Original air date: 9/26/2012
Randy's sarcastic comments about making pee-wee football Lighter and Softer (due to concerns over football causing concussions and other head injuries) turns into America's new pasttime. Meanwhile, Butters bottles and sells a sports drink with a disgusting secret.
Tropes appearing in this episode:
- Aesop Amnesia: Way back in "Proper Condom Use", the kids' parents learn that they need to properly educate their children about sex. Here, Butters ends up selling his cum as a sports drink because his father is uncomfortable with telling him what his "creamy goo" actually is.
- Ambiguously Bi: Randy is somehow able to recognize exactly what cum tastes like.
- Brutal Honesty: When Butters admits that he sucks at football, Stan corrects him by saying that he sucks at every sport, with Butters agreeing.
- Dude, Not Funny!: What resolved the sarcasm streak is adults thinking Butters serving his cum was him being sarcastic about how soft the sport has gotten. They consider it offensive.
- Here We Go Again!: Stephen's "friendly compass" explanation to Butter's having an erection.
- Karma Houdini: The episode ends with Randy suddenly agreeing with softening football. All the blame is instead pinned on Butters, despite him not knowing what cum and sarcasm are.
- Also, Randy runs over a child but nobody cares or even seem to notice.
- Lighter and Softer: In-Universe, the conflict stems from the men in South Park becoming frustrated in the attempted "softening" of football in light of studies which show the long-term effects of its physical trauma. Randy sarcastically suggests that the boys play a version of football which is deliberately as safe and harmless as possible, and it just snowballs from there.
- Never My Fault: Stephen blames Butters for feeding everyone cum, but none of that ever would've happened if he didn't lie to Butters about what it is. And despite Butters wanting to know the truth about cum, Stephen still refuses to tell him, copping out by telling Butters that this conversation will be had when he is older.
- Nocturnal Emission: Butters experiences this after dreaming about Wendy and Red kissing him and stores the semen in a bottle. It's later revealed that he frequently gets wet dreams to the point of his closet being full of his "creamy goo" bottles.
- Ripped from the Headlines:
- The perceived "softening" of football is a reaction to the public's response to the increased studies of the kind of long-term damage playing football does to the players, and many football fans' angry responses that taking out the violence of football would defeat the whole purpose.
- At the time episode first aired, the NFL referees were on strike and the quality of officiating... was not good. Randy makes reference to this when a touchdown becomes a safety and then a field goal because the replacement refs don't know the rules.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Randy really didn't think the school board would take his Sarcastaball "idea" seriously.
- Sarcasm Mode: Every single damn character! To the point that the eventual main conflict is that Randy literally can't say a single thing that isn't a snide remark.
- Took a Level in Smartass: Randy, to the extreme.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Precisely zero people react to Randy running over and killing a child on the sarcastaball field with his SUV.
- Wham Line
- When Sharon asks Randy if he just can't stop being sarcastic, Randy responds with another sarcastic remark before suddenly pleading, completely seriously, "Help me Sharon!"
- Randy is finally broken of his perpetual sarcasm by delivering the single most sincere line in the entire episode after drinking Butters' Creamy Goo (this line is ironic since back in "Proper Condom Use" Randy does not label semen for what it is while having a conversation with Stan about what he did to Sparky while guests were at the house).Randy (Dead serious): This is cum.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After getting mocked over being no good at sports, Butters finally has one that he can excel at... until everyone finds out what's actually in his new sports drink.
