Lil' Crime Stoppers

Template:Infobox South Park episode "Lil' Crime Stoppers" is episode 706 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired on April 23, 2003.

Plot

The boys decide to play detective, and go around the town, solving minor "crimes." One involves recovery of a little girl's stolen doll. They first suspect Butters (for no particular reason) and demand that he remain in Cartman's bathroom to produce a semen sample. They then get a tip, which they follow, and manage to recover the doll, though they had to wrestle the case away from Bill and Fosse playing FBI. The recovery gets them recognized by the South Park PD, and they are made Junior Detectives. However, the police lieutenant then begins to assign them cases that should be reserved for full detectives, including busting a meth lab, which, because of the actions of the drug dealers themselves, leads to the deaths of every suspect inside.

Other detectives mock the boys, and it is revealed to them that many of the cops on the force are corrupt and that they can do nothing to stop it (though they don't really plan to, or even care for that matter). The boys are then sent to a strip club owned by the leader of Colorado's greatest cartel, who was behind the original meth lab. When they arrive a shoot-out ensues, though the boys have nothing more than hands which they pretend are guns (while yelling "bang bang").

Cops show up to give the boys backup, but it turns out that two of them are working with the cartel leader, and they shoot the one good cop. They then kill the cartel owner, so that together they get all the money; one of those cops then kills the other, and then the last person he can't trust, himself. The boys are credited with cleaning up the police force, and are offered positions as full detectives. The boys, however, find reality more intense than their game, and decide to play laundromat instead, returning to Cartman's basement. Butters then arrives, declaring that, having tried for the entire episode, he has managed to produce a semen sample (he credits thinking about Stan's mom's boobs). However, they aren't playing detective anymore, so nobody cares.

Trivia

• When the boys are in the police station for the first time, you see a man who looks like O.J. Simpson (could be intentional) walk past. He was in the Naked Gun movies.
• The two boys (Bill and Fosse) who stole the doll are obvious parodies of "Beavis and Butthead"
• This episode is meant to be a parody of various police movies and TV shows, most particularly FX's The Shield.
• The dollar that the children receive from the old couple is different from the one framed in their office.
• When one looks somewhat closely, one may notice that Kenny is holding a real gun in a scene, but does not shoot it at all.
• This episode is the first episode where all four boys are naked. When they are in the shower you see everything (though their genitalia are not visible) and you can see them all (except Kenny, who is only seen from the back) without hats.
• Matt Stone remarked that he was surprised Comedy Central allowed the shot of the old man throwing the mutilated torso down the lake.
• When the boys are summarizing the whole murder plot, it parodies the crime scene flashbacks of CSI.
• The strip club (The Peppermint Hippo) the boys went to for the bust, was also in "The Return of Chef." Some of the dancers, the DJ and the music were also the same. It is also a reference to the famous international strip club chain, the Spearmint Rhino.
• During the strip club scene, the club's DJ introduces a dancer named Rebecca. It is possible that this is the home-schooled girl from Hooked on Monkey Phonics that Kyle turned into a slut.
• Before the boys are allowed into the cartel leader's office, he discusses that with his primary meth lab out of commission, he would have to go back to relying on the McCormicks for production, Kenny's parents.
• There is a Billy Bass on the wall where in the police office directly behind the boys, a Billy Bass is featured on CSI.
• During the shooting scene in the Peppermint Hippo, a generic version of Kid Rock's Bawitdaba plays.
• Butters says that he was in the bathroom two days straight to get the semen sample but he can be seen in the background of the classroom.
• This episode motifs the episode Chickenlover where the boys are deputized in order to solve a crime.
• Towards the middle of the episode, Stan says, "I want to get home in time to watch 'Crime Drama'." This quote takes us back to the episode It Hits the Fan where the story was centered around a television show named "Cop Drama."
• This episode is one of the few times Cartman defends Kyle.

Kenny's Death

Once again, this is one of the few episodes in which Kenny does not die.