The Secrets of
"Freak Strike"

by Wild Willie Westwood, with sources from all over the Web

The boys do miss Kenny. They had Butters dress as him until Butters had had enough. Now, Butters has made it pretty clear he's not Kenny, but the boys seem to want to mold him into Kenny. The fact that Butters was dressed as Kenny shows the orange suit wasn't unique to Kenny (Jimmy wore an orange parka before, and the druggie wore an orange suit), and wearing one won't kill you.

The second part of this is that Butters gets it from both sides: He gets in trouble with his parents for straying from proper behavior, then gets slammed by the boys for not being game enough to do as they ask. Butters has to figure his way out of this.

Slip of the tongue? Kyle pronounces Povich's last name correctly once, whereas the rest of the time they say "Pawvich."

When Cartman calls the Maury Povich show, Cartman pushes buttons (tone) to dial in, but the round shape indicates a rotary phone (pulse). There are phones out there that look like rotary phones, but you press buttons as on a regular push-button phone. Stan's living room phone is such a phone.

Slip of the tongue II? Butters gives out his name on the Maury Povich show even though he came on as Napoleon Bonaparte.

Slip of the tongue III? Butters sounds like Kyle a few times.

"queazies?" Maybe Cartman meant quaaludes!

Look in the freak crowd when the freaks first strike and you'll see the backs of the two Star Trek nerds. Looks like they were making sure Butters' prosthesis would stick firmly on his chin.

Terrible Skin Condition — In this case, vitiligo, a skin condition in which a person loses his pigment so he ends up looking something like a cow. Michael Jackson claims to have this condition, which explains why he's so much whiter now than he was 20 years ago.

The man with no limbs at first had a larger left shirt sleeve and a smaller right one. During the strike, the sleeves switch places

Craig used to flip the students off, and his middle finger was shown. Vanity flips the audience off with both middle fingers, and they're blurred. The reason here is that daytime talk shows don't normally allow such gestures to be shown. Trey and Matt were just observing convention here.

Freaks we've seen before, now on strike and in the The True Freak label commercial
  1. The Thompsons, from "How To Eat With Your Butt"
  2. Nurse Gollum, from "Conjoined Fetus Lady"
  3. Rocky Dennis, from "Mask." I knew him personally.
  4. Sloth, from The Goonies.
  5. Kevin, Mephesto's helper and Gopher Boy
Others include a hammer headed man, a cyclops, an albino, a dog-faced man, a woman with upside-down face, a half-muscled/half-scrawny man, an alien-headed freak (green head), and Ory (a Maury Povich guest, here as Girl with Rapid Aging Disease)

Mau-ry! Mau-ry! = Jer-ry! Jer-ry!

Maury Povish has indeed done "out of control children" and freak shows.

Grady "Lobster Boy" Stiles' story here and here. Buy the book

The man with the misshapen head is wearing a Jenny Jones shirt.

How did Butters get younger? In "Proper Condom Use" he said he was turning nine the following week, but in this epiosde, Maury Povich introduced him as eight and a half. If he were to age normally, he'd be nine and two thirds now.

One change from preview to episode: In the previews for this episode the one out of control girl that argued with Cartman was voiced by Trey. In the actual episode she was voiced by a woman.

The whole Freaks thing is an expansion of the Freak reference in "Butters' Very Own Episode." And Cartman impersonates Gary Condit, who was referenced in "Butters' Very Own Episode." as well.

The Freak Strike chants echos the 'Gays in Scouts' chants in "Cripple Fight." This is a common form of protest.

That guy with no face is real. CNN did a news story about him. They had to surgically remove most of his face because he had a fungal infection that would've otherwise been fatal.

Matt and Trey no longer have to use Jesus' talk show "Jesus & Pals" to make fun of other talk shows.