For the physical phenomenon, see spontaneous combustion.

"Spontaneous Combustion" is episode 302 of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on April 14, 1999.

Plot synopsis

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In this episode, Kyle discovers that his dad and his mom are having marital difficulties, and he and the others (Kenny, Stan and Cartman) all try to find "a resererection", which is what he's lacking. However, various members of the town—beginning with Kenny—start to spontaneously combust randomly, which causes the townspeople to attend church more, and compels Mayor McDaniels to order Randy Marsh (Stan's father) to discern the cause for the explosions.

The boys get drawn into presenting the Stations of the Cross in church, with Cartman tied to the cross in the role of Jesus, after repeated pleading that he couldn't play any other role. Afterwards, the boys take the cross and put it up outside the church, with Cartman still attached, so that he'll die and get a nerection to give to Kyle's dad (having confused "erection" with "nerection" with "Resurrection"). Meanwhile, Randy manages to find out that the combustions are caused by people refusing to fart in front of their partners (Kenny was visiting Kelly, his girlfirend from Rainforest Schmainforest) and so encourages everyone in town to fart every few seconds. For this he wins the Nobel Prize (hosted by Whoopi Goldberg), much to the ire of South Park's only other scientist, Dr. Mephisto, who wanted to win the prize for creating a turtle with seven asses; he plots revenge.

Another crisis then comes up, when a heat wave hits the town, and again Randy is hired to figure out the cause. However, Mephisto beats him to it—he discovers that it is the methane gas from all the farting that led to the global warming, and everybody turns on Randy, unsure whether or not to fart. He is stoned and forced to walk through the town with his own statue on his back, being denied by his friends (as Jesus was in the Stations of the Cross). Meanwhile, Kyle's dad manages to get an erection, after seeing some attractive, young female clients undress in his office (to show him the skin cancer they claim Randy was responsible for).

Randy does not want to try to find a solution for his problem, since all the people in town would still hate him, even if he managed to solve the combustion/global warming conundrum; however, Stan tells him that he learned something from the Stations of the Cross, and that was that even though Jesus was hated by all the people he knew and denied by his friends, he still did what he had to do and as he was dying, stating, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" (which is actually out of The Wrath of Khan). Randy declares that people need to fart only in moderation, and everyone turns back to him. He ends up winning the town's accolades again, and an award three weeks later... at which point the boys remember they left Cartman out on the cross. They run to get him, and find him still alive, having survived for the three weeks on his accumulated body fat.

Trivia

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• During their recital of the "Stations of the Cross", the boys mistakenly state that Jesus was nailed to the cross and then "led away to Mt. Sinai." The townspeople do not seem to notice these errors.
• This episode has the second time Stan quotes Star Trek in a religious setting; in another episode, "Damien", he claims Jesus said, "Don't try to be a great man, just be a man", also from Star Trek.
• The whole chase/music video scene is a parody of Josie and the Pussycats.
• When Randy is trying to find the cause of spontaneous combustion, he assembles a few adults to play the roles of the children. When he decides that the study is stupid, the adult who plays Cartman says, "Screw you guys, I'm going home."
• When Randy explains how methane gas contributes to spontaneous combustion, the molecule shown on the diagram is actually cyclopropane.
• Cartman seems to magically regain his obesity after this episode. It is as if his weight is as constant as Kenny's regeneration.

South Park episodes: Season 3