After Cartman eats the skin off of every piece of KFC, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny decide to ignore him, which leads Cartman to think that he is dead.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Stephen threatens to ground Butters if he has another nightmare and has him physically tortured in a mental institution for the mess Cartman made.
- Achievements in Ignorance: Cartman and Butters manage to stop a hostage crisis thanks to the former attempting to scare the criminals, when they're just distracted by his behavior, while the latter frees the hostages.
- Anal Probing: Butters gets anally probed with a device the size of a football for 14 hours straight at the South Park Institute for Mental Health.
- Apology Gift: Cartman gives all the people he mistreated gift baskets as an apology for all the bad things he did to them.
- Apophenia Plot: When Cartman sees that nobody is responding to him, he convinces himself that he's died and become a ghost, a thought further "proven" when he sees men seemingly carrying away his dead body in a box (actually plumbers having replaced his house's toilet) and hears his mother sobbing (actually her having sex with one of the men). However, nobody told Butters about the pact, so when he greets him like always, Cartman assumes that he can see and talk to ghosts.
- Bait-and-Switch: A particularly disturbing example: After Cartman awakes and believes that he's dead, he overhears his mother apparently crying loudly over him. Turns out, her "grief" was in actuality her receiving the business from the man who replaced her broken toilet.
- Bedlam House: The South Park Institute for Mental Health, whose methods of "therapy" include getting anally probed for hours on end.
- Big Eater: Cartman manages to eat all the skins off the fried chicken pieces in less than 15 seconds.
- Call-Back: Some of the people Cartman gives gift baskets to as part of an atonement include Scott Tenorman, Sally Struthers and the Special Olympics committee.
- Downer Ending: Cartman, upon finding out that he was never dead, reverts back to his old habits and blames Butters for his own mistakes, threatening retaliation. And it's implied that Butters is going to be sent back to the asylum.
- Everybody Cries: When Cartman has Butters tell the former's mom that he loves her, she begins to cry, which is followed by Cartman himself, then by Butters.
- Fooled by the Sound: Cartman hears (what he thinks is) Liane crying. It is then revealed a moment later that she's just loudly banging a plumber.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Discussed by Stan, Kyle, and Kenny about Cartman before deciding to ignore him after the KFC incident.Stan: Why do we even hang out with him anyway?Kyle: Hello? I've been saying this for years!Stan: Well it's not like we're nice to him. I mean, we rip on him all the time.Kyle: Yes but he thrives on that.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Played with by Stan, Kyle and Kenny as they misinterpret Cartman’s final goodbyes and good deeds (in an attempt to get into heaven) as a way to become their friend again. The kids eventually relent in the final act after seeing Cartman play a part in saving a dozen workers in the Red Cross building.
- I See Dead People: Parodied. After everyone suddenly refuses to acknowledge Cartman's presence, the latter goes to Butters, who, due to being Locked Out of the Loop, greets him. This convinces Cartman that Butters has the ability to see dead people, and Butters innocently goes along with it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Cartman decides to atone for his sins not out of guilt, but so he could reach Heaven. When he finds out he was never a ghost, he clearly regrets every single moment of it.
- The Last Straw: Eating all of the chicken skins on their KFC is this for Stan, Kyle and Kenny (who breaks down crying). This leads to the three of them pretending he isn't there after considering their toxic friendship with him.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Butters is the only one who is not participating in the trend of ignoring Cartman because he wasn't with the others when they all decided to do it.
- Misplaced Retribution: Stephen sends Butters to the mental institution after Cartman trashes the house.
- Mistaken for Afterlife: Cartman thinks he's a ghost after the other boys at school ignore him and he sees a kid-sized box leaving his home with people sympathizing with how stuffed with chicken skins it was (in reality, it was the toilet Cartman clogged).
- Narcissist: Cartman is so full of himself that when the boys start ignoring him, he comes to the conclusion that he's really dead because why else would they not pay attention to him?
- Never My Fault: Cartman blames Butters for mistaking him as a ghost, even though he was the first one to mistake it.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Since Butters' parents never see Cartman (and he isn't a ghost anyway), they are left convinced Butters is hallucinating an imaginary ghost and acting up.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Butters attempts to help Cartman atone for his sins and pass on to the afterlife results in him getting thrown into a mental institution and subjected to a series of torturous tests.
- Pet the Dog: The entire “Make it Right” montage has Cartman and Butters giving fruit baskets to people the former did bad things to. The biggest is Scott Tenorman because of what happened earlier. Things will be bad much later, though.
- Poor Communication Kills: While the boys can be excused since they were purposely ignoring him, nobody else acknowledges Cartman's presence, none of the adults, the people he wronged, or even his own mother, and some of them even elect to ignore him, disturbed by his weird behavior.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Cartman thinks he died as a result of eating all the chicken skins the day before. While he's right about the chicken skins being the cause of what happens to him, it's not because he died from it.
- Rule of Three: Cartman when he attempts to make his way to Heaven. It takes the third time to realize that he didn't die.
- Running Gag: Cartman, thinking he has finally earned the right to go to Heaven, making an emotional goodbye to Butters, only to find out he's still stuck on Earth.
- The Scapegoat: Cartman goes berserk and destroys everything in Butters' room, which makes it look like Butters is the one who has mental problems and is then committed to the mental health institution.
- Serious Business: Stan, Kyle, and Kenny consider Cartman eating the skin off all of their KFC fried chicken to be the worst thing he's ever done and decide to shun him. Kenny actually started crying when he saw what Cartman did.
- Silent Treatment: With the exception of Butters, the kids all decide to ignore Cartman since he thrives from negative reactions.
- So Proud of You: The boys are so impressed by Cartman thwarting a hostage crisis that they personally drop by the site of the crisis to praise him for it and that they'll stop ignoring him now. Some of them even refer to him on a First-Name Basis while doing so.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Despite Butters trying his best to help Cartman out (and going through a lot of suffering in the process), Cartman still gives him grief upon learning he was never a ghost to begin with.Cartman: How stupid are you?! So help me God, Butters! I'm gonna get you back for this! I'm going to get you back!
