South Park Season 14

How do Matt Parker and Trey Stone keep the romance alive after 14 seasons of filth and wisdom? Comedy Central's royal duo of irreverent social commentary continue to hone their pop culture lampooning instincts while furthering their incidental assault upon the boundaries of free speech and tolerance in the media. The perpetual fourth graders of South Park and the colourful array of idiots and maniacs populating the town take on taboo perspectives of hot topics ― the argument of human nature vs. sex addiction in season premiere "Sexual Healing" ― with as much confessional honesty and balanced insight as they put into running social networking and Tron through a satirical blender for "You Have 0 Friends." Even for what has been arguably television's most consistently hilarious and surprising show since its fifth year, this is a killer season. Absurdities like Randy Marsh microwaving his junk until he has cancerous testicles big enough to bounce around town on, just so he can get a prescription for medical marijuana, in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" and the gross-out literary bullshitting of "The Tale of Scrotie McBogerballs" keep the momentum building towards the monumental 200th episode early in the season. This infamous two-parter encapsulates the major controversies and scandals of seasons past with 200 celebrities launching a defamation of character lawsuit against the town of South Park at the behest of Tom Cruise after the kids spot him working as a packer of fudge in a fudge factory and call him on it. Cruise's coalition of the insulted elite is actually trying to steal the prophet Muhammad's ability to not be ridiculed and that's where things get sticky. It's a little surprising it took until the show's 201st episode for Parker and Stone to have their truth-hunting morality plays disguised in adolescent smut censored so harshly they felt it necessary to include a disclaimer preceding the episode stating their discontent with Comedy Central's edit of the program. The fearful hatchet job is frustrating, with Muhammad's name and the entire closing monologue bleeped out. Even Parker and Stone's commentary is censored when they try to find a way to discuss the issue. Their mini-commentaries, while on the brief side, provide a lot of info on process, inspiration and responses to some of their more controversial ideas, and instead of degenerating into hums and haws, they move on to the next episode. The season takes a minor breather after all the religious hoopla to rip on Jersey Shore, Inception and Cartman's perception of NASCAR drivers before diving into the superhero riffing masterpiece trilogy of the return of the Coon and Mysterion. It's some of the series' most inspired work, using the enhanced graphic capabilities of their budget and experience to tell a larger cinematic tale that unites Cartman with the most nefarious entity he hasn't already buddied up with, H.P. Lovecraft's inter-dimension god of evil, Cthulhu, unleashed from his watery tomb by BP's oil drilling, while also addressing the deepest mystery of South Park's mythos: Kenny's inability to die. For background, "The Coon," from season 13, is included as a special feature, along with the aforementioned mini-commentaries, and a small selection of deleted scenes, some finished, some left at the storyboard phase. It's not packed with features, but with its delirious heights and Parker and Stone's humble criticisms of their oversights, season 14 is another wild success by comedy television's imminent elder gods.