Le Petit Tourette

South Park Zone
South Park Season 11 - Episode 1108 - Le Petit Tourette
Watch South Park - Le Petit Tourette online

Le Petit Tourette" is the eighth episode of the eleventh season of the animated television series South Park, and the 161st episode overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on October 3, 2007. This episode marked the beginning of the second half of the eleventh season. In the episode, Cartman pretends to have Tourette syndrome (TS) so that he can say whatever he wants without getting into trouble. It eventually leads to trouble and he ends up saying things that he would never say.
The episode was written by series co-creator Trey Parker and was rated TV-MA LV in the United States, due to language and violence. It was one of the first episodes of South Park to use any of the L, S or V sub-ratings. Parker and Stone had many discussions with Comedy Central as how to portray the language used in the episode. Eventually, the network allowed them to use nearly all curse words except for "fuck," which remained bleeped. Prior to its premiere, the episode attracted attention from the Tourette Syndrome Association (TSA), who "fully expect[ed] it to be offensive and insensitive to people with TS".
The episode received mixed reviews from television critics, with some praising the episode's humor and others considering its structure disjointed. The TSA conceded that "the episode was surprisingly well-researched. The highly exaggerated emphasis on coprolalia notwithstanding, for the attentive viewer, there was a surprising amount of accurate information conveyed", adding that several elements of the episode "served as a clever device" for providing accurate facts to the public. "Le Petit Tourette" was released on DVD along with the rest of the eleventh season on August 12, 2008.
South Park Spoiler Alert! (The complete plot for this South Park Episode)

While shopping in a toy store, Cartman sees a boy named Thomas who continuously shouts obscenities, as his mother tries to explain that he has Tourette syndrome (TS). Cartman decides to pretend he has the disorder as well so he can get away with shouting obscenities himself, and successfully convinces his mother and a doctor, who diagnoses him with TS and notifies the school. When Kyle finds out about Cartman's "disorder", he immediately deduces that he is faking, which Cartman quickly admits to him. Nevertheless, Cartman continues to enjoy his newfound freedom. After Kyle decides to complain to Principal Victoria, he is sent to the a local support group for children with the disorder, who explain their various tics and how they are not faking it. Kyle learns that TS is a genuine disorder with a range of effects, rather than just a trivial inconvenience that involves swearing. He visibly struggles when he has to apologize to Cartman, who continues to take advantage of his "disorder" by screaming vulgar anti-Semitic remarks at Kyle's parents.
Cartman decides to appear on Dateline NBC with Chris Hansen, who plans to document the "sad story" of Cartman living with the condition. Cartman plans to say horrible, despicable things on the air and make an anti-Semitic hate speech—all the while being commended for being brave. At a support party the next night, Cartman starts to make a gloating speech but as well as intentional obscenities, he starts spouting out embarrassing true details from his past. To his horror he realizes he now has a self-inflicted truth serum-tic, and that not being in control is not fun at all. He quickly tries to cancel the Dateline appointment, but Chris Hansen refuses to allow it and tells him that once, when a pedophile tried to get out of appearing on his To Catch a Predator series, they tracked the pedophile down and he shot himself (see Louis Conradt). Hansen continues by hinting that if Cartman refuses to appear, he will be killed, and it will look like a suicide (more specifically, he says that "it would be a real shame if [Cartman] (here Hansen uses finger-quotes) "shot himself"). Realizing he has no way to get out of going on the show, and that he still cannot control his self-inflicted TS, Cartman prays to God for a miracle.
Meanwhile, Kyle teams with Thomas, a boy from the TS support group, who is worried that Cartman's appearance on the show will make others think TS is "fun" and copy him. The pair aims to foil Cartman's plan which, unknown to Kyle, Cartman has already given up on. Nevertheless, in order to provide a distraction, the two go on the Internet to entice numerous pedophiles to come to the show. When the would-be child molesters come into the studio and see Hansen, they all assume it to be a bust on To Catch a Predator and shoot themselves, sending panic through the studio and forcing everyone to flee. Both Kyle and Cartman go into the front stage to see the pedophiles dead from shooting themselves. As Kyle gloats that he has foiled Cartman's plan, Cartman graciously hugs Kyle, thankful that he doesn't have to humiliate himself on live television.