South Park fans anxiously awaited the first new episode of the autumn mid-season since the downer ending of the spring mid-season finale.
In "You're Getting Old" the creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, left viewers with an ambiguous episode which appeared to be symbolic of their feelings towards their own creation.
Stan Marsh goes through an existential crisis as he begins to realize repetitive nature of his life and his fleeting interest for things he once cared for. This struck a chord with many viewers who feared that the creators would pull the plug on South Park.
Unlike other animated shows which normally write, script, voice, and animate their shows in nine months, South Park Studios writes their first script less than a week before, and works sleeplessly till the very last minute of the air date. With the production of their new musical Book of Mormon adding even more stress to their busy schedule, Parker and Stone must have been exhausted by the time they wrapped up the first half of Season 15.
In the mid-season finale, the creators brilliantly deconstruct the formula structure of their own show, which appeared to be their way of telling the world that they have grown apathetic of their own magnum opus. Even more troubling, this Season 15 was to mark of the end of their contract with Comedy Central in 2011.
However, the fall mid-season premiere "Ass Burgers" aired last Wednesday picking up where "You're Getting Old" left off. A melancholic Stan makes his way day by day in a crappy world, trying to ignore the accepted the formulaic pattern of his life.
In familiar South Park style, numerous references to pop culture surface. Stan's warped vision of the world is vaguely similar to that of visual novel Saya no Uta's protagonist, a med student who sees the world as grotesque blobs of flesh and guts.
Parodies of characters from The Matrix try to force Stan to down Jameson Irish Whiskey in order to interact with the "illusionary world." Stan, seeing this as a familiar set up of previous South Park episodes, tries to fight getting sucked into any "nonsense" before ending up the unwilling pawn to a shadowy secret cabal of fast food restaurants, that plans to steal Cartman's secret method for cooking burgers.
Unlike Family Guy's "manatee gags", all the references used in South Park have a purpose in the episode and advance the story as opposed to being one off jokes.
Fans who have grown close with the characters will find it refreshing to see an arc that focuses on the relationship between the famous duo, Cartman and Kyle, both of whom are heartwarmingly friendly towards each other in this episode.
Kyle convinces Cartman to start his own fast food joint after tasting one of Cartman's ass burgers. Viewers' fears were allayed when Parker and Stone ended the episode by bringing everything back to the status quo.
This episode had something for everyone: for normal viewers the crude humor they come to love, for the average fans great scenes and character, and for the crazed yaoi fangirls a drunk Stan telling Kyle he loves him.
Not only is South Park a great show, but it is a rare gem of a series in relatively bland era. While most films, television, novels and comics appear to be regurgitating already used plots and tropes, each episode is like a mini film, clearly standing out in contrast to other works. But that has always been South Park style.
Parker has stated that they never wanted to do what someone else has already done; in episode commentaries, Parker has expressed his disappointment whenever he thinks up a good idea for a story only to find another work has already done it (South Park made fun of President Bush back before anyone else, and stopped once every other show started doing so).
South Park tackles issues that are considered taboo, such as Scientology, PETA, gay rights, and radical terrorism. South Park really is a dying breed in the modern fiction and media genres.
While Matt Groening and Seth MacFarlane have long stopped writing and directing their respective shows, Simpsons and Family Guy, leaving the job to countless rotations of fleeting staff writers, Parker still writes every episode of South Park since its inception, where it began as the animated short The Spirit of Christmas in 1992.
Modern shows have been reduced to nothing more than franchise products while South Park can still be regarded as an author's art. There are very few works that exist in today's world filled with censorship, red tape, production restrictions, and company interference, which is why even the thought of South Park ending makes fans a bit sentimental.
However, it may be best that Parker and Stone wrap up their show when they are ready and on their own terms. Until then Comedy Central has announced they renewed their contact with South Park ‘til 2013.
