South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season

South Park satirically soldiers on in its twelfth season, the first to be formatted in widescreen (at least on home video). This batch of fourteen episodes doesn't mess with a proven, winning formula: a balance of parody, satire, and Peanuts-esque observation about being a kid (let's not forget: Peanuts was pretty surreal in its own right). Though both adults and youngsters love South Park, its hardly a family show, and plenty of parents live in fear of its cartoon ultra-violence and dirty jokes.

In the category of parodies, the standout is "Major Boobage," in which hallucinogenic cat pee sends Kenny (and Randy) into paroxysms of delight that look suspiciously (or exactly) like the 1981 movie Heavy Metal. The new classic "Over-Logging" functions as a parody of The Grapes of Wrath as the Marsh family heads west to "Californee" in search of an internet "signal" (Close Encounters of the Third Kind is another touchstone). And High School Musical gets its due in the episode "Elementary School Musical," which has the funny idea that all the cool kid at South Park Elementary are breaking out in song; unfortunately, despite spot-on song parodies, the episode doesn't deliver many laughs. Like Saturday Night Live, South Park also gets cachet by turning around quick reflections of current events, though it's obviously more impressive to do so in animated style. This season's "About Last Night..." broke out President Obama a day after the 2008 election.

Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone haven't started scrimping on the outrageous humor for which the show is infamous. The Twelfth Season's most envelope-pushing scenes arguably come in "The China Probrem," when the kids go to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and find themselves witnessing George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raping their hero, a metaphor for the movie's suckiness relative to the original Indy trilogy. Then there's the season opener "Tonsil Trouble," in which Cartman gets AIDS and then turns around and purposely gives it to an enemy. Parker and Stone still aren't making any friends at GLAAD, with their casual use of gay slurs for laughs and characters like Mr. Gueermo, a prancing, lisping slap-fighter in a pink shirt. (Regular character Ms. Garrison, a transsexual, wants his manhood back in "Eek, a Penis!").

The show is at its best when it integrates its comedy genres by, say, marrying a jaw-dropping premise to satire. That's the case in "Britney's New Look," which outdoes Chuck Palahniuk by having Britney Spears blow off her face with a shotgun. While the episode is in extremely bad taste, it also has a point to make about our absurdly celebrity-obsessed cult-ure. For some, "Over-Logging"'s porn jokes will also be repulsive, but it's a part of a satire of our dependence on the internet. It's outage leaves the entire town bereft and useless. The show also successfully goes after little social annoyances, like the proliferation of Peruvian flute bands and the staunchly in-character tour guides of "Pioneer Village 1864" in "Super Fun Time." So far, so good: the fans are still on board as Parker and Stone have yet to hit a major dip in quality.