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Recap / South Park S 4 E 1 The Tooth Fairys Tats 2000

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Original air date: 4/5/2000

Stan, Cartman, and Kenny start a racket involving posing as the Tooth Fairy and stealing kids' teeth for money. Meanwhile, Kyle tries to make sense of what's real and what isn't when Kyle's parents tell him that there's no such thing as The Tooth Fairy.


Examples

  • Annual Title: This is the first of four episodes from Season 4 (albeit the second produced) to have "2000" in its title, in reference to the year the episodes first aired.
  • Ascended Extra: Timmy was only made for the first segment of the episode and Matt Stone and Trey Parker feared that Timmy would end up receiving negative reception, but would end up becoming one of the most iconic characters in the franchise, even getting his own episode 2 episodes later.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Shortly after blinking out of existence after hitting a nadir of existential angst, Kyle becomes a god-like entity capable of altering the fabric of reality. It only last for a few moments before he is Brought Down to Normal.
  • Cement Shoes: Parodied. When the boys decide to go independent with their tooth fairy racket, Loogie has Kenny kidnapped and, in typical Mafia style, tossed into a river with a pair of cement shoes. However, the river turns out to be too shallow to properly drown him in, so he slowly but surely hops his way back to the shore...until he hits a deep spot and finally sinks.
  • The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: The chicken-squirrel turns out to be real in the end, though Kyle's Reality Warping might have had a hand in that.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: Stan and Kyle never question Cartman when he suggests they steal money from a terminally ill child.
  • Continuity Nod: Chef once again warns the boys against doing drugs and that "there is a time and a place for everything and it's called college."
    • After joining Loogie's operation, a plush of a panda and a Chinpokomon can be seen.
  • Deliberately Cute Child: Loogie is a ruthless mob boss, but around adults, he acts a lot more cute and naive than he actually is, even raising the pitch of his voice to sound like a kid his age.
  • Did Not Think This Through. The boys plan to make money by going to a rich kid's house, planting a tooth under his pillow, waiting for the parents to leave money, and taking it without the kid knowing. The moment they explain their plan to Loogie, he outright asks them exactly how the parents were supposed to be aware the kid had a tooth under his pillow. The boys fall silent as they realize they missed this glaring flaw.
  • Eskimos Aren't Real: The American Dental Association laugh when Dr. Foley tries to convince them of exactly what’s happening to the teeth, favouring their own chicken-squirrel hybrid theory. They further ridicule Foley when he says that he has seen it before in Montreal, derisively asking, “And where, pray, is this Montreal?”
  • Freudian Threat: Loogie threatens to cut the boys' penises off if they don't participate in his tooth fairy racketeering scheme — which actually turns out to compensate the boys very generously.
  • Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: The boys attempt to use the tooth fairy trade for this. However, it's revealed that there is an entire organization based around this scam and because of this, it wasn't an original idea from them.
  • Heroic BSoD: None of the boys take the revelation that the Tooth Fairy isn't real very well, but while Stan, Cartman, and Kenny recover from it quickly enough, Kyle spends the whole episode questioning reality, up to and including whether or not he is himself real.
  • The Mafia: The kids in the tooth fairy trading organization act in a very Mafioso manner, with Loogie playing the part of The Don.
  • Noodle Incident: The Only Sane Man dentist has seen a tooth mafia happen before in Montreal.
  • An Offer You Can't Refuse: After he catches the boys engaging in tooth trading on his turf, Loogie offers to let them handle the South Park racket for him for a 2% cut of the profits. It's either that, or he cuts their penises off.
  • Only Sane Man: Dr. Foley is the only member of the ADA who's actually aware of the tooth racket. The other members scoff at this and declare it as nonsense, and instead blame the whole issue with the missing teeth and money on a Half-Chicken-Half-Squirrel creature.
  • Product Placement: The boys plan to get enough money to buy a Sega Dreamcast.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Timmy is introduced in this episode like he's always been part of the same class despite never appearing in the first 3 seasons back when the boys were still canonically 3rd graders and would only get a proper introduction 2 episodes later. Justified considering that the creators didn't intend on him becoming popular in the fanbase.
  • Running Gag: Cartman's constant use of the word "tits".
  • Special Guest: Richard Belzer as Loogie, a rare case where a guest star actually plays a major character instead of being cast in a minor role as a joke.
  • They Killed Kenny Again: Loogie and his cronies throw Kenny in the river with cement shoes, although the water is not deep enough to drown him at first. He tries hopping to shore only to reach a deep spot which pulls him under.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: Since both tooth fairy squads got distracted by the bust up, a delighted Billy discovers the money underneath his bed and supposedly gets the needed operation.
  • Verbal Tic: Cartman keeps saying "tits" throughout this episode.
  • Villain Ball: Predictably, Cartman's greed botches the kids' life of luxury, deciding to double cross Loogie as well as steal a dying kid's hospital money in a not-too-subtle set up by Dr Foley.
  • Villainous BSoD: Even after Kyle foils the sting operation and scares all the officers away, Loogie remains distraught from having fallen for an obvious trap. He recovers when he decides that maybe it's as good a time as any to quit the tooth trade and go legit, especially since he wants to play flag football.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The Sega Dreamcast subplot is suddenly forgotten after the sting operation.
  • Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: While setting up the sting operation, one of the ADA members voices his doubts that there would be anyone stupid enough to fall for such an obvious set-up (where they stage a human interest story on Billy getting $600 for a bone marrow transplant from the tooth fairy and the reporter giving out the address live on tv). Cue Cartman falling for it.
    • Lampshaded by Loogie, who also fell for it, realizing just how dumb he was for walking into an obvious trap.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math: The algebra done by the half-chicken half-squirrel writes out that if 2x - y = y - 3 then 2x = 3. 2x actually equals 2y - 3, and the only way to get 2x = 3 is if y equals 3.

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