Freak Strike

Freak Strike is episode #603 of the series South Park.

Plot
Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Butters decide to try to get on the Maury Povich Show after watching an episode in which a girl with no mid-section is given a gift certificate; in hopes that they will also get a prize. They decide to have Butters disguise himself as a freak and go on the show wearing fake balls on his chin. He is hesitant, but finally agrees, and the geeks from the episode 4th Grade design some fake testicles for him to wear.

Butters goes alone on a plane to New York in order to appear on the Maury Povich Show. In the green room, he meets other variously deformed people, who welcome Butters to their "union" (which ensures that US TV talk shows interview their members regularly). The "Man with Foot on Head" tells Butters that this union despises people who fake their deformities. He then tells him about "Lobster Boy", who was supposed to be a human boy who resembled a lobster. It turned out he was just a lobster, and they boiled him alive as punishment. Butters is now scared that they will find out he's also living a lie, but manages to cover it up.

On the show, Maury introduces Butters as "Napoleon Bonaparte from South Park." Butters tells Maury that his classmates always tease him for his condition, and Maury gives him a trip to the largest miniature golf course in the world. Stan, Kyle and Cartman are watching the show at home, and Cartman is angry that Butters got "their" prize. He calls Maury, and tries to get himself on the show, but the operator explains that the show is not focusing on deformed people any longer. Now it is focusing on children and adolescents who are out of control.

Chris and Linda, meanwhile, ground Butters for wearing fake balls on his chin. They say it humiliated them - and on National TV - ad his grandmother had a mild stroke when she saw it. All of a sudden, the freaks appear at his house. They say that they're angry at having the lime-light taken away from them, and they ask Butters to join in their strike. He reluctantly agrees, in order to avoid being discovered as a faker, and joins the group (which includes Nurse Gollum of Conjoined Fetus Lady, the Thompson's from the episode How to Eat with Your Butt, and Kevin, Dr. Mephisto’s odd assistant).

Cartman and Liane go on the Maury Povich Show. After seeing a teenage girl named "Vanity" swear, physically beat her mother and boast about her "out-of-control" way of life, Cartman dresses up as a slutty teenage girl, in an effort to "beat" Vanity and win the prize. For everything she says, he makes up an even more outrageous story. During this sequence, he says "Whateva! I do what I want!" They have to stop temporarily when a 4-month old baby girl named Chantal comes onstage and strips herself in front of the audience. They continue after she leaves.

It's now that the gang of freaks shows up and hijacks the TV studio screen. They profess that they - the real freaks - should not lose their only means of employment to the non-real freaks - those who are only freaksbecause they're idiots. Butters, still with balls on his chin, is with the others when they sing about finding the "True Freak Label" on talk shows, and most of the audience agrees and leave the studio. Cartman is now furious because Butters once again got in the way of his plans. He then runs outside and grabs the balls on Butters' chin, and tears them off. Butters is initially frightened of what will become of him now, but the union chase Cartman, who "ripped poor Napoleon's balls right off his chin!". Butters then thinks that perhaps he got away with this one after all. But at this moment his parents arrive in a taxi, and he realizes he's in trouble once again.

References to Popular Culture

 * The Geeks who make Butter's fake balls are a parody of The Lone Gunmen from The X-Files. They also appeared in the episode 4th Grade.


 * The scene where a man tells Maury that “the ratings have just started to plummet” is a play on the original Star Trek series, where crew members often viewed computer displays in such a way. The man also bears an uncanny resemblance to Leonard Nimoy.


 * When Cartman appears on The Maury Povich Show and is arguing with the other out-of-control girl about who’s worse than the other, he states he “ran for Congress, won, and then had sex with an intern, killed her, and hid her body.” This is a reference to the Gary Condit scandal.


 * In the circle of picketers, you can spot out a miniature Incredible Hulk walking but not holding a sign.


 * When Cartman is trying to convince his mother to go on the Maury Povich show with him, he says “I have such a pretty mother, such a wonderful mother...” These quotes and this tone were often used by Rhoda, the sadistic little girl in The Bad Seed to win favor from her mother.


 * In the crowd of strikers, you can see a character similar to Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis, the subject of the 1985 movie Mask staring Eric Stoltz.


 * The “True Freak Label” video sabotage that the freaks make Butters star in is a shot-by-shot parody of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union commercial from the 70s, which showed the workers singing a song known as Look for the Union Label.


 * The “out-of-control teens” subject on Maury Povich is a direct parody of the very same subject and the way it’s treated on Povich’s show, and other morning/afternoon talk shows such as Jenny Jones.


 * Vanity's line "You ain't bad! You ain't nothing!" comes from the full-length music video of Michael Jackson's Bad.


 * While waiting in the green room on the The Maury Show, Butters is told a story about a fake "lobster boy", who turned out to be a real lobster. This may be a reference to an incident at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, where performance arts student William Kofmehl was given a semester-long stipend to live on campus dressed in a lobster suit while living in a self-made shack and remaining mute to the outside world. After a month, the student's shack was destroyed by an on-campus fraternity, leading to worldwide notice.

Trivia

 * This is the first episode to feature Ms. Choksondik in the theme song.


 * This episode features a completely new opening sequence. It replaces the 4th Grade one. It features the boys being made out of construction paper while clips are shown. With Kenny being “dead,” Timmy replaces him and sings his name repeatedly. The new theme is a more country-like version. Butters holds “The Butters Show” sign over the “South Park” sign at the end.

Goofs

 * Cartman's mother insists to Cartman that he doesn't seem out of control to her, but in the later episode Tsst, she clearly knew he was out of control.