Original air date: 10/21/2009
The boys form a wrestling foundation after watching a live WWE show.
"W.T.F." contains examples of:
- Adaptational Jerkass: John Cena's real life wrestling persona was well established at the time this episode aired as the "Hustle Loyalty and Respect" good guy who always did the right thing. Here, he not only cheats on his girlfriend, he proudly reveals he cheated on her with Edge's girlfriend.
- Art Shift: Edge is from Canada, but is not animated in the Terrence and Phillip style. Likely done intentionally, as Edge isn't used for Canada jokes, but to establish how the boys develop their idea of Professional Wrestling.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- Kenny's luchador persona, El Pollo Loco, translates to "The Crazy Chicken."
- When Kenny is killed by the rocket, two of his Mexican fans give the "Oh My God, They Killed Kenny!" and "You Bastards!" lines in Spanish.note
- The Bus Came Back: Darryl Weathers, the "They took er jerb" guy from "Goobacks."
- Cross-Cast Role: Cartman puts on a female alias - "Bad Irene".
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The elaborate backstories and plots, the amphitheater, the auditions, the squeeing at the attention of Vince McMahon - are the boys wrestling, or putting on a Shakespearean play?
- Early-Bird Cameo: The leader of the Harley Davidson motorcycle gang from "The F Word," makes his debut as a member of the crowd.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The Wrestling Coach gets his profession shit on by the rest of the cast and gets fired from his job, gets a spot on the WWE from Vince McMahon.
- Insane Troll Logic: The boys' wrestling persona's backstories.
- Irony: When the boys blame each other for their failure to sign with WWE, they end up fighting in the ring like actual professional wrestlers. This causes the audience to call it "fake" and leave en masse.
- Karma Houdini: The Wrestling Coach gets away scot-free for killing Kenny and nearly killing everyone else in the stadium.
- Kayfabe: Hilariously played with. The boys never have to be informed that pro wrestling is scripted; from the very beginning they are seen working on their characters and storylines. The redneck and Mexican citizens of South Park on the other hand believe it is real, no matter how nonsensical. A ten year old girl (who is clearly a boy in drag) has had over a dozen abortions? Another ten year old in the year 2009 is a Vietnam veteran? That all checks out.
- Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: In-Universe. Kenny's wrestling persona is "El Pollo Loco" who resembles a luchador and is the only Mexican character in the show. He has a huge fanbase made of Mexican Americans.
- Mistaken for Gay: The wrestling teacher gets hit with this hard by showing how to wrestle. Cartman is disgusted by the awkwardness of being grappled in certain ways, which kicks off the plot.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: The boys accuse the wrestling teacher of being a pedophile after he puts them in wrestling positions that come off as questionable to them. Butters even threatens to report him to the police before leaving with the others.
- Only Sane Man: The wrestling teacher is the only person who knows that WWE is a fake, entertainment-based wrestling organization, while the town folk genuinely believe that the professional wrestling is real. The boys have no idea that there is a difference between pro wrestling and greco-roman wrestling and sign up for wrestling at school thinking it is the former, when it is the latter.
- Renegade Russian: One of Cartman's wrestling personas is the "Rad Russian".
- Running Gag:
- The wrestling teacher constantly being Mistaken for Gay when he tries to explain to people what "real" wrestling is like. Also his pronunciation of "wrestling" as "rassling".
- The return of "They took er jerbs" and new variants that sound like it.
- Serious Business: What starts as an after school activity becomes the hottest attraction in town. It becomes so popular, a giant amphitheater is built in Cartman's backyard complete with luxury boxes, a full dressing room, stage lights, an announcer, programs and microphones with a sound system.
- Take That!: To WWE, specifically the focus on elaborate storylines rather than in ring action.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Kenny gets blown to bits when the rpg missile reactivated while he held it and flies to the sky, exploding in a wave of fireworks. For some reason, however, he's involved in the fight at the end and is beating up Cartman.
