South Park Attacks!

Towlie
Episode 508
Original Airdate: August 8, 2001

The episode starts innocently enough. Cartman turns up a bloody tampoon in the bathroom, forcing Stan's mother to buy the guys a 2001 Okama Gamesphereto avoidany further questions pertaining to the feminine reproductive cycle. Happened to all of us, right? But as the boys retreat into blissful bouts of Gamesphere exclusive, Thirst for Blood, a talking towel shows up out of nowhere to sling water-based cliches and offer marijuana. Needless to say the boys could care less about Towlie, desiring nothing more than to lose themselves in their new console fordays at a time.

Unfortunately, the kids are eventually forced to go back to school, leaving their Gamesphere vulnerable to a kidnapping. The boys' brief meeting with the ultimate two dimensional character lands them in a twisted plot involving resistance groups, aliens and a tyrannical corporation hell bent on towel gene manipulation (TNA). Along with Towlie, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny straight-facedly airdrop into heavily fortified complexes, ignore violent flare ups and reluctantly uncover secrets that could destroy both humanity and the garment industry. All the while, treating the adventure of a lifetime with the same begrudged enthusiasm usually reserved for picking out new school clothes.

It's not uncommon for new game consoles to have just such an effect on people. Often times, social obligations fall by the wayside and relations with once cherished pets become damaged irreparably. You probably know someone who has forged someabnormal, fanboyfixation on their new consoles. Perhaps that's what the creators were getting at with yet another hidden meaning: in certain olderAsian cultures "okama" is a pejorative term for homosexuality. Oh, you rascaly writers.