Pinkeye (South Park) - Cultural References

Cultural References

"Pinkeye" included the first appearance of Principal Victoria, the principal of South Park Elementary. Her appearance is based on Comedy Central executive Debbie Liebling, who served as a South Park producer at the time of the episode's broadcast. Unlike Liebling, however, Principal Victoria spoke with a thick Minnesotan accent; the voice was chosen simply because it was an accent voice actress Mary Kay Bergman could do particularly well.

Cartman dresses like Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party; Cartman occasionally says "Sieg Heil", a common phrase previously used in Nazi Germany. Comedy Central had reservations about the idea and sought ideas for other possible costumes, but Parker and Stone insisted it had to be the Hitler costume. Once the episode aired, however, the two received very few letters from upset viewers over the costume; Parker attributed this to the fact that people were becoming more familiar with the Cartman character, and thus recognized that most of what he said and did was usually wrong. More than Hitler, however, Comedy Central executives were worried about the use of Chewbacca costumes throughout the episode because of George Lucas' well-known tendency to file lawsuits against unauthorized Star Wars references or parodies. The channel contacted his production company, Lucasfilm, about the episode and was asked to send a copy of the episode to them for review. The voice used by the supposedly actual Adolf Hitler in the educational video shown to Cartman is based on Monty Python alum John Cleese's Hitler impression, which both Parker and Stone particularly praised.

Actress and singer Tina Yothers, best known for her role in the television series Family Ties, is featured in the episode as a celebrity judge in the school's costume judging contest. About one year after the episode aired, Stone met Yothers at a venue where she was performing with her band. Stone was uncomfortable because it was the first time he had met a celebrity the show previously mocked, but Yothers said she was a big fan of the show and enjoyed her parody appearance. She used a clip of Kyle saying "Up yours, Tina Yothers" from the episode as an introductory sound clip to introduce her band's shows.

Kenny is turned into a zombie after a mortician accidentally knocks Worcestershire sauce, a fermented liquid condiment, into his embalming fluid. Parker and Stone originally planned to have a Dr Pepper fall into the embalming fluid (in a belated response to that product's slogan "Dr Pepper, What's the Worst That Could Happen?"), but it was changed after the soft drink company objected to that use of their product.

The episode features a parody of the Michael Jackson song "Thriller", as well as the music video. When Chef becomes a zombie, he is dressed like Jackson from the "Thriller" video, and he and the other zombies dance in a similar way. Chef also shouts "Oh" the same way Jackson often did during music performances. The song Chef sings is extremely similar to the actual "Thriller" song, but Parker said they deliberately made it "(just) different enough that we can't get sued". Stan is ridiculed for his likeness to Raggedy Andy, based on the rag doll character by children's writer Johnny Gruelle; Stan's girlfriend Wendy was originally supposed to dress as Raggedy Ann with Stan, but she instead chose to dress as Chewbacca. When Cartman later dons a "ghost" costume, it resembles a costume from the Ku Klux Klan, the militant white supremacy organization. Parker and Stone said they feel Klan jokes are particularly funny because the concept of KKK is so stupid. Stone said, "Dressing up like ghosts to scare black people is just stupid. Stupidly funny." The zombie-version of Kenny is said to resemble Edward James Olmos, the American actor who played Lt. Martin Costillo in Miami Vice.