Taming Strange
Taming Strange
Season | s17 |
Episode | e05 |
Written By | Trey Parker |
Production Code | 1705 |
Original Air Date | 2013-09-25 |
Episode Chronology
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Story
Description
At South Park Elementary, Mr. Mackey announces to the students that the school will be operating entirely on a new computer interface system called Intellilink, but his demonstration of the system shows that it does not work properly. Meanwhile, a rift has opened between Kyle and his brother, Ike, who, as a result of undergoing precocious puberty, has become hostile towards Kyle. Told by Mackey that Canadians, like Ike, may experience puberty differently, the two boys view a Canadian health film, in which the Canadian Minister of Health explains that sexual reproduction among Canadians involves a woman queefing in a man's face. When informed by someone off camera that this is wrong, the Canadian Minister of Health confronts his wife over the fact that she once explained to him that she queefed in his face for this reason. She explains that she was being sarcastic, out of anger that Terry has refused to attend relationship counseling with her. All of this is shown in the film, which fails to resolve Kyle and Ike's problem.
As the Intellilink malfunctions continue, an engineer shows up at the school and suggests to Mr. Mackey that the school upgrade to the Intellilink Silver package, to which Mr. Macke agrees. Kyle takes Ike to a live Yo Gabba Gabba! show, where Ike takes to the stage, and tells the characters that he wishes to "tame Foofa's strange", before removing his clothes and grinding against the character Foofa, much to the horror of the other characters and everyone in the audience. When Ike and Kyle are subsequently reprimanded by the characters for this, Ike says that Foofa is an attractive woman, and should not be limiting herself to children. Foofa shocks the others when she agrees with this, saying that she wishes to play to adult audiences, and add sex appeal to her persona.
At South Park Elementary, the school faculty tell Mr. Mackey that Intellilink is a disaster, but Mr. Mackey dismisses this criticism and informs the faculty that he has hired a new faculty member, Pat Conners, to oversee the system. As soon as Conners sits down, however, Mr. Mackey excoriates her for failing to take responsibility for the malfunctioning system that she has only just been placed in charge of, and fires her. He then announces that the school will upgrade to the Intellilink Gold package.
Meanwhile, Foofa and her new manager, Ike, have been cultivating a new, adult image for her and plan for her to give a raunchy performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. Foofa's Yo Gabba Gabba! castmates, along with Sinéad O'Connor, try to talk her out of this, but are unsuccessful, and Ike continues his derisive treatment of Kyle. Kyle is then contacted by the Canadian Minister of Health and learns that because the Canadian health care system is also managed by Intellilink, Ike has mistakenly been given NFL football player Tom Brady's hormones, while Brady has been given the medication for Ike's laxatives. When Kyle informs the Canadian Minister of Health that Intellilink does not work, he becomes angrily defensive, asserting that Intellilink works fine and needs to be given time to work, adding that Kyle sounds like his wife. The Canadian Minister of Health and his friend realize that it is the health care system's integration with Intellilink that has made the Canadian Minister of Health defensive and hostile, and that this is what led to his marital problems.
At South Park Elementary, Intellilink's failure to work properly continues, and Mr. Mackey angrily tells the engineer that he simply wants the school's resources to work properly. The engineer recommends upgrading to Intellilink's Centurion package, which involves removing the system entirely from the school, so that the school does not have to deal with Intellilink any more. When Mackey accepts this, the engineer removes all the Intellilink hardware and software from the building and burns it, before pulling out a pistol and shooting himself in the head.
Backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards, Foofa is about to give her performance when Kyle arrives. When Ike asks him why Kyle cannot just leave him alone, Kyle says it is because Ike is his little brother, and even when Kyle is 50 and Ike is 45, Ike will still be his little brother, a statement that gives Ike pause. Kyle then sincerely tells Ike that he does not care if Ike wishes to grow up, as long as Kyle is there by his side when he does so. Realizing Kyle is right, Ike tells Foofa that while rebellion is part of growing up, he would rather let it happen naturally instead of pushing it. Foofa, by contrast, takes to the stage in a revealing outfit and sings "Pound My Sweet Strange".
Back in Canada, the Minister of Health returns home and makes amends with his wife. In South Park, Kyle is happy to see that the effects of Ike's early puberty have faded, and that he has returned to normal; however, Ike still remarks that Dora the Explorer "has that hot Puerto Rican strange."
Memorable Quotes
- âYou don't know what's like to be a baby going through puberty! I don't know whether to watch Yo Gabba Gabba or go out and tame some strange!â Ike Broflovski
- "I knew this was a bad idea! I'm gonna go watch Yo Gabba Gabba in my roomsies!" Ike Broflovski
- "By now, you've probably noticed some changes in your body. For instance, when you fart your dick gets hard." Terry the Minister of Health
- "Have you ever had someone you love queef in your face?" Terry the Minister of Health
- âYou're discovering that someone who was once your buddy is now your guy. And someone you used to call guy is quickly becoming- your fwiend.â Terry the Minister of Health
- "What's semen?" [[Terry the Minister of Health]
- "GET OUTTA MY ROOM, KYLE! I'M PLAYING TRUCKS!" Ike Broflovski
- "For my cool cool trick I'm gonna tame Foofa's strange." Ike Broflovski
- "Foofa's got that nice shaved strange that you just wanna get in and tame the second you see it.â Ike Broflovski
- "Have you ever had someone you love queef in your face?" Terry the Minister of Health
- "Before this meeting continues, I should have you be aware that my face has tested positive for queefy sores." Terry the Minister of Health
- âIâm afraid Intellilink mixed that up and your brother has been receiving large doses of hormones that were SUPPOSED to go to an athleteâ¦â Terry the Minister of Health
- "Hut huuuuuuuut... Hut hut huuuuuuuut.... hot hot hot.. Huuuuut... HIKE!" Tom Brady
- "That's a nice crane, a nice whooping crane coming off his head there." Tom Brady
- "You know, this is the first time I've been able to do counseling AND go to the bathroom at the same time. Intellilink is amazing!" Mr. Mackey
- "My name is Cody, I'm your smartnician. You're having some intelliproblems with your astutelinks?" Cody the Smartnician
- "This is stupid bro. Foofa shouldn't be limiting herself to little kids. She's fuckin' fine, dude." Ike Broflovski
- "Well⦠How the hell are we all going to clean up Pat's mess?" Mr. Mackey
- "I just can't erase the memory of my helpless face being queefed on like that." Terry the Minister of Health
- âAnyone who thinks streamlining health care into an integrated computer system would go smoothly, DESERVES a giant queef in their face.â Terry the Minister of Health
- "Well, your brother is Canadian. Perhaps Canadian puberty is a little different. Why don't you educate yourself about Canadian puberty and it can be something you and your brother can actually do TOGETHER. Mkay." Mr. Mackey
Ike
http://images.paramount.tech/path/mgid:file:gsp:entertainment-assets:/sps/shared/wiki/episodes/season-17/1705/1705_LiveTweet_Pic06_KickBabyMeme.JPG |
"I'm ready bro. Come on Kyle, kick the babyâ¦"
Sweet Strange
"But Foofa man... I'll bet she's got some sweet strange."
Terry, I'm your Fwiend
http://images.paramount.tech/path/mgid:file:gsp:entertainment-assets:/sps/shared/wiki/episodes/season-17/1705/1705_LiveTweet_Pic10_friend-buddy.JPG |
"Terry, I'm your Fwiend. And I'm not just your Fwiend, I'm also your Buddy."
Characters
Children's Characters
Featured Celebrities
- Foofa (from "Yo Gabba Gabba") parodies Miley Cyrus' twerking performance on the 2013 MTV Music Awards.
- Tom Brady is also shown here, defecating on field during a football game.
Sinéad O'Connor
http://images.paramount.tech/path/mgid:file:gsp:entertainment-assets:/sps/shared/wiki/episodes/season-17/1705/1705_LiveTweet_Pic12_strange-tv.JPG |
Sinéad O'Connor reached out to Miley Cyrus in response to Cyrus' Rolling Stone cover story, hence why she's parodied here.
Pop Culture References
- Mr. Mackey and Tom Brady are both shown "Bradying".
- The rocking tune playing on the cafeteria is "The Heat Is On" by Glenn Frey, made famous by the soundtrack to "Beverly Hills Cop".
- There is a pretty spot-on parody of Miley Cyrus' recent escapades in the news, right down to Foofa's twerking pose in this episode.
- Lionel Richie's hit single "All Night Long" plays in the beginning of the episode, when Mr. Mackey is using Intellilink. His music pops up several times in this episode.
- The kids' show "Yo Gabba Gabba" (as well as "Dora The Explorer") is featured in this episode.
Locations
Behind The Scenes
- On the 1st draft this episode was originally called "Ike Gets Older". It became âTaming Strangeâ on the 2nd draft.
- The character that sits with the Canadian Puberty Film Host is known at South Park as "Fancy Fwiend". He's a huge favorite in the Writer's Room.
- Why "Yo Gabba Gabba"? All the male writers now have kids. Their kids love "Yo Gabba Gabba", so they're forced to watch it all the time.
- The Intellilink storyline parodied the current situation with Obamacare. Also, Crestron Home Technology Systems â Matt and Trey hate them.
- From the writers: "There's lots of storylines in this episode...which is unusual for us. Haven't done many episodes like this since the early seasons."
- Matt does the voice of this bro'd out version of Ike. Ike's voice is normally done by a staff member's kid. The writers talked about having Ike continue speaking like a grown kid permanently. But the little kid voice wins them over every time.
Character Art: Ike
Prior to production, the writers toyed w/ the idea of making Ike look bigger, like a pubescent teenager.
Character Art: Kyle
This image of Kyle with a shlong on his head was actually based off on an original sketch by Trey (shown above, on the right).
Character Art: Mr. Mackey
Mackey's counseling lesson on the toilet required a special pose. It was worth it.
Character Art: Ike
Ike got a special "bro" pose for this scene in the showâ¦
Storyboard
Check out the storyboard from this infamous football scene...
Character Art: Wet Kids
"Wet" versions of all the kids needed to be created prior to animating this scene.
Character Art: Foofa
Check out this behind the scenes Corel used while designing Foofa's special outfit and twerking pose.
Character Art: Foofa
Foofa's outfit went through several rounds of changes, like adding lights to arrows around her strange.
Bonus Factoids
- For the first time ever, we learn here that the kids are in Fourth Grade, Classroom 7.
Grandpa Marsh
Yep, that's Grandpa Marsh reading an article about Mysterion.
MTV VMA
http://images.paramount.tech/path/mgid:file:gsp:entertainment-assets:/sps/shared/wiki/episodes/season-17/1705/1705_LiveTweet_Pic17_Britney.JPG |
The last time we saw a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, it was during in "Britney's New Look"