The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs

"The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs" is the second episode of Season Fourteen and episode 197 overall of Comedy Central's series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central on March 24, 2010.

Synopsis
The boys are given a controversial book to read in school with promises of vulgar scenes and fowl language. Dissatisfied that the book contained neither it inspires them to write a book for vulgar sake. When the boys discover that Stan's mom has found their masterpiece, their new motivation is how they can stay out of trouble.

Plot
Mr. Garrison gives the children the book The Catcher in the Rye and says it was banned for being vulgar. Due to how disturbing and offensive Mr. Garrison makes it sound, the entire class, particularly Cartman and the rest of the boys find themselves excited at the prospect of being allowed to read it. Unfortunately, after reading the book from start to finish, Stan, Kenny, Kyle and Cartman find nothing remotely vulgar about the book. Deciding to research why the book was banned in the first place, the boys discover that it was due to a man claiming the book caused him to murder John Lennon of the Beatles. Despite this information, the boys are horribly disappointed at how dull the book was, and then they decide to write a vulgar book just for the sake of writing a vulgar book. The book's name was The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs.

Meanwhile Butters, influenced by The Catcher In The Rye takes on the murderous desire to kill John Lennon, until his father informs him that he is already dead much to Butters disappointment. Back at his home, Stan leaves a copy of book in his drawer, his mother Sharon finds it while sorting laundry, and starts reading it. The vulgarity of the book is so horrific that she immediately begins to vomit after merely reading the first sentence of the first chapter. Yet despite the horrible language and content, she finds herself amazed at how good it is. She gives it to Randy who also feels that the book is not only disgusting, but also brilliantly written.

Stan however finds that his parents took the book, and afraid that this parents will punish him for the writing such a horrific story, tells the other boys that they are collectively screwed, as each one intends to roll-over on the other. As none of them wants to take responsibility for writing the book, Cartman decides to blame Butters. Meanwhile, the other parents have all read the book and confront the boys on who wrote it. Of course, the blame is shifted to Butters, who claims responsibility due to having several blackouts after reading The Catcher in the Rye. Much to the boy's horror, the parents do not get angry at Butters, but praise him on his work and have even summoned an editor from Penguin Publishing, who wants to get first publishing rights to the book. The book becomes a global sensation and millions of copies are sold, having been translated into 26 languages. However, despite the praise the books gets, it seems no one capable of getting through the first paragraph without vomiting. The next day at school everyone likes Butters and thinks that he is an artistic genius, causing the boys to confront him. Butters however claims that even if he did not write the book, he still intends to take credit, due to years of being taken advantage of by the boys, and also due to the reading The Catcher in the Rye. Several of the girls defend Butter's writing, which only infuriates the boys further.

Apparently much of the books subject matter involves comments directed at Sarah Jessica Parker, who is made fun of over 400 times, which gets little controversy from the world, and only a slight annoyance from Parker's husband Matthew Broderick. Meanwhile, due to the popularity of The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs Butters and his parents are asked to be on the Today Show to discuss it. And although proud of their son's 'genius', Mr. & Mrs. Stotch have grounded Butters for the language used in the book. During the interview, Matt Lauer and his co-hosts ask Butters whether or not he is afraid that the book will cause a murder attempt like the one done when a man attempted to kill Ronald Reagan after reading the book. Butters realized he was supposed to kill Reagan after reading the book and begins to set out to murder the former president, only to be told by Al Roker that he's already dead, much to Butter's disappointment again.

Fed up with Butters claiming creative credit for the book, the boys go seek to get the book banned with the School board. The board however dismisses their argument saying that they are just to young to understand the meaning of the book and claiming that it is actually is based on world events. Pissed off, Cartman suggests that they kill Sarah Jessica Parker or help her get killed, which would cause everyone to assume that the book influenced the killer in the same way as The Catcher in the Rye influences John Lennon's killer, thus causing the book to be banned. Kyle and Stan immediately reject the idea, but Kenny agrees to go with it. Together they dress her up as a moose and attempt to try and get her shot by hunters, to which she seemed to agree to without question. Though throughout the episodes she has displays a lack of awareness to anything that is happening around her.

Meanwhile, Butters informs the world that he intends to write a second book entitled, The Poop That Took a Pee. On the Today Show, Morgan Freeman reads the first five chapters, during which back in South Park, the boys believe that this will reveal to the world that Butters did not write the book. Much to their surprise however, people's reaction to the book is that while it's not as vulgar (due to Butters writing it in the manner of a small child using words like poop and Pee-Pee), they feel that Butters has gone to his roots, causing the book to be another success. Ironically however it inspires a man to kill the Kardashians (whom Butters himself loved) which the man referred to as "phonies", causing the public to turn against Butters. To add to his troubles, Cartman then tells Butters the book will be banned as a result. He also tells Butters that he was sleep-walking again and was responsible for Sarah Jessica Parker being murdered in the woods. Although scared initially, Butters relaxes and states, "Oh, that's okay. At least she was ugly".

Trivia

 * The book that Mr. Garrison is assigning is The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. It had been often challenged due to it themes of sexuality, angst, rebellion, alienation, and teenage confusion.
 * This entire episode was directed at the fact people seem to derive some sort of meaning out of books, even when there is absolutely none.
 * This is the second time where one of Cartman's friends (Kenny) has agreed with him on murdering someone in order to accomplish their goals (The first being in Good Times with Weapons when Kenny gets his shuriken stuck in Butters eye and Cartman suggests that they kill Butters which Kyle, fearful of his mom, agrees with).
 * Al Roker's statement that The Catcher in the Rye caused someone to make an assassination attempt on former President Ronald Regan is partially incorrect. Although it has been claimed that John Hinkley Jr. who attempted to kill Regan, could have been motivated by The Catcher in the Rye, it is more widely said that he was instead supposedly motivated by Jodie Foster's performance in the 1976 film Taxi Driver.
 * While Kenny does not die in the episode, Cartman does declare him dead while they, along with Kyle, are playing Xbox 360.

Goofs

 * In the original airing, Kyle mouths "What?" twice and no voice comes out.
 * The news girl on the left lips changes shapes between shots.