Best Friends Forever
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Best_Friends_Forever".

"Best Friends Forever" is episode 129 of the Comedy Central series South Park paralleling the Terri Schiavo controversy. The episode won a 2005 Emmy Award. It first aired on March 30, 2005.

Plot summary

Kenny is the first person in town to get a new PSP video game system and becomes inseparable from it. Meanwhile, Cartman, who couldn't get his own because he was late getting to the store, grows envious of Kenny's new game system. Kenny quickly works his way up to level 60 of the game Heaven vs. Hell, but because of his parents having an argument, he goes to complete the 60th level outside; there, he is run over by an ice-cream van (driven by someone playing the same game who just reached level 4) and dies.

After ascending to Heaven, Kenny learns that God created the PSP to search for what the angels call "our Keanu Reeves" — the person who can command His legions against the Satan's forces of Hell in a manner like that of the video game. Kenny agrees to take the challenge, but unfortunately, he is revived just after hearing this. Because he had been dead for that long, he cannot talk or communicate and has suffered permanent brain damage. He is kept alive through the use of a feeding tube. The reading of Kenny's will, in which Cartman is given the PSP (out of pity) and Stan and Kyle are given everything else, is interrupted by the announcement that Kenny is still alive. The lawyer mentions a passage about Kenny's wishes in the event of him being in a vegetative state, but the last page of the will is missing, making it impossible to tell what his wishes were.

As Satan's army begins to close in, the angels need Kenny dead so that they can win the battle of the Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Cartman, claiming his status as Kenny's "best friend forever" to the Colorado Supreme Court with the first half of the BFF medallion, gets an order to take out the feeding tube, and he removes the tube after tracking down and finding Kenny's other BFF medallion half so he can get the PSP upon Kenny's death. Stan and Kyle, along with Kenny's parents and other protesters, including Skeeter and Mrs. Garrison (who gets arrested for trying to bring food and water to Kenny), wage a media war to put the feeding tube back in and keep Kenny alive, while Cartman enlists supporters of the rights of "best friends forever" to leave Kenny's feeding tube removed.

After a long, intensive media campaign, the two sides are arguing in Kenny's hospital suite when Kenny's lawyer announces that the last page of the will has been found, and that Kenny's wishes were that if he were ever in a vegetative state, "please, for the love of God…don't ever show me in that condition on national television." In full twist of irony the two sides immediately realize that they have both been disrespectful of Kenny's wishes. Kyle then realizes they should not have made this issue into such a media circus, and concludes that Kenny should be taken off life support, commenting that Cartman was "right, for the wrong reasons," while he and Stan were "wrong, for the right reasons." Everyone in the hospital room then quietly leaves, allowing Kenny to die in peace.

Kenny returns to Heaven just in time to command the angels to victory using a golden PSP. The battle itself is not seen, but is described ("Oh, how I wish I had a camcorder!", "Ooh, now they're bringing in their demon dragons! Look at the size of them!", "Oh, this battle is bigger than the final battle of the Lord of the Rings movie! It's like TEN times bigger than that battle!") The battle ends with Satan being shocked by the defeat of his army and kills his advisor for telling him to be patient, and a few surviving angels weakly cheering and dancing and Kenny receiving a golden statue of Keanu Reeves.

Parallels to the Terri Schiavo case

• Kenny is in a persistent vegetative state, and his parents cite things like blinking or smiling as signs of awareness, rather than categorizing them as the involuntary movements that are characteristic of those in a persistent vegetative state.
• In making his case for the removal of the feeding tube, Cartman points to his rights as Kenny's "best friend forever" (or BFF for short) and he is given custody, instead of Kenny's parents and real friends. In the real-life case, custody of Terri Schiavo was initially given to her husband Michael Schiavo (who wanted the feeding tube removed), not to her parents, though he later gave up authority over the key decision to the court system and a state appointed guardian.
• Cartman is seeking Kenny's removal from life support purely out of self-interest, as he will only get the PSP if Kenny dies. It was speculated that Michael Schiavo was also acting out of self-interest because of the $400,000 insurance money or for other selfish reasons (although he was offered $10,000,000 to sign over his power over Terri, which would mean that he would have no say in her situation). Both Michael Schiavo and Cartman claimed they were only following the wishes of their loved ones. This was done by Michael Schiavo because he was engaged during her vegetative state, initially with the blessing of Schiavo's parents.
• Mrs. Garrison tries to bring food and water to Kenny but gets arrested, as many in favor of keeping Terri Schiavo alive did in a symbolic effort during her dying days.
• Coincidentally, Terri Schiavo died the day after this episode aired.

Awards

• This episode won a 2005 Emmy Award in the category of "Outstanding Animated Program (for programming less than one hour)". This is the first time the show has beaten other nominees, such as The Simpsons and other winners. It also becomes the fourth prime time animated cartoon to win the award, behind The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Futurama.