South Park: The Complete Thirteenth Season

I've watched this show since it began when I was a fourth grader and it's weird to watch the boys have only grown one grade while I'm now four years out of high school. Season 13 of the show manages to continue the series longer than most animated shows still without killing what the show itself is meant to be, for the most part. This season if not all out great like I feel seasons 6,8 or 11 were is at least another solid season with stand out episodes. While the show did take a few more unscheduled trips to the silly end of things they still manage to be enjoyable for true fans and it hardly feels the show is selling out or risking becoming a satire of itself. Episodes this season are:

The Ring - When the Jonas brothers make Kenny's new girlfriend hot he starts wearing a promise ring like them only to become boring and a shell of his former self. [I'm in favor of anything that mocks the Jonas Brothers. I hate them so much]

The Coon - During times of great Woe and Despair, "The Coon" rises up from the gutter to defend the city. Cartmen is the city's sole savior until Mysterion arrives on the scene and he must team with Professor Chaos to unmask the new hero. [This was an entertaining stab at more recent super hero movies Dark Knight and Watchmen. If nothing else we get to see Professor Chaos again and the scenes with the stupid cops are great. I'm also surprised how few people were upset by the subtle allusion to Obama in this episode and it's controversial title]

Margaritaville - While the town fights over who to blame for the poor economy, Randy steps forward with a plan to live without an economy at all. Soon the town returns to biblical times and only a Jew willing to pay for our sins can save us. Meanwhile in trying to return his father's unneeded margarita maker, Stan symbolically explores the actual problem with the economy. [A great episode with a classic South Park premise, Emmy Winner]

Eat, Pray, Queef - An April Fool's Day joke gone wrong finds America's women and two Canadian women much like Terrence and Phillip standing up for their right to 'fart' like men do, despite how truly disgusting the men find it. [Definitely not one of the best episodes but definitely a fun joke at the root of it and it perfectly reflects part of the male mind. Would have been better with less Terrence and Phillip, though it was nice to see them again and the recurring references to Matt & Trey's April Fool's Day joke gone wrong in '98 are always ammusing self relevance]

Fishsticks - When Jimmy comes up with a great new joke about fishsticks Cartmen tries to take credit and then so does comedian Carlos Mencia. Meanwhile Kanye West doesn't get the joke and winds up becoming the joke himself. [A great episode considering it's centered on such a simple joke and manages to attack so many people so well. Do you like fishsticks? Then you must be a gay fish.]

Pinewood Derby - When Randy lies to help Stan win the Pinewood Derby it results in him teaching his son how to cover up a lie only for things to obviously escalate to ridiculous levels. [A fun episode that takes a good shot at recent politics and the absurd lengths people will go to try and cover up something that's already obvious to the rest of us.]

Fatbeard - Cartmen decides to become a pirate and drags Butters and a rag tag crew along only to wind up being unknowingly kidnapped by real Somalian Pirates. While Cartmen lives the life of a fairy tale pirate, the US tries to get them out of the hostage situation.[Finally another episode hitting directly on what was happening in the news that week. Very funny visuals and it wonderfully comments on the events. If not a truly great episode, it's good.]

Dead Celebrities - When Ike is being haunted by the presence of dead celebrities the boys call in the ghost hunters only to realize they only scare themselves by bumping into things in the dark. Soon the boys learn the numerous recent dead celebrities wont't move on because one refuses to accept his death and possesses Ike, leading to a hilarious scene that mocks the perversion of toddler beauty pagents. [This episode made me think there could be a new era of South Park episodes. Amazing in it's execution, mocking several things well and again based right on the headlines with deeper meanings to be found in the humor. Genius.]

Butter's Bottom Bitch - Butters first kiss from a girl finds him realizing why boys would pay for kisses. When he tries to start a kissing ring it escalates, unbeknownst to him, to a prostitution ring. Soon a dedicated cop is trying to take down Butters who has transformed into a P.I.M.P. [A funny topic I'm surprised they haven't commented on more before. Player's Ball scenes were great and an enjoyable episode with lots of laughs]

W.T.F. - After going to a wrestling event the boys all want to become wrestlers. When they learn what real wrestling is on the school team they opt out to form their own wrestling arena where their over the top acting is so good Vince MCMahon stops by to possibly recruit them. [Amazing in how it completely properly comments on what Wrestling has become and ties in the "Took our job" guys taking there bit to a new extreme and gives us the new hilarious character of the school wrestling teacher who everyone thinks is gay. A personal favorite.]

Whale Whores - When Stan's birthday trip to the Aquarium is ruined by Japanese Dolphin killer's he sets out to stop them and make a difference in the world. He crosses paths with several Discovery Channel reality shows before realizing they don't actually do anything. In the end we see why the Japanese hate Dolphins and Whales so much. [Excellent beginning in how it mocks several things. It looses some steam but the final joke is amusing and the episode as a whole is fun. Especially the turnaround on the Japanese being thought cruel for slaughtering dolphins and whales but America will accept them slaughtering cows because that's normal]

The F Word - When the boys use the f word (ends in an ag) to describe some attention seeking Harley rider's everyone gets upset. The Harley rider's explore the origin of the word while the boys fight to explain their meaning of the word versus the meaning the adults have. [Some didn't like this episode. I have argued the point it makes for years. The definition of words is always changing and I agree that the F word now means the definition given at the end of this episode, or at least loud annoying people who crave attention]

Dances With Smurfs - When Cartmen takes over the announcements at school he becomes like many recent supposed journalists who just use free speech as an excuse to package their opinion as fact. Soon he is targeting class president Wendy and accusing her of elaborately made up lies.[A fun episode that takes good shots at Avatar, the recent so called journalists and the very recent headlines of a politician who actually claimed to have run off to the mountains]

Pee - When the boys go to a water park Kyle is bothered by the discovery that everyone, including Stan, pees in the pools. Cartmen is disillusioned by the abundance of minorities. Then when the pool PH levels are nearly all P and no H disaster strikes leaving Kyle to face his fear of urine and Cartmen believing he is the last white man alive. [If not a great season finale it does mock the stupidity of 2012, has a good running bit for Kyle and has the hilarious story of Cartmen believing he has become the world's last majority surrounded by minorities and singing an awesome song about it while making a true statement about America]

This season set (Available in 3 disc DVD or 2 disc Blu-Ray) contains the same mini commentaries included on each season set since the third season. Nowadays Matt and Trey have caught up with themselves and are commenting on episodes right after (and in some cases before) they've finished making them. I personally found this set's mini-com's to be very entertaining and funny. This is also the first season to contain deleted scenes, which unlike most shows, are actually entertaining stuff that just had to be cut for time. Another interesting special feaure for true South Park fans is an XBOX Live segment giving fans a look inside South Park studios.

Also included is some sort of X-Box cross promotion for a game called, South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! XLBA, that will give purchasers of this DVD or Blu-Ray a free character and two unlockable levels, whatever that means.

All in all I continue to commend South Park for avoiding satirizing itself like other favorites the Simpsons, or even Family Guy. This show is always just about pointing out how stupid things are and as long as they never take that too serial then they will always have good episodes if not great ones. It's hard to expect them to come up with constant simplistically genius episode concepts like Guitar Queer-o, Make Love Not Warcraft, Good Times With Weapons or Imaginationland on a nonstop basis. So a mere good season is forgiven as long as it contains great episodes which this one does. Five Stars for being as Funny and certainly as Entertaining as Ever.

*After having now rewatched the episodes, this season stands up much better in second viewing. I would now say it's much better than just good, though still not truly great.

I have seen a few reviews about some of the seasons of South Park that just sort of irk me to no end. I have been watching this silly little cartoon since it's first show and STILL absolutely love it. I am always telling people that I think this is the best animated cartoon ever to air.

Season 13 just came out and it will soon join the other twelve in my collection. And yes, I have already seen the episodes and I enjoyed them.

Has it ever occurred to some of you naysayers that maybe it is just you, and not the show itself, that has changed?

I am 54 years old and I am still laughing my ass off at these little dudes.

I'm giving this negative review based on the deception of the product description. The product states that this is a box set. However, when my order arrived I received a single plastic DVD jewel case that consisted of three DVDs. I called Amazon and explained that I did not receive the standard DVD box set as advertised. I sent it back and they indicated they'll send the box set. Once again, they sent the same single plastic DVD jewel case. After contacting Amazon a second time they stated that they do not have the standard box set.

If you are an avid South Park fan as I am and looking to enhance your South Park collection, DO NOT BUY THIS SET. If you're not looking for the traditional box set and don't mind the plastic single jewel case then this DVD may be for you.

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