biology

Krazy Kripples

Krazy Kripples is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Krazy Kripples rather than just read about it. In short: "Krazy Kripples" is the second episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 98th episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central on March 26, 2003.

Key takeaways

Krazy Kripples belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Krazy Kripples to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Krazy Kripples from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"Krazy Kripples" is the second episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 98th episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central on March 26, 2003. In the episode, Christopher Reeve comes to South Park to promote stem cell research. Jimmy becomes offended because everyone pays attention to him, so Jimmy and Timmy decide to start a club called "The Crips", later discovering that there is a real-life gang with the same name. The episode was written by series co-creator Trey Parker and is rated TV-MA in the United States.

Plot When Jimmy's comedy act is snubbed by the townspeople in favor of an inspirational talk by Christopher Reeve, Timmy and Jimmy form a club for those disabled at birth. Timmy and Jimmy start their own club, dubbed "the Crips" unaware of the notorious, real life street gang that shares the same name. Eventually Timmy and Jimmy find out about the Crips, and under the belief that it is a group of disabled people like themselves, the boys want to join the gang. When they tell the four main characters - Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny - of their intentions, Stan suggests that "maybe [they] should just stay out of this one". Kyle and Kenny agree and leave immediately, but Cartman is sore for being left out of Jimmy and Timmy's newly founded club. The Crips leader in Denver tells the boys they have to "pop some punk ass Bloods" if they want to join the gang. The boys do not know that the term actually means kill some Bloods, so they wander the town to find the Bloods while believing that they are supposed to buy soda pop for them. They find a group of Bloods at a gas station called "Ribs 'n' Gas". While walking across the street, they cause a trucker to swerve violently and smash into the gas station, killing all thirteen Bloods inside. The Crips leader then welcomes Jimmy ("Four Legs") and Timmy ("Roller") as the "baddest ass mo' fo' Crips in town" in their gang, because they killed thirteen Bloods in one night (a new Crips gang record) and brought back marshmallows and ginger ale for the gang members. Jimmy's parents ask Jimmy if he is in a gang, which he admits to. It is revealed at this point that the Valmers had made fun of disabled kids in High School and believed that God had made Jimmy disabled to punish them, so they naturally believe that this is part of a punishment. One night the Bloods gang members commit a drive-by shooting (which is based on a scene in the 1988 film Colors) on Jimmy's house as retaliation for the killing of the thirteen Bloods, which the Park County Police Department respond and investigate the drive-by shooting retaliation by the Bloods. In order to prevent further reprisals, Jimmy decides to call a meeting at the local recreation center between the two gangs, and lock themselves in for the evening until they can sort out their differences. Expectedly, both gangs initially act hostile to one another, but Jimmy manages to convince them to sort out their differences by saying "I mean, come on!" repeatedly and manages to bring the two gangs together, as they all then participate in various games and activities inside the recreation center as friends. Meanwhile, Christopher Reeve campaigns for stem cell research for disabled people. By cracking open fetuses and sucking out their juices, he soon regains mobility, and even superpowers like the character he portrayed, Superman. He eventually takes on the role of a supervillain, and is opposed by his nemesis, Gene Hackman. Because Hackman portrayed Lex Luthor, one reporter comments that "if irony were made of strawberries, we'd all be drinking a lot of smoothies right now." Reeve continues to use stem cells even after he is healed and becomes addicted to power, and eventually puts together a Legion of Doom made up of villains from the DC, Marvel and South Park universes (though Professor Chaos tells General Disarray that they should "stay out of this one", much like the boys and the T-shirt shopkeeper, Mr. McGillicuddy, did in the A-plot). At the end, Hackman manages to get a law passed to end Reeve's "fetus-sucking days," and traps Reeve in the Phantom Zone. The episode ends with the four boys — having watched all the events, remarking that they were "so glad [they] stayed out of that one."

Production On the creator's commentary, Trey Parker said that because only a few people on the South Park staff (Adrien Beard, Vernon Chatman, and Isaac Hayes who provide the voices of Tolkien Black, Towelie, and Chef respectively) are African American, he had to go out into the street and find three or four black men to record the voices of the Bloods and the Crips. According to Matt Stone and Trey Parker, they had the idea to do a Christopher Reeve parody since the previous season but held it off: "For a long time we're like, 'You know what? Maybe that's not cool.'" The two decided to do the parody because they were having trouble coming up with an idea for an episode and Reeve happened to be on Larry King Live that night. After seeing the interview, the two thought to themselves "You know what? Fuck him. He really is taking up this cause of 'Everyone needs to help me out.'"

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Krazy Kripples

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Krazy Kripples claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Krazy Kripples before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Krazy Kripples ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Krazy Kripples

In research: Krazy Kripples appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Krazy Kripples in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Krazy Kripples is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2003 American television episodes, Bloods, Crips, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Krazy Kripples outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Krazy Kripples in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Krazy Kripples means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Krazy Kripples out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Krazy Kripples in simple terms?

Why does Krazy Kripples matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Krazy Kripples?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Krazy Kripples.