Taming Strange

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"Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers"

"Taming Strange"

"Ginger Cow"

"Taming Strange"
Episode no.	Season 17 Episode 5
Guest stars	Bill Hader
Production no.	1705
Original airdate	October 30, 2013
Episode chronology Previous Next "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers" "Ginger Cow"
List of all South Park episodes

"Taming Strange" is the fifth episode of Season Seventeen, and the 242nd overall episode of South Park. It aired on October 30, 2013.

Synopsis

When Ike hits puberty, he and Kyle start to grow apart. To save their relationship, Kyle takes Ike to see a live performance of Yo Gabba Gabba!.

Plot

Spoiler warning! Plot details follow.

Mr. Mackey teaches the class about the school's new integrated technology system, IntelliLink, which does not work properly. Mr. Mackey showcases the discussion boards, showing a picture sent by Ike Broflovski, which he believes depicts Kyle Broflovski with a "whooping crane" on his forehead. The "crane" is obviously a penis.

At the Broflovski Residence, Kyle tells his mom about the incident. She replies that Kyle must try to be tolerant, as Ike is going through puberty and says to try and talk to him. Kyle goes to his room, where he is on the computer and as a result of experiencing early puberty, has become hostile towards him. Kyle says if he wanted to do finger paints with him, but he says to look at the pimples on his face. He attempts to rekindle his relationship with his brother, by watching Yo Gabba Gabba! with him. While watching, Ike can think only of sex and talks about wanting to "tame Foofa's strange", and saying to Kyle that Toodee is a dyke. He then starts to chew tobacco and when Kyle says that it isn't healthy, Ike gets angry, leaves the sofa and goes to his room.

Kyle goes to see Mr. Mackey, who suggests (after many IntelliLink problems) that Kyle and Ike should learn about Canadian Puberty together. Kyle and Ike watch an instructional video from the Canadian Health Department on that topic. The instructor explains that a baby is made by a man farting on a woman, who then queefs in the man's face. When advised offscreen this is false, he becomes agitated and states that his wife must have lied to him. Kyle expresses confusion as to why this content has been left in the instructional film, and Ike becomes furious at him, calling Kyle stupid as he storms off.

The next day at school, Kyle tries to get the principal's permission to be excused from school the following Friday so that he can escort Ike to a Yo Gabba Gabba! concert. Unfortunately, IntelliLink malfunctions again, and Kyle is unable to make an appointment to see the principal. Kyle reluctantly tells Ike, who becomes further enraged, and challenges Kyle to a fight. Mr. Mackey upgrades the IntelliLink system to the Silver package in hopes that it will begin working correctly.

Ike is playing with his toy trucks in his room when Kyle goes to talk to him. He says that he couldn‘t get them out of school on Friday and he can‘t take him to the concert. Ike says that he promised, but Kyle says that he couldn't get in to see the principal. Ike gets angry, saying that he is just going to see it himself and that he is a little baby who is gonna hold his hands about how he feels and says to him to kick him by taking off his clothes.

Kyle and Ike attend the concert anyway, and during the show there is a segment where children from the audience are invited up to perform a "cool, cool trick". However, Kyle notices Ike has left his seat and sees him walking onto the stage to show his cool cool trick - he tries to tame Foofa's strange by removing his clothes and grinding against her on stage (which is shown offscreen) in front of everyone. Kyle runs towards the stage to stop him from doing this, but it was too late. After Kyle and Ike are taken backstage by security officers and given a talking-to by Plex, Ike suggests that Foofa should not limit herself to just an audience of kids. Foofa ponders this, and although the other Yo Gabba Gabba members try to convince her not to go, eventually she agrees and leaves with Ike.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Health Department official chats with his buddy and friend, who tells him that his wife did not just queef in his face for nothing.

At South Park Elementary, the school faculty tell Mackey that IntelliLink is a disaster, but Mackey dismisses this criticism and informs the faculty that he has hired a new faculty member, Pat Conners, to oversee the system. As soon as Conners sits down, however, Mackey excoriates her for failing to take responsibility for the malfunctioning system that she has only just been placed in charge of and fires her. He then announces that the school will upgrade to the IntelliLink Gold package.

Later, E! News reports on Foofa's drug usage, partying, appearing on magazines, and upcoming raunchy performance at the MTV Music Video Awards. Ike is revealed to have taken over as Foofa's manager.

At the Broflovski house, Ike further abuses Kyle and introduces him as his little brother. The other cast members from Yo Gabba Gabba! try to convince Foofa to not show her strange at the MTV performance, they continue by singing a musical number called “Don’t Show Your Strange” with the help of Sinéad O'Connor. At the same time, the instructor from earlier calls Kyle, thinking he's Ike and reveals that Ike gets medication from his company.

Later, Kyle meets with the Canadian Health Department official, who reveals that they also use IntelliLink and that Ike has been getting hormones instead of his prescription, which is for laxatives. Tom Brady, who ordered the hormones, has been taking the laxatives and craps his pants during a football game. The CHD official suddenly realizes that his wife queefed in his face to show him that the Canadian health system could not possibly be operated correctly by a computer system.

Back at South Park Elementary, IntelliLink's failure to work properly continues, and Mackey angrily tells Cody who is the engineer that he simply wants the school's resources to work properly. He recommends upgrading to IntelliLink's Centurion package, which involves removing the system entirely from the school, ending the school's use of it entirely. When Mackey reluctantly accepts this, Cody removes all the IntelliLink hardware and software from the building and burns it, before pulling out a pistol and shooting himself in the head.

At the MTV VMAs, Ike realizes he was wrong to push for puberty and should just allow it to happen naturally. Foofa, unmoved, carries out her raunchy performance.

The instructor confronts his wife about the queef and they make up. He says that he has realized how to fix the Canadian health system - by upgrading to the Gold package.

The next day, Kyle wakes up to Ike's childish-once-again laughter. Immensely happy, he rushes to the living room to find Ike has returned to normal, and they watch Dora the Explorer together. Ike then mentions that he "wouldn't mind hitting that hot Puerto Rican strange".

Critical Reception

AV Club gave "Taming Strange" a "B-" rating saying: "South Park is a show that’s set the bar high for satire with some of its best episodes. Sure, there have been plenty of lows, but there’s always plenty of grist out there for the show to take shots at. Problem is, there’s so much out there that sometimes its easy to lose focus on what the target is, and there’s a temptation to cram way too much into just one 22-minute episode. “Taming Strange” suffers from this issue: having too much to mock."

IGN gave "Taming Strange" a "6.4" rating saying: "South Park: "Taming Strange" had a few clever jokes and concepts that never quite panned out in the long run."