"It Hits the Fan"

"Cripple Fight"

"Super Best Friends"

South Park episode
"Cripple Fight"
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 2
Production no.	503
Original airdate	June 27, 2001
Episode chronology Previous Next "It Hits the Fan" "Super Best Friends"
South Park - Season 5 June 20, 2001 - December 12, 2001
"It Hits the Fan" "Cripple Fight" "Super Best Friends" "Scott Tenorman Must Die" "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" "Cartmanland" "Proper Condom Use" "Towelie" "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants" "How to Eat with Your Butt" "The Entity" "Here Comes the Neighborhood" "Kenny Dies" "Butters' Very Own Episode"
← Season 4	Season 6 →
List of all South Park episodes

"Cripple Fight" is the third episode of Season Five, and the 67th overall episode of South Park. It aired on July 27, 2001 ^[1].

Spoiler warning! Plot details follow.

SynopsisEdit

Big Gay Al returns to South Park as the new scout leader. When he is fired for being gay, the boys rally to his defense with the help of the new "handi-capable" kid, Jimmy. But there's only room for one crippled kid in South Park, so Timmy and Jimmy throw down in an all-out slugfest.

PlotEdit

The boys (except Kyle, who is obviously a Jew scout as seen in Jewbilee) have joined Mountain Scouts, and are on their way to their first meeting. When they arrive, they find that their scoutmaster is Big Gay Al, and some parents take objection to this, fearing that he may exhibit pedophilia. Big Gay Al is quickly thrown out of Mountain Scouts, and is heartbroken, for he has been in the Scouts all his life. A controversy erupts as the Mountain Scouts are called a hate group by the media and prominent supporters like Steven Spielberg withdraw their support. A new scoutmaster named Mr. Grazier (also known as “Mr. Slippyfist”) is appointed, who turns out to be a real child molester and begins to take pornographic photos of his scouts, with a threat to beat them up if they reveal this to their parents.

Meanwhile, Jimmy, a new handicapped boy, comes to town and also joins Mountain Scouts. Jimmy is a stand-up comedian and immediately becomes very popular. Timmy, the other handicapped boy in town, becomes incredibly jealous of the adoration given to the new kid. Timmy tries to undermine Jimmy in any way possible, including offering him an orange parka as a gift, in order to make him resemble Kenny. However, his efforts prove futile (the parka even fails to attract Kenny’s intended usual tragic death, although several near misses occur).

In an effort to get Big Gay Al back as their scout leader, the boys, including Timmy and Jimmy, assemble their own protest march all the way to the grocery store parking lot, and attempt to use Jimmy’s stand-up comedy as a crowd-teaser. However, the performance goes sour when he tries to enlist Timmy’s participation, and Timmy refuses. Quickly, they break out into a lengthy fistfight, which Cartman dubs “cripple fight” and announces to several large gatherings of people, who come to watch the spectacle. (The fight scene mimics exactly a fight scene between Roddy Piper and Keith David in John Carpenter’s They Live, copying specific camera angles and dialogue, although the boys do not correspond to either character.)

Under pressure from gay rights groups and with help from prominent lawyer Gloria Allred, Big Gay Al sues the Mountain Scouts, while Mr. Slippyfist is revealed as a criminal and arrested. Although Big Gay Al wins in court and the court orders the Mountain Scouts to take him back, he refuses, saying that he loves scouts too much to impose his will on them, and while they should be talked into changing their mind and he begs people not to cut their funding or support for the scouts. This causes Gloria Allred to brand Big Gay Al as a homophobe.

The boys get a new Scoutmaster, and Timmy doctors some images of Jimmy, putting his head on a picture of two gay men embracing. When the Scoutmaster sees it, he expels Jimmy from the Scouts, to a victory cheer from Timmy.

ReferencesEdit