Original air date: 11/14/2001
Cartman's latest prank (putting Kenny's school photo where only his butt is exposed on a milk carton) backfires when an actual couple with butts for faces comes to South Park searching for their missing child and Cartman suddenly blows a "funny fuse", which he thinks is from seeing something so funny that he can never laugh again (but others think is from guilt).
NOTE: This episode is not to be confused with the season six episode, "Red Hot Catholic Love", which had a sub-story about Cartman winning a bet about eating from your butt and defecating out of your mouth.
This episode provdes examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Butters gets grounded for the trivial reason of "making a face" (which was just a piece of his hair sticking up). This is actually the first time we see him get grounded.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Stan and Kyle chide Cartman for the antics he's pulled in this episode but when Mr. and Mrs. Thompson appear in front of them, they have to contain their laughter.
- Ate His Gun: Subverted by having Cartman do this literally, followed up with writing into his "suicide note" (which turns out to be a note saying he's running away from home) to ask for more "Chocolate Guns" (with marshmallow filling instead of peanut butter).
- Bait-and-Switch: Ms. Choksondik reprimands someone in the class for abusing school picture privileges, and Kenny assumes it's him until it turns out Ms. Choksondik was talking about Butters.
- Bait-and-Switch Suicide: See Ate His Gun above.
- Black Comedy:
- When Kenny gets run over by a motorcycle, Cartman finds this "very funny".
- In general, Cartman loves this form of comedy and mentioned to Mr. Mackey that he would've laughed at a little girl getting her fingers stuck in the car door.
- Characterisation Click Moment: Butters' parents had been established since "The Wacky Molestation Adventure", but it's here where the key aspects of their characters who punish Butters, often for ridiculous reasons completely out of his control, is firmly set in stone.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Butters gets grounded for making a silly face and for wearing makeup (when in the picture, all that happened was one of Butters' hairs stuck up).
- Dude, Not Funny!: Stan and Kyle don't think Cartman's idea of having Kenny's butt put on the milk cartons is funny because a lot of children really are missing and need help being found.
- Elephant in the Living Room: Butters' school picture. Despite his unintended cowlick, Ms. Choksondik and Butters' parents believe that he made a goofy face. Butters himself doesn't see anything wrong with it.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After getting zero results in finding the Thompsons' son, the Milk Company suddenly decided to search for kids that have reported their parents missing. After narrowing down many results, they were shocked to learn who their son turns out to be (see Take That!).
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In Cartman's case, not even if it's with himself. Stan and Kyle lampshade how it's not normally like him to feel bad for someone, so it's entirely possible that the idea went completely over his head, and that blowing a "funny fuse" was the most honest opinion he could think of for how he felt.
- Face on a Milk Carton: It's what triggers the plot.
- Foreshadowing: Kyle and Stan are watching a brief news report about a motorcyclist who keeps running people over, with the reporter wondering who his next victim will be. Guess what Kenny gets killed by?
- Funny Background Event: The Thompsons are sitting around having a conversation with the McCormicks, while in the background, more and more people are crowding around the window to stare in and laugh at them.
- Hell Is That Noise: Mrs. Thompson's crying makes everyone who hears it very uncomfortable, in large part because the sounds she makes while sobbing and blowing her nose sound like she's letting out a continuous series of disgusting wet farts.Mrs. Thompson: Yes, I'm so grateful, I just want to cry again.
Stuart, Carol, Kenny and the Milk Company Employee: NO! - Irony: Ms. Choksondik and Butters' parents all get him in trouble for a perfectly normal school photo, while Cartman and Kenny escape notice for what was actually worthy of punishment.
- Joke and Receive: Cartman putting Kenny's butt-picture on a milk carton leads to the main plot of the episode.
- Milkman Conspiracy: The South Park Milk Company is an almost literal but also entirely benign example. Even though their business is in producing milk and other dairy products, they also have an extensive database for missing persons, which they are able to use to track down the Thompsons' long-lost son.
- Never Bare Headed: This is the first time where Stan and Kyle are shown without their hats. Kyle, in particular, is forced to take off his hat for his picture against his will.
- Nightmare Face: Played for Laughs with the Thompsons, who have butts for faces.
- Non-Indicative Title: "Red Hot Catholic Love" actually had people eating through their butts, not this episode. The Thompsons do eat some food throughout the episode but it has little bearing on the plot other than a sight gag.
- No Sympathy:
- At the end of the episode, a motorbike runs Kenny over... and Cartman just laughs.
- After seeing how Butters' parents treat him, Kyle feels bad for the poor guy. Clyde agrees... but still plans on kicking his ass tomorrow.
- Not So Above It All: Stan and Kyle chide Cartman for his prank and find the following events to be too mean-spirited to be funny. However, when they see the Thompsons, they can't help themselves from laughing a bunch and bringing along other kids to witness the couple.
- Premature Encapsulation: While the episode features a couple with butts for faces and does indeed show them eating at one point, it doesn't move the plot along at all and is a minor visual gag at most. A season later, "Red Hot Catholic Love" devotes its entire B-plot to the idea of people eating food through their butts (and defecating from their mouths). Because of that, it's easy to confuse the title of this episode for that one.
- Sarcasm Failure: The same situation triggers both types — Kyle thinks that Cartman is genuinely remorseful, but is such a sociopath that he doesn't recognize the feeling, while Cartman believes that he'd "blown a funny fuse" from just how goddamned hilarious the entire situation was.
- Selective Enforcement: Kenny gets off scot-free for showing off his butt in his school picture, whereas Butters gets scolded by Ms. Choksondik and punished by his parents for having his hair stick out in his school picture.
- Suicide as Comedy: Cartman decides to commit suicide because he can no longer laugh and writes a goodbye letter, also sticking a gun in his mouth... which turns out to be a chocolate gun that is edible. On his P.S., he writes to buy the chocolate guns with marshmallows instead of ones with peanut butter.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Cartman's defense that he's blown a "funny fuse" is this to Stan and Kyle.
- Take That!:
- The Thompsons' missing son Billy turns out to be Ben Affleck.
- Mr. Mackey suggests that if Cartman has lost his sense of humor, he can "always become a writer for the show Friends."
- They Killed Kenny Again: Kenny is run over by the motorcyclist mentioned above very late in the episode.
- Uncanny Valley Makeup: Bebe sports very heavy makeup for picture day, in two blink-and-you-miss-it shots in the beginning. This may be a call-back to Tom's Rhinoplasty, as her makeover looks identical to the one she gave Wendy in that episode.
- Villainous BSoD: The crux of Cartman's plot is that he's fallen into a depression once he realizes he will never find anything funny again.
