Lil' Crime Stoppers

"Lil' Crime Stoppers" is episode 706 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on April 23, 2003.

Plot
The boys decide to play detective and go around the town solving minor "crimes." They first investigate the disappearance of a pie left sitting on the windowsill of an elderly couple's home. After examining the scene of the crime, they come to the conclusion (based on no evidence at all) that the husband wanted the pie, but as his wife wouldn't allow him to eat it yet, he decided to brutally murder her and dispose her body in a gruesome manner. Before he could go through with the plan though, the pie had already been eaten by their dog, where the boys found it. Horrified by their outrageous accusations, the couple hurriedly send them away but not before giving them the dollar they had promised.

The detectives next case involves the recovery of Sarah Peterson's stolen doll. Their first suspect Butters (for no particular reason) and demand that he remain in Cartman's bathroom to produce a semen sample. They then get a tip, which they follow, and manage to recover the doll from Bill and Fosse's house, though they had to wrestle the case away from some kids playing FBI. The recovery gets them recognized by the South Park PD, and they are made Junior Detectives. However, the police lieutenant then begins to assign them cases that should be reserved for full detectives, including busting a meth lab, which, because of the actions of the drug dealers themselves, leads to the deaths of every suspect inside.

Other detectives mock the boys, and it is revealed to them that many of the cops on the force are corrupt and that the boys can do nothing to stop it (though they don't really plan to, or even care for that matter). The boys are then sent to a strip club owned by the leader of Colorado's greatest drug cartel, who was behind the original meth lab. Before the boys enter you see the drugboss talking, and he mentions that he wants the McCormicks to start making meth again.(McCormick is also the family name of Kenny) When they arrive a shoot-out ensues, though the boys have nothing more than hands which they pretend are guns (while yelling "bang bang").

Cops show up to give the boys backup, but it turns out that two of them are working with the cartel leader, and they shoot the one good cop (He survived, as the gunshot wound wasn't fatal). They then kill the cartel owner, so that together they get all the money; one of those cops then kills the other, and then the last person he can't trust, himself. The boys are credited with cleaning up the police force and are offered positions as full detectives. The boys, however, find reality more intense than their game, and decide to play laundromat instead, returning to Cartman's basement. Butters then arrives, declaring that, having tried for the entire episode, he has managed to produce a semen sample (he credits thinking about Stan's Mom's breasts). However, they aren't playing detective anymore, so they no longer want a semen sample, though Cartman offers to clean his pants for him.

Goofs

 * All cops/detective/villains in the bar have pistols that are fully automatic, like machine guns.
 * Cartman asks Kenny for the F.A.G. on a perp in Washington.
 * When the police make the boys "junior detectives," their badges say "junior deputy".
 * When the boys are in the showers, Cartman's hat switches on and off between several shots.
 * Kenny is not seen with the rest of the boys in the shower, though this may be due to the fact that his face is not frequently shown on the show.

Censorship

 * The breasts on the crude police sketch Kenny drew of the girl’s doll were blurred out in syndication.
 * The scene where the old man kills and dismembers his wife was aired in black and white in syndication. Furthermore, it was zoomed in.
 * When the boys are coming into the bar, the stripper poops on the guy's knees.

References to popular culture

 * The name of the strip club in this episode is "Peppermint Hippo" which is a play on the actual Las Vegas Club called Spearmint Rhino. The Peppermint Hippo also appears in the episode "The Return of Chef"
 * The flashbacks experienced while the boys describe the crimes are not dissimilar to those in CSI.
 * The scene where Cartman is shouting at Butters, while Kenny comforts him, is a demonstration of the Good cop/Bad cop method of interrogation.
 * Agent Fields is a reference to Agent Fields: a character from the "On The Run" and "Kidnapped" series.
 * When the boys enter the room where the boss of the Peppermint Hippo is you can hear him say: "Okay so now we have to let the McCormicks make our meth again."