Was the South Park episode where the kids send a whale to the moon at all inspired by...?

I don't think so. That episode featured an amusement park on the moon. The "Whalers On The Moon" bit is a rip-off of the "Pirates of the Carribean" ride at DisneyWorld and Disneyland.

The South Park episode, if you are curious, was "Free Willzyx" (Season 9, Episode 13).

South Park Dolphin And Whale

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RE:

Was the South Park episode where the kids send a whale to the moon at all inspired by...?

"whalers on the moon" from Futurama

Everyone seems to think it's Clyde, but I think they're wrong. It's obviously Stan because in the close up when he's unmasked the eyes overlap. So I rewinded and looked (I have DVR), and Stan's eyes overlap a little too. Also, how would he know where Kyle lives? And when The Coon (Cartmen) said "Stan?" Mysterion didn't answer. If they continue with the Mysterion stuff into the next episode, hopefully they do, than you will know because the person who was Mysterion will be in jail for being a vigilante.

From what I've read, the story came about because Trey and Matt wanted to animate a dead whale on the moon. They started with that and worked from there

Whalers On The Moon

Actually I think it was inspired by the movie Free Willy. And also by the animal rights group "ALF" Animal Liberation Front, who have been known to break into places and steal animals, then release them in the wild. In this case the kids tried to do their own ALF stunt, but being naive 9 year olds they sent the whale to the moon.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/913/

It was actually inspired by a story I was told once. This kid asked his mother "Do you think there are Whales on the moon mommy?" and the Mommy said "Whale see honey. Whale see."

The "Whale see" joke was so CORNY.....I LOVED IT! Yea Im agreein with you.

"Whale Whores"

The Marsh family are spending Stan's birthday at a public aquarium in Denver. As the Marshes enjoy interacting with the trained bottlenose dolphins at the aquarium, Japanese people armed with spears suddenly storm the dolphinarium and slaughter all the dolphins. The Japanese perform similar attacks at several other aquariums, and at an NFL game, where they kill members of the Miami Dolphins football team. Stan asks his friends Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny to help him in taking on the cause of saving the dolphins and whales from the Japanese. Kyle declines, feeling they can't change Japan's views on the issue. Cartman and Kenny are more interested in playing the video game Rock Band, professing they don't care about the whales. After learning about the television show Whale Wars, Stan joins host Paul Watson and his crew aboard the Sea Shepherd, but is underwhelmed by their method of throwing "stinky butter" at Japanese whalers in an effort to deter them. After the Japanese whalers kill Watson with a harpoon, Stan destroys their ship by igniting their fuel barrels with a flare gun. Stan becomes the new captain and leads a more successful campaign in impeding the Japanese whaling effort by employing more aggressive methods. The crew ends up getting interviewed by Larry King, who criticizes Paul Watson naming him an 'incompetent media whore' and questions Stan on his intentions of increasing ratings by violence. Stan dismisses the charge, and contends that he is not interested in ratings, but in actually saving the whales. Wanting to be on television, Cartman and Kenny join the ship's crew under false pretenses of wanting to save the whales. After a brief run-in with a ship and its crew from the show Deadliest Catch, Japanese pilots launch kamikaze attacks on the Sea Shepherd. The suicidal planes kill the Whale Wars crew except for Stan, Cartman and Kenny. The trio are captured and brought to Japan, where Emperor Akihito tells them retaliation for the bombing of Hiroshima is the motive for Japan's whaling efforts. He shows them a doctored photograph—given to Japan by the United States after the bombing—of the Enola Gay piloted by a dolphin and a Killer whale. Knowing the picture is a fake, Stan decides to reveal the truth about the bombing, but Cartman hints that doing so might influence the Japanese to start another war on the United States. Claiming the US government has authorized him to show the "original" photo, Stan presents Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and other Japanese officials with a new doctored photo showing a cow and chicken in the Enola Gay. The Japanese become infuriated, now believing cows and chickens had doctored the original photo to frame the innocent whales and dolphins. The Japanese resolve to cease their whaling efforts and begin a violent vendetta of slaughtering cows and chickens, storming farms full of cows and chickens. The episode ends as Randy congratulates Stan for making the Japanese "normal, like us."

During the episode Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are performing Lady Gaga's song "Poker Face" on the video game Rock Band. Cartman later mockingly improvises as he sings the song while magazine covers are shown which mention Stan's efforts at stopping the Japanese from killing whales and dolphins. Also in this episode, one of Stans methods for warding off the Japanese is uncovering a large statue of Godzilla, the famous Japanese movie monster. The design used is inspired by Godzilla Final Wars.