my analysis of the boys/Kenny this ep
Okay so you know what hurts my heart? When the boys first make the plans to use the scooters, Kenny is worried because he doesn’t have a phone, but Kyle promises they will work it out “well that’s okay, we’ll figure it out, we always do!”
And Kenny is so happy/relived he can still fit into their plans despite his disadvantage. He thinks his friends will still be there cuz they’re a team, right? :)
Some kids trick-or-treat with a pillowcase or plastic bag, but Kenny goes out of his way to buy a pumpkin pail despite not having a lot of money.
He really likes Halloween and he can’t wait to show his pail off to Cartman.
It absolutely broke my heart seeing how proud Kenny was only to be confused at Cartman’s dismissive reaction “great. cool. you got your pail…” He even looks down at it and back at Cartman, wondering what he did wrong.
As if showing your interests to friends and getting ignored isn’t hard enough, I doubt Kenny has anyone else in his life (like his parents) to validate his interests.
So then there’s the intervention. When Kenny walks in he stops once he sees the other two are there and hesitates, his eyes looks around in confusion and worry.
Cartman: he keeps pushing that Kenny is too poor, which is weird because he’s the second poorest kid in town (or at least one of the poorest). I guess this might be Cartman thinking “if I’m able to have a phone, you should too.” Maybe it’s a way to further separate himself from being poor because at least he’s not “Kenny poor”. Or maybe he thinks it’s Kenny’s fault for not pushing his parents more. We’ve seen how Cartman treats his mom, and in the beginning of the episode he lists off her credit card information without a pause. Cartman pushes to get what he wants, so I think that’s why he views Kenny not having a phone as his own fault.
Cartman and Kenny are supposed to be best friends, but Cartman doesn’t really look out for anyone aside from himself a lot of the times so I felt his reaction was pretty expected.
Kyle: He’s “the smart one” and usually the boys rely on him to come up with plans. We just saw in 2204 that he was willing to spend 3 YEARS of birthday money to get Cartman and Butters out of debt with the vapeshop guy. Part of it is Cartman knowing how to play Kyle to get him to do what he wants, but anyways… Kyle told Kenny “we’ll figure it out” but it seems like he really didn’t try at all. We’ve seen the boys, and specifically Kyle, go through great lengths to get their way. I think if Kyle helping Kenny resulted in them one-uping Cartman or Craig’s gang etc, he would have definitely bought Kenny a phone or attached a wagon to the back of the scooters or SOMETHING. But Kyle just sees Kenny as an obstacle in their way, “The truth is, without a phone you’re just going to slow us down.”
I think I fault Kyle the most because he lied to Kenny, didn’t even try to figure out a plan, and didn’t seem remorseful about the decision at all. It almost seemed like Kyle was trying get Kenny to understand this was okay because it was in the groups best decision to drop Kenny, and he shouldn’t be upset because it’s only logical to drop the weakest link, like “I’m sorry but we have to let you go, it’s in the group’s best interest.”
Stan: It’s tough for him to admit he’s choosing candy over Kenny, and I think he feels bad Kenny can’t be included, but I don’t think he feels guilty about the decision. When Kenny says, “But we always trick-or-treat together.” Stan responds by explaining that he just…doesn’t fit into their scooter plan and they can’t wait around for him to catch up. It’s like “im really sorry it has come to this, but you want the group to thrive, right? And it just doesn’t work with you here.” They have this awesome plan and Kenny just doesn’t fit into that plan, so instead of changing it they drop him.
Stan feels bad he has to be the one to let Kenny know hes being let go. I think he understands the situation sucks but also “it doesn’t work with…you” basically puts the blame on Kenny AND further pushes Candy > Kenny. I think Stan is a dick but doesn’t feel great about admitting how he feels and that’s why his voice shakes. Funny enough, Stan is the first to vomit from eating too much candy. They can’t even eat all the candy they’re getting but still choose it over Kenny.
And Kenny’s reaction to all this is disappointment and defeat. He begs for them to keep him. He could have told them all to fuck off, but he’s just broken.
Determined to still have a good time, he goes to everyone he knows to see if they’ll let him in but everyone has their eyes on the candy. Even when asking the other groups, he doesn’t call out Stan, Kyle, and Cartman for tossing him aside. He just says “oh you know-” to deflect how weird it is for him to be seeking out other groups. It’s sad to see how small and helpless he presents himself.
I wish I had a gif of that scene because his eyes dart around so much. He’s probably come straight from Cartman’s house. When he approaches the girls the next day he’s more confidant and even laughs to try and make light of it all.
And he’s so sad and defeated about no one wanting to go with him, he just wants to talk it over with a counselor. As if Kenny doesn’t have enough to deal with, I don’t know if we’ve ever seen him go to the school counselor despite it all.
Also Mr.Mackey saying “What do you want?” makes me think it might be unusual to see Kenny in his office, if not the first time he’s come for counceling. Could be Mackey just being too busy counting candy but I love to reach.
Also, that shy knuckle rubbing is something we’ve seen Butters do a lot when he’s nervous, and Kenny who is optimistic in the lowest of times is brought to that level. “Halloween is supposed to be happy, and I’m not happy at all.” wow where did all these tears come from :’) Kenny doesn’t feel happy and he can’t talk about it with any of his friends because they’re the ones who hurt him and STILL he isn’t mad at them, he’s mad at the scooters.
Only when talking to Mr.Mackey, who is more worked up and aggressive about this whole scooter situation, does the plan to take down the tower arise. I think without Mackey’s influence Kenny would have just gone trick-or-treating alone, and go back to his friend group the next day as if they didn’t just royally fuck him over. Also note Kenny’s change from defeat to excitement when Mackey says he will help Kenny take down the tower with his car.
His little fits pumped in excitement. Best boy.
Even with the ending, there’s no “you know what Kenny, this is better, just trick-or-treating like normal, no scooters. Sorry we abandoned you.” The boys are all sore losers despite still having loads of candy they can’t even eat. They don’t even try to get the more candy than everyone else once the scooters go down, they just give up. It’s especially sad because “getting the most candy” is what they ditched Kenny for, and with the simple loss of the scooters they give up. And EVERYONE lost the scooters, so they are still have the same level of advantage as everyone else. Even after finding out everyone was using a scooter, they still fought hard to get the candy, but afterward they just don’t care. They abandoned Kenny for something they so easily give up on.
And yet Kenny is still happy to trick-or-treat with them, still calls them his friends. In fact, his reason to destroy the cell tower wasn’t even to get back at them or ruin Halloween for everyone now that he didn’t get to enjoy it. He just wanted to spend it with his friends as equals.
So yeah, that’s my break down of how the boys are assholes and Kenny is truly the goodest boy in existence. Cancel Stan/Kyle/Cartman 2k18. Only Kenny deserves love now. Kenny Park for 2k19.
(Jk I still love all of them and understand it’s for comedic effect and everyone’s been good/bad at some point. I love the main boys I just wanted to analyze the ep no hard feelings at Stan/Kyle/Cartman i still love them.)
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