Casa Bonita

"Casa Bonita" is the eleventh episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 107th episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 12, 2003. In the episode, Cartman misleads Butters into going missing in order to gain an invitation to Kyle's birthday party. The titular restaurant in the episode is based on the real-life Casa Bonita, a Mexican-themed restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado. The episode was written by series co-creator Trey Parker. The show's writing team had the idea of Cartman convincing Butters to disappear long before the episode's production. The rest of the episode's storyline and script were developed in the week preceding its broadcast. The inclusion of Casa Bonita was based on the crew's memories of going there as children; Parker, co-creator Matt Stone, director Eric Stough, and other members of the show's staff had visited the restaurant before. As such, the show's depiction of the restaurant is fairly accurate. The episode received positive reviews from television critics, and is one of Parker's favorite episodes. The real-life restaurant saw an increase in visitors following the episode's airing. In August 2021, Parker and Stone announced that they had struck a deal to purchase the restaurant. Plot Kyle announces that his mother Sheila is taking him and three of his friends to Casa Bonita for his birthday. Stan and Kenny are invited, but Cartman's initial joy is crushed when Kyle says he is taking Butters instead of him due to Cartman's rampant neo-Nazi and antisemitic behavior. Cartman denies ever having engaged in this behavior (followed by a montage of him calling Kyle a Jew) and decides to prove that he is actually nice, but since kindness is such a foreign concept to him, his first attempts are unsuccessful. Eventually, Cartman succeeds by apologizing for his actions and Kyle is touched and tells him that if Butters is unable to attend for some reason, Cartman can take his place. Cartman then takes advantage of the reason and subsequently tells Butters that a meteor is about to hit Earth and hides him in Stan's uncle Jimbo's bomb shelter so that he does not appear in time for the trip.