| "Up the Down Steroid" | |
|---|---|
| South Park episode | |
 Cartman signs up for the Special Olympics |
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| Episode no. | Season 8 Episode 3 |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Production no. | 803 |
| Original airdate | March 24, 2004 |
| Season 8 episodes | |
| South Park – Season 8 March 17, 2004 – December 15, 2004 |
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| ← Season 7 | Season 9 → |
| List of South Park episodes | |
"Up the Down Steroid" is the 113th episode of the Comedy Central series South Park. The title is a parody of the book Up the Down Staircase. It originally aired on March 24, 2004.
Plot
Timmy and Jimmy, the two disabled children in South Park, are due to participate in the Special Olympics in Denver. Cartman decides to fake being disabled and beat all the handicapped children in the events and win the $1,000 prize.
To pretend to be handicapped, Cartman undergoes a rigorous "Push It to the Limit" montage that shows a training regime of sitting on the special education bus while taking notes of how "retards" act, cutting his hair badly, studying a Kid Rock performance, modifying his shoes so it looks like he has a club foot, and putting on a bicycle helmet too tightly so his face is deformed.
Cartman's plan works, at least to a point. He gets his mom to take him to the Special Olympics. Cartman fails to win any events because, even though he is obviously not handicapped, he is so out-of-shape and overweight that he is still unable to win any events against the handicapped children, who have all spent weeks in intensive training before the start of the competition.
Meanwhile, Jimmy is talked into taking steroids to increase his chances of winning. He manages to keep his use of it a secret from everyone except for his training partner and best friend, Timmy. Timmy frowns on this, but, unable to say anything other than his name, Jimmy's name and the quote "Livin' a lie!" he is unable to fully explain the situation to his school counselor, Mr. Mackey. Also, Jimmy starts to neglect his girlfriend and studies and, soon, his steroid use sends him into a steroid rage, causing him to savagely attack his girlfriend and mother (with Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" playing as the atmospheric soundtrack as he loses his mind).
Throughout the episode, Kyle tries to talk Cartman out of his plans. Kyle hates Cartman and has always seen him as a thoroughly ruthless boy, but Kyle sees Cartman's plans as so horrible that he seriously worries that Cartman will go to hell for his antics in this episode. He even goes as far as to call himself Cartman's friend. Cartman doesn't pay Kyle any attention, believing that Kyle is not in a position to preach morality because he is jewish. Cartman eventually discovers that although he is not crippled, he is still too out of shape to have a chance against the special athletes.
At the Special Olympics awards ceremony, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi announce Jimmy as the winner, Cartman eventually having come in last. However, he gets a spirit award of a gift voucher to Shakey's Pizza. When he comes up to the stand to collect the prize, Jimmy realizes Cartman has been faking his "retardation" and, ironically, is about to beat him up for being a cheater, but Timmy scolds him for it. Jimmy learns his lesson, namely that taking steroids is cheating, on par with pretending to be "retarded" in order to participate in the Special Olympics, and gives back his medal. At that point, the people give Jimmy a standing ovation with cheers for being honest, and he says he'll be back next year to "compete with honor." Cartman then tells his friends that he pretended to be retarded just to teach Jimmy about taking steroids, but they simply stare at him. In response, Cartman angrily says, "Oh yeaah?! Well, you guys are assholes!! Grow up!!" He then walks away.
External links
| Preceded by “AWESOM-O” |
South Park episodes | Followed by “The Passion of the Jew” |
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