page_title: Sexual Healing (South Park)
section_title: Production and themes
hierarchical_section_title: Sexual Healing (South Park) / Production and themes
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Tiger Woods. English: Tiger Woods.
context_page_description: "Sexual Healing" is the fourteenth season premiere of the American animated television series South Park, and the 196th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 17, 2010, and on Comedy Central UK on March 19, 2010. The title of the episode is derived from the song of the same name by soul singer Marvin Gaye. In the episode, the sex scandal of golf pro Tiger Woods has the media and public frantic to determine why rich and successful men would suddenly crave sex with multiple partners. Meanwhile, schools are screened for the condition and Kyle, Kenny and Butters are diagnosed with sexual addiction.
  The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. "Sexual Healing" parodies several elements of the Woods scandal, including alleged fights with his wife Elin Nordegren, which are portrayed as part of a new Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game played by Cartman, Stan, and Kenny.
context_section_description: "Sexual Healing", the South Park fourteenth season premiere, was written and directed by series co-founder Trey Parker and was rated TV-MA-L in the United States. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 17, 2010, and in the United Kingdom on March 19. A teaser clip of the episode called "All the Temptations" featuring a parody of Woods's February 2010 televised public apology was featured on the official South Park website, South Park Studios, and drew 62,000 viewers on the first day. Before the episode aired, several news outlets incorrectly reported the episode's title was "All the Temptations" due to the clip.
  The episode satirized the sex scandal surrounding golf pro Tiger Woods, who had admitted to cheating on his wife Elin Nordegren with multiple partners. The Woods scandal had been one of the biggest media stories in the months since South Park's thirteenth season ended in November 2009. Series co-creator Matt Stone said the scandal provided so much material for satire that an entire season could have been dedicated to it, and the media storm surrounding Woods meant they had even less to worry about the delicacy of their parody. Stone said he was simultaneously fascinated and disgusted by Woods's public apology, so the writers were sure to include it in the episode. The script to "Sexual Healing" was not finished until after March 12, five days before the episode aired. This was in keeping with a continued practice from previous South Park seasons, in which Parker and Stone write and produce their episodes within the week before their broadcast dates in order to harness energy for the final product and keep the material fresh. In an early image of the episode released to the press, Woods is seen at his apology press conference, with Cartman standing beside him. During the production of the episode, the writers decided to incorporate the Tiger Woods scenes as part of the video game that the boys, including Cartman, are playing.
  "Sexual Healing" parodied several real-life elements of the scandal, including Nordegren's discovery of Woods's infidelity by reading text messages on his cellular phone, and Woods's loss of commercial endorsements as a result of his infidelity. The episode also parodies the alleged fight that was reported between Woods and Nordegren on Thanksgiving in which Nordegren attacked Woods's car with a golf club and caused him to crash into a fire hydrant. "Sexual Healing" also included a version of the public apology Woods delivered on February 2010, which was closely covered and examined by the mainstream media. The episode aired only a few days after Woods publicly announced he would return to golf at the 2010 Masters Tournament in April.
  The shock and confusion with which the male characters in "Sexual Healing" react to the Woods scandal, and the extreme measures they undertake to learn why rich and successful men crave sex, served as a parody to the wide media attention and analysis the scandal received. The episode puts forward a pragmatic explanation that it is natural for men to crave sex, so although Woods's actions cannot be condoned, they can at least be understood for what they are. This point of view particularly conveyed in the speech of one SWAT team member near the end of the episode, who is ostracized, imprisoned and unknowingly shot to death by Kyle and Butters after expressing his common sense views. The episode suggests men of normal financial means would likely be tempted by infidelity and sexual affairs if they had enough fame and money to obtain them easily.
  "Sexual Healing" suggests celebrities involved in sexual scandals should not be forced to undergo rehabilitation and public acts of contrition. The scene in which the celebrities start shaking and dancing, proclaiming "Look, the sex addiction is leaving my body!", demonstrates the insincerity and ridiculousness of these public steps. The episode also mocked the measures used to diagnose and treat sexual addiction in the United States. This is particularly prevalent when Kenny, Kyle and Butters 
caption: "Sexual Healing" parodied the sex scandal surrounding golf pro Tiger Woods and satirized the media attention it generated
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "0960-TigerWoodsATTNational.jpg: Tiger Woods returned to Washington on April 20 and vowed to donate 30,000 tickets for the AT&T National Hosted by Tiger Woods PGA Tour event to retired veterans, active-duty troops, Reservists and their Families. The tourney is scheduled for July 2-5 on Congressional Country Club's 7,173-yard blue course in Bethesda, Md.\nPhoto by Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:04:23 11:43:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2714", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "5360", "Image XPTitle": "[48, 0, 57, 0, 54, 0, 48, 0, 45, 0, 84, 0, 105, 0, 103, 0, 101, 0, 114, 0, ... ]", "Image XPComment": "[0, 0]", "Image XPAuthor": "Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs", "Image XPSubject": "[48, 0, 57, 0, 54, 0, 48, 0, 45, 0, 84, 0, 105, 0, 103, 0, 101, 0, 114, 0, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "4500", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:04:21 09:07:17", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:04:21 02:07:17", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Cloudy weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SubSecTime": "33", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "33", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "33", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1397", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2100", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "200", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}