"Well, he’s not listening to my authoritah."
Original air date: 5/27/1998 note
A mysterious crime wave of sexually violated chickens crops up in town. Officer Barbrady tries to solve it, but leaves the force after admitting that he can't read. While Barbrady goes back to elementary school, Cartman is made a junior deputy and abuses anyone who doesn't respect his "authoritah".
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Back to School: Barbrady goes back to school—and the third grade no less—after it's revealed that he's illiterate.
- Batman Gambit: The Book Mobile Driver claims that he pulled one of these to teach Barbrady how to read. Stan and Kyle find it a little hard to believe.
- Oddly, the Book Mobile Driver made love to chickens BEFORE Barbrady mentions his inability to read. This was never touched upon. But he may have somehow known. It's also possible he lied so people wouldn't find out his depravity.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: How else can you describe a guy who regularly has sex with chickens?
- Bilingual Bonus: The Korean writing that Officer Barbrady hallucinates on the stop sign translates to "Idiot".
- Camp Gay: An understatement for The Book Mobile driver.
- Character Catchphrase:
- "Respect my authoritah!" is used by Cartman in some variation several times in this episode, mostly when he's abusing his police powers.
- Also, "Sir, would you mind stepping out of the car, please?". Even if the person isn't in their car.
- Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Kenny’s deaths are avoided throughout the episode, except in the credits.
- Domestic Abuse: Kenny's mom constantly punches his dad for not holding down a job and tells officer Cartman to arrest him and get him out of her house.
- Do Wrong, Right: Upon seeing Cartman as deputy hitting other people in their kneecaps with a nightstick, Barbrady stops him. And corrects Cartman to start hitting them on their heads (though South Park's children are only 3 feet tall at most, so Cartman would've been too short to do so anyway).
- Foreshadowing: That something is wrong with the Booktastic Bus driver is implied early on when the boys find a shelf of adult erotica books on the bus, even though it is initially presented as a standalone joke about enjoying reading.
- Four Is Death: Kenny comes out of three life-threatening scenarios unharmed. The fourth incident at the end credits (where a tree falls on top of him) is what ends up killing him.
- Hates Reading: The episode is a spoof of a typical "Reading Is Cool" Aesop episode in which Officer Barbrady has to learn to read in order to solve the mystery of who has been having sex with chickens. (It was the bookmobile operator, as an elaborate plan to get Barbrady to read.) It gets subverted at the end when the book the bookmobile operator gives him is Atlas Shrugged, which turns him off books forever; he declares that "reading sucks ass", to the cheers of the kids.
- Hypocrite: Mr. Garrison at first orders Kyle to stop insulting Barbrady for being illiterate, but then he joins in on bullying Barbrady as well calling him a dumbass and laughing at his vacuity.
- Kick the Dog: After the Mayor threatens to take his job away permanently if he doesn't pass reading, one of her aides pops a ball Stan and Kyle were playing with. The other aide questions why he did that, he replied that it's for dramatic affect.
- Manchild: Barbrady really enjoys playing on the school playground. In class, he also says that he has to go “poopies”.
- Morality Chain: In a strange way, Barbrady is this for the whole town since his presence stops major crime from happening.
- Never Learned to Read: Parodied. Officer Barbrady sees strange symbols in place of letters.
- Noodle Incident: Randy recognizes Cartman as "...the one who plugged up the toilet" the last time he was invited over the Marsh house.
- Not in Front of the Kid: When Mayor MacDaniels refers to the titular criminal as a "chickenfucker" to Barbrady and the boys, Barbrady tells her to call him a "chickenlover" when in front of the children.
- Police Are Useless: Subverted. As stupid as Barbrady is, the moment he quits, the town descends into chaos. The Mayor and her aides are stunned that he actually kept the peace.One of the aides: I always thought he was an idiot.
Mayor: He is. - Police Brutality: Once deputized, Cartman proceeds to hit the kneecaps of offenders and scream at them to get to jail. In the end, Barbrady tells Cartman he's got it all wrong.Barbrady: You gotta hit 'em in the head. They go down faster.
- "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: This trope seems to be played straight for the majority of the episode, but then The Tag comes along, where Barbrady has been put off by Atlas Shrugged (rewarded by the Book Mobile Driver) and declares that he's never reading again."Hooray for Barbrady!"
- Shout-Out: The Barbrady and Cartman testimonials are one to COPS (1989). One of Cartman's scenes even ends with a title card showing his name similar to the show.
- Stealth Pun: B. T. Ally's Petting Zoo.
- Take That!: Barbrady has this to say about Atlas Shrugged:Yes, at first, I was happy to be learning how to read. It seemed exciting and magical. But then I read this: Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. I read every last word of this garbage, and because of this piece of shit, I'm never reading again!
- They Killed Kenny Again: Double Subversion. Kenny manages to escape death three times before he's finally killed during the end credits.
- Title Drop: The culprit is always called the "chickenfucker" throughout the series, but only twice was he referred to as the "chickenlover".
- Wrong Restaurant: Officer Barbrady stops at Fran's National Bank to order some cheeseburgers and jalapeno poppers.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Just when it seems Kenny has cheated death in this episode (doing so three times), he gets killed when a tree falls on him during the credits.
