"Damien" is the tenth episode of the first season of the American animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on February 4, 1998. In the episode, the boys' class is joined by a new student named Damien, who has been sent by his father Satan to find Jesus and arrange a boxing match between the two. The majority of South Park's residents bet on Satan to win the match due to his enormous size and muscular physique, but Satan ultimately throws the fight and reveals he bet on Jesus, thus winning everybody's money.
The episode was written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, with additional dialogue by Dave Polsky, and directed by Parker. The episode serves as a satire on religion, faith and the nature of good and evil, as well as a commentary on commercialism, the cult of celebrity in America and the nature of children. It was originally conceptualized as a Christmas special, but the original broadcast was pushed forward when Parker and Stone decided instead to make "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" the season's holiday episode.
"Damien" received generally positive reviews and was watched by 5.55 million viewers when it was first broadcast, making it the highest rated cable program the week it aired. The episode marked the first appearance of Satan, who would become a recurring South Park character, as well as the character of Damien himself, who was inspired by the antagonist of the 1976 horror film The Omen. Parker and Stone also said the episode introduced several key characteristics of the character Eric Cartman that have endured throughout the rest of the series. Michael Buffer, a boxing ring announcer known for the catchphrase "Let's get ready to rumble!", makes a guest appearance as himself.
Plot
Eric Cartman is excited about his upcoming birthday party and lets everyone invited know what present he expects to receive from each, besides Pip Pirrup, who is not invited due to Cartman "shoving his invitation up his ass". When they protest, he threatens to ban them from eating the food his mother makes, something that immediately convinces them. They encounter a new student named Damien, son of Satan, who threw Cartman's desk through the window. The other boys mock him and, in response, Damien turns Kenny McCormick into a duck-billed platypus, then later sets the playground on fire. Damien informs Jesus that Satan will rise for a final battle with him of good versus evil. South Park residents immediately begin making bets on the fight. Cartman is angered to learn the event is scheduled for the same time as his party, and the children struggle to choose between the two events.
The entire town bets on Jesus to win the fight, but begin to lose faith when Satan appears for the weigh-in. He is huge and weighs a little over , while Jesus weighs a mere , and the citizens of South Park begin changing their bets. Jesus confronts the South Park residents about their changed betting slips after learning only one person is still betting on Jesus to win. Distraught, Jesus asks Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski and Chef to help him train. Damien gets counseling from Mr. Mackey, who recommends he just try being nice no matter what the other kids do, just like with unpopular British child Pip. Damien tries to apologize to the boys for setting fire to the playground and turning Kenny into a duck-billed platypus, stating that he was "doing his father's bidding" and he did not have a choice. The boys, however, still continue to act negatively towards Damien. Cartman's birthday party begins, as does the fight. Damien and Pip arrive uninvited to the party, but the kids finally accept Damien after he hurls Pip in the air and makes him explode in a shower of fireworks. However, an enraged Cartman ends his party early after opening Kyle's present to discover that it's not what he had in mind.
Meanwhile, Jesus is disheartened by the town's lack of faith in him, and he does not retaliate to Satan's attacks against him, despite Satan's apparent taunting of "hit me". Chef and the kids make it for the end of the fight and offer Jesus some words of encouragement. Inspired, Jesus finally throws a single weak punch. However, Satan then takes a dive and goes down for the count. Afterward, Satan reveals that his plan had, in fact, been to bet on Jesus and then throw the fight, winning him a lot of money and real estate from the South Park residents. The townspeople are upset by this, until Stan reminds them that Jesus told them not to bet on Satan. The whole town then asks forgiveness of Jesus, who accepts the apology. Kenny dies when Jimbo Kern identifies him as a rare duck-billed platypus and shoots him. Damien bids goodbye to Stan and Kyle since his dad "is always on the move" he has to leave. Meanwhile, Cartman has continued his party even after kicking everyone out and has eaten all the food himself.
Production
Origins
thumb|300px|right|South Park co-creators [[Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote "Damien"]]
"Damien" was written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, with additional dialogue by Dave Polsky, and was directed by Parker. Parker said he and Stone did not intend for "Damien" to be offensive to Christians or any other religion: "In South Park, Jesus is a great guy, he's on our show, and in this episode he's the hero. We're not in the business of offending people. We're in the business of making people laugh." The mean way Damien is treated by his fellow students when he joins the school, as well as Damien's reactions to the treatment, were inspired by Parker's experience of the second grade, when he started at a Cheyenne, Wyoming elementary school in the last three weeks of the school year. Parker said, "It was brutal ... Everybody already had their little groups and the year was almost over, so I wasn't going to fit into any of them, and I just wanted to destroy and kill, which was the inspiration for this show." "Damien" was the first episode Parker and Stone wrote that included school counselor Mr. Mackey and local religious leader Priest Maxi, but they were also included in "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", which aired before "Damien" even though it was produced afterward. Although Jesus had been introduced as a South Park character in previous episodes, "Damien" marked the first time he interacted with the main characters outside of his public access talk show, Jesus and Pals. Parker said many viewers thought the character was a crazy person who falsely believed he was Jesus, and he and Stone wanted to show in this episode that he was supposed to be the actual Jesus. Kenny is turned into a duck-billed platypus in the episode, which Parker said was done because, "Duck billed platypuses are something I've always been infatuated with. They're just so bizarre." Judge later provided Kenny's un-muffled line when he removed his parka in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
Themes
"Damien" has been described as a satire on religion, faith and the nature of good and evil, Parker said the writers sought to satirize the speed and ease at which the followers of Jesus lose faith in him and bet against him. Parker said, "Everybody puts their trust in Satan and ends up getting screwed. There is a bigger message – all in all, a pretty wholesome message. That's why South Park works. Sometimes we have a message."
Parker also said he and Stone purposely wrote the episode to present Jesus as the hero from a "humanist approach"; Matt Zoller Seitz of The Star-Ledger said: "They aren't making fun of organized religion (though they have in the past). They're making fun of those who would turn religion into entertainment and entertainment into a kind of religion." Nancy Kerrigan, the Olympic figure skater attacked on orders of fellow skater Tonya Harding at the 1994 Winter Olympics, is referred to in a pep talk Stan gives Jesus. Stan wrongfully claims Kerrigan won the gold medal until Kyle reminds him she won the silver; Parker said this was done because he felt the perception of Kerrigan was extremely high among Americans considering she only actually achieved second place. For his birthday, Cartman wants the complete line of a set of action figures called Mega Man. Although they share the name with the popular Mega Man video game series, the multi-colored figures were actually inspired by both the anime series Voltron as well as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the 1993 children's action series which was still popular at the time of the episode's original broadcast. The script was originally written with direct references to the Power Rangers, but Comedy Central asked Parker and Stone to change the name due to copyright issues. The figures were stated to be inspired by Voltron in the video game South Park: Chef's Luv Shack. Cartman receives Ants in the Pants, an actual children's tabletop game, as a birthday present. Stone described Ants in the Pants as "the lamest game ever", which is why Cartman responds so negatively to the gift in the episode. Before "Damien" even ran, Mike Duffy of Detroit Free Press said the episode was "certain to become one of the show's signature moments". In fact, Parker and Stone originally intended for "Damien" to be the season's Christmas episode. Although they had long planned to feature a talking piece of feces in the show, called Mr. Hankey, they did not decide to make him a Christmas character until halfway through the filming of "Damien", during which time they decided to make a separate holiday episode instead, centered around the Mr. Hankey character. Nevertheless, they decided to finish production of "Damien" first, even though it would not air until after the "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" episode.
"Damien" was later released, along with eleven other episodes, in a three-DVD set in November 1998. It was included in the second volume, which also included the episodes "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig", "Death" and "Pinkeye". The episode, along with the other twelve from the first season, was also included in the DVD release "South Park: The Complete First Season", which was released on November 12, 2002. Parker and Stone recorded commentary tracks for each episode, but they were not included with the DVDs due to "standards" issues with some of the statements; Parker and Stone refused to allow the tracks to be edited and censored, so they were released in a CD completely separately from the DVDs.
Reception
"Damien" received a 6.4 Nielsen rating, a record high for the show until it was broken two weeks later by the episode "Mecha-Streisand" (which received a 6.9 rating, translating to 5.4 million viewers in 3.2 million households). It was the highest rated cable program the week it aired, with viewership among 18- to 49-year-olds being higher than the number of households. The network averages viewer ratings of 276,000 households during prime time and, prior to South Park, the channel's highest rating was from the second-season premiere of Absolutely Fabulous, which was seen by 1.24 million households.
Parker said following the tremendous success of "Mr Hankey, the Christmas Poo", much of the direct feedback he received for "Damien" was negative. Parker described it as the "first sort of backlash"
Rolling Stone contributor Doug Pratt called it a "high point" of the first season. Kinney Littlefield of the Orange County Register said of the episode, "All this proves once again that animated series are great platforms for hot topics that live action shows don't dare grab head on. South Park allegory of good and evil is more apt and knowing than anything seen on <nowiki>'</nowiki>Christy or <nowiki>'</nowiki>Touched by an Angel. Funnier too." Virginia Rohan of The Record praised the episode, saying, "The episode is funny, and ultimately, good does conquer evil, albeit for all the wrong reasons." Chicago Sun-Times writer Lon Grahnke gave the episode three stars and called it simultaneously strange and funny. Eric Mink of the New York Daily News called the episode "awfully funny"