The Secrets of
"Butt Out"

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


Anti-smoking and anti-drug troupes like Butt-Out! have the unintended effect of making kids curious about doing stuff they haven't tried before and are told never to do, or know better not to do. When Cartman was in juvenile prison, Stan and Kyle told him smoking cigarettes was bad, and at the school gym they were all bored batty by the troupe. What made them try smoking? The chance NOT to be like that troupe. :D

Who'd a thought there would be a real "Butt Out"? It's not quite the thing Butt Out! is, though.

Shadows are shown where the boys are smoking. They are on the south side of the school, judging by the shadows.

"Smokin's bad, m'kay?" - When the boys were in third grade, Mr. Mackey gave them similar lectures on marijuana, and drugs in general.

Those flames sure look realistic, aren't they? They crackle too slowly to be real, though.

In this episode, "Ih, it's like the tobacco companies have control of my mind" foretells the adults going after Big Tobacco. In SP:BLU, "That movie has warped my fragile little mind" foretells the parents going after Terrance and Phillip

Three weeks seems to have become the standard grounding period.

Why are the firefighters the size of gnomes? The perspective doesn't change any, but the firefighters look smaller than the students.

Amazing how a tent interior and the Tynacorp interior match perfectly.

It's been a while since anyone has speculated as to what kind of Jew Kyle is. I've said he was a Russian Jew, based on the appearance of his last name. The answer comes tonight: Serbian Jew. Or maybe the Serbian Jew double bluff is something Cartman made up. :)

Cartman's commercial was a spoof of one starring Yul Brynner, who died from lung cancer. The commercial aired after his death and had this line: "I'm Yul Brynner, and I'm dead now ... 'cause I smoked cigarettes."

Back in "Gnomes" in the second season, Mrs. Tweek said the following about swaying public opinion: "We've been using these poor kids to pull at your heartstrings for our cause, and it's wrong. We're as low and despicable as Rob Reiner." So Matt and Trey registered their opinion of Reiner long before this episode, demonstrating now what they said back then: "We're gonna use these children to bring the tobacco companies down!"

The Cut-Out Scene

There was much discussion about the commercial that showed Butters being subjected to heavy peer presssure by Butt Out! and pissing his pants. That was missing from the episode.

The History of Tobacco

Kevin Harris took his speech directly from CNN, but substitured "country" for "colony" even though there was no United States at the time.