In need of older and mature friends, Cartman takes to the Internet — and ends up the poster child for the local chapter of NAMBLA (the North American Man/Boy Love Association) after Dr. Mephesto recommends that Cartman looks for friends there. Meanwhile, Kenny's parents are expecting another child, and Kenny does whatever he can to stop it.
Examples
- Bait-and-Switch: Dr. Mephesto invites Cartman to a group he's a member of called "NAMBLA", stating that he "looks about right" for the group. This implies he's a pedophile trying to groom Cartman but it's later revealed he's part of another "NAMBLA": The North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes and believes Cartman could pass as looking like Brando.
- Big Damn Heroes: The members of the North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes come to the rescue when the boys are at the hotel with older men from the other NAMBLA. It's also literal, as all of them are quite fat (except the lone thin Black man).
- Black Comedy Rape: Stuart's final humiliation in the episode is to be raped by three dozen 40-year old child molesters. Played entirely for laughs.
- Butt-Monkey: Stuart McCormick (Kenny's dad) throughout the episode.
- Comically Missing the Point: While looking for older friends online, one guy going by the name of HungDaddy tells Cartman that he is "eight and a half inches." Cartman assumes this is how tall he is and turns him down since "midgets piss [Cartman] off."
- Continuity Nod: This isn't the first time Kenny got away with forging a note.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Officer Barbrady may be an idiot, but when the NAMBLA members come in to protest against Mr. Garrison and Cartman's first "friend" being put in jail, Barbrady doesn't release them, doesn't believe that they're political prisoners, and tells the members that he's not releasing them until the FBI says so. And when they leave, Barbrady makes a snarky remark about them:Barbrady: Boy, they have activists for everything nowadays.
- Put rather bluntly when one of the NAMBLA men explains that his attraction to little boys isn't something he can control, and that it's wrong for him to be persecuted for just being himself.Kyle: Dude. You have sex. With. Children!
Stan: Yeah, you know, we believe in equality for everybody and tolerance and all that gay stuff, but dude: fuck you!
Kyle: Seriously.
- Officer Barbrady may be an idiot, but when the NAMBLA members come in to protest against Mr. Garrison and Cartman's first "friend" being put in jail, Barbrady doesn't release them, doesn't believe that they're political prisoners, and tells the members that he's not releasing them until the FBI says so. And when they leave, Barbrady makes a snarky remark about them:
- Failed a Spot Check: The Scooby-Dooby Doors chase ends with the NAMBLA members somehow mistaking Stuart, a grown man, for one of the pre-pubescent boys they were chasing and proceeding to rape him.
- The Food Poisoning Incident: Kenny's second attempt to prevent his parents from having a baby is having his mom, Carol, drink her favorite mixture of vodka and cocoa, which he secretly laced with "Pregnant No More" abortion pills. Unfortunately, since she's pregnant, she can't drink. Kenny's dad, Stuart, decides to drink it instead, much to Kenny's horror. Cue Stuart's eventual Potty Emergency.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The chatroom scenes with Cartman feature some, such as the chatroom names (see Take That!) and the usernames and replies that cascade across the screen whenever Cartman introduces himself ("R u reading these?", "Get a life.", "You're treading a line!", "This is gay.").
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: On the one hand, the NAMBLA guy is right in that his sexual attraction to minors isn't his choice any more than homo- or heterosexuality is. On the other hand, their child-molesting activities are still treated as Sick and Wrong and the group gets arrested anyway.
- Fun with Acronyms: The NAMBLA Dr. Mephesto is a member of isn't the North American Man/Boy Love Association; it's the North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes (a fictional club for men who look and sound like Marlon Brando in his later years...and, for some reason, one slim, young black man).
- Got Volunteered: Butters is offered by Cartman to distract the NAMBLA members.
- Groin Attack: Kenny's first attempt to prevent his parents from having a baby is to hit Stuart in the balls while playing catch. For some reason, he vomits uncontrollably after the initial injury and after all the subsequent instances where his balls get stressed.
- Humiliation Conga: This episode puts Stuart through the wringer.Stuart McCormick: I've had my nuts broken, body poisoned, and been made love into the ass by three dozen 40-year old men. I just want to go home and take a hot bath!
- Hypocrite: Cartman complains about outgrowing Stan, Kyle, and Kenny and needing more mature friends ... while talking to Clyde Frog, a stuffed animal.
- Innocuously Important Episode:
- Garrison being Mistaken for Pedophile will actually not be forgotten. The next episode will follow up on this, as he is fired from the school and embarks on a writing career, which (after the boys move on to fourth grade) results in him coming out.
- Kenny dying and his mother giving birth to an identical replacement is played as a joke. While it still treated as a joke, the Coon And Friends Trilogy showcases it as part of Kenny/Mysterion's pathos, since he doesn't remember the being reborn part.
- Intergenerational Friendship: What Cartman was looking for and what all the South Park kids thought NAMBLA was there for; unfortunately for them, it wasn't.
- It's Personal: Dr. Mephesto's group despises NAMBLA (the one for homosexual pedophiles) for taking their domain name (and being "...perverted bastards")
- Jerkass Has a Point: Even though his rant soon dissolves into blithering nonsense, Cartman is right that given their financial situation, the McCormicks really should not be having another child. This goes for Kenny as well for the same reasons, even if his attempts to keep his parents from conceiving a child are underhanded and extreme.
- Kick the Dog: The one NAMBLA member who had become "friends" with Timmy. While it's bad enough grooming a child, it's even worse grooming a mentally handicapped child.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The episode, the 53rd overall, ends with this exchange as the McCormicks hold a newborn child identical to Kenny in the hospital:Stuart McCormick: God, this must be the fiftieth time this has happened.
Carol McCormick: Fifty-second. - Mass "Oh, Crap!": The boys after their NAMBLA partners take them upstairs to their rooms. One beat later, the boys immediately run screaming from the rooms.Stan: Dude, I think these guys mean to have sexual encounters with us!
- Mistaken for Pedophile:
- Mr. Garrison is accused of this after Cartman meets up with him, although Garrison claims he was expecting a man his age (before lying that he loves women and titties), further hinting his closeted homosexuality.
- It keeps happening to the NAMBLA Dr. Mephesto is a member of (the North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes).
- Mumbling Brando: The North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes, a fictional club for men who look and sound like Marlon Brando in his later years...and, for some reason, one slim, young black man.
- No-Sell: Non-physical example, but when the NAMBLA leader tries to weasel his way out of trouble by trying to gain Kyle and Stan's sympathy, they don't buy into his story one bit and give him an earnest Shut Up, Hannibal!.
- One Drink Will Kill the Baby: Kenny mixes a drink laced with abortion pills for his mother, but she refuses to have even a taste.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: By this point Timmy's character was still developing and he seemed to be oblivious to just about everything. He actually seems cognitive here showing genuine discomfort at being referred to as "Sexy, sassy and full of spunk".
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Kenny's able to trick a pharmacist into thinking he's a pregnant teenage girl just by wearing a blond wig.
- Playing the Victim Card: As NAMBLA is being handled by the FBI, the leader claims he is being unfairly discriminated against just for being "different". No one buys it.NAMBLA Leader: We are human. Most of us didn't even choose to be attracted to young boys. We were born that way. We can't help the way we are, and if you all can't understand that, well, then, I guess you'll just have to put us away.
(Beat)
Kyle: Dude! You have sex, with children! - Poor Communication Kills: The boys would have avoided getting involved with the pedophiles had Dr. Mephesto specifically told Cartman to join the North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes instead of using the group's acronym that happens to be the same as North American Man/Boy Love Association.
- Potty Emergency: Stuart goes through this twice when he drinks Kenny's concoction of vodka, cocoa, and "Pregnant No More" abortion pills, and after riding "The John Denver Experience" at North Park Funland later in the episode with Kenny and Carol.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Kyle when NAMBLA is arrested.Kyle: Dude! You have Sex. With. Children!
- Rape Discretion Shot: After Stuart storms into the room where the NAMBLA members are hiding, Butters emerges in time to quietly listen in on the men having their way with Stuart as he screams in agony.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Barbrady of all people is the one for this episode.
- Rewatch Bonus: Dr. Mephesto remarking that Cartman "looks just right" for NAMBLA is funnier once you know that he's actually a member of the "other" NAMBLA (the one for men who look like Marlon Brando).
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: During the hotel scene, the boys, both NAMBLA groups, the FBI, the McCormicks, and a waiter end up going through this situation when the boys try to get away from the NAMBLA pedophilies.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: The leader of NAMBLA gives a speech equating pedophilia with homosexuality, saying how they're quite similar and all they want is to be understood. Stan and Kyle respond with "You have sex, with children."
- Stock Sound Effects: The "screaming rollercoaster riders" sound effect heard when the McCormicks enter North Park Funland will be familiar to anyone who has ever played RollerCoaster Tycoon.
- Take That!:
- One of the chatrooms that shows on Cartman's PC is called "Joel Schumacher Must Die", possibly a reference to the infamously negative reception regarding Batman & Robin.
- One of the abortion medicine bottles Kenny looks at in the drug store has a picture of Phyllis Schlafly
, an anti-abortion activist. - Naturally, to the real-life NAMBLA organization.
- They Killed Kenny Again:
- Kenny is run over by the ambulance Stuart rides to the hospital. This even gets discussed after Carol gives birth to a boy swaddled in a similar parka.
- In Kenny's Nightmare Sequence, he gets ripped apart by the hellspawn that came out of Carol's womb. She and Stuart say a variant of the usual catchphrase.Stuart: Oh my god! It killed Kenny!Carol: Bad baby, bad!
- Unknown Rival: The Man/Boy Love Association doesn't appear to be aware of the Marlon Brando Look-Alikes or their vendetta against them for stealing their domain name.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The people Cartman contacted over the internet are immediately arrested when he meets with them. The audience knows why, but Cartman thinks it's somehow Stan and Kyle trying to sabotage him.
