Cartman Gets an Anal Probe

"Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" is the first episode of the American animated television series South Park. It was originally broadcast on Comedy Central in the United States on August 13, 1997. The episode introduces child protagonists Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh and Kenny McCormick, who attempt to rescue Kyle's younger brother Ike from abduction by aliens.

At the time of the writing of the episode, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone did not yet have a series contract with Comedy Central, and Parker later commented that they felt "pressure" to live up to the internet shorts that first made them popular. Short on money, the duo animated the episode using cut paper stop motion techniques. As such, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" remains the only South Park episode animated without the use of computer technology.

Part of a reaction to the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s in the United States, South Park is deliberately offensive. Much of its humor, and of "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe", arises from the juxtaposition of the seeming innocence of childhood and the violent, crude behavior exhibited by the main characters. The episode also exemplifies the carnivalesque, which includes humor, bodily excess, linguistic games that challenge official discourse, and the inversion of social structures.

When the episode was first broadcast in Canada, "objectionable" material was cut; it was later restored in subsequent...
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