Jimmy is furious when his comedy performance is attended by an audience of precisely one - Butters (who promised he'd come) - thanks to everyone else snubbing him for a speech by Christopher Reeve about the role of stem cell research in the progress he has made since the accident that left him paralysed. He fumes to Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny that unlike Reeve, he has been crippled since birth - prompting the quartet to leave with the observation that they'd rather stay out of this one. Their decision is re-affirmed when Jimmy and Timmy interrupt their play session to announce that they've formed a club that only people who have been crippled since birth can join (though Stan and Kyle have to talk Cartman down from his anger at being excluded).
Deciding their club needs T-shirts, Jimmy and Timmy visit T-shirt maker Mr. McGillicuddy, who is shocked when they reveal that their club name is "The Crips", as there's already a gang with that name. Assuming that the gang in question is for people like them rather than a dangerous criminal gang, Jimmy asks about joining them, prompting Mr. McGillicuddy to announce he's staying out of this one. Once in Denver, Jimmy and Timmy introduce themselves to the local Crips (though Jimmy is surprised that they're all African-American), and to prove themselves, they are told to "pop some punk ass Bloods". Neither Jimmy nor Timmy understand their instructions, and interpret them instead to mean that they are to buy food and drink from a convenience store in front of which a group of Bloods are loitering. As they approach, an out-of-control truck driver crashes into the store, killing the Bloods en masse, and Jimmy and Timmy are promptly accepted into the Crips and given the gang's signature blue clothing, but when the Bloods carry out drive-by shootings at both Jimmy and Timmy's houses in retaliation for killing thirteen of their members, Jimmy and Timmy - who believe the Bloods are a gang for people crippled in accidents rather than at birth - decide they have to bring the two gangs together, and they disguise themselves to invite the Crips and the Bloods to the South Park rec centre for an overnight lock-in until they make peace. Unsurprisingly, the gangs' first instinct is to draw their guns on each other, but Jimmy eventually prevails on them to spend the evening playing sports and games with each other, and it seems their bitter war is finally over.
Meanwhile, Christopher Reeve appears on Larry King Live to reveal the real method whereby stem cells have been helping him regain motor control: he drinks them directly from aborted foetuses. Over his next several appearances, he even stands up and walks again. However, he has effectively become addicted to stem cells, and he is confronted by his nemesis from the Superman films, Gene Hackman, over "playing God". Before long, Reeve develops Super Strength and organises a league of supervillains, including Professor Chaos (Butters) and General Disarray (Dougie), to wage war against "Hack Man". (Butters tells Dougie they should probably stay out of this one.) Hackman interrupts the league's meeting by brandishing a bill banning stem cell research that has just been signed into law, and he banishes Reeve to the Phantom Zone.
Cut to Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny looking up at the sky, musing that they're glad they stayed out of this one.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Jimmy and Timmy were just crossing the street when a truck swerved to miss them and hit the gas station where 13 Bloods were hanging out.
- Big Bad: Christopher Reeve.
- Big Good: Gene Hackman.
- Bullying the Disabled: Jimmy's parents reveal that when they were teenagers they made fun of other kids that were handicapped and believe that, as a form of divine retribution, Jimmy ended up with disabilities.
- The Bus Came Back: Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and David Blaine all return for Christopher Reeve's coalition.
- Gangbangers: The Crips and the Bloods.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Jimmy and Timmy manage to get the Crips and the Bloods to get along at the end.
- Insistent Terminology: Reeve wants to be referred to as Chris instead of Christopher.
- Irony: A whole scene is devoted to this. Christopher Reeve gains the strength of Superman with Gene Hackman trying to stop him, only this time, Gene Hackman is the hero and Christoper Reeve is the villain
- Medium Awareness: The News Reporter can clearly see the irony with Christopher Reeve acting villainous and Gene Hackman acting heroic. It gets even more ironic for those of you who know about Hackman's behavior on the set
of The Royal Tenenbaums. - Mundane Made Awesome: Reeve's That Man Is Dead speech.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jimmy has this moment when he believes that he was the one that caused the Crips and the Bloods to fight.
- Never My Fault: Mr. Kim called the police on Jimmy and Timmy for robbing him… despite the fact that they didn't (and weren't going to) do that and he gave them the things for free.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Jimmy and Timmy believe that the Crips are people who were born crippled while the Bloods were people who became crippled.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Jimmy after joining the Crips.
- Running Gag: Characters - usually Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny, but also Mr. McGillicuddy and, late in the episode, Butters - deciding they don't like where the plot is going and that they should "stay out of this one".
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!:
- The boys decide to not get involved in the plot. And after they've seen the aftermath.Stan: Dude, I am SO glad we stayed out of that one!Kyle: Me too!
- Mr. McGillicuddy (the T-shirt store owner) after Jimmy and Timmy express interest in joining the Crips.
- Professor Chaos tells General Disarray that they should've done this after they found out Reeve's real plan.
- The boys decide to not get involved in the plot. And after they've seen the aftermath.
- Selective Obliviousness: For a change, this applies to a couple of the kids, even if they're not among the main cast. Jimmy and Timmy are unaware they're NOT joining a group of cripples, but rather a gang.
- That Man Is Dead: "Stop calling me Christopher! That name no longer has meaning to me! Christopher was someone who lived in a wheelchair! Always being pushed around by others! The old Christopher Reeve is dead! From now on, I am... (looks back menacingly) Chris!"
- Unintentional Period Piece: Five Points in Denver has significantly gentrified.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Mr. McGillicuddy kept his mouth shut, none of this would've happened.
