Crippled Summer

"Crippled Summer"
[[File:File:CrippledSummerPromo.jpg|250px]]
Episode no.	Season 14 Episode 7
Production no.	1407
Original airdate	April 28, 2010
Episode chronology Previous Next "201" "TBA"
List of all South Park episodes

"Crippled Summer" is the 202nd episode of Comedy Central's series South Park. It aired on April 28, 2010.

Synopsis

Competition is the name of the game this summer. There is no time for Jimmy and his friends to slack off. They're working to be this year's champions at summer camp. Jimmy suits up and prepares to shred in the annual surfing contest.

Plot

Spoiler warning! Plot details follow.

The episode begins with a visual and verbal disclaimer different than normal, which reads "This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some views, which is done by Trey Parker. Viewer's Discretion (however they say "Discreetion") is advised", which then reveals that Towelie, pushed by the boys has agreed to do an intervention reality show regarding his drug addiction to weed, crack and crystal meth, which has steadily worsen to the point where he has begun to victimize his friends for drug money and prostitute himself, and has even cost him his relationship with his girlfriend and his newborn son, "Washcloth".

Meanwhile Timmy and Jimmy have arrived at Lake Tardicaca, a summer camp for disabled children. While they are both overjoyed at being back for their fourth year in a row, Nathan, another disabled boy and his lackey, Mimsy, are less thrilled, due to the fact that Jimmy has led his camp team (blue) to victory of the camp game three years in a row beating Nathan's team (red). The boys meanwhile have gotten Towelie a job at the camp, drying off the kids. However, he constantly fails to do his job, instead disappearing to get high in the woods, resulting in him being reprimanded 14 times. As Jimmy warms up the Blue Team for the camp games, Nathan and Mimsy plot against them, and Jimmy in particular, by planting a poisonous black mamba snake in their canoe. However, when Nathan orders Mimsy to put the snake in the canoe, Mimsy assume that he means the red team's canoe. The Red team all disqualify themselves by jumping out of the canoe in fear, while Blue team is victorious.

The counselors attempt to get the Red team dried off, but find Towelie had gone to give an old man oral sex in the sport's shed in exchange for money to buy more drugs. As a result he is fired, despite the boys attempting to get the counselors to keep him on.

Nathan and Mimsy continue to plot against Jimmy, this time by switching the blue team's scavenger hunt map with one that would lead them to the Tardicaca Indian Tribe who kill trespassers on sight. Mimsy however, again misunderstand Nathan's orders, and switches the Red team's map for the fake map, rather than the blue team's. This results in Nathan being shot by arrows from the Indians.

Towelie, who can no longer afford drugs begins abusing Computer dusters that cause him a high which he calls "Walking on Sunshine!" The boys have Butters summon Towelie for the official intervention with a therapist. Butters and Kyle each proceed to read off pre-written statements of their feelings towards Towelie. When it's Cartman's turn however, he instead uses the TV appearance as a vehicle to read a very long-winded hate speech in which in insults the Jewish people, asking for the rest of the country to help him in exterminating them, with most of his comments directed primarily at Kyle. After a great deal of time has passed, Cartman at last finished his multi-page hate-speech, at which point Stan delivers his much shorter Towelie-related statement. Towelie initially refuses to go to rehab, until Butters presents him with Washcloth, his son. Horrified at what he became, Towelie agrees to go to rehab, where he becomes clean since April 26, 2010, after which he goes back to his girlfriend and son.

Back at the camp, Jimmy competes in the surfing competition, where it's revealed that despite his bad legs and inability to walk, he is capable of surfing like a pro. Nathan and Mimsy however, have plotted to use a shark-mating whistle, to summon the Tardicaca Shark to kill Jimmy. Mimsy however does not blow the whistle in the water while Jimmy is surfing, but instead again misunderstands Nathan, and after swimming in the water, climbs back onto the shore and then blows the whistles. This results in the shark coming to shore, jumping on Nathan, and raping him with it's 9-inch penis.

In their final attempt to kill Jimmy, Mimsy and Nathan put C4 explosives into Jimmy's ukulele, intent on blowing him up when he plays a B flat during his solo. Jimmy and the Blue Team's performance of the camp song is spectacularly done (again), however, he fails to hit the note multiple times, until he finally skips over the solo to continue to the second part of the song. Furious, Nathan tells Mimsy to demand the Jimmy perform the part he skipped. Jimmy however states he can't remember it, and asks that Mimsy do it for him. Mimsy starts to show Jimmy how to correctly play the solo, but before he hits the B flat, Nathan, infuriated by Mimsy's stupidity, grabs the ukulele, and starts yelling at him for his incompetence, stating that if he has to get something done, he has to do it himself. At this point, Nathan's anger gets the best of him as he makes good on his previous statement. He starts playing the solo on Jimmy's ukelele and correctly plays the B flat, setting off the explosive, which sends him flying to the beach, where he is bitten by the black mamba, attacked again by the Indians, and finally raped again by the shark. As Nathan is about to be rush to the hospital in an ambulance, Jimmy (oblivious to Nathan's attempts on his life) offers Nathan the crown for "King of Camp" as a sign of goodwill. Nathan however mutters how he hates Jimmy.

Trivia

• Intervention is a real-world TV Reality show, on A&E, that deals with people suffering from addiction and substance abuse.
• 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.
• "Are you Ready for the Summer" is a song made famous by the film "Meatballs". The song since then 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.
• 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.
• Many of the crippled children are based off of famous cartoon characters including Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Droopy Dog, Mr. Jinks, Beaky Buzzard, and Rocky and Mugsy. This as well has having some of their disabilites, such as the one that looks like Elmer Fudd's pronuciation of R as W.
• 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. Other texts in the episode as well as the official site still call him 'Towelie'
• The episode ends showing that if you want to help a towel suffering from towel addiction then you should go to www.restorestephenbaldwin.com.
• Cartman's hate-speech about the Jewish people is essentially "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", an antisemitic text written in the 1900's.
• The joke with Nathan playing the note that sets off an explosive is a tribute to the Bugs Bunny cartoons, Ballot Box Bunny and Show Biz Bugs. In both cartoons, the antagonist (Yosmite Sam in the first and Daffy Duck in the second) booby-trapped an instrument that when Bugs would play a certain note would set off some boobytrapped dynamite inside. However, Bugs continually messed up to the point where the antagonist, frustrated, goes to show him how its done, thus playing the booby-trapped note and having his plan backfire on him.
• 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 broadcastings of the episode in the UK the scene was left in.

Continuity

• First time Timmy has spoken since Season 10's "Make Love, Not Warcraft".
• This will be 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, 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.

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, 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 teams best events, however, on the blackboard it shows that they lost to the red team in that event.

List of events.

Scores of events.

"[[201]]"

"Crippled Summer"

"[[TBA]]"