Original air date: 3/31/2010
The episode starts with Cartman, Kyle, Kenny, and Stan going to KFC after soccer practice. When they get there, they find out that the KFC was replaced with a medicinal marijuana dispensary. Of course, Cartman gets pissed, as he's hooked, while Randy, being Randy, just wants weed, however, he can't get it as he's healthy.
Meanwhile, Cartman goes to another town for KFC but, as he finds out that, due to some new laws banning fast food in low-income towns (and KFC being only in low-income towns), there's no KFC restaurants in Colorado and that, somehow, that makes KFC illegal.
Tropes:
- Artistic Licence – Biology:
- Randy's cancer textbook states that testicular cancer most commonly occurs in older males, but it's much more prevalent in men in their 20s and early 30s.
- Microwaves cannot cause cancer. They have too little energy to do so (they have even less energy than visible light); the only thing they can cause is heating, which thus burns. Only the highest-frequency UV, x-rays, and gamma rays can cause cancer because they are the only EM waves that are ionizing. So while putting his junk in the microwave would've certainly caused other problems, cancer is not a possible side effect.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Colonel Sanders, although depicted by his franchise as a warm-hearted entrepreneur who wants everyone to enjoy his tasty fried chicken, is actually a corrupt kingpin with gunmen to enforce his iron fist.
- Blatant Lies: In the opening scene, Cartman pretends to be stomach-sick to get out of PE. But once the class is dismissed he runs off yelling for "KFC".
- The Bus Came Back: Officer Barbrady makes a return after having been replaced by Sergeant Harrison Yates for sometime. Yates is absent in this episode.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The way women look and react to Randy's balls mimics the same reactions men tend to have to a woman with large breasts.Randy: Hey... My eyes are up here.
- Failed a Spot Check: The adults on this cartoon are idiots, so this is expected.
- Barbrady doesn't notice Cartman pulling a gun out on a KFC dealer. Barbrady doesn't even see or smell the KFC with buckets of extra crispy chicken, potatoes and (non-KFC) gravy even though KFC's been criminalized in the entire State of Colorado!
- During the shooting at Billy's house, nobody notices big fat Cartman strolling out with KFC in his hands. Though of course even if Cartman is the primary target of the hitmen, he's lower priority than the armed-and-dangerous police.
- Fingertip Drug Analysis: At a back alley, Cartman tastes the contraband KFC sauce with his fingertip only to notice that it has been cut with Boston market gravy.
- Genuine Human Hide: After Randy gets his swollen testicles removed, he has his scrotum made into a coat for Sharon. She loves it.
- Getting High on Their Own Supply: Cartman ends up eating more of his own fried chicken than he's actually selling, incurring the Colonel's wrath.
- Getting Sick Deliberately: Randy deliberately tries to get cancer so that he can legally purchase medicinal marijuana by sitting in a sun for a long time, smoking, and getting x-rays. He then finds out that radiation can cause testicular cancer, so he puts his privates in the microwave. By the next morning, his balls have swelled up enormously and he can finally get some pot.
- G-Rated Drug: This episode is clearly telling you that Kentucky Fried Chicken can be just as addictive as any narcotic that's been outlawed. Cartman even treats KFC like cocaine, cutting up the skin with a credit card and then snorting it up his nose.
- Groin Attack: Played with. The testicular cancer making the men's balls swell up to "hoppity-hop" size is probably this on a meta-level, as looking it can make you think "Shouldn't that hurt?" This does happen later, as Randy's had to have his testicles removed.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The gangsters raiding Billy's place at the end shoot with automatic riffles but don't seem to hit anyone.
- Is the Answer to This Question "Yes"?: A Running Gag with Cartman responding with rhetorical questions when asked to do things he really likes. For example:Billy: Do you wanna do it?
Cartman:' Do I wanna do it? Does the Pope help pedophiles get away with their crimes? - I Warned You: Colonel Sanders telling Cartman "Don't fuck me, Eric. Don't you ever try to fuck me."
- Karma Houdini: Cartman faces no repercussions for his crimes at all. After neglecting to kill Jamie Oliver before the latter can deliver a speech to the United Nations (just so he can eat more chicken), Cartman sneaks out with buckets of KFC in his hands unharmed, but during the shooting, a bunch of policemen and Billy's mother died from the gunfire. Cartman was indirectly responsible for their deaths.
- My Eyes Are Up Here: Gender-inverted when Randy asks his wife this question when she's distracted by his large balls.
- Police Are Useless: Zig-Zagged. Barbrady doesn't notice the KFC black market happening in South Park (even failing to clearly see Cartman is threatening to shoot a KFC dealer over the wrong gravy), but then after Jamie Oliver exposes the truth that KFC is still operating illegally in Colorado, the police show up to shoot down the hitmen Colonel Sanders sent to Billy's house.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: While Dr. Gauche is correct that Kentucky Fried Chicken's disappearance in Colorado is related to the sudden spike in testicular cancer patients, he mistakenly assumes that there is something about Kentucky Fried Chicken that keeps cancer from forming, rather than the men purposefully giving themselves cancer to take advantage of Colorado's new medicinal weed laws.
- "Rise and Fall" Gangster Arc: It's a parody of Scarface (1983), and follows the film's plot beats closely, although Cartman manages to avoid getting killed.
- Shout-Out: The primary plot of Cartman running an illicit underground KFC is a homage to Scarface (1983). An earlier episode, Up the Down Steroid, even featured the song "Push it to the Limit" which originated from that film when Cartman was training to cheat the Handicapped Olympics games. Cartman also dressed as Tony Montana and acted out the "cock-a-roach" scene from Scarface in Erection Day.
- Skewed Priorities: Randy is perfectly willing to give himself cancer just so he can buy weed.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Billy Miller is this to Loogie from "The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000." They're both black-haired children who act as child mob bosses.
- Take That!: The episode was written in response to Detroit's laws relating to weed and fast food eateries.
- The Usurper: Cartman overthrows Billy as the kingpin of KFC's Colorado branch by ratting out to Billy's parents that he failed a social studies test.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Besides Stan relaying what Sharon told Randy, the other boys disappeared after the first act, so we don't know what they were up to.
- After Billy's mom is shot, we don't know what happened to Billy or the other kids, besides that Cartman escapes.
- Why only KFC and not all fast food restaurants was outlawed in the first place is not properly explained.
- Work Off the Debt: Cartman having eaten 3 popcorn chicken pieces with Honey Mustard is charged $85 by Billy. Because Cartman doesn't have that kind of dough on him, Billy instead makes him a KFC smuggler (which in this episode's context makes Cartman a drug dealer/smuggler). Cartman later usurps Billy as the kingpin of the KFC black market in Colorado.
- Your Head Asplode: After driving hours to another KFC across town, only to find that not only is that KFC also closed, but KFC is now illegal, Cartman screams "Nooooooo!" and his head explodes.
