Original air date: 12/8/2004
After sustaining a severe head injury, Cartman appears to have the power to see into the future. Park County detectives are quick to enlist his help in cracking unsolved murder cases and Cartman is more than willing to help... for a price. In the meantime, a group of "licensed" psychics cry foul when Cartman refuses to join their ranks.
"Cartman's Incredible Gift" contains examples of:
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Not only were the police too stupid to notice the actual killer, but they used brutal force against their "suspects", shooting one of them to death.
- Boring Vacation Slideshow: Cartman is captured by the Left Hand Killer, who decides to show him his vacation slides before he murders him. Cartman gets bored by this and asks for somebody to help him.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: When Veronica Crabtree turns out to be one of the Left-Hand Killer's victims, this trope is milked for all its worth. When one of the detectives at the scene notes that she was "an ancillary character, one the fans wouldn't miss much"; Yates laments her death by remarking "I know she hadn't been in any recent episodes, but dammit, she deserved better than this!"
- Cassandra Truth: Stan and Kyle know who the serial killer in this episode is, but the police refuse to believe the two of them and only listen to fake psychic Cartman, who's just using them to arrest anybody he has a grudge with. Kyle realizes that the only way the idiot police will listen to him is if they think he's a psychic as well and repeats the same accident that gave Cartman his "powers" himself. Even then, the police are still skeptical of Kyle since he isn't as "professional" as Cartman.
- C-List Fodder: When Veronica Crabtree is revealed as one of the Left-Hand Killer's victims, it is outright remarked by one of the detectives that "She was considered an ancillary character, one the fans wouldn't miss much."
- Devil in Plain Sight: Michael Deetz is the obvious killer, as he shows up at the crime scenes and behaves in a very disturbed manner, but everyone (especially the police) is just too stupid to notice.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After the Psychic Detectives threaten Cartman with a class action lawsuit for refusing to join them (and pay royalties), he promptly claims they're responsible for the mass serial killings to the police, who promptly arrest them with heavy amounts of Police Brutality and There Is No Kill Like Overkill.
- Failed a Spot Check: The police were too stupid to notice the actual killer at the crime scene, even when Stan and Kyle try to catch their attention.
- Freudian Excuse: The Left-Hand Killer is implied to have one, as he mutters about his mother making him have sex with her as a child.
- A God Am I: When Yates and his partner encounter the Left-Hand Killer for the first time, he introduces himself as "God." This fails to alarm them in any way.
- Jack the Ripoff: Subverted. When the Left-Hand Killer keeps killing despite Tom Johannsen (the guy Yates assumed to be the killer on account of Cartman's "premonitions") being arrested, he presumes it to be the work of a copycat killer. When Cartman provides a suspect for that, Yates presumes there is a second copycat killer when that doesn't work, and so on and so on.
- Mail-Order Novelty: The Psychic Detectives have a $25 Phony Degree advertised on the back of a comic book that legitimizes them in a way Cartman doesn't.
- Obviously Evil: Michael Deets, a clearly deranged man wearing a blood-soaked raincoat with a Thousand-Yard Stare, hanging around crime scenes bragging that the police aren't smart enough to catch him and muttering about his mother apparently sexually abusing him as a child. The police not only completely miss him but threaten Kyle with arrest for trying to draw their attention to the man.
- Phony Psychic: Cartman, Kyle, and the other Psychic Detectives. However, in Kyle's case, his powers might be genuine.
- Police Are Useless: Officer Yates hires fake psychic detective, Cartman, to find the Left-Hand Killer. Cartman makes Yates believe Tom Johannsen is the killer, which also led to the arrest of several "copycat killers". Yates overlooks the actual killer, prompting Kyle to injure himself and convince him to investigate. Yates still dismisses the actual killer due to his mistaken perception of human hands. After an extensive criminological montage, Yates finally realizes the truth.
- Police Psychic: Cartman is mistaken for a psychic after he awakens from a coma and deduces some very obvious things from his surroundings. A gullible cop thoroughly believes he is psychic and hinges on his intuition to make an arrest, which makes Cartman famous. It turns out there is a whole slew of local Phony Psychic detectives.
- Psychic Children: When Cartman is able to guess what the hospital is serving for dinner, Harrison Yates thinks that Cartman gained psychic powers and hires him to be their psychic detective.
- Real After All: After repeatedly insisting there's no such thing as psychic powers, Kyle angrily yells at Cartman and the phony psychics to stop their stupid "fight." The lightbulbs in the room immediately break, while a shelf holding various equipment becomes dislodged. Everyone stares at Kyle in shock, and he insists there's a logical explanation for that.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Cartman's cardboard wings stunt, the other boys stare in surprise and then promptly walk off.
- Selective Obliviousness: Even with all the evidence staring right in front of him, Yates still cannot figure out who the left-handed killer is. It's only at the end that he finally puts the pieces together.
- Serial Killer: Michael Deets, aka the Left-Hand Killer.
- Shout-Out: The plot itself bears multiple references to Red Dragon and The Dead Zone.
- Suicide Dare: Kyle encourages Cartman to perform his flight stunt knowing that it will fail and that Cartman will just fall off the roof and seriously injure himself.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
- The South Park P.D.'s SWAT team promptly riddles one of the Psychic Detectives with bullets when he pretends to use his powers on them, despite it being pretty obvious he's faking any kind of ability.
- After shooting Deets three times to save Cartman, Yates shoots him a couple more times while he's down on the ground.
- During the arrest of Tom Johannsen, the police heavily battered him and electrocuted him multiple times with a taser, despite the guy being unarmed and no threat whatsoever.Officer: He put up a hell of a fight, but we got him!
- Time-Passage Beard: When Cartman wakes up from his coma, it is shown that he has grown a beard... only for the Doctor to ask the nurse to remove the face warmer and tell him that he was only in a coma for two days.
- Too Dumb to Fool: Kyle tries to convince detectives Yates and Murphy that he is a psychic like Cartman by imitating the latter's stunt so they would finally listen to him about who the actual killer is. Of course, they immediately forget the reason they believed Cartman in the first place and still act skeptically with Kyle.Murphy: How do we know this kid is really psychic? I mean, this boy is certainly no Eric Cartman. (Kyle clenches his teeth in frustration)
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Cartman actually thought he could fly with cardboard wings. It is a miracle that he didn't die or wasn't paralyzed for life. A doctor even tells Cartman's mom point blank that he's this.Doctor: I'm afraid that your son is... incredibly stupid.
- One of the "psychics" pretends to use his "powers" on the police force, even though he is being held at gunpoint. Naturally, he gets shot to death.
- Cartman actually thought he could fly with cardboard wings. It is a miracle that he didn't die or wasn't paralyzed for life. A doctor even tells Cartman's mom point blank that he's this.
