Something You Can Do With Your Finger

Something You Can Do With Your Finger

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Season	s04
Episode	e09
Written By	Trey Parker
Production Code	0409
Original Air Date	2000-07-12

Episode Chronology

• Previous
  Chef Goes Nanners
• Next
  Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?

Story

Description

Cartman, inspired by a dream, believes God wants him to form a boy band and earn $10 million. He quickly puts together a group called Fingerbang, composed of himself, Kyle, Stan, Kenny and Wendy (who gets in because she can actuallysing). Stan's dad becomes furious when he learns of the scheme.

The group puts together their own music video, and uses it to land a gig at the South Park Mall (even though Timmy, the cameraman, captured almost none of their performance). Stan's dad refuses to let his son go, finally revealing that as a kid he was in a world-famous boy band called the Ghetto Avenue Boys. He enjoyed fame and fortune, only to be abandoned at age 19 when he became "too old." Penniless, he slinked back to South Park and started his life over.

In spite of this, he relents at the last moment and drives Stan to the mall for the Fingerbang show. When Kenny is crushed by an escalator, Stan's dad even steps in as the group's fifth member. Their performance draws tepid applause and earns them $2 -- after which the boys decide they can't handle celebrity life and elect to sink back into happy obscurity.

What I Learned Today

"I don't know if I can handle all this fame. I mean, I always thought I'd wanna become famous, but now that I am, I don't know if I like it. I mean, I probably can't even walk through this mall right now without people goin', 'Oh my God, it's the Fingerbang guy! Oh my God!'"

Memorable Quotes

• "God has finally spoken to me, you guys. And he has told me how I can make $10 million." (Cartman)
• "I'm gonna fingerbang-bang you into my life." (Fingerbang)
• "I swear to God, if he ruins this dream of mine I will have his nuts!" (Cartman)
• "Geez What's up dad's ass?" (Shelly)
• "What about her huge friggin' hooters, huh?!" (Cartman)
• "Move along, sir." (Mall Cop)
• "Once you get girls screaming, you can't sop 'em. They're crazy!" (chef)
• "Well there's plenty of other interesting things you can do. Have you ever tried marijuana?" (Randy)
• "Hell no! I'm not being part of a FOUR member boy band! We'll look stupid!" (Kyle)

Characters

Body Count

Just Kenny

Original Songs

Wendy wins her audition with her rhyming, upbeat "Mrs. Landers". There's also the amazing self-titled pop tune, "Fingerbang", performed by the boys. And Randy's pop sensation "You've Got IT", which he recorded as a teen with the Ghetto Avenue Boys.

Behind The Scenes

This was the first episode in which Matt and Trey decided they could just tell one story per episode, instead of weaving in multiple sub-plots.

Where Did The Idea Come From

In college Matt and Trey briefly (very briefly) considered forming a band called Fingerbang.

Pop Culture References

Shout Outs

The scene in which Stan's dad smashes the china cabinet is an homage to a similar scene in Star Trek: First Contact, in which Jean Luc Piccard smashes a display case with a phaser rifle. Also, the piano player used for the auditions for the fifth member of Fingerbang looks a lot like Schroeder from Peanuts. He'll reappear briefly (playing piano) in several future episodes.

Fingerbang is a parody of the boy band craze that swept the nation in the late 90s - 'N Sync, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees - all had chart-topping success when this aired. Stan's Dad also speaks about the dark side of boy bands, saying that after their popularity fades, bands like New Kids on the Block and The Osmonds "wander the Earth in disarray".

To create a distraction, Cartman says the mall will be giving away a "free Nissan Sentra" to the first 20 people to buy an orange smoothie. This titillating offer creates a riot.

Pwn'd

When Fingerbang approaches the manager of the South Park Mall about performing there, he responds by saying, "Like Tiffany?" Also, during the filming of Fingerbang's video, when Cartman tells a group of girls to scream as if they're seeing Leonardo Di Caprio, they say they don't give a "rat's ass" about him. Instead they pretend they're cheering for Matt Lauer.

Bonus Factoids

Pointless Observations

Chef attributes the success of boy bands to canny exploitation of the "Garmlich Effect", a law of physics stating that, "If one girl screams for something, it will make other girls scream. And then, it grows exponentially until all girls within a five-mile radius are screaming." Also, this is the first of a long series of episodes in which Cartman develops various crazy schemes for getting $10 million.

Butters auditions with "Little Bunny Foo Foo", a classic children's rhyme, and Ike follows suit with "It's Bitsy Spider", then the alphabet. Last, Ike sings "Oh Danny Boy", a somber Irish ballad.

Cartman records his "music video" over an old VHS of Mr. Mackey and Cartman's mom in some seriously compromising dominatrix positions. Mackey moans, "Oh, Mrs. Cartman, I've been very bad. Mkay", and then things just get dirty.

Randy's teenage boy band, The Ghetto Avenue Boys, was featured on the cover of Teen Heat, a teeny-bopper magazine.

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