South Park: Crippled Summer

"Crippled Summer" is the seventh episode and mid-season finale of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 202nd overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 28, 2010. In the episode, the South Park children try to help Towelie overcome his drug addiction, while Nathan and his lackey Mimsy plot to destroy Jimmy during athletic competitions at a summer camp for handicapped children. The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. The story of Towelie's addiction is presented as a parody of the reality series Intervention. Parker and fellow co-creator Matt Stone originally planned an Intervention parody around Towelie for the tenth season episode "A Million Little Fibers", but those plans were eventually scrapped. Several of the handicapped children in "Crippled Summer" are made to resemble characters from the Looney Tunes cartoon series, including Elmer Fudd, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, Pete Puma, and Porky Pig, as well as non-Looney Tunes characters Droopy and Fat Albert. "Crippled Summer" received positive reviews, though some commentators expressed disappointment that the episode did not respond to the controversies surrounding the show's depictions of Muhammad in the previous episodes, "200" and "201". According to Nielsen Media Research, "Crippled Summer" was seen by 3.56 million viewers, making it the most watched cable show of the night, and outperforming even some prime time network shows that evening.