Reception
"Volcano" originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on August 27, 1997, and was rated TV-MA. "Volcano", like the early South Park episodes preceding it, was viewed by slightly more than 1 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. This was considered high for a cable program in the United States at the time. The Environmental Media Association nominated the episode for an Environmental Media Award in the "TV Episodic Comedy" category. However, the eventual recipient of the award was The Simpsons, for the episode "The Old Man and the Lisa".
"Volcano" received generally positive reviews. USA Today critic Matt Roush praised the episode, especially the "Duck and Cover" films. The Advertiser called the episode "outrageously lewd" and "hysterically funny". The Washington Post critic Tom Shales considered the episode funnier than its precedent "Weight Gain 4000". Peter Hawes of The Sunday Star-Times in Auckland, New Zealand, said the episode was funny and intelligent. He said of the episode, "Once again, the US national psyche is imperishably captured by a crude cartoon." He liked the way adults were portrayed as less sensible than the children, and he particularly enjoyed the "Duck and Cover" videos: "It is terrifyingly funny, for it is a word-for-word recreation of the insane Atom-bomb Safety film, created and distributed in 1952 by the US government, who never for a second thought it would work." The Daily Record of Glasgow, Scotland, praised the episode and described it as "hardcore humour": "Love it or loathe it, you can't ignore the adult animation series whose bite is worse than its bark."
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