Crippled Summer

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"Crippled Summer"
South Park episode
Episode no.Season 14
Episode 7
Directed byTrey Parker
Written byTrey Parker
Featured music
Production code1407
Original air dateApril 28, 2010 (2010-04-28)
Episode chronology
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"201" 		Next →
"Poor and Stupid"
South Park season 14
List of episodes

"Crippled Summer" is the seventh episode of the

Jimmy
during athletic competitions at a summer camp for disabled children.

The episode was written and directed by series co-creator

Fat Albert
.

"Crippled Summer" received positive reviews, though some commentators expressed disappointment that the episode did not respond to the controversies surrounding the show's

Nielsen Media Research
, "Crippled Summer" was seen by 3.56 million viewers, making it the most watched cable show of the night, and outperforming even some prime time network shows that evening.

Plot

The drug addiction of

mental disabilities, as a towel to dry off the campers. However, Towelie persists in drug use and fellating strangers in the supply closet, and is fired by the camp. All the boys except Eric Cartman confront Towelie and plead with him to enter treatment for his addictions. Cartman instead reads a long collection of anti-Semitic remarks, infuriating Kyle Broflovski, but the interventionist allows him to continue without interruption until he is finished. Towelie refuses their pleas until Butters reveals he has brought Towelie's child, "Washcloth", which finally prompts him to accept the offer to go to a rehabilitation clinic in Rancho Palos Verdes, California
. Later, Towelie reveals he has completed rehab and is now living with his girlfriend and son.

Meanwhile, at the summer camp, young bully Nathan and his dimwitted lackey Mimsy plot to sabotage

C-4 and sets it to explode when Jimmy plays his solo. When Jimmy fails to play it correctly and skips it, Mimsy tries to show him the correct notes but cannot get it right either. An exasperated Nathan berates Mimsy for his ineptitude and plays the solo correctly (a spoof of "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms
" as used to trigger explosives in Looney Tunes cartoons), inadvertently setting off the C-4 and launching him across the campsite. He is again attacked by the black mamba and Indians and raped by the shark before being taken to the hospital. Jimmy gives Nathan the champion's crown, but Nathan tells Jimmy he still hates him.

The episode ends with a message encouraging people who know towels in need of drug rehabilitation to visit "Restore Stephen Baldwin", a real-life website seeking assistance for actor Stephen Baldwin.

Production

"Crippled Summer" was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, and it was rated TV-MA L in the United States. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 28, 2010 and served as the mid-season finale of the fourteenth season before a months-long hiatus for the series.[1] Parker and fellow series co-creator Matt Stone originally planned for the tenth season episode "A Million Little Fibers" to be about Towelie's struggle to overcome addiction in the style of the television series Intervention, with the children and residents of South Park coming together to help him, just as it was done in "Crippled Summer". However, after writing portions of the story for the tenth-season episode, they found they did not know where to bring the story or how to resolve it. As a result, they completely revamped the episode and focused it on talk show host Oprah Winfrey and the controversy surrounding the James Frey book A Million Little Pieces, rather than Towelie's addiction.[2] "Crippled Summer" also marked the first appearance by Towelie since the "A Million Little Fibers", and the first appearance of Nathan, Jimmy's disabled nemesis, since the eighth season episode "Up the Down Steroid".[1]

Cultural references

"Crippled Summer" served as a parody of

A&E Network documentary series about people struggling with various addictions. Throughout the episode, information about Towelie's drug addiction is presented on completely black screens with white letters. This device is used frequently in Intervention. The interviews with Towelie's friends and footage of their pleas to get help are also characteristic of the reality series.[1][3] During one of Towelie's interviews, he quotes "feels like I'm walking on sunshine" after huffing air duster cans. Both the quote and his actions are from Season 5, episode 9 of Intervention, where they interview "Allison".[4]

Many of the campers at Lake Tardicaca are parodies of characters from the cartoon series

Pete Puma, Droopy, Porky Pig, Taz, Foghorn Leghorn, and Beaky Buzzard.[1]

The episode ends with a reference to "Restore Stephen Baldwin", a real-life website seeking to restore actor

born-again Christian.[3][5] A version of "Are You Ready for the Summer?", a camp theme song sung by children in the comedy film Meatballs, is featured.[3] The episode makes reference to actress Kirstie Alley when a counselor says Towelie is the most troubled towel he had seen since Alley's towel, who he said "has seen some nasty stuff".[6]

Reception

In its original American broadcast on April 29, 2010, "Crippled Summer" was watched by 3.56 million viewers, according to

NBA playoff games, it was the highest-rated scripted cable show of the week. "Crippled Summer" was the highest-rated cable show among the 18–34 viewer demographic.[9]

This is a brilliant episode. It's pure silliness, with a lot of old-school comedy devices mixed in with the usual crass South Park brand of humor.

Ramsey Isler, IGN[1]

"Crippled Summer" received mixed reviews. Ramsey Isler of IGN called "Crippled Summer" a brilliant episode, particularly praising the return of Towelie, who he said "has a slew of great moments in this story, making up for his long absence from the series". Isler said after the controversy raised from the depictions of Muhammad in the previous two episodes, "200" and "201", he appreciated that the show returned to a simpler plot and provided "a little comedy relief".[1] The A.V. Club writer Josh Modell also praised South Park for "not getting too caught up in the Muhammad thing", and praised the jokes about Intervention, which he said "is one of those shows that's really easy to parody". He also praised several individual jokes, like Cartman's theories about the Jews and Nathan getting raped by a shark, although he said the Mimsy jokes were "a little one-note".[3] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly said of the episode: "Not the kind of South Park episode that’s going to stir national-news debate, but funny and vulgar enough to satisfy fans."[10]

Carlos Delgado of iF Magazine pointed out that although the episode mocked drug addicts and disabled children, it did not face the kind of censorship "200" and "201" did, which he suggested proved that censorship was born of fear rather than ethics. Delgado also said the comparison of disabled children to Looney Tunes characters "should remind us all that such cruel portrayals of disabled people have been going on for years".[11] Others criticized the episode. MTV writer Adam Rosenberg thought the episode "just wasn't very funny", and said it missed an opportunity to continue the creative edginess demonstrated in "200" and "201". Rosenberg found the jokes about disabled children "pointlessly mean", and said the fact that they are allowed where depictions of Muhammad are censored "makes a point about the absurdity of what is and isn't TV-acceptable".[12] The television website TV Fanatic praised the Towelie storyline and the use of his son "Washcloth", but said the jokes about the disabled children were unfunny and irritating. The site called it "by far the weakest of the season" and a disappointment following "200" and "201".[13]

Home media

"Crippled Summer", along with the thirteen other episodes from South Park's fourteenth season, were released on a three-disc

Blu-ray set in the United States on April 26, 2011.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Isler, Ramsey (April 29, 2010). "South Park: "Crippled Summer" Review". IGN. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  2. ^ Parker, Trey (2007). South Park: The Complete Tenth Season: "A Million Little Fibers" (DVD Audio commentary). Paramount Home Entertainment.
  3. ^ a b c d Modell, Josh (April 28, 2010). "South Park: "Crippled Summer"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  4. ^ List of Intervention episodes
  5. New York Daily News
    . Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  6. ^ Miller, Julie (April 29, 2010). "South Park Casualty Count: Shark Rape and Crack-Addicted Towels". Movieline. Archived from the original on May 2, 2010. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  7. ^ a b c Gorman, Bill (April 29, 2010). "Wednesday Cable Ratings: "South Park" Increases 18–49 Ratings; Plus In Plain Sight, Mythbusters, Ugly Americans, More". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on May 3, 2010. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  8. ^ Seidman, Robert (April 29, 2010). "TV Ratings: Sad Happy Town Premiere; But ABC's Smiling Over Modern Family". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on May 3, 2010. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  9. ^ Seidman, Robert (May 4, 2010). "Cable Rankings 18-49/18-34: NBA Playoffs Top 18–49 Viewing, "South Park" & "The Hills" Tops With 18–34". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on May 7, 2010. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
  10. ^ Tucker, Ken (April 29, 2010). "'South Park' staged its own 'Intervention' in 'Crippled Summer' last night". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  11. ^ Delgado, Carlos (May 1, 2010). "TV Review: SOUTH PARK – SEASON 14 – 'Crippled Summer'". iF Magazine.
  12. ^ Rosenberg, Adam (April 29, 2010). "'Restore Stephen Baldwin' The Underlying Message Of Last Night's 'South Park,' 'Crippled Summer'". MTV. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  13. ^ "South Park Review: "Crippled Summer"". TV Fanatic. April 29, 2010. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  14. ^ "South Park - 'The Complete 14th Season' Formally Announced; Seems it Really IS Complete!". TVShowsOnDVD. July 2, 2011. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved February 12, 2011.

External links

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