"Crack Baby Athletic Association" is the fifth episode of the
fifteenth season of the American animated television series ''
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
'', and the 214th episode of the series overall, and was written and directed by series co-creator
Trey Parker
Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and ''The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Matt Stone. P ...
. It premiered in the United States on
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
on May 25, 2011, and was rated
TV-MA
The TV Parental Guidelines are a television content rating system in the United States that was first proposed on December 19, 1996, by the United States Congress, the television industry and the federal communication commission (FCC), and went ...
-L in the United States. "Crack Baby Athletic Association" was nominated for the 2011
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
for
Outstanding Animated Program for Programming Less Than One Hour, but lost to ''
Futurama
''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...
'' for the episode "
The Late Philip J. Fry". It parodies several films, such as ''
Miracle on 34th Street
''Miracle on 34th Street'' (initially released as ''The Big Heart'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1947 American List of Christmas films, Christmas comedy-drama film released by 20th Century Fox, written and directed by George Seaton and based on ...
''.
Plot
After seeing the "saddest commercial ever" presented by
Sarah McLachlan
Sarah Ann McLachlan Order of Canada, OC Order of British Columbia, OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is ''Surfacing ( ...
about
crack babies,
Kyle
Kyle or Kyles may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Kyle, Saskatchewan, Canada
Ireland
* Kyle, County Laois
* Kyle, County Wexford
Scotland
* Kyle, Ayrshire, area of Scotland which stretched across parts of modern-day East Ayrshire and South Ayrshir ...
goes to help volunteer at the hospital, but finds
Cartman
Eric Theodore Cartman, commonly referred to by his surname Cartman, is a fictional character in the adult animated sitcom ''South Park'', created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. He is voiced by Parker, and is one of the series' four main charact ...
already volunteering there. Suspicious, Kyle follows Cartman and finds that he,
Craig,
Clyde Clyde may refer to:
People
* Clyde (given name)
* Clyde (surname)
Places
For townships see also Clyde Township
Australia
* Clyde, New South Wales
* Clyde, Victoria
* Clyde River, New South Wales
Canada
* Clyde, Alberta
* Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...
and
Butters have gathered together to form a new business called the "Crack Baby Athletic Association", in which they induce crack-addicted babies to fight each other for a ball filled with
crack, with the fights being broadcast on the Internet. Kyle is shocked and horrified at what Cartman has done, but Cartman convinces him it is a
win-win situation for everybody and persuades him to work for the business as its accountant, because of his Jewish descent. Kyle repeatedly justifies himself to Stan, who just listens to him in silence.
The business quickly prospers, and the group prepares to cut a deal with
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...
for a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
based upon their sport. Despite Cartman insisting that they are a
nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
, Kyle tells him that he is uncomfortable with the idea of selling the babies' likenesses to EA Sports while giving them nothing, so Cartman promises to find out how "other companies get away with it". He goes to the athletic department at the
University of Colorado
The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...
dressed as a
Southern
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express, M ...
planter and referring to the university
student athlete
A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution.
In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...
s as "slaves", but gets no advice on how to treat his own "slaves" from the affronted president. Kyle comes up with a plan to compensate the crack babies by spending 30% of the money from the deal on a state-of-the-art
orphanage
An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...
and presents it to Cartman; much to Kyle's surprise, Cartman actually approves of the scheme, due to the public goodwill it will generate. Meanwhile, Clyde and Craig try to get in touch with the guitarist
Slash
Slash may refer to:
* Slash (punctuation), the "/" character
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Slash (Marvel Comics)
* Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'')
Music
* Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band
* Nash ...
in an attempt to have him perform a
halftime show
A halftime show is a performance given during the brief period between the first and second halves, or the second and third quarters, of a sporting event. Halftime shows are not given for sports with an irregular or indeterminate number of div ...
at an upcoming crack baby fight. However, they discover that Slash is actually a
make-believe character based on a
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
legend named "
Vunter Slaush", and that the various incarnations of Slash they have encountered are just their parents in costume. This explains why Slash appears to be everywhere at once, even playing a show in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
and in
Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
in the same afternoon.
When the deal with EA Sports is signed, the boys learn from their contract with
Peter Moore (portrayed here as a bourbon-drinking, cigar-smoking, southern planter), the head of EA Sports, that his company now owns the rights to the Crack Baby Athletic Association and will keep all the revenue. Kyle is crushed over the end of his orphanage project, while Cartman and the others are mostly still in shock about the revelation that Slash does not exist. When they return to South Park, Kyle and Stan discover that the orphanage has been miraculously built. When Kyle asks who paid for it, they see Slash's guitar and hat in the corner. Kyle is overjoyed, and everyone's faith in Slash is restored.
Reception
Ramsey Isler of
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
gave the episode a rating of 7.0 of 10, stating that it was "an average episode – not terribly bad, but not very good either". He criticized the show for its lack of depth regarding the controversy with the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
not compensating its players.
Jason Whitlock
Jason Lee Whitlock (born April 27, 1967) is an American sports journalist, columnist, and podcaster. He hosts a program for the media company Blaze Media, where he hosts the show ''Fearless with Jason Whitlock''. Whitlock is a former columnist ...
, a
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
writer and critic of the current state of commercial college athletics and of the NCAA, called the episode "one of the most hilarious and poignant moments of television I’ve ever witnessed", commenting, "It was like ''
The Wire
''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...
'' splashed with ''
Arrested Development
The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...
''."
Sean O'Neal of
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
gave the episode a B+ rating, saying that while the satire was a bit too preachy, the episode was redeemed by the "cartoonishly ludicrous" notion of Slash as a Santa Claus figure.
The morning after the episode aired, Slash tweeted "I'm not......real?" followed by a sad emoji.
References
External links
"Crack Baby Athletic Association"Full episode at South Park Studios
*
{{Authority control
South Park (season 15) episodes
Television episodes about drugs
Television episodes set in hospitals
National Collegiate Athletic Association