Prehistoric Ice Man

"Prehistoric Ice Man" is the eighteenth and final episode of the second season of the animated television series South Park, and the 31st episode of the series overall. "Prehistoric Ice Man" originally aired in the United States on January 20, 1999 on Comedy Central.

Plot

Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny are inspired to go hunting for crocodiles by watching a Steve Irwin television programme in which he is depicted as having a predilection for jamming his thumb in the rectums of wild animals. Kyle falls down a hole and finds a man frozen in ice. The boys retrieve him and take him into town, hoping to receive a reward, but no one in South Park is much interested and the body is handed to Dr. Mephesto, the genetic engineer, to dissect. Stan and Kyle get into a fight about who really discovered the "caveman" and what his name should be - the former preferring "Gorac" and the latter "Steve". The pair fall out badly and each decides to adopt Cartman as his new best friend.

Dr Mephisto thaws the ice covering the man and discovers that he is alive and was frozen for only 32 months judging by the Eddie Bauer clothes he is wearing. Despite this, Mephisto and all adults treat him as a prehistoric man and appear to be unable to understand him, even though he speaks perfect English. To make his research more lucrative, Mephisto is persuaded by FBI agents with mysterious plans to display the unfrozen man to the public, recreating his natural habitat for him by building a completely "1996-oriented" room. Kenny dies during a visit after getting caught in a conveyor belt.

Stan and Kyle become upset at the ice man's inhumane treatment, so they decide to set him free. Upon being released, the unfrozen man (whose real name is Larry) returns to his home only to discover that his wife remarried and has two children who are aged 8 and 13. After some time has passed, Larry attempts to refreeze himself, but with little success. Kyle comes up with a solution for Larry to take the train to Des Moines, Iowa and settle there, as the town is supposedly three years behind everywhere else. Dr. Mephisto, Cartman and the FBI, who have hired Steve Irwin as a tracker, catch up with Larry at the train station just as he boards a train to Iowa. Irwin wrestles Larry and attempts his compulsive trick of invading his rectum with his thumb, but the train crashes into a helicopter, killing Irwin. Larry escapes in the helicopter, thanks Stan and Kyle, and heads off for Iowa. The FBI agents let slip that they were planning to use Larry to somehow "take over Sweden". Kyle and Stan then decide to bury the hatchet as Cartman, still ridiculously hunting for crocodiles, does not appeal to either as a best friend.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Prehistoric Ice Man

• "Prehistoric Ice Man" Full Episode at South Park Studios
• "Prehistoric Ice Man" Episode Guide at South Park Studios
• "Prehistoric Ice Man" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Prehistoric Ice Man" at TV.com