Twice a year we get some new episodes of South Park for 7 weeks and then we have to wait again, so we enjoy while we can. South Park returned to its normal Wednesday night time slot with season 13 episode 8 titled "Dead Celebrities" and it was a top quality episode. Not as good as the episodes "Fatbeard" or "Margaritaville," but certainly up there.
The episode gets started with little Ike being haunted, seeing ghosts of dead celebrities, mainly Billy Mays who is constantly pitching him products in that loud television voice. During the course of Ike freaking out, he runs down the hallway and opens doors to see more of the deceased, including Farrah Fawcett and David Carradine who still has a rope around his neck. Ike is really scared and his family are all concerned, taking him to see a psychiatrist.
Kyle is very concerned and tells his friends, strangely Cartman seems to care deeply, we find out he is a big fan of Billy Mays and uses a product he endorsed. That sets up a fantastic running joke that runs throughout the episode. The boys call in the team from "THe Ghosthunters" television show and they turn out to be scared of their own shadows and see ghosts in everyone and everything. That leads to Ike being admitted to the hospital where a doctor who specializes in the paranormal explains to the boys that the celebrities may be in purgatory and unable to cross over. Cartman is scared that Billy Mays may not be able to rest.
The doctor reaches out to the spirits and a bunch of dead celebrity voices are heard before Ike becomes possessed with the ghost of Michael Jackson who believes he is a little girl. Meanwhile on a spirit plane, the ghosts of the celebrities are anxiously waiting to cross over and we see that DJ AM and many others are there. The stewards are continually giving them excuses as to why the flight is being delayed and now they have to wait for Michael Jackson.
The boys realize that Jackson is looking for recognition of what he really is so they enter Ike into one of those beauty pageants for little girls and after he wins, Michael Jackson returns to the plane and all the celebrities are able to cross over to their final destination which turns out to be hell. This was a funny and clever episode and you can see clips of it at the Free Video Blog.
Brandon Lee VS David Carradine- Finale in Kung Fu: The Movie
