It first aired on Oct. 7. But lead time is pretty meaningless when it comes to South Park. They can have a show written and animated in less than a week. In the case of “About Last Night,” they even were working on that episode the morning of its airday due to filling in such things as lines from Obama’s victory speech and McCain’s concession speech, although most of that episode was actually worked on in advance under the assumption that Obama would win the election. They actually got in a joke referring to Obama’s maternal grandmother passing away, which occurred just a few days before the election.
I did not know that. Thanks.
How long has Ike been able to speak understandable sentences and hold conversations? the last eps I saw had him still babbling in baby talk…
It was nice hearing “Mr Jefferson” again, I used to think he was annoying, but I was being ignorant
the Ghost Hunters plotline was MEH, that show is rather tedious…
Regarding lead time, I seem to remember them spoofing the Elian Gonzalez closet extraction less than a week after it happened.
Regarding Chipotle, meh. Q’Doba and Baja Fresh are a lot better, and never make me crap blood.
Regarding Ghost Hunters, I was watching that show right before this episode aired, and the parody was hilarious.
Shit, I did not know he was gone as well, my Dad had a Cordoba.
I take it that you haven’t actually watched it, then.
Carry on.
Damn, I only caught about half of those.
Any guesses on the rest of the plane load?
I’ve watched it and also thought South Park got the essense of it. I was in a room full of people who thought the same thing. We were howling over it.
That’s amazing. It was 23 days for the 10/7 episode. Patrick Swayze was the last of the people in it and he died Sept 14th. But the more I think about it I think they may have been even closer to the mark then they know. Michael Jackson continues to show up in the news so it’s like he doesn’t know he’s dead.
What was that last line? Hell is a “towing gate” ?
I think the joke was that the plane would have to be towed to the gate instead of being able to taxi itself in, implying even more delays.
I could be wrong, though; I’ve never heard the term “towing gate” before.
On further research, there is indeed such a thing as a “towing gate”, but I’d’a thought this was common at most modern airports. Heck, the old-style alternative of wheeling a staircase up to the hatch and having the passengers walk across the tarmac might even be less convenient, although I could understand delays in getting towed to a gate if the airport is busy, which I assume Hell International is.
I guess I don’t travel by air often enough to immediately get the joke. A reference to having to go through security yet again would have made the point more clearly.
You must be watching a different show than I am!!! The parody was dead on. Like all parodies there’s exaggerations of course, but the parts about hearing noises and seeing unusual things are dead on. Also the stupid shooting in the dark using infrared or whatever matched the show. Ghost Hunters is one of the most ridiculous shows on the air, but it is good for a laugh.
The staircase thing is absolutely a pain in the butt. The Las Cabos airport is like that. (8 gates and you have to walk outside to the staircase for all of them)
Since hell would be an international flight, you could have customs, the declaration forms to fill out, luggage searches, security and all kinds of fun. 
They could have made a joke that the customs agents had already gone home for the evening and they had to stay on the plane. This would have jabbed at the lingering celeb effect AND the recent snafu Continental Airlines had when a plane was diverted to Rochester.
I found myself thinking about that . . . Suppose it had been male judges publicly masturbating at a conventional beauty contest with adult women? Would that be funny? Could be, depends how they play it, but it would be a different joke, because viewing beautiful women as sex objects is presumptively normal (whatever feminists might say). The premise here is that kiddie-pageants sexualize little girls, that is not normal, therefore men who will respond to all that as intended (and who else would judge such a pageant?) are perverts by definition, and perverts will do anything, like masturbating in public. Or something.
Funny, I guess, but not as funny nor as clever as the one with NAMBLA.