Freak Strike
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| South Park episode | |
| "Freak Strike" | |
 "Whateva! I do what I want!" |
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| Episode no. | 82 |
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| Airdate | March 20, 2002 |
| South Park - Season 6 March 6, 2002 – December 11, 2002 |
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| ← Season 5 | Season 7 → |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
Freak Strike is episode 3 of season 6 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on March 20, 2002.
[edit] Plot
Seeing an episode of Maury where a girl born with no midsection wins a gift certificate, Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Butters decide to try to get on the show with a faked deformity to win themselves a prize. The group decide that Butters should be the one to go on the show, with balls on his chin. He reluctantly agrees, and two geeks in town make fake balls to put on Butters.
Butters then flies, alone, to New York to appear on the show. In the green room, he meets other variously-deformed people, who welcome Butters to their "union" (which ensures that US TV talk shows interview their members regularly), but Man with Foot on Head tells him that they hate it when people fake a deformity - for example "Lobster Boy", who simply turned out to be a lobster. When they found out about this, they boiled him alive. Butters nervously agrees that he hates fakers too.
On the show, Maury introduces Butters as "Napoleon Bonaparte from South Park." Butters tells Maury that the kids at school make fun of him, and wins a trip to the largest miniature golf course in the world. Stan, Kyle and Cartman are watching the show at home, and Cartman is terribly upset that Butters got "their" prize. He calls Maury, and tries to get himself on the show. The operator tells him they are no longer interviewing people with deformities, but are trying to find "out of control kids" for a future episode. Cartman convinces his mom to take him on that show and lie that he's out of control (which, ironically, he is).
Butters is grounded by his parents, who say he embarrassed them on national TV and gave his grandmother a mild stroke. Then, the freaks come to Butters' house looking for him - they want him to strike with them, so that they can take back the lime-light that was stolen from them.
Cartman and his mom go on Maury. Seeing a teenage girl swear, physically abuse her mother and boast about her "out-of-control" way of life, Cartman dresses up as a slutty girl, to try and "beat" her and win the prize. For everything she says, he makes up an even more outrageous story. During this sequence, he says "Whateva, Whateva! I do what I want!" Both, however, are outclassed by a four month old baby girl who takes her clothes off in front of the audience.
At this moment the deformed-people's union hijacks the TV studio's video screen, and broadcast a plea to the audience. They say that they are the "real" freaks, and they should not lose their means of employment to people who are only freaks because they are stupid. The union members, including Butters, sing a song about looking for the "True Freak label" on talk shows, and most of the audience agrees and leave the studio. Cartman is irate that Butters, again, ruined his chance to win a prize. He runs outside and rips the fake balls off of Butters' chin. But the union chase Cartman, who "ripped poor Napoleon's balls right off his chin!", so Butters thinks things might not turn out so badly for him. But at this moment his parents arrive in a taxi, and he knows he's in trouble again.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode features a completely new intro. This replaces the "4th Grade" one. It features the boys being made out of construction paper while clips are shown. With Kenny being "killed off", Timmy replaces him and sings his name repeatedly. The new theme is a more country like version. Butters holds a "The Butters Show" sign over the "South Park" sign at the end.
- Although both Disfigured Country Singer and Man With No Face have slurred voices for their first lines, they both seem to acquire normal voices afterwards in the same scene (they may have been putting it on for the stage hand).
- The Geeks from 4th Grade return in this episode. They are a parody of The Lone Gunmen from The X-Files.
- The scene where a man tells Maury that "the ratings have just started to plummet" is a play on the original Star Trek series, where crew members often viewed computer displays in such a way.
- When Cartman appears on the Maury show and is arguing with the other out of control child about who's badder, he states he "ran for Congress, won, and then had sex with an intern, killed her, and hid her body" This is a reference to the Gary Condit scandal.
- Nurse Gollum from the episode Conjoined Fetus Lady and the Thompsons from the episode How to Eat With Your Butt are among the freaks on strike. Kevin, Dr. Mephisto's odd assistant, is also seen singing the Freak Strike anthem.
- When Cartman is trying to convince his mother to go on the Maury Povich show with him, he says "I have such a pretty mother, such a wonderful mother..." These quotes and this tone were often used by Rhoda, the sadistic little girl in "The Bad Seed" to win favor from her mother.
- In the crowd of strikers, you can see a character similar to Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis, the subject of the 1985 movie Mask staring Eric Stoltz.
- The "True Freak Label" video sabotage that the freaks make Butters star in is a shot-by-shot parody of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union commercial from the 70s, which showed the workers singing a song known as "Look for the Union Label".
| Preceded by "Butters' Very Own Episode" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "Jared Has Aides" |
