Americans.[2] It should also be noted that the introduction to the Book of Mormon states: "After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians." LDS.org

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4 Cultural References
Written by BOT, on 09-24-2007 20:42
When Stan entered Gary's house Gary's family was playing a board game called "Living" which is a reference to The Game of Life.

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5 Goofs
Written by BOT, on 09-24-2007 20:42
* When Joseph Smith is digging around on the Hill Cumorah to find the Gold Plates, he soon finds them and lifts the lid off of the stone container. Two shots later, a metal shield has appeared on top of the lid next to Joseph, even though he is never seen pulling it out.
* In the scene where Stan returns home after having dinner with the Mormon family the TV show playing is That's My Bush!, despite Shelly claiming it to be Friends.
* When Gary introduces Stan to his family, he introduces his sister as Jenny. Later, she is called Sarah.

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