Story

When the boys find out what it means to be circumcised, they try to save Ike from his Bris. The school counselor Mr. Mackey is fired and experiments with drugs.

Description

Mr. Mackey is fired when, during a lecture on the evils of drugs and alcohol, a marijuana sample that he passes around the class mysteriously vanishes (and secretly stolen by Mr. Garrison). Mr. Mackey is kicked out of his house and winds up on drugs, which turn out to be kind of enjoyable. He hooks up with a hippie chick and they decide to get married and honeymoon in India.

Meanwhile, Kyle is horrified to learn that his little brother Ike is about to have a bris -- something he misconstrues as a party at which Ike's penis will be cut off. He puts his brother on a train to Nebraska and replaces him with a life-sized doll. A dog runs off with it, then is struck by a truck, which explodes. At Ike's "funeral" it's revealed that he was adopted from Canada. Since Ike isn't his "real" brother, Kyle no longer cares about him and tells his parents where he can be found.

Mr. Mackey, while honeymooning in India, is captured by the A-Team and tossed into the Betty Ford Clinic where he's "cured" of his addiction. Kyle has second thoughts about his relationship to Ike on the day of the bris, when his little brother flees to his room in terror. Kyle defends him fiercely against the besieging adults, until they explain that they won't cut off his entire penis, just a little bit at the end "to make it look bigger." Stan and Cartman promptly demand to be circumcised too.

What I Learned Today

"Family isn't about whose blood you have, it's about who you care about. That's why I feel you guys are more than just my friends. You're my family. Except for Cartman."

Memorable Quotes

• "Drugs are bad, because if you do drugs you're a hippie, and hippies suck!" (Eric Cartman)
• "The fireman is very magical. Rub his helmet and he spits in your eyes." (Eric Cartman)
• "Oh, the penis!" (Kenny McCormick in response to Chef's question of what's the most important part of a man's body.)
• "I don't wanna be in your penis choppin' family anyway!" (Eric Cartman)
• "Drugs are bad, mkay." (Mr. Mackey)
• "Okay, kids, you shouldn't do drugs. Okay? Drugs are bad. You see, I was at the bottom of the barrel. I was a wreck." (Mr. Mackey)
• "This is all I'm going to say about drugs. Stay away from them. There's a time and a place for everything, and it's called college." (Chef)
• "Dude! That is not cool! Choppin' off wee-wees is not cool!!" (Eric Cartman)
• "I'm sorry, but we can't just throw Caucasian babies on an outgoing train” (Train Operator)
• "Don't you understand that us males are defined by our firemen?" (Kyle Broflovski)
• "Look, children, this is all I'm going to say about drugs... Stay AWAY from them. There's a time and a place for everything - and it's called college. Do you understand?" (Chef)

Characters

Stan Marsh

Kyle Broflovski

Eric Cartman

Kenny McCormick

Mr. Mackey

Gerald Broflovski

Sheila Broflovski

Jerome "Chef" McElroy

Herbert Garrison

Mr. Hat

Ike Broflovski

Jimbo Kern

Ned Gerblansky

Principal Victoria

The A-Team

Character Debuts

Mr. Mackey runs into two teenage hippies, who give him a dose of LSD and cause his head to float away. These two can also be seen jamming out to some Laser Loggins in "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods".

Body Count

The canine that steals the Ike doll and then gets run over is Sylvester the toughest dog in town, first seen in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride".

Kenny, who falls into an empty grave during Ike's "funeral" and gets brained by a headstone. Also the person driving the exploding truck that "kills" Ike.

Locations

South Park Elementary

South Park Train Station

Broflovski Residence

Betty Ford Clinic

Behind The Scenes

Where Did The Idea Come From

The episode introduces Ike's backstory as a Canadian infant adopted by the Broflovskis. Trey and Matt did not originally plan for Ike to be Canadian. Once the characters Terrance and Phillip were established to be Canadian, soon all Canadian characters on the show shared the same design of having beady eyes and a floppy head made up of two halves, as seen in "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus". Ike was retroactively made a Canadian based on his visual similarity.

The character Mr. Mackey is based on Trey's counselor in junior high school. The scene where Mr. Mackey comes to class to teach about drugs and subsequently loses a joint was inspired by a real life event that happened to Trey in his seventh grade class.

Pop Culture References

Shout Outs

While staggering home from a bar, Mr. Mackey sings Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield". Mr. Mackey also says that LSD is a drug made famous by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who experimented with their bandmates during their time in the Beatles.

Dr. Schwartz tries to explain the bris by telling Kyle that "a circumcision is a very common thing for Ike to have. His father had it, his grandfather had it, and his brother had it." The line echoes an encounter in Star Wars' Return of the Jedi between Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, when Luke breaks the news that they are brother and sister with the ability to use the force.

After Mr. Garrison smokes the stolen marijuana, he sits around watching Teletubbies.

Mr. T and the A-Team kidnap Mr. Mackey and take him to the Betty Ford Clinic, a well-known rehab clinic outside of Los Angeles famous for its celebrity patients. Mr. T can also be seen in "Cartoon Wars Part I".

Someone in a car harasses Mr. Mackey by shouting, "Now we see what you and Homer Simpson have in common -- dope!" The Simpsons' character's iconic catchphrase is "D'oh!"

When the two teenage hippies tell Mr. Mackey they were caught in school with drugs by him, he says "Oh. O fortune, how you mock me!", a line from Thomas Dekker's 1599 play The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus.

Bonus Factoids

Pointless Observations

• This is the second time Kyle uses "kick the baby" with Ike, the first being in "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe".
• The alphabet chart in Mr. Garrison's classroom reads, "Dios mio han matado ha Kenny, bastardos," which is (not entirely correct) Spanish for, "Oh my God they killed Kenny, you bastards." This easter egg also appears in "Chickenlover".
• This is the only episode where Mr. Mackey has a normal sized head. Apparently his necktie is responsible for making his head balloon up so large. Whether this is true or not is uncertain; in "Child Abduction is Not Funny" his parents have large heads as well.
• The riff played during Mr. Mackey's drugged trip through town is a parody of the theme of sitcom Seinfeld.
• A picture of Kyle and his elephant from "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" can be seen in his room.

Season 2

e1 Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus

e2 Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut

e3 Chickenlover

e4 Ike's Wee Wee

e5 Conjoined Fetus Lady

e6 The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka

e7 City on the Edge of Forever (Flashbacks)

e8 Summer Sucks

e9 Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls

e10 Chickenpox

e11 Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods

e12 Clubhouses

e13 Cow Days

e14 Chef Aid

e12 Spookyfish

e13 Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!

e14 Gnomes

e15 Prehistoric Ice Man