Ginger Cow (South Park)

Plot
When Cartman creates a fake ginger cow, he blackmails Kyle so he doesn't tell everyone the truth.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) One of the core problems with the episode is that it's a 22-minute torture episode for Kyle as he gets blackmailed by Cartman just so he can't tell everyone the ginger cow is fake.
 * 2) The episode tries to poke fun at the red heifer story stating that there's only peace when a red cow is sacrificed, but it completely misses the point because in the actual story the cow was actually sacrificed for purification.
 * 3) Animal Cruelty: The scene where the Ginger Cow is killed by dropping it from a helicopter not knowing it's not a real Ginger Cow means the religious congregants just killed it for nothing.
 * 4) The scenes where Cartman blackmails Kyle by making him insult his mother and forcing him to smell his farts are extremely unfunny and gross, with the latter getting old really quickly and dragging on for way too long.
 * 5) Even Kyle is out of character because he does not stand up for himself when blackmailed by Cartman and when his friends try and help him he completely ignores their advice and even tells Stan to "suck on farts."
 * 6) Cartman never gets his comeuppance for what he did.
 * 7) Bad ending: When Stan tells the Hebrews that the Ginger Cow fell from Heaven in order to cover up Cartman's forgery and save Kyle from his torture, they reveal the prophecy was actually that a fat kid with a small penis would make a cow look ginger, causing the peace to break even though what was prophesized did actually come true.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Stan and Kenny are still likeable and try talk Kyle out of doing what Cartman says.
 * 2) Amazing cameo of Van Halen.

Reception
Several fans of the show hated it for how it handled the subject of the red heifer story and Kyle's abuse throughout. However, The AV Club's Ryan McGee graded it a B+ because it "has six or seven really great things to explore", even while admitting it "spends more time lining up real-life footage to cheer on David Lee Roth than [delving] deeply into any of them."