"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is the ninth episode of the first season of the American animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on December 17, 1997. The episode follows Kyle as he feels excluded from the town's Christmas celebrations due to being Jewish, finding solace in Mr. Hankey, a sentient piece of feces. Mr. Hankey does not come alive in the presence of other characters, who consequently think that Kyle is delusional. Meanwhile, the townspeople remove all religious and commercialized aspects of Christmas to remain politically correct and inoffensive.
The episode was written and directed by co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The Mr. Hankey character was based on an idea from Parker's childhood; when Parker and Stone conceived the South Park series, they intended for Mr. Hankey to be the lead character. Heavily influenced by A Charlie Brown Christmas, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was the first South Park Christmas episode; the first musical episode; and the first episode, as well as the only one of the first season, in which Kenny does not die. In addition to Mr. Hankey, the episode introduced Craig Tucker, the school counselor Mr. Mackey, Kyle's father Gerald Broflovski, and the songs "The Lonely Jew on Christmas" and "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch". It served as a satire of political correctness and religious sensitivity.
The episode received generally positive reviews and has been described as one of the classic South Park episodes. It was watched by 4.55 million viewers during its original broadcast, the highest Nielsen rating to that date for South Park and the fourth-highest overall for a basic cable entertainment program of 1997.
Plot Kyle is cast as Saint Joseph in South Park Elementary's Christmas play, but is forced to withdraw when Kyle's mother Sheila expresses anger that her Jewish son is participating in a Nativity play. In response to Mr. Garrison's question, Kyle suggests the "Mr. Hankey" song as a secular and nonsectarian substitute, but is rejected because no one else believes in its eponymous subject, a living piece of feces. Kyle leaves the school feeling lonely and excluded because, being Jewish, he cannot celebrate Christmas with everyone else.
In the town square, various interest groups meet to complain about how Christmas is presented in South Park; secular activists are angry that the town is showing a nativity scene on municipal property, Shiela is angry at the perceived marginalization of the Jewish community, devout Christians (led by Father Maxi) are angry about secular-commercial aspects of Christmas such as Santa Claus, and environmentalists are angry at the concept of cutting down trees for Christmas. Mayor McDaniels decides that anything deemed offensive will be removed from the Christmas celebrations; because so many people are offended about so many different things, this leads to seemingly innocuous things like mistletoe and decorative stars being removed. Kyle again suggests that the town use Mr. Hankey, since he does not discriminate against anyone, but to no avail. At home, Kyle is scolded by his parents for believing in Mr. Hankey. While Kyle is brushing his teeth, Mr. Hankey emerges from the toilet and spreads feces stains around the bathroom, for which Kyle is blamed. Kyle decides to take Mr. Hankey to school to prove his existence, but Mr. Hankey does not come alive in front of people who do not believe in him. After Cartman sings an insulting song about Sheila, Mr. Hankey lunges at him in retaliation, which everyone perceives as Kyle throwing Mr. Hankey at Cartman. Kyle is sent to Mr. Mackey, the guidance counselor, but gets into further trouble when Mr. Hankey bathes in Mackey's coffee. Cartman, Stan, and Kenny believe Kyle is insane and have him committed to a mental institution.
The night of the play arrives, and with the performance stripped of all Christmas symbols, the children instead present a minimalist song and dance by Philip Glass. The parents, bemused and unentertained by the secular play, begin scapegoating one another for "ruining" Christmas and a fight ensues. When Chef is informed of the situation, he reveals that he too believes in Mr. Hankey. When everyone else starts believing, Mr. Hankey reveals himself and scolds them for fixating on the negative aspects of Christmas and losing sight of the true meaning of the holiday. With Mr. Hankey's existence confirmed, Kyle is released from the asylum and joins the townspeople in caroling as Mr. Hankey departs with Santa Claus. Cartman, Stan, and Kyle realize that something is amiss. As The End appears, Kenny cheers, indicating excitement and relief that, for once, he managed to survive an entire episode.
During the end credits, Jesus dejectedly sings "Happy Birthday to You" to himself alone in his television studio.
Production
Conception and early history The Mr. Hankey character was based on an idea Trey Parker's father created when he was toilet-training Trey as a child. Parker said he refused to flush the toilet as a child, so his father told him if he did not flush down his stool, which he called "Mr. Hankey", it would come to life and kill him. The concept stayed with Parker throughout his childhood; starting in elementary school and throughout his entire education, he would often draw the character in class, wearing a sailor's hat instead of the Santa Claus hat he would later wear in South Park. Parker shared the concept with future South Park co-creator Matt Stone when the two met at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the duo immediately knew they wanted to create a film or production involving Mr. Hankey. The two discussed filming a three-minute short film involving a boy who befriended the talking stool, but Mr. Hankey would not come alive for anybody else, prompting others to believe the boy was crazy. They planned for the boy's parents to find him holding a stool in the bathroom and blame the child for smearing feces along the walls when it was actually Mr. Hankey's fault; they also planned to have him visit a school counselor, where Mr. Hankey would leap into the counselor's coffee mug and the boy would be blamed. At the end, it would turn out that the boy was indeed crazy and Mr. Hankey was not real at all, but a figment of the boy's imagination. Parker and Stone never made the short film, but practically all of its elements were included in the future South Park episode "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", with the notable exception of the ending. Although the Mr. Hankey short film was never made, Parker and Stone made two Christmas-related animated short films called The Spirit of Christmas, which served as precursors to the South Park series.
After the shorts began to generate interest for a possible television series, Parker and Stone conceived the idea of an adult-animated show with four children as main protagonists, and one of the minor characters included a talking stool named Mr. Hankey. They contacted the Fox Broadcasting Company about the show's concept, and the network arranged a meeting with the duo at its office in Century City to discuss how it would proceed. However, Parker and Stone said during the meeting that Fox did not like a talking poo character on its network and demanded the duo remove him, which they refused. When Fox continued to stand by its decision (and supported by sister company 20th Century Fox Television, the show's original developer), the duo cut ties with the network and began pitching the series somewhere else. After Comedy Central expressed interest in the series, Parker and Stone brought up the idea of a Mr. Hankey episode during negotiations with the network executives. Parker claimed during a meeting, he said, "One thing we have to know before we really go any further: how do you feel about talking poo?" The executives were receptive to the idea, which Parker said was one of the main reasons he and Stone decided to sign on with the channel.
The elements of the episode involving Kyle's loneliness as a Jew during Christmas were inspired by Parker and Stone's perceptions of Jews growing up in Colorado during their childhood. Although the two went to different schools, they both witnessed Jewish children get beaten up and bullied because both of their schools had very few Jewish students to begin with; although Stone himself is Jewish, he was not raised as a practicing Jew and so he did not experience much of the bullying himself firsthand. The unsuccessful efforts by the South Park Elementary School in the episode to include people of non-Christian denomination were inspired by similarly failed attempts Parker and Stone witnessed growing up. Parker cited as an example a chorus concert in which the single Jewish student was asked to sing her own Hanukkah song while everybody else sang Christmas songs; although the idea was to make the student feel special, Parker said it only made her feel more lonely and isolated.
Episode production "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was written and directed by Parker and Stone, and first aired in the United States on Comedy Central on December 17, 1997. It was the first official South Park Christmas episode. Television journalists said the Spirit of Christmas shorts were precursors to Mr. Hankey and that they shared some common traits, but that the television episode was considered tamer and more tasteful. Parker and Stone originally conceived the episode "Damien", which involves a boxing match between Jesus and Satan, as the first season's Christmas episode. Although they had long planned to feature Mr. Hankey in the show, they did not decide to make him a Christmas character until halfway through the filming of "Damien". Once they made the decision, they decided to make "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" the holiday episode instead; although it would not air until after the "Mr. Hankey" episode, Parker and Stone finished production of "Damien" before working on "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo".
At the time they were writing the episode, Parker and Stone had seen a large number of news reports about government buildings refusing to allow the display of models of the nativity scene and other Christian holiday symbols, in an effort not to offend other religions. Parker and Stone, as two agnostics who still appreciated the Christmas holiday, said they felt the idea was "ridiculous" and, according to Stone, "We just wanted Mr. Hankey to say Christmas was about good and about presents, and it doesn't have to be this religious [controversy]." The two sought to write an episode in the tradition of old classic Christmas specials with their own irreverent South Park twist, and so they watched the famous 1965 Peanuts special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, repeatedly during the production process. Parker said, "At this point, we just sort of wanted to do a Charlie Brown Christmas South Park version. That [special] was definitely a huge part of my life growing up."