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"Sexual Harassment Panda" is the 37th episode of Comedy Central's animated series South Park. It originally aired on July 7, 1999.
Plot
Mr. Garrison's class is visited by a friendly educational mascot, Petey the Sexual Harassment Panda, who attempts to teach the kids about sexual harassment so as to prevent it in school. During the visit, Stan calls Cartman an "ass-sucker", and Cartman, inspired by the Panda's teaching, sues Stan for sexual harassment; Kyle's father, Gerald Broflofski acts as his lawyer, and Cartman wins half of Stan's possessions. Gerald then decides to encourage Cartman (and later others) not only to sue each other but also the teachers and the school, leading to chaos throughout the town as he gets rich. Kyle's dad quickly becomes the target of many people's wrath, while he continues to renovate their house into a mansion with his newly-gained assets. Soon afterwards the whole town is suing each other, and Gerald is taking advantage of this by being a lawyer for them all, getting more and more money from every case. And because everyone is scared of being sued, no one can stand up to Gerald.
Because the school board needs to cut costs, Sexual Harassment Panda is fired. He cannot get a new job as a panda mascot, and refuses to change his costume due to an apparently genuine belief that he is a panda. Thus, he goes to the Island of Misfit Mascots Commune, for mascots whose messages are dumb or simply make no sense. Many mascots here also seem to believe they are the animals they're portraying. The boys, however, seeing the negative results of the lawsuits on their school, track him down and convince him to return to town with a new message. Meanwhile, Gerald is litigating the biggest sexual harassment lawsuit ever, Everyone v. Everyone, where he represents everyone who hires him to take on everyone else (flagrantly disregarding conflict of interest in the process).
The Panda arrives back in South Park under a new name, Petey the Don't Sue People Panda, and delivers a sermon on how people should not sue each other constantly because it does nothing but damage the school system, taking away money from classrooms, schools and themselves, the taxpayers. The people, realizing the sagacity of this statement, angrily cry that they should sue Gerald, who quickly agrees to file no more lawsuits about sexual harassment in schools or anywhere else. In the end, all the sexual harassment suits are dropped.
Trivia
- Parker and Stone indicated in the DVD commentary that the Panda is actually Santa Claus as they have the same voice.[citation needed]
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