Story

Description

A handicapped child named Timmy joins Mr. Garrison's class, where he's quickly diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), given Ritalin and excused from all homework. The other kids promptly complain that they have ADD, and get exactly the same deal.

Meanwhile, a local garage band called Lords of the Underworld (first seen in "Cat Orgy") struggles to prepare for a battle of the bands contest. The winner will open for Phil Collins at a music festival called Lalapalozoda . Timmy joins the group as the front man. They win the contest and become an overnight sensation -- to the horror of Collins, who is soon replaced by Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld as the headliner at Lalapazoola Collins manages to break up the band by telling its former leader, Skyler, that the others are holding him back. The South Park kids are on so much Ritalin that they actually think Phil Collins is cool and attend his show.

However Chef convinces the town's pharmacists to provide a Ritalin antidote, which he distributes at Lapislazuli. The boys wake up from their drug-induced stupor and boo Collins off the stage. Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld reunite and perform, to the joy of the drug-free (or, at least, Ritalin-free) crowd.

What I Learned Today

"Yeah sure we laugh at Timmy, but what's wrong with laughter? Just because we laugh at something doesn't mean we don't care about it. Timmy made us smile. And playing made Timmy smile. So where was the harm in that? The people that are wrong are the ones who think that people like Timmy should be protected and kept out of the public's eye. The cool thing about Timmy being in a band was that he was in your face and you had to deal with him, whether you laughed or cried or felt nothing. That's why Timmy rules!"

Memorable Quotes

• "Timmy!" Timmy Burch
• "Timmy! Livin' a lie!" Timmy Burch
• "I can't handle you little bastards being so mellow!" Herbert Garrison
• "Timmy gets all the applause! Timmy gets all the chicks!" Skyler Morse
• "Thanks to you, we have children in our town that like Phil Collins!" Chef
• "Get off me, Christina Aguilera!" Cartman
• "Wait a minute! Phil Collins sucks ass!" Stan
• "Hey wait I think maybe I have Attention Defunction Disorder!" Kyle
• "Kyle gets so hyper sometimes he runs around and screams like a little eight year old." Sheila Broflovski
• "No dude, you gotta try it. It makes you feel goooood." Cartman
• "That does it!! The Ritalin has affected your little cracker brains too deeply!!" Chef

Characters

Stan Marsh

Kyle Broflovski

Eric Cartman

Wendy Testaburger

Principal Victoria

Mr. Mackey

Jerome "Chef" McElroy

Timmy Burch

Jonesey (Lords of the Underworld)

Mark (Lords of the Underworld)

Mrs. McCormick

Randy Marsh

Sharon Marsh

Gerald Broflovski

Sheila Broflovski

Liane Cartman

Charlie Rose

Phil Collins

Kurt Loder

Terrance

Phillip

Mark the Pharmacist

Dr. Richard Shay

ADD Clinic Doctor

Character Debuts

Timmy's parents, Richard and Helen. They're also confined to wheelchairs and can only say, respectively, "Richard!" and "Helen!"

Richard and Helen Burch

Body Count

Kenny. Cartman spots a "pink Christina Aguilera monster" (an hallucinatory side effect of the Ritalin he's taking) on Kenny's face and hits him with a frying pan.

Kenny McCormick

Locations

Burch Residence

Original Songs

Timmy screams his heart out on the rockin' self-titled hit from his band "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld".

Behind The Scenes

Timmy was an instant hit -- and an instant problem. How, exactly, does one write shows about a character who can't speak? Especially when you already have a character (Kenny) with pretty much the same limitation?

Where Did The Idea Come From

The show is a blast against the overmedication of kids. Isaac Hayes was waaay into this episode because he was a Scientologist, and Scientologists have a big problem with the psychiatric profession's use of mood-altering pharmaceuticals. It was also a chance to showcase Timmy, whom Matt and Trey became infatuated with after his debut in "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000". The network hated the idea of having a handicapped kid in the show -- until Timmy became one of the most popular characters ever.

Pop Culture References

Shout Outs

The boys are portrayed as so zonked out on Ritalin that they start watching VH1. The episode isn't much nicer to MTV News, called the "cool brainwashing twelve year old and younger station that hides behind a slick image". Host Kurt Loder is even caught saying, "Why am I still doing this? I've got to be the oldest person on this network by at least 40 years."

The Psychologist tests out children's attention spans by reading them passages from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway. Of course, none of the kids pay attention to it, and they all wind up being prescribed Ritalin.

The Charlie Rose Show (as it is shown here) is an actual show on PBS, where he interviews famous people like Phil Collins.

Pwn'd

Phil Collins, who is masterfully and comprehensively boned. He talks and sings as if he just sustained a massive stroke; bystanders laugh at him and hurl insults. He is portrayed as a ruthless glory hound, clutching tightly onto his Academy Award at all times (which eventually gets shoved up his ass). Collins also performs two crappy songs: "Boo-Boodio" and "You be in me", parodies of "Sussudio" and "You'll Be in My Heart". Christina Aguilera. A photo of her face is attached to the creepy, cockroach-like Christina Aguilera Monster, which haunts a drugged-up Cartman.

Bonus Factoids

Pointless Observations

The concert Timmy and Phil Collins are supposed to play at is a satire of the '90s phenom Lollapalooza. No one on the show pronounces the name the same way. A banner at the actual event "definitively" spells it as "Lalapalalapaza." Also, Mr. Derp, last seen in "The Succubus" serves drinks at a concession stand at the music festival.

During the MTV News segment with Kurt Loder, music acts from past South Park episodes play on the various TV screens - Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, and Rick James from "Chef Aid", Robert Smith from "Mecha-Streisand" and Korn from "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery". A poster of Rick James can also be seen as Timmy's band enters the concert hallway.

Chef tries to convince the parents to use a non-drug alternative to Ritalin, a program called "You Can Either Calm Down, Or I Can Pop You In the Mouth Again." Unfortunately, they don't go for it.

Season 4

e1 Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000

e2 The Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000

e3 Quintuplets 2000

e4 Timmy 2000

e5 Pip

e6 Cartman Joins NAMBLA

e7 Cherokee Hair Tampons

e8 Chef Goes Nanners

e9 Something You Can Do With Your Finger

e10 Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?

e11 Probably

e12 Fourth Grade

e13 Trapper Keeper

e14 Helen Keller! The Musical

e15 Fat Camp

e16 The Wacky Molestation Adventure

e17 A Very Crappy Christmas