Original air date: 3/26/2003
Jimmy and Timmy land in the middle of a gang war; Stan, Cartman, Kenny and Kyle stay out of the way when stem cell research divides the town.
This episode provides examples of:
- AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: When Christopher Reeve goes off the deep end, he starts pronouncing Hackman's name as "Hack-MAN."
- Accidental Murder: Jimmy and Timmy were just crossing the street when a truck swerved to miss them and hit the gas station where 13 Bloods were hanging out.
- Author Tract: This episode was produced due to Parker and Stone's negative reaction towards Christopher Reeve's appearance on Larry King Live, which they felt made him self-entitled compared to people born with disabilities.
- Big Bad: Christopher Reeve.
- Big Good: Gene Hackman.
- Bullying the Disabled: Jimmy's parents reveal that when they were teenagers they made fun of other kids that were handicapped and believe that, as a form of divine retribution, Jimmy ended up with disabilities.
- The Bus Came Back: Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and David Blaine all return for Christopher Reeve's coalition.
- Evil Is Hammy: Christopher Reeve chews the scenery the more unhinged he grows until he's talking like an exaggerated supervillain parody.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The Crips leaders said that Jimmy and Timmy took out 13 Bloods, but there were actually 14 Bloods hanging out at the gas station. This means that one of them survived and was able to identify Jimmy and Timmy, and then they performed the drive-by shooting.
- Gangbangers: The Crips and the Bloods.
- Gangland Drive-By: Some Bloods tries to kill Jimmy by driving by and shooting up his parents house. Amazingly they fail to hit Jimmy even once.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Jimmy and Timmy manage to get the Crips and the Bloods to get along at the end.
- Harmless Villain: Chris doesn't really accomplish a whole lot during his turn to evil. He just eats unborn fetuses, cackles maniacally, tosses a truck, and declares eternal vengeance on Gene Hackman. He assembles a Legion of Doom consisting of other supervillains (plus Professor Chaos) devoted solely to getting rid of Hackman (which the villains aren't interested in), only to be defeated minutes later when Hackman arrives announcing he just banned stem cell research. He then has Reeve sealed away in the Phantom Zone with implicitly little effort.
- Insistent Terminology: Reeve wants to be referred to as Chris instead of Christopher.
- Irony: A whole scene is devoted to this. Christopher Reeve gains the strength of Superman with Gene Hackman trying to stop him, only this time, Gene Hackman is the hero and Christoper Reeve is the villain.
- It's the Principle of the Thing: Cartman, who has been proven to be unapologetically ableist, gets offended when he's told he can't join Jimmy and Timmy's club for not being handicapped.
- Legion of Doom: Christopher Reeve creates a Legion of Doom to counter Gene Hackman in direct homage to the Super Friends cartoon featuring the same lair as the show, featuring various DC and Marvel villains as well as the South Park versions of Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Kim Jon-gil, David Blaine, Professor Chaos, and General Disarray.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Gene Hackman, the actor who played as the villainous Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie, is a generally alright guy who's concerned about the effect stem cells are having on his former costar's mind.
- Medium Awareness: The News Reporter can clearly see the irony with Christopher Reeve acting villainous and Gene Hackman acting heroic. It gets even more ironic for those of you who know about Hackman's behavior on the set
of The Royal Tenenbaums. - Mundane Made Awesome: Reeve's That Man Is Dead speech. He uses a lot of words just to say his new evil name is Chris.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jimmy has this moment when he believes that he was the one that caused the Crips and the Bloods to fight.
- Never My Fault: Mr. Kim called the police on Jimmy and Timmy for robbing him… despite the fact that they didn't (and weren't going to) do that and he gave them the things for free.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Jimmy and Timmy believe that the Crips are people who were born crippled while the Bloods were people who became crippled.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Jimmy and Timmy have very obvious disguise when they let Crips and Bloods into recreation center.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Jimmy after joining the Crips.
- Running Gag: Characters — usually Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, but also Mr. McGillicuddy and, late in the episode, Butters — deciding they don't like where the plot is going and that they should "stay out of this one".
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!:
- The boys decide to not get involved in the plot. And after they've seen the aftermath.Stan: Dude, I am SO glad we stayed out of that one!Kyle: Me too!
- Mr. McGillicuddy (the T-shirt store owner) after Jimmy and Timmy express interest in joining the Crips.
- Professor Chaos tells General Disarray that they should've done this after they found out Reeve's real plan.
- The boys decide to not get involved in the plot. And after they've seen the aftermath.
- Selective Obliviousness: For a change, this applies to a couple of the kids, even if they're not among the main cast. Jimmy and Timmy are unaware they're not joining a group of cripples, but rather a gang.
- Sustained Misunderstanding: Because no one bothers to explain the situation to them, Jimmy and Timmy don't realize that the Crips are an inner-city street gang, not a club for people born handicapped.
- That Man Is Dead: "Stop calling me Christopher! That name no longer has meaning to me! Christopher was someone who lived in a wheelchair! Always being pushed around by others! The old Christopher Reeve is dead! From now on, I am... (looks back menacingly) Chris!"
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Reeve setting up a Legion of Doom explicitly devoted to "world domination and evil" is treated like general inspirational human interest story by the news.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Mr. McGillicuddy kept his mouth shut, none of this would've happened.
