Greetings Celiac Warriors!
Recently, South Park did a gluten free episode that got a lot of attention in the gluten free and Celiac communities. For the most part, the reaction has been positive. Many folks, including myself, found it hilarious.
You may be wondering what the episode was about. I'm going to give you the cliff notes version:
The episode starts off with the kids returning to school after their start up company fails. Then the show cuts to the teachers lounge where the teachers are discussing Mr. Mackey who has gone gluten free. Mr. Mackey comes back and starts blaming all the world's problems on gluten. A co-worker becomes annoyed by all the gluten free talk and starts screaming at Mr. Mackey to shut up. Mackey states that behavior problems are due to gluten consumption. A female teacher expresses interest in going gluten free.
Later on, the boys are on the radio promoting an "epic" party. Callers ask the boys if there will be a gluten free option at the shindig. One caller says that they've been gluten free for one day and she feels so much better. Another caller expressed outrage because he had recently gone to a restaurant and ordered a gluten free quinoa salad, and the guy next to him was eating a sandwich. He started expressing his grief that the restaurant seated him next to a gluten eater. Cartman becomes intrigued and asks the question that most usually ask: "What is gluten?"
After the commercial, the show cuts to a gym full of people and a nutritionist begins speaking. He starts explaining what gluten is, while he extracts pure gluten from a loaf of bread. He concludes that gluten is not evil. Mr. Mackey dares him to consume the pure gluten. The nutritionist takes the dare and consumes it. Suddenly, the nutritionist begins to transform into something scary. Lightning bolts are around him, he becomes irritable, and then his male anatomy flies off. His body becomes torched from the lightning.
The gym evacuates and the nutritionist's dick demolishes one of the folks running away. One escapee runs past a Papa John's and screams through the door that they need to leave the town.
The townspeople return to their homes and throw out everything that contains gluten. When Stan sees his dad throwing out wheat thins, he asks his dad why, since he wanted to serve it at the party. His dad tells him that wheat thins will make his dick fall off.
An angry mob comes together outside of Stan's house and begins throwing gluten foods in a bonfire.
Next, the show cuts to a wheat field and the angry mob starts torching it. At the USDA, they monitor the situation closely. They begin to suspect that gluten is the cause of the worldwide panic over gluten. They test the gluten on lab rats, whom end up dying (and the rat dicks fly off upon death).
The military begins quarantining towns folk who have come into contact with gluten. They use Papa Johns as the quarantine building and tell the folks inside that they can eat pizza toppings as their only source of food. A few hours later, they run out of pizza toppings and one guy loses his cool. He runs into the back of the building, where the pizza dough is. He consumes the pizza dough, and then succumbs to the gluten poison.
Meanwhile, the kids go on the radio once again to send out an SOS, stating that the gluten is toxic and they don't know how much time they have left on Earth. People call in and curse them out for canceling the party.
Cartman has a dream that Aunt Jemima tells him how to fix the situation and save all of humanity from certain death by gluten. He calls the USDA and tells them that the world can be saved if they flip the food pyramid. The USDA agrees and flips the pyramid (Fats and oils become the most important part of the diet, and grains become the least important).
With the pyramid upside down, the crisis ends. Cartman and the boys hold the party and serve sticks of butter, and also steak.
My thoughts:
When I first heard about the episode, I groaned because I figured that everyone was going to go crazy and put the producers of South Park on blast for giving the wrong impression about gluten. I was surprised at the reactions.
I really liked the episode. I thought it was pretty hilarious. Of course, when us Celiacs come into contact with gluten, we don't get hit by lightning, and I'm sure guys don't experience their wee-parts flying off. We do become irritable, but we also become very ill. Sometimes, our symptoms can become life-threatening.
Folks, gluten is not something that will cause an ebola-like crisis. In fact, grains and gluten are a healthy part of a general diet. Wheat has so many health benefits. Unfortunately, people like me cannot have wheat. We make do, though. There are so many alternatives, that we shouldn't feel like we are going without.
While this South Park parody was meant for laughs, there was also a small aspect of truth to what was being told. The nutritionist explained gluten pretty well, for about 30 seconds.
I know that the reason behind this episode was to target the gluten free fad dieters. Even though I enjoyed the episode, I think that there should have been a little something about Celiac Disease.
What did you guys think about the episode? If you haven't seen it, you can watch it
here.
PS- The "gluten makes your dick fall off" was the most hilarious part of the episode. I nearly cried from laughter.
