Story

After Cartman makes fun of breast cancer, Wendy challenges him to a fight. Word quickly spreads throughout South Park Elementary and all bets are on Cartman. But Wendy is really angry this time, and Cartman, afraid of losing to a girl, is desperate to find a way to get out of the fight without looking like a chicken.

Description

The episode begins with Cartman mocking breast cancer during Wendy's presentation on breast cancer awareness, but Mr. Garrison does little to stop him. After class, Cartman continues to mock her efforts for breast cancer awareness, and Wendy announces she is going to fight Cartman after school. Butters rallies his classmates, including Bebe, who survived her defeat (in The List), Ike reports the kindergarten students, and Red tells the Goth Kids about it as well.

This only makes Cartman frightened and reluctant after hearing even the uncool, weak Butters speak out and say that he will be a reject to his peers if he gets beat up by a girl. Cartman tries to call off the fight with quiet apologies (attempting to keep the rest of the school from hearing it and pretending that he is brave and "hardcore", in order to avoid being called a coward), bribery, and desperate claims. When Wendy tells him she will "shove [his] ass down [his] throat and make [him] eat [his] underwear!" he painfully chokes down his underwear in an attempt to appease her, but this only disgusts and angers her as she sees what little self-respect Cartman has (a statement Cartman surprisingly agrees with, quickly adding "unless you want me to. You want me to have self-respect, then I will.").

Cartman tries to convince Stan to talk Wendy out of it (while choking his underwear back up, replying "oh, that's where I put those"), but Stan does not believe he can do anything to stop her. Desperate to avoid the fight, Cartman defecates on Mr. Garrison's desk, causing him to be put in detention. Butters, Craig, and Jimmy tell him there are rumors that he deliberately got detention to avoid the fight, and that they rescheduled the fight for the following morning before school.

Later, Cartman has his mother convince Wendy's parents not to let her fight him by pretending to be tormented and bullied by her at school, and she reluctantly gives in. Much to Wendy's shock, instead of letting up, Cartman merely continues to taunt her, taking advantage of the fact that she can no longer fight back lest her parents find out, and the other students start to follow his example. When Cartman gives a mock presentation on breast cancer in class to rub her face in his victory, she nearly fights him but is called to Principal Victoria's office. Much to Wendy's surprise, Principal Victoria commends Wendy for all the things she has done to spread awareness of breast cancer, and explains that she is a breast cancer survivor herself. She indirectly (but deliberately) compares Cartman to a cancer, telling Wendy that "Cancer does not play by the rules", that it is "a fat little lump that needs to be destroyed", and "you refuse to let that fat little lump make you feel powerless." Realizing that he will never stop of his own volition, and also that she has Principal Victoria's support, Wendy decides to confront Cartman once and for all.

Wendy then meets Cartman on the playground for the fight, and although Cartman briefly gains the upper hand, Wendy soon emerges victorious with only a few bruises, while leaving Cartman bruised, bloody, and having knocked out many of his teeth. The other students cheer her and Cartman further lowers himself by not even taking the beating with any kind of dignity, bursting pathetically into tears in front of everybody. He declares that his friends will not find him cool any more, but they tell him they never thought of him as cool, and have always hated him and always will, stating that they cannot possibly think any less of him. Cartman takes this to mean that they are pretending to not have a different opinion about him in order to make him feel better; reasoning that if they are trying to make him feel better, they do not care if he got beat up by a girl (and reminding viewers that Cartman as a narcissistic psychopath does not particularly care if people like him or not; merely that they see him as superior). He walks away happy, leaving the others confused by his bizarre logic.

Memorable Quotes

• "Recycling is important and it will save our planet. Earth. The End." Clyde

What I Learned Today

• "When you have cancer, you fight! Because it doesn't matter if you beat it or not. You refuse to let that fat little lump make you feel powerless" Principal Victoria

Characters

Eric Cartman

Wendy Testaburger

Locations

South Park Elementary

Behind The Scenes

Pop Culture References

• The plot of the episode is loosely based on the films Three O'Clock High, and There Will Be Blood. The fight scene is also based on that of the film Snatch.

• While Cartman awaits the fight in class, Mr. Garrison says, "So you see, at this point Euripides knew he could not win the battle", referencing The Frogs, a comedic play by Aristophanes where the Greek tragedians Euripides and Aeschylus are measured against one another, the better to be revived so he can "educate the thoughtless" and rid Athens of evil politicians that are ruining the city (1500–1502, The Frogs).

Bonus Factoids

Season 12

e1 Tonsil Trouble

e2 Britney's New Look

e3 Major Boobage

e4 Canada on Strike

e5 Eek, A Penis!

e6 Over Logging

e7 Super Fun Time

e8 The China Probrem

e9 Breast Cancer Show Ever

e10 Pandemic

e11 Pandemic 2: The Startling

e12 About Last Night...

e13 Elementary School Musical

e14 The Ungroundable