The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000

"The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000" is episode 402 of Comedy Central's South Park. It originally aired on April 5, 2000.

Plot
The tooth fairy has visited Cartman, leaving him $2. He rushes to the bus stop to share his news with the others. He then unveils his latest plan. If they all combined their lost teeth, the tooth fairy will provide them with enough cash to purchase a Sega Dreamcast. However, Stan and Kyle have lost all their baby teeth, but not Kenny. Cartman tries to get teeth out of his mouth, but it turns out Butters has a loose tooth, and is waiting for the tooth fairy. Cartman decides to steal Butters' tooth, disguised as the tooth fairy, and places it under his own pillow to get money. His mother gets suspicious of the number of teeth he has lost, and calls the local dentist, Dr. Roberts. She decides to come clean with Cartman, and admits that there is no tooth fairy. When Cartman tells Stan and Kyle, Kyle begins to question his own existence. Stan decides that they can still get money for a Sega Dreamcast: they place a tooth under a rich kid's pillow, and steal the money.

They soon find out that there are others who are in the business, and they are taken to the leader, named Loogie, who has been the leader of the business after his two brothers. His business is keeping track of which houses his gang hits, and having them put teeth under children's pillows, and leave a note for the parents to let them know that their children have lost teeth. Once they have finished the circuit of houses, they go back and collect the money. He gives the four boys a choice, either they work for him and get a 2% cut of the money, or have their penises cut off. They choose to work for him.

The American Dental Association is suspicious about the missing teeth and money, and the leader (Dr. Roberts) concludes that the culprit is a giant half-chicken/half-squirrel that steals either teeth or money from children as they sleep in order to build some kind of giant nest for its genetically superior and potentially dangerous offspring, and has at least a mild understanding of algebra. Tom Foley, another member believes that the missing teeth and money are due to a black-market tooth racket that he has seen before in Montreal, but nobody believes him, and even believe that Montreal is a fictional place.

The boys get rather wealthy from the tooth racket, but Cartman decides to form their own group and make more profits. When Loogie learns about this, he decides to murder Kenny by drowning him. A fake news report goes on about a child named Billy who needs $600 for a bone-marrow transplant, and has recently lost a tooth, but his parents plan to leave him the money. This turns out to be a trap set by Dr. Foley, to prove the ADA wrong. Although the report was a trap, Billy did have the said illness, and did require the money. Cartman and Loogie fall into the trap, but eventually get caught. Kyle, meanwhile, disappears while questioning his own existence, but soon reappears and alters reality, scaring the police, the ADA and Loogie's gang away. Loogie decides that the fall of his empire is a good thing, and ends the tooth racket. Meanwhile, Billy is saved as he discovers the "Tooth Fairy"'s money under his bed, and happily takes it to his parents.

Kenny's Death
Kenny gets thrown in the river with his feet in cement, but nothing happens to him as the Platte River is too shallow. In the end, forgotten by everybody, he tries to get out but he hits a deep spot (literally only enough to cover his face) and drowns.

Trivia

 * This episode marks the first appearance of Timmy. His very existence was brought into question by Comedy Central, as they feared bad publicity with a handicapped kid on the show. Parker and Stone argued that Timmy being treated like a normal kid would be a good moral statement. Timmy soon became one of the most popular characters.
 * Richard Belzer was the voice of Loogie. Although Belzer did the voice of Loogie for most of the episode, Trey Parker did Loogie's voice at the end because Belzer couldn't re-record dialogue.
 * This was the first of the four South Park episodes to have "2000" at the end of the title, spoofing the fact that, in early 2000, seemingly every piece of media had the year 2000 behind it.
 * The equations shown at the ADA meeting are arbitrary and don't make any sense.

References to Pop culture

 * This episode seems to contain a curious allusion to the anime, Serial Experiments Lain. Like Lain, Kyle's philosophical quest begins when he questions the nature of reality, an inquiry that brings about a crisis of his own identity. And like Lain, by enduring excruciating self-doubt and anxiety before finally confronting the terrifying nature of his own existence, Kyle achieves an apotheosis that allows him to assume the god-like power of altering "reality."
 * During Kyle's apotheosis scene, Kyle briefly appears in the form of the space baby from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * The song used during Kyle's discorporation is the title track from Primus' fourth album Pork Soda.
 * The location of the (fictional) Crestview Apartments mentioned in the newscast is a reference to local radio advertisements for The Shane Company location in Greenwood Village, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.