Original air date: 10/3/2007
Influenced from a potty-mouthed kid with Tourette's Syndrome who he saw at the toy store, Cartman starts faking the condition in order to blurt out obscenities without receiving punishment. However, it starts to wear on his mental filter and he unintentionally starts revealing some very humiliating secrets.
Episode contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Per usual, none of the adults realize that Cartman is obviously faking his condition; even when Kyle tries to tell them about this, they misinterpret this as him being intolerant.
- Becoming the Mask: Cartman pretends to have Tourette's Syndrome to get away with swearing and saying obscene things all the time. But after a long period of keeping this up, he becomes so accustomed to saying whatever comes to his mind that he slowly loses the ability to think before he speaks and is unable to stop himself from saying a thought that occurs to him, his tic being blurting out truths, some of which are private and embarrassing.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Thomas is a nice kid who hates acting the way he does in public. And he has no problem humiliating Cartman alongside Kyle when he sees Cartman using his condition to act like a dick in public.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Cartman pretends to be an innocent little boy with Tourette's Syndrome when he is only faking it as an excuse to do whatever he wants.
- Bittersweet Ending: Cartman's plan to say Anti-Semitic speech on Dateline (which would also ruin the lives of people with Tourette's Syndrome) fails, but he gets away with his actions and avoids embarrassing himself on live television thanks to Kyle and Thomas.
- Compelling Voice: Cartman is compelled to take a seat when Chris Hansen says, "why don't you take a seat?", much to his frustration.Hansen: Why don't you take a seat?
Cartman: No, I don't want to take a seat.
Hansen: Have a seat.
Cartman: (starts walking backwards towards the chair) No! I'm just going to go—
Hansen: Take a seat. Right over there.
(Cartman sits down on the chair)
Cartman: (under his breath) How does he do that...? - Comically Missing the Point: The adults believe that Kyle doesn't believe in Tourette's Syndrome, not that he is trying to expose Cartman for faking his condition.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Halfway through the episode, Cartman loses his social filter entirely and begins blurting out humiliating secrets about himself, like "I wet the bed last night!" and "I cry at night because I don't have a dad!"
- Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Cartman believes that those with Tourette's Syndrome do this in order to curse obscenely without punishment and he fakes the disorder as a result. His endgame is going on television and making an anti-Semitic hate speech. Inverted with Thomas, who is not only mortified with his own condition but is mad at Cartman for trying to exploit Tourette's.
- Driven to Suicide: A bunch of pedophiles are tricked into going to the studio. The moment they see Chris Hansen, they shoot themselves.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: When Kyle is forced to attend a support group for children with Tourette's, he tries to explain that Cartman is only pretending he can't control what he says for fun. The children are confused by the way he words it, however, wondering why anyone would think having Tourette's is fun. It's only when Thomas hears Cartman say that having Tourette's is "awesome", that he finally understands what Kyle was trying to tell them.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Cartman fakes having Tourette's Syndrome in order to say whatever he wants without being punished. However, he does it so much that he loses his filter and starts blurting out embarrassing secrets and fears being publicly humiliated as a result.
- Hollywood Tourette's: Deconstructed. While characters like Thomas display the typical uncontrolled "swearing" version of Tourette's Syndrome, there are other characters, both children and adults, who display other types of involuntary behavior. The main point of the episode is that not only are there more forms of Tourette's than uncontrollable swearing, but also that having Tourette's Syndrome is more than just being an excuse to say curse words, because you live in constant fear that you might make a public scene with your outbursts. Thomas laments that his condition embarrassed his father so much that they only see him during the winter holidays. Cartman initially fakes the Hollywood version of Tourette's, but later in the story, he begins developing actual symptoms.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Everyone genuinely believes that Cartman has Tourette's Syndrome, even dismissing Kyle's claims that he is faking it.
- Implied Death Threat: When Cartman tries to back out of his interview, Chris brings up a story about how a pedophile shot himself rather than be on Dateline. He then said that it would be a shame if Cartman also "shot himself" for skipping out on his Dateline interview. Subverted later on when the pedophiles start shooting themselves on sight of him and all he can do is say "not again", implying that the one from Chris' story really did kill himself.
- Irony: Chris immediately believes that Cartman has Tourette's from a letter he wrote to him telling him about the disease, but when he meets Thomas (an actual Tourette's patient) and his verbal tics go off, Chris assumes he's disrespecting him on purpose without considering that Thomas may also have Tourette's.
- Jerkass Realization: Downplayed. Kyle is right to call out Cartman for faking Tourette's just to get away with cussing people out. But after speaking to kids with Tourette's and learning about their struggles, he still feels the need to say "sorry" if only for not understanding how serious of a condition it is.
- Laser-Guided Karma: When Cartman fakes having Tourette's, he begins blurting out embarrassing secrets at random as if he really did have the disorder, and he was due for a TV appearance, originally intended by Cartman as a platform to get away with anti-Semitic speak on television (and possibly ruin the reputation of the Tourette's Syndrome community in the process) but would instead end up embarrassing himself in front of a national audience. Ultimately subverted as Kyle and Thomas (who actually has Tourette's) unwittingly saved him from appearing on TV when they were trying to get back at him for faking the disease... although Cartman still is stuck blurting out secrets and has to go to a therapist.
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: Kyle is called out by other people for dismissing Cartman's claims of having Tourette's. Justified, since no one believes Cartman is making up having a neurological disorder.
- Mistaken for Racist: Invoked; people assume that Kyle's claim that Cartman is lying about having Tourette's is because he doesn't believe the condition itself is real and he is 'forced' to meet various people with the condition, with people ignoring Kyle's protests that he believes in the condition and just believes that Cartman is faking it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Downplayed. Cartman has this reaction after he realizes that Tourette's isn't as "cool" as he thought it was when he begins randomly blurting out personal secrets, but he has this reaction less out of guilt and more out of fear that he will have to suffer the consequences of faking the disorder by embarrassing himself on live TV.
- Never My Fault: While desperately praying to God for an escape from humiliating himself on Dateline, Cartman has the audacity to finish with a statement that it's Gods responsibility to fix his mistakes anyway.
- Never Suicide: The story Chris Hansen tells Cartman to get him to go through with appearing on TV strongly implies this, but it then becomes subverted; once a bunch of pedophiles enter the TV studio and see Chris, they immediately begin shooting themselves en-masse, suggesting that Chris literally meant what he said.
- "You know, one time, I was doing a show called To Catch A Predator. We almost caught this pedophile, but then he raaan from us 'cause he didn't wanna be on Dateline. So we tracked him down to his house. And you know what he did? He shot himself. It'd be a shame if... you didn't wanna go on Dateline. Be a shame if we had to track you down, and you 'shot yourself.'"
- Noodle Incident: Cartman apparently "touched wieners" with his cousin.
- Obfuscating Disability: After encountering a boy with Tourette's Syndrome at the toy store, Cartman gets the idea to pretend he also has Tourettes so he can use curse words and say anti-Semitic things without getting in trouble. This starts biting him in the ass when, after just saying what he's thinking for so long, he loses his brain-to-mouth filter and starts blurting out embarrassing and incriminating things about himself.
- Oh, Crap!: Every pedophile has this reaction to seeing Chris Hansen."Oh God, it's Chris Hansen!"
- Only Sane Man: Thomas is the only other one to realize that Cartman really is faking his condition.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Thinking Kyle derailed Dateline to help him, Cartman sincerely thanks him.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Kyle and Thomas set up a plan to sabotage Cartman's TV spot. They succeeded but were unaware Cartman wanted this to happen so he wouldn't embarrass himself. Cartman gleefully thanks Kyle much to his and Thomas's disappointment.
- Running Gag: Craig saying "If I could say [offensive vulgarity], I would be soooo happy." anytime he hears Cartman swear.
- Mr. Donaldson repeatedly shouting "Piss out my ass!"
- Sanity Slippage: When Cartman fakes Tourette's, he loses his filter and begins blurting out embarrassing secrets at random as if he really did have Tourette's. Once the main conflict is settled, he rushes to a psychiatrist for treatment.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Excessive amounts of it throughout.
- Thomas, due to his Tourette's.
- Cartman goes down this route after being influenced by Thomas.
- Spotting the Thread: Thomas realizes Cartman is faking his condition after hearing him say having Tourette's is "awesome", while he and the others who genuinely have it hate having to live with it.
- Take That!:Craig: "If I could call Chris Hansen an asshole-licking dickfart to his face, I would be sooo happy."
- Also counts as a Pre-Tweek x Craig Pet the Dog moment by Craig as he actually wants to be friends with Thomas.
- Tempting Fate: Cartman gets away from swearing by faking Tourettes all episode, only for him to develop a similar condition naturally and start saying embarrassing things about himself.
- Too Much Information: After swearing too much, Cartman loses his mental filter for real and starts blurting out things he doesn't want to say, like how he wets the bed, how he and his cousin touched wieners, and how he's lying about his condition.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Cartman becomes this thanks to adults' sheer stupidity.Chris Hansen: In a few minutes, you will meet little Eric Cartman, who wants the world to understand his affliction.
