Crème Fraiche

"Crème Fraiche" is the fourteenth and final episode of Season Fourteen, and the 209th overall episode of South Park. It originally aired on November 17, 2010.

Synopsis
Stan's life is in shambles both at home and in school; Randy's obsession with the Food Network is changing everything. It even forces Sharon to explore a new interest of her own.

Plot
Randy has taken an erotic interest in cooking thanks to TV programs on the Food Network. Spending whole nights watching these shows inspires him to replicate the recipes and serve them to his family but leave the task of cleaning to them. Sharon becomes fed up with Randy's behavior, and assumes his newfound fetish for cooking must be because she has become unattractive to him. Encouraged by neighbor Shelia and TV commercials for the Shake Weight exercise equipment, she eventually buys one with a digital voice which constantly advises, flatters, and instructs her during exercises. In line with the general parody of this device seen in United States popular culture since its debut, exercise with the Shake Weight blatantly resembles a handjob of a "cooling fluid" on the exerciser's face when "done", which is supposed to symbolize sexual innuendo. Sharon's Shake Weight also dispenses "cab fare" into her palm and goes to "sleep mode" (resembling a flaccid penis) at workout's conclusion. At one point it coaxes Sharon into sticking her finger into a backside receptacle, ostensibly to take her pulse, as described on TV.

At South Park Elementary, Randy is discovered to have taken over as cafeteria chef (even embracing Chef's mannerisms), having quit his job to do so. Ignoring the planned school lunch menus, Randy cooks a variety of extremely gourmet food dishes clearly both too complex for, and not to the liking of, the students, and forcing Stan and his friends to film Randy as if he were on his own cooking show. Cartman's attempts to impersonate chef Gordon Ramsay to try and discourage Randy's passion for cooking, but the plan falls apart when various celebrity chefs arrive in the cafeteria to start a new competitive cooking show, Hell's Kitchen Nightmares Iron Top Chef Cafeteria Throwdown Ultimate Cookoff Challenge.

Sharon is increasingly drawn to her Shake Weight and takes a vacation to a beach resort to exercise with it in private. A short time later however, the cleaning lady in Sharon's hotel room is caught exercising with the Shake Weight, and Sharon is angry and calls the Shake Weight company headquarters to return it.

Back at the cafeteria, where students have waited 12 hours for a meal after the kitchen was taken over by the chefs, Randy eventually leaves for home when he cannot find his key ingredient, Crème fraiche. Sharon coincidentally returns home determined to resolve whatever is wrong with their marriage thanks to Randy's obsession with cooking. When Randy mentions he has not been sleeping lately, specifically mentioning he is stuck in "Work Mode", echoing what the Shake Weight says, Sharon offers a solution, using her experience handling the Shake Weight to give Randy an 'old fashioned'. Afterward, Randy becomes tired and falls asleep in bed, having lost all interest in cooking, and promises to get his job back the next day. Later that night, Sharon thanks the Shake Weight, having figured out its true purpose as a marriage saver. Saying that its work is done, the Shake Weight bids farewell and shuts itself off.

Critical Reception
IGN rated this episode 8.0 (Impressive), saying "This episode didn't waste any time with the jokes, as it opens with a dig at Carnival Cruise Lines and how smelling like poop would actually be an improvement for their ship. That joke is quickly followed by Randy Marsh ignoring his wife's requests to avoid the 'no-no' channel, and we soon find that Randy has a case of Sitophilia (a food fetish) that is only satisfied by the sweet, sweet food love on Food Network."[3]