Damien (South Park) - Cultural References

Cultural References

The voice for Satan, provided by Parker, was inspired by the voice of the Pinhead character at the ending of the 1988 horror film, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, when Pinhead emotionally recalls his old life, when he was a good person. The animators went through several sketch drafts for Satan because, in Parker's words, "There's so many ways to go with him and we couldn't figure out the right one for a long time". The large and muscular look of the character stemmed from the fact that the script called for Satan to massively outweigh Jesus, and that look has persisted for the character throughout the rest of the series.

The character of Damien himself was also first featured in this episode; although he appeared as a background character in a handful of future episodes, he seldom has a speaking role and is never again featured as prominently as he was in "Damien". The character was inspired by Damien Thorn, the child antichrist character in the 1976 horror film The Omen. The music which plays in the episode whenever Damien performs magic is also directly inspired by the music from that film; that same demonic chorus would later be reused in the twelfth season episode "Britney's New Look". (The lyric "Rectus Dominus" repeatedly sung by the demonic chorus in the episode translates from Latin as "Ass Master".) The scene in which the boys tell Damien his mom is "a real dog" is also a reference to The Omen. In that film, the actual Antichrist's mother was a jackal.

In addition to Michael Buffer, the American boxing promoter Don King is featured prominently in "Damien" as Satan's promoter. Parker said he and Stone decided to spoof King only because "it's just sort of who annoyed us that week. It's so random ... there is no point to who we're ripping on. It's definitely nothing personal." Nancy Kerrigan, the Olympic figure skater attacked on orders of fellow skater Tonya Harding at the 1994 Winter Olympics, is referred to in a pep talk Stan gives Jesus. Stan wrongfully claims Kerrigan won the gold medal until Kyle reminds him she won the silver; Parker said this was done because he felt the perception of Kerrigan was extremely high among Americans considering she only actually achieved second place. During that same pep talk, Stan tells Jesus, "You know, someone once said, 'Don't try to be a great man, just be a man.'" Although Stan says this was a quote from Jesus himself, it was actually a line from the 1996 film, Star Trek: First Contact. "Damien" also includes a reference to singer Nancy Sinatra, the daughter of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra. Mr. Garrison, while discussing great singers of the baroque period, goes on to say that "Nancy Sinatra was quite a choice piece of ass".

The Jesus Vs. Satan pay-per-view event "Boutin' at the Mountain" is a parody of similarly advertised pay-to-watch boxing events featured on the premium cable channel HBO. Before Jimbo shoots Kenny in his platypus state, he screams, "It's coming right for us!" This is a reference to the previous South Park episode "Volcano", in which Jimbo takes the children hunting and tells them to shout the phrase before shooting anything to get around restrictive hunting laws. Cartman insults Damien by asking if he got his haircut from Stevie Wonder, a blind soul and R&B singer. For his birthday, Cartman wants the complete line of a set of action figures called Mega Man. Although named Mega Man, the multi-colored figures were actually inspired by the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the 1993 children's action series which was still popular at the time of the episode's original broadcast. The script was originally written with direct references to the Power Rangers, but Comedy Central asked Parker and Stone to change the name due to copyright issues. Cartman receives Ants in the Pants, an actual children's tabletop game, as a birthday present. Stone described Ants in the Pants as "the lamest game ever", which is why Cartman responds so negatively to the gift in the episode.