Helen Keller! The Musical - Cultural References

Cultural References

The storyline of Timmy and Gobbles is similar to A Charlie Brown Christmas. The scenes of Butters running down the hall is similar to scenes in The Right Stuff. The title of the episode may be a reference to Cannibal! The Musical, which was also created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Another reference to Cannibal! The Musical are the fake beards that the children are forced to wear in their play. The scene where Cartman follows Jeffrey Maynard's suggestion of using sensory deprivation to get inside the mind of Helen Keller, resulting in disturbing and apocalyptic images flooding Cartman's mind, bears much similarity to the sensory deprivation sequences in the Ken Russell film Altered States. The final shot of Cartman's vision is from the movie Inseminoid. Cartman also makes a reference to Tim Rice writing the lyrics to The Phantom of the Opera. However, these lyrics were written by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. The scene of the turkeys watching the movie before being killed is a reference to the euthanasia scene in Soylent Green. Jeffrey Maynard is a parody of Colm Wilkinson, who originated the role of Jean Valjean in the Broadway musical Les Miserables.