Cripple Fight

"Cripple Fight"

“Cripple Fight” is episode 67 of the animated series South Park. It originally aired on June 27 2001.

Plot

Stan, Cartman, and Kenny have joined Mountain Scouts troop number 69 and are on their way to their first meeting. When they arrive, they find that their scoutmaster is Big Gay Al. The boys enjoy themselves at the meeting and decide that they like Mountain Scouts, but some parents fear that Big Gay Al will be a poor influence on the boys and that he may be a pedophile.

After a lifetime of membership, Big Gay Al is thrown out of Mountain Scouts. A new, masculine, scoutmaster named Mr. Grazier is appointed and he promises the parents he will whip the boys into line and make them good scouts- but proceeds to force them to pose for nude pictures with a threat to beat them up if they let this slip.

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 (playing off the running gag that Kenny dies in almost every episode in the first few seasons). However, his efforts prove futile.

In an attempt to get rid of Mr. Grazier without giving away his secret, the boys assemble their own protest march all the way to the grocery store parking lot, and use Jimmy’s stand-up comedy to draw in a crowd. However, the performance goes sour when he tries to enlist Timmy’s participation, and Timmy refuses. Quickly, they break out into a lengthy fistfight. A very excited Cartman calls it a "cripple fight" and quickly gathers everyone to watch. From the outside, the crowd seems to be for the boy's protest, so it is picked up by the South Park media. A national controversy erupts as the Mountain Scouts are called a hate group by the media and prominent supporters like Steven Spielberg withdraw their support.

File:SP Cripple Fight.jpg

Jimmy wearing Kenny's ill-fated parka as part of Timmy's plot to have him killed.

Under pressure from gay rights groups and with help from prominent lawyer Gloria Allred, Big Gay Al sues the Mountain Scouts, while Mr. Grazier is revealed to be a criminal who goes by the name "Mr. Slippyfist" and is 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, adding that as the Scouts are a private organization, he believes it is their libertarian right to form their own policies on homosexuality. This causes Gloria Allred to brand Big Gay Al as a homophobe.

At the scouts meeting at the end of the episode, Timmy brings up a photoshopped picture of Jimmy's head on an actual, non-animated man's body, having sex with another man. Due to the scouts' views on homosexuality, Jimmy is literally booted out of the scouts.

Reaction

In the recent UK poll Paramount Comedy's Top 10 Episodes, this episode was ranked number 8. "Park Life", the documentary accompanying the countdown, showcased how the positive characterisation of Big Gay Al in this episode is what earned it so much respect.

References

The mini-DVD commentary for the episode describes how the fight between Jimmy and Timmy is based on the fight between John Nada (Roddy Piper) and Frank Armitage (Keith David) in the 1988 Film They Live, including the numerous knees to the groin and the insistence that Timmy put on the hat.

External links

• Cripple Fight on the South Park Studios Episode Guide
• Episode page at IMDB
• Episode script at Spscriptorium