Original air date: 11/17/2004
The boys begin to exaggerate stories when their student news show falls behind in the ratings.
This episode contains examples of:
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: The Raisins Girls already qualified as this, but they get new outfits in this episode which are even more inappropriate.
- Answer Cut: The boys end their final segment saying that South Park Elementary will ban cough medicine and be happy and healthy just like it's sister school Middle Park Elementary. It then shows every student coughing uncontrollably.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- When the boys tell the pharmacist they want to get high off of cough medicine to come up with ideas, he tells them that's not what they want to get creative. What he was talking about wasn't that Drugs Are Bad, but that the brand of cough medicine they had doesn't contain the ingredient that causes highs and shows them all the ones that do.
- Then he does it again when he tells them he needs their parents' permission before allowing them to purchase the medicine. Then he laughs it off and brings them to the register.
- Blatant Lies: Sexy Action School News just makes up stories, including that Clyde only has one testicle.
- Call-Back: When thinking of ideas on how to beat Craig's show, Cartman mentions doing a report on crab people.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Craig's show winds up getting such low ratings that the teacher suspends him from school and writes a recommendation to get his testicles removed.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When the boys recover from their cough medicine Mushroom Samba after watching Craig's show all night long, Stan is quick to realize that everyone else was watching it while they were high on cough medicine as well.Stan: I think I understand now. I think I know why Craig's show gets such great ratings... Half the school is high on cough medicine!
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Craig's show, "Close-Up Shots of Animals with a Wide-Angle Lens", is exactly that, set to a dinky rendition of "Yakety Sax".
- G-Rated Drug: Cough medicine, which makes people enjoy Craig's news show when they would find it boring otherwise. One scene even has Bebe and Red taking some in the girl's room like it's crack.
- Hypocritical Humor: The boys use video footage of themselves buying cough medicine to support their claim of how easy it is for school kids to buy the unethical drug at their local pharmacy.
- If It Bleeds, It Leads: The boys decide to run fake sensational news, like a methane leak threatening to destroy the school, as one of the tactics to improve ratings.
- Insult Backfire: Cartman shoots down Butters' idea of reading the funny comics saying only "gay little dweebs" read them. Butters just happily rolls with it saying he read them all the time.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While the boys go to unethical lengths for ratings, it's fairly understandable why they would be so concerned as their teacher takes their show's ratings incredibly seriously, even basing their grade off their ratings and having them suspended if their ratings are too low.
- Kick the Dog:
- Cartman refused to let Kenny be part of the news show because "poor people don't watch the news".
- When Craig's ratings go down, Mr. Meryl suspends him and recommends that his testicles be removed. Mind you, this is an elementary schooler in an AV class.
- Lowest Common Denominator: In-Universe. The boys revamp the news show to appeal to this in an effort to boost ratings. It does work, but they still get beat by Craig's new show. This convinces them that Jimmy was right, and they need to step up their game rather than rely on flashiness.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Kenny has been helping Craig with his show because Cartman refused to let him be a part of the news show.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: The pharmacist for selling the boys cough medicine knowing they want to get high off it.
- Mushroom Samba: Caused by taking cough medicine.
- Never My Fault: Cartman is mad at Kenny for joining Craig's show, refusing to take blame even when Kenny points out that he not only didn't let Kenny join the news show, but he also mocked him for it. This even instigates a lengthy flashback of Cartman gloating at Kenny.Cartman: *beat* Oh whatever, Kenny!
- No, You:Mr. Meryl: I'm sorry, kids. You should be proud of what you've done. It's just that it's kind of gay.
Cartman: You're gay! - Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Jimmy managed track down Vice President Dick Cheney while he was visiting Denver and got him to agree to a video interview for the news show. Unfortunately, the rest of the Boys are too focused on ratings to care.
- Only Sane Man/Token Good Teammate: Jimmy is the only one who actually cares about the news rather than just getting the best ratings (a trait that is carried over into his later appearances, like "Sponsored Content").
- Pandering to the Base: In-universe example with the boys' revamped news show. They mention adding panda bears and hot girls for the sake of appealing to kindergartners and 6th graders, even if they aren't relevant to their stories.
- Police Are Useless: Averted for once as the pharmacist is actually arrested by Officer Barbrady for selling kids cough medicine.
- Professional Voice Dissonance: As part of an effort to improve their school news show ratings, Cartman tells Tolkien that he needs to change his voice when he reports the weather. Specifically, Cartman says he needs to sound white. In the next news broadcast, Tolkien changes his accent when reporting the weather but goes back to speaking normally when the broadcast is over.
- Real Life Writes the Plot:
Word of God says that the reason the boys have such a hard time coming up with ideas is because, having just finished post-production for Team America: World Police, the staff was too burnt-out to come up with anything."So, this episode marks a very special time in South Park history, because this was the first time that we were officially...out of ideas." - Serious Business: The boys and Craig make shows that rival for viewer ratings, on the school's closed-circuit television no less. In this case it is being instigated by the AV teacher, Mr. Meryl, who is apparently marking the kids grades according to their numbers, up to and including failing them or requesting their testicles be removed if they don't produce viewers.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the end, the boys bail on their newscast after realizing they have no ideas.
- Take That!:
- The unethical behavior of the boys is one towards news reporters who use similar tactics to attract viewers and are more worried about ratings than informing their audience about the truth.
- In the first celebrity lookout report, Butters believed that he saw Sigourney Weaver, but it turned out to be a dead horse upon closer examination.
- Watch It Stoned: The boys end up loving Craig's show while they're tripping on cough medicine, which helps them figure out why it's been pulling such high ratings: the kids watching it were also high, because the pharmacist had been selling them prescription cough syrup, too.
