"Ginger Kids" is the eleventh episode in the ninth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 136th episode of the series overall, it first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 9, 2005. In the episode, Eric Cartman is led to think he has contracted a mysterious and sudden onset of "gingervitus" (in actuality, Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski use skin bleach, hair dye, and henna, to transform him into a ginger kid in his sleep). To stop being ridiculed for his fake red hair, light skin and freckles, he rallies all the ginger kids everywhere to fight against the persecution and rise up to become the master race he believes they are intended to be.
The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker. It caused controversy after its premise was misunderstood by people who acted violently against redheads.
Plot
For a class presentation, Eric Cartman delivers his own against what he calls "gingers": people with red hair, freckles, and pale skin due to an alleged disease called "Gingervitis" (possibly named after Gingivitis). He describes them as being disgusting, inhuman, unable to survive in sunlight, and having no souls. Kyle Broflovski, who labels Cartman's presentation as a hate speech, points out that he too has red hair, to which Cartman says that there is a second class of redheads, the "daywalkers", who have red hair but not pale skin and freckles.
In Kyle's attempt to prove Cartman wrong, he decides to do a presentation countering Cartman's facts, arguing that being a "ginger kid" is an inheritable trait. To prove this, Kyle and Stan Marsh visit a family who have redhead children. To their shock, the non-Ginger parents of the Ginger kids, who each carry a recessive gene that has caused them to have Ginger kids, possess the same prejudice towards Ginger kids as Cartman. The father of the Ginger kids informs Kyle that marrying an Asian woman ensures that the recessive gene is not passed down, and mentions a friend who is marrying an Asian woman for that reason. When Kyle makes his presentation, Cartman stands up for his claims and uses Biblical references, alleging that Judas Iscariot was a Ginger. As a result, Cartman's speech causes a new-found prejudice towards Ginger kids in the school. The gingers are treated as outcasts and forced to eat in the hallway rather than the cafeteria. Stan, Kyle, and Kenny McCormick agree that they need to teach Cartman a lesson.
At night, the three sneak into Cartman's room and use skin bleach to make his skin pale, dye his hair red, and put Henna tattoos of freckles on his face. Cartman wakes up in the morning to discover that he now has the disease "gingervitis" and has become a Ginger himself. Cartman is taken to the doctor, who turns out to be prejudiced himself and soon insults him, even suggesting that Mrs. Cartman have him euthanized, which she considers. At school, Cartman is laughed at by Butters Stotch, and faces discrimination from the very people he himself convinced to despise Gingers. He is forced to join the gingers in eating in the hallway despite his attempts to convince them that he is still who he was. In response to this, Cartman establishes the "Ginger Separatist Movement" to promote the better aspects of being ginger.
Initially peaceful, Cartman's movement quickly becomes violent and Nazi-esque in tone, arguing that Gingers are a "great race", though when he tries to name a successful "ginger", the gingers are forced to simply declare themselves as being like "Ron Howard… and others." He and his organization start holding protests, including beating up a brunette who played Little Orphan Annie, for playing a redhead but not actually being one. Eventually, Cartman convinces the Ginger kids to decide to kill all the town's non-gingers by telling them "The only way to fight hate… is with MORE hate!"
An hour before dawn, the boys decide to sneak into Cartman's room and change him back to his original appearance. However, on their way over to his house, Ginger kids start to creep out of seemingly nowhere and follow them. At first, though terrified, the boys try to ignore them and decide to go home. Kenny is suddenly snatched away, prompting Kyle and Stan to break into a run. Meanwhile, children across the town are abducted from their homes by the Ginger kids. Eventually, Stan and Kyle are the only ones left. They lock themselves in a barn for protection but the Ginger kids break in and capture them both.
All the non-gingers are taken to the Sunset Room at the Airport Hilton Hotel, complete with a lava pit and refreshment buffet. They are all imprisoned in cages and will be chosen for sacrifice one by one.