This page contains trivia for "Crippled Summer". Remember, trivia must be factual, provable, and it is always best to cite your source for not-so-obvious trivia. If you would like to dispute a trivia point, please discuss it in the talk page.
Trivia
- This is the third episode to have the term "cripple" in the title, the previous being "Cripple Fight" and "Krazy Kripples".
- One of the special needs kids (the one with the pink hat) made a cameo appearance during Cartman's montage in "Up the Down Steroid".
- The idea of a Towelie intervention episode involving the boys dates back to around Season 10. The South Park staff had even begun work on such an episode, but it took a different turn and ended up becoming "A Million Little Fibers", according to that episode's DVD commentary. The scene with Jimmy surfing was an unused idea for "Pee". Additionally, they originally conceived of this episode taking place in Hawaii, which would eventually become the basis for "Going Native".
- Jimmy was shown to stand easily on a surfboard and play his ukulele during the talent show, without the use of his crutches; yet in "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", he has trouble using his arms, and in all episodes he appears in, he requires crutches.
- In the first UK broadcasting of the episode on Comedy Central, the scene with Nathan venturing onto the Tardicacca Indian's land was for unknown reasons, cut out (possibly an error). In all later broadcasts of the episode in the UK, the scene was left in.
- The episode ends showing that if you want to help a towel suffering from towel addiction, then you should go to www.restorestephenbaldwin.com.
- Kelly Pinkerton Tinfurter can be seen in the crowd of handicapped campers watching the talent show.
- One of the Handicapped Kids, the one who says, "AAAIIIEE", bears similarities to Cartman's fake retard persona; both say similar sounding noise after sentences, and both have similar speech patterns.
- A surf-rock guitar solo accompanies Jimmy's surfing scene. Surf-rock was popularized in the early 1960's by Los Angeles musician Dick Dale.
References to Popular Culture
- Intervention is a real-life TV Reality show, on A&E, that deals with people suffering from addiction and substance abuse.
- When Towelie is huffing computer cleaner, this is a parody of an actual episode of Intervention featuring Allison who is addicted to huffing computer duster. She as well sings "I'm walking on sunshine!" while huffing.
- "Are You Ready for the Summer?" is a song made famous by the film "Meatballs". The song since then has been used as a theme song for many camps and has appeared in other shows such as "Family Guy".
- The competition between the blue and red teams, along with the fact the 'villain' team uses assorted over-the-top schemes that backfire, is very similar to the Hannah Barbara Laff-A-Lympics series.
- Many of the crippled children are based on famous cartoon characters including Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Droopy Dog, Pete Puma, Beaky Buzzard, and Rocky and Mugsy. This as well has having some of their disabilities, such as the one that looks like Elmer Fudd having rhotacism.
- This episode is the season 14 mid-season finale.
- In one of the Intervention-style text transitions, Towelie's name is mistakenly spelled "Towlie", yet he spells his own name as "Towelyey" in this episode though other texts in the episode as well as the official site still call him "Towelie". Also in a Million Little Fibers, he spells it "Toweleeeie" (most likely because he is high).
- Cartman's hate-speech about the Jewish people is essentially "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", an antisemitic text written in the 1900s.
- Cartman's hate-speech is also a call back to Season Eleven episode "Le Petit Tourette" where he planned on using an interview with Chris Hansen on Dateline to bad mouth the Jews. He finally succeeds.
- The Cartman hate speech actually paraphrases the David Icke theory as Cartman accuses the Jews of being shapeshifters. His "shifty eyed" diatribe is from Julius Streicher's Der Sturmer newspaper from the Third Reich so Cartman is back to classic anti-Semitic form here.
- The song Jimmy is trying to play on the ukulele is "Believe Me, Those Endearing Young Charms". This is the same song misplayed by Bugs Bunny in "Ballot Box Bunny" and "Show-Biz Bugs" with the same results. This is in step with the rest of the Looney Toons references throughout the episode.
- The joke with Nathan playing the note that sets off an explosive is a tribute to the Looney Tunes cartoons in an episode called "Rushing Roulette" starring Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner. In the cartoon, Wile E. Coyote sets up a sign in the desert that reads "Learn to play the piano - FREE" along with a piano filled with dynamite and TNT with the detonator attached below a single key. When The Road Runner arrives, he approaches the piano, reads the sheet music and begins to play the exact same piece of music as Jimmy fails to play, only to strike a higher note than planned. After his third attempt, Wile E. Coyote is overcome with frustration at the incorrect note being played and walks out from behind the boulder where he's hiding, pushes The Road Runner out of the way and plays the correct sequence of notes himself and of course, blows himself up.
- The short musical phrase that Jimmy can't play is from the song "Those Endearing Young Charms".
List of Sporting Events
List of events.
Scores of events.
- Swimming
- Archery
- Scavenger Hunt
- 50 Yard Dash
- 3 Legged Race
- Bear Hunting
- Basketball
- Surfing
- Canoe Race
- Talent Show
Continuity
- First time Timmy has spoken since Season 10's "Make Love, Not Warcraft".
- This is the second episode in which Jimmy and Timmy are seen demonstrating their athletic prowess. The first time occurred in "Up the Down Steroid".
- Nathan, the boy who offered Jimmy the steroids in "Up the Down Steroid" makes his second appearance in this episode as a lead character.
- Cartman attempted to deliver a hate-speech against the Jewish people once before in "Le Petit Tourette", using his fake Tourettes Syndrome as his vehicle to get on Dateline. However, he failed to do so, due to his Tourettes becoming real, and causing him to reveal personal secrets and truths.
- Cartman has once before attempted to organize the masses formally against the Jewish people in the episode, The Passion of the Jew. His plot failed that time however, due to his followers discovering that Mel Gibson was completely insane.
- Clyde Donovan is shown to be at Towelie's intervention, but he has no lines, nor any prior interaction with Towelie.
- Butters claims a deep friendship with Towelie, but has never interacted with him onscreen before this episode.
- In the opening statements of Towelie's drug abuse, it states he started smoking pot 9 years ago. Towelie was introduced into the South Park series 9 years ago, in the episode Towelie. In addition, all of the main children of the series are 9, but South Park characters don't age (not physically).
- Jimmy and Timmy were in the Crips, whose color is blue, and the rival team is red, the color of the Bloods, these gangs are rivals in real life.
- This is Jimmy's only speaking appearance in Season 14.
Goofs
- On the blackboard for the events of the camp competition, the events are listed in this order: Swimming, Archery, Scavenger Hunt, 50 Yard Dash, 3 Legged Race, Bear Hunting, Basketball, Surfing, Canoe, and Talent Show and yet when the scores are posted, the canoe score is empty even though it was first event.
- In one of the text transitions it stated that the 3 legged race was one of the blue team's best events, However, on the blackboard, it shows that they lost to the red team in that event. It is possible that The Red Team was simply lucky enough to beat The Blue Team.
- Jimmy is shown being able to surf in this episode, even though his legs don't function properly. He was also showed standing without crutches in the singing contest.
- Jimmy is able to sing without stuttering in this episode, even though in previous episodes, like where he sings the 12 Days of Christmas, he has a terrible problem with stuttering while singing. Jimmy could have possibly just gotten better control over his stuttering.
- When The Elmer Fudd Kid yells, '"YEAH!!!", his voice changes from an Elmer Fudd sounding one to a normal child's.