Original air date: 10/15/2008
Wendy Testaburger has had it with Cartman's antics and challenges him to a fight, but Cartman does everything he can to make Wendy out to be a bully.
This episode contains examples of:
- An Aesop:
- Breast cancer is a serious matter and should not be joked about.
- If you believe that someone close to you wouldn't/shouldn't be excused on your behalf, stick with your gut. However, if someone you're only acquainted with believes the opposite, be willing to hear them out.
- Adults Are Useless: It's all too obvious that even though Cartman is bullying and humiliating Wendy by insulting a serious cause that she wants to promote, none of the adults take her seriously, with her parents completely ignoring her side of the story and how much it's hurting her emotionally, especially when he takes advantage of this to bully her some more. The only exception is Principal Victoria, who learns about what was going on between Wendy and Cartman and gives Wendy motivation to beat the shit out of Cartman while subtly assuring her she won't be punished for it.
- Apathetic Teacher: Mr. Garrison does next to nothing to stop Cartman from mocking breast cancer during Wendy's presentation; by this point, he's completely given up on trying to control Cartman. Though he seems to be genuinely pissed off after Cartman does it again later on. Wendy rightfully calls him out on it.Wendy: Will somebody do something?! Every week, he gets worse and nobody does anything!
- Asshole Victim: Cartman gets beaten to a bloody pulp by Wendy, but considering his horrible behavior and actions before and during this episode, he more than deserves each and every punch she lands on him, especially when he could have quit while he was ahead after getting Wendy into trouble with her parents.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Cartman gets one from Wendy after the latter gets a Rousing Speech to continue with the fight, causing him to realize that he's well and truly cornered and he's the one who'll either have to agree to fight or chicken out.Cartman: [whispering] Wendy, don't forget. I'll tell my mom on you.
Wendy: I don't care. - Autobots, Rock Out!: The climactic fight between Cartman and Wendy is accompanied by rock music.
- Badass Adorable: Wendy sure knows how to kick ass!
- Berserk Button: Principal Victoria has no love for Cartman, but she reveals she's a breast cancer survivor, so this situation strikes a particular chord with her.
- Bittersweet Ending: Parodied in-universe with Cartman, who's devastated at having lost the fight and emasculated himself in front of his supposedly approving peers, but manages to cheer up when he convinces himself that they still see him as cool.
- Bowdlerise: In some Canadian airings on Much, Cartman's poop was blurred out
. - Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: In an attempt to stop the fight, Cartman tells Wendy that his mother has breast cancer. When she doesn't buy it, he then lies about having muscular dystrophy, and finally says that his mother has muscular dystrophy in her boobs.
- Brick Joke: Cartman eats his underwear to appease Wendy, and later throws it up when talking to Stan.
- Bullying a Dragon: Cartman is the bully and Wendy is the dragon. Even after having his own mother come into Wendy's house and have her parents intervene, he continued to belittle Wendy and kept hurting her.
- Challenging the Bully: What Wendy does in order to stick a cork in Cartman's driveling mouth.
- The Coats Are Off: Both Wendy and Cartman remove their jackets right before they fight.
- Combat Pragmatist: Cartman gets some solid hits in at the beginning of the fight, likely due to his larger size. This advantage disappears quickly, as he is woefully out of shape, and Wendy adapts to their fighting environment to achieve victory, by slamming his face into the jungle gym repeatedly.
- Comically Missing the Point: After his beating, Cartman says to the others that no one will think he's cool anymore, but his friends say that they never thought he was cool. This convinces Cartman that they're just trying to make him feel better and that he really is cool.
- Comically Small Bribe: Cartman bribes Wendy with $27 to call off the fight. Wendy refuses, and claims he'll have to apologize to her in front of everybody if he really wants to call the fight off.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Wendy threatens to shove Cartman's ass down his throat and make him eat his underwear. In a vain attempt to stop the fight, Cartman actually does eat his underwear to appease her. It doesn't work and only makes Wendy angrier because she finds it disgusting and pathetic.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Cartman spends the majority of his fight with Wendy on the receiving end of a vicious beatdown. However, he manages to get in several hits of his own, even pinning her up against the jungle gym before she turns the tables on him.
- A Day in the Limelight: This is Wendy's episode through and through. It also counts as one for Principal Victoria, who reveals that she's a breast cancer survivor and delivers a truly epic Rousing Speech that gives Wendy the motivation to fight back against Cartman despite threats of punishment from her parents.
- Death Glare: Wendy gives one to Cartman from across the cafeteria. The camera even zooms in on her face once he is fully terrified.
- Defiant to the End: Discussed by Principal Victoria in her Rousing Speech to Wendy. She tells her that she had been fighting breast cancer for seven years and, even though it could've killed her, she didn't lay back and let the disease overpower her—she fought back with all of her strength regardless of whether or not she succeeded, because she was not going to give cancer the satisfaction of beating her. Wendy correctly interprets this as a green light to fight Cartman and take away his satisfaction, even if it means getting in trouble.Principal Victoria: When you have cancer, you fight, because it doesn't matter whether you beat it or not—you refuse to let that fat little lump make you feel powerless.
- Determinator: Principal Victoria explains to Wendy that when someone is fighting something hateful, destructive, and irrational—be it breast cancer or a cruel bully like Cartman—they cannot give up. Even if they lose the fight, they can go out knowing that they did their best and refused to let their foe win.
- Dirty Coward: Cartman relentlessly taunts and bullies Wendy over breast cancer awareness, to the extent she snaps and declares she's going to fight him for it. At this, Cartman freaks out and does everything he can think of to try and get out of it, ranging from bribery to desperate pleas to quiet apologies. When Wendy snaps that there's no way out and she's going to "shove [his] ass down [his] throat and make [him] eat [his] underwear", Cartman, scared shitless, does exactly that on the spot; all he succeeds in doing is disgusting Wendy and enraging her even more.Wendy: Jesus Christ, do you have no sense of self-respect?!
Cartman: No! Unless you want me to. You want me to have self-respect, then I will! - Disproportionate Retribution: Wendy deciding to beat up Cartman for making fun of Breast Cancer awareness is seen as this by her parents at least, as her mother calls her out for going too far by beating up someone just for whatever they say/have said. Downplayed somewhat; this is Cartman we are talking about, who continued to bully her even after he had parental protection and beyond that, it's made clear that this is because Wendy's tired of Cartman in general after years of him being unrepentantly horrible (which her parents obviously aren't aware of and won't consider). Deconstructed on Cartman's side of things, as he exaggerates the bare minimum of her threats to gullible adults in order to cover his own ass and try to one-up her, essentially putting twice as much effort into making her miserable. Either way, Cartman ensures that he's reaping whatever the hell he sows.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Occurs In-Universe with Principal Victoria's speech. She calls breast cancer—which she is a survivor of—a "fat little lump that can't be reasoned with," explaining that if someone doesn't fight back against the disease, it will just keep getting worse and "take everything from you." Wendy quickly realizes that Principal Victoria is comparing Cartman to a cancerous tumor and understands what she has to do.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- Wendy gives a speech in Garrison's class about breast cancer awareness, which results in Cartman making tasteless joke after tasteless joke about breast cancer. This causes Wendy to snap and challenge him to a fight. To say she wallops him is an understatement.
- Butters is seen cheering Wendy on during the fight, even yelling at her to fuck Cartman up. Given how much Cartman manipulates and abuses him, Butters has a good reason to be saying that.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Wendy, Principal Victoria, and even Mr. Garrison (after some apathy) find Eric Cartman's breast cancer jokes too cruel to be funny.
- Everyone Has Standards: Mr. Garrison deals with Cartman's snickering at Wendy's report on breast cancer with his usual apathy, much to Wendy's frustration. The following day, Cartman delivers a "report" which is in fact a series of breast cancer jokes; while Garrison sits through a few of them, he eventually has the decency to step in and shut Cartman up.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Cartman's jokes on breast cancer are too crude and tasteless to be considered funny.
- Evil Is Petty: Trying to make Wendy's current life a living hell and get her in trouble because he's a Dirty Coward is one thing, but Cartman actively trying to drive her insane for the foreseeable future (by specifically shitting on breast cancer awareness for hours on end each day) needs no introduction for what a cretinous waste of time it is.
- Excrement Statement: 3:00 has arrived and there's no way out of the fight. Cartman overhears Clyde saying that he has detention after school, which gives him the idea he needs. Cartman climbs on top of Mr. Garrison's desk, pulls down his pants and defecates on it, horrifying everyone and getting detention in the process.Mr. Garrison: Eric, did you just take a crap on my desk?Cartman: What's up? What's up? Just crapped on your desk, dawg, what's up wit that?Butters: Huh.
- Failure Is the Only Option: The whole intention of the episode according to
Word of God was to put Cartman in a lose-lose situation."If you get beaten up by a girl, you're a douche and everyone hates you. And if you beat up a girl, you're a douche and everyone hates you." - The Friend Nobody Likes: The other boys all reveal that they always hated Cartman, never thought he was cool, and that their opinion of him possibly couldn't get any lower. See Comically Missing the Point for Cartman's response.
- Hard Truth Aesop:
- Some people can't be reasoned with and must simply be beaten into submission.
- Stand up for your beliefs even if you get in serious trouble.
- Hated by All: As Cartman is crying that now all the kids (possibly including Butters and Kenny) will think he sucks, they try to make it perfectly clear to him that they already hated him so much that it's impossible for them to think less of him. Cartman just sees it as reverse psychology, and cheers up.
- Hate Sink: Exaggerated. Cartman's Jerkass tendencies are exaggerated to their largest extent yet, with him constantly mocking cancer patients and being a sniveling coward, all in the service of making his beatdown at the end of the episode more satisfying for the audience.
- Hypocrite:
- Butters kept riling up Cartman into fighting Wendy and that losing the fight to her would make everyone think less of Cartman. After the fight is over, with Wendy winning and Cartman bleeding and bruised, the other boys point out they never thought highly of Cartman in the first place and the fight doesn't change their opinions. Butters cowardly pretends to go along with what the boys said and lies that he agrees with them.
- Even so, Butters claimed before the fight that he was cheering for Cartman. When the fight is happening, he actually has the nerve to say, "FUCK HIM UP, WENDY!"
- Insult Backfire: After almost getting killed by Wendy and sustaining lots of bloody wounds, Cartman breaks down in tears that now all the boys think he's uncool and will look down on him. The boys insult him that they always thought he sucked, then Cartman misinterprets that as them just trying to make him feel better and not meaning it.
- It's Been Done: Cartman thinks that now all the boys around him are going to think he's uncool and pathetic for having been beaten up by a girl. We later see that, with the exception of Butters, none of them ever thought Cartman was cool and they always held a dismal opinion of him.
- It's Personal: Principal Victoria reveals that she's a breast cancer survivor who's been fighting the disease for seven years. As such, Cartman's cruel jokes about breast cancer make her furious, and she all but tells Wendy that she'll protect her from any punishment if she goes through with the fight. Wendy gets the message and takes the battle to Cartman.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: After Butters points out that everyone would think less of him if Wendy beat him, Cartman fears that she might actually beat him and tries his hardest to weasel his way out of the fight, to no avail. She does beat the hell out of him in front of everyone, and while crying about how he's no longer cool, the others inform him that they've never thought he was cool and that their opinions of him couldn't possibly go any lower, which Cartman interprets as them trying to cheer him up because they really do like him.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: One of the best examples of Cartman getting what was coming to him, when Wendy beats him up for the gall to insult the condition. Even within the episode, his luck nimbly avoiding the fight finally runs out when he continues to make fun of breast cancer after going out of his way to frame Wendy as the asshole for picking the fight.
- Kick the Dog: Cartman had already shattered Wendy's confidence by tricking her parents into believing that he's the victim and to ground her if she does beat him up, but he just couldn't leave it there and writes an essay making fun of breast cancer survivors to further torment her. Naturally, this comes back to bite him.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Wendy delivers a few kicks to Cartman after she's already beaten him to a pulp as extra "Fuck you!"s to him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Cartman insults and makes a mockery of Breast Cancer and Wendy's efforts in spreading awareness of it, leading to him being forced to humiliate and torture himself to try and appease her, unwilling to just apologize to maintain his (nonexistent) "hardcore" status. When he continues to push her buttons even after using her parents against her, Principal Victoria gives Wendy a subtle but clear message of protection so that she can fight him. Victoria even compares him to Breast Cancer - a "fat little lump" that does nothing but take everything away from you.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Wendy's remark that Cartman gets worse "every week" is a subtle nod to the fact that the show is episodic. Cartman does indeed pull a new horrible stunt with each new weekly episode.
- Little Miss Badass: Wendy takes on Cartman, who's twice her size, and wins. She even pushes through after he lands a few solid punches; given that he has a mild amount of Stout Strength, the blows clearly knock the wind out of her, but she's able to keep going.
- Lovable Jock: Discussed by the Goth Kids, with Pete remarking that he would think Stan leaving Wendy to fight a bully goes against his "jocky man code" of letting Cartman have any chance at landing punches.
- Musical Interruptus: When it's time for Cartman and Wendy to fight each other, Wendy scores the first hit, knocking Cartman to the ground, and the accompanying rock music momentarily cuts short but plays again as soon as Cartman gets back on his feet.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Cartman's Wounded Gazelle Gambit had worked, and he was safe, but he refused to just let it be and kept antagonizing Wendy instead. When Principal Victoria gives her the go-ahead, Wendy goes for it.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Wendy gives Cartman a spectacular one that ends with the lower half of his body covered in blood.
- Oh, Crap!: Cartman has one of these when he realizes Wendy doesn't care if her parents punish her for beating him, meaning she's going to fight him and he has nowhere left to run.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Principal Victoria will typically enable Cartman's despicable actions, effectively making him a Karma Houdini, or at worst give him a bare minimum detention sentence. Thus, her essentially encouraging Wendy to beat the shit out of him, when she'd stop it if it were literally anyone else but him, is a sign of just how much a hit below the belt Cartman making fun of breast cancer was for her.
- Out of Focus: Kyle only has one line in this episode and Kenny has none.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Wendy's entire motivation for beating up Cartman is giving him something he deserves, rather than just her personally being angry with him.
- Pet the Dog: While Mr. Garrison didn't react to Cartman laughing at Wendy's report, he gets legitimately mad at Cartman when he reads his own "report", which is just a bunch of breast cancer jokes, and forces him to stop because it's clear that he's bullying Wendy.
- Pooping Where You Shouldn't: Cartman defecates on Mr. Garrison's desk in order to get out of a scheduled fight with Wendy. Garrison is obviously not amused and sends Cartman to detention.
- Precision F-Strike: When Wendy is giving Cartman the beating of his life, Butters shouts “Fuck him up, Wendy!”
- Rage Breaking Point: Wendy's not threatening to beat Cartman up solely because he's mocking breast cancer, but because this is the last straw for her after years of him being completely horrible.
- Refusal of the Call: Cartman desperately tries to get Stan to talk Wendy out of the fight, but he won't bother because Wendy really wants to fight and can't be swayed at all. The Goth kids also mock Stan for not getting involved in this.
- Rejected Apology: Cartman tries to quietly apologize to Wendy for his actions, but Wendy refuses to accept it unless he apologizes openly, which Cartman refuses to do in order to keep up his "hardcore" persona. Also, it's made clear Cartman isn't actually sorry in the slightest and is just trying to get out of the fight with her.
- Rousing Speech: Principal Victoria gives Wendy one in the form of saying how she was a breast cancer survivor and that cancer is a "fat lump" that can't be allowed to win, and subtly implies that she'll make sure Wendy won't get punished for beating up Cartman.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: After Wendy challenges Cartman to a big fight, he claims that she is bullying him and gets his mother to complain to Wendy's parents, who warn Wendy that they'll punish her if they find out she has beaten Cartman. Wendy is briefly dissuaded, but Principal Victoria urges her to stand up to Cartman despite the consequences: "And you can't listen to what anyone else tells you. You have to be willing to give up everything, because the cancer will take everything." It also overlaps with Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!, as it's implied that Principal Victoria, at the very least, will look the other way and keep Wendy from getting in trouble with her parents for fighting Cartman.
- Shout-Out:
- After soundly beating Cartman bloody, an exhausted Wendy sits next to him declaring "I'm finished!".
- The main plot is very similar to Three O'Clock High.
- Smug Snake: After getting a forbid from Wendy’s parents to stop a fight he dreaded having, Cartman decided to rub it in Wendy’s face the next day, up to making a "report" (read: another hate speech) on breast cancer with nothing but breast-related puns just to push every button of hers possible.
- Stunned Silence: The students' reaction to Cartman taking a crap on Mr. Garrison's desk.
- Stupid Evil: Even after he's already gotten Wendy's parents to forbid her from fighting, Cartman continues to push her buttons by giving a mockery of a breast cancer report in class, eventually angering her so much that she becomes determined to wipe the floor with him regardless of the consequences after Principal Victoria motivates her to fight for what she believes in.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Wendy is told by her parents that she will get in trouble if she fights Cartman, is thought to have chickened out by the other students, and has her Breast Cancer awareness mocked in class by Cartman's presentation. Then Principal Victoria gives her a speech about the importance of fighting.
- Tranquil Fury: While Wendy does get enraged whenever Cartman passive-aggressively tries shutting down the idea of her beating him in a fight (including when he ends up getting detention just to get out of it), she spends the majority of the episode in subdued but very intimate anger, making a fist in the cafeteria and softly punching it while staring him down, simply staring ahead stone-faced with furrowing eyebrows during the last five minutes leading up to the original fight date, quickly but coolly moving through the hallway with a determined look on her face when it comes time to actually fight him, and quietly, slowly telling him "I don't care" when he reminds her that he can still get her in trouble by telling his mom.
- Wham Line: Principal Victoria, to Wendy: "Did you know I'm a breast cancer survivor?" This revelation reveals that Cartman's cruel taunting of breast cancer is deeply personal to Victoria, and gives way to the Rousing Speech described above.
- Worth It: It's not clear if Wendy will actually be punished for fighting Cartman; her parents forbade her, but Principal Victoria implied she would look out for her. Regardless, Wendy makes it clear she doesn't care what happens next and walks off triumphantly when the fight's over.
- Would Hit a Girl: Cartman makes a big show about, and eventually succeeds at, beating up Wendy—at the beginning of their fight, before Wendy quickly gains the upper hand once they're near the metal climbing equipment.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Cartman gets Wendy in trouble by pretending to be a victimized child whom Wendy has been bullying in front of her parents. This is also Truth in Television; it is not an uncommon tactic for bullies to take advantage of the one time their target does anything to retaliate (verbally or physically) after suffering tons of abuse from the bully to instantly play the victim, deny all responsibility and get them into trouble, or for adults to not even bother to listen to the victim's side of the story like Wendy's parents, for that matter.
