South Park: Season 16

It's nice going home again.

I started watching "South Park" when I was 10 years old. Didn't even understand “Chocolate Salty Balls” or the euphemism that was “Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.” But I did understand the basic humor of Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo or the verbal raunchiness of “Cartman's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch.”

I learned about Styx courtesy of "South Park."

Like most things you love at that age, my fandom kind of fell by the wayside over the past few years. Season 16, set for release on Blu-Ray and DVD on September 24th, is the first I've actually watched from start to finish.

What I found was the same show I'd left behind. And that's a good thing.

When “South Park” premiered, the show was a revelation. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone implemented a quick turnaround from concept of an episode to air date — a week — that allowed episodes to focus on current events unlike any other scripted comedy. Then they parodied those events with unmatched wit and a talent for absurdity. Cultural icons and the hypocrisies of human behavior were skewered mercilessly. Where else could you see Jesus box Frosty the Snowman or Saddam Hussein engage in a love affair with Satan? What the show lacked in subtlety, it made up for in sheer lack of taste.

Given that it is the 16th season of the show, the principal four characters have hardened into their respective plot-oriented roles. Cartman is a soulless instigator, Stan is the voice of reason, Kyle is the perpetually baffled victim and Kenny is...Kenny. While most sitcoms suffer from character essentialization, "South Park" benefits from it.

But maybe I'm biased.

I'm attached to "South Park's" style of humor. I greatly enjoy watching Cartman concoct strange, racist schemes — and suffer for it. Stan falling from moral grace every four episodes doesn't tend to tire me, provided the episode does something interesting with it. Sure, “Jewpacabra” is an episode founded on telling the same "Cartman is anti-Semitic" jokes we've heard for the last 16 years, but what can you do?

This is the 16th season of a sitcom. If you're coming in expecting mind-blowing innovation on the part of the creators, I don't know what television culture you grew up in.

I don't even know why you'd be considering buying the 16th season of a show.

Point is, this is "South Park." You're probably familiar. At this point, the series is probably older than your children.

If you like it, there's nothing not to love about this box set. The commentaries and features are customarily hilarious. It's worth a rent, or a sale-price purchase around the holidays.