South Park: The Complete Sixth Season

3-disc set; 17 episodes (374 minutes)

Hey, I said I’d get to the rest of these eventually, right? This is the sixth season, coming off the fifth where Butters was really established as a character. Kenny is gone, so Butters along with Tweek, fill the void as the fourth friend. Kenny returns in the final episode of this season and remains on the show to this day.

Here are all 17 episodes in order of their airdates:

Jared Has Aides (air: 3/6/02) – Created at the height of those damn Subway commercials, the boys decide to copy Jared Fogle’s success with Butters and City Wok. Meanwhile, the people of South Park try lynching Jared for saying everyone should get aides. Try saying it aloud and you’ll get it. Har har. Anyway, first appearance for the City Wok guy, and a pretty decent show that saved itself from thumbs-in-the-middledom with the last segment. Thumbs up.

Asspen (air: 3/13/02) – One of the all-time greats. A personal favorite of mine as well. The boys go with their parents to a time-share cabin in Aspen for the weekend and it turns into a big parody of an 80s teen movie. Both story arcs are great, the songs terrific too (“Montage” from “Team America” was first used in this episode) and the feeling is just as epic as a movie. Thumbs up.

Freak Strike (air: 3/20/02) – The boys decide to make Butters into a deformed freak so he can go on Maury Povich and bring home one of his prizes. Around the same time, the real freaks strike to get better perks. This one’s great, and a lot of people were quoting Cartman’s out of control teen act afterwards. Thumbs up.

Fun With Veal (air: 3/27/02) – The boys take a field trip to a veal farm and decide to try and rescue a herd of would-be veal. The FBI gets involved as does Michael Dorn…plus, Stan breaks out in vaginas! Pretty funny. Thumbs up.

The New Terrance & Phillip Movie Trailer (air: 4/3/02) – To see the trailer for the new Terrance & Phillip movie, the kids have to sit through “Russell Crowe: Fightin’ ‘Round The World.” Matt & Trey said this was an excuse to make fun of Russell Crowe. It’s hilarious. Thumbs up.

Professor Chaos (air: 4/10/02) – The boys fire Butters as their new friend, so he chooses to unleash evil on the world in the form of Professor Chaos, a lame super villain with a costume made of foil and hamsters as evil minions. Also, Stan, Kyle & Cartman select a new friend a’la “The Bachelor.” Probably better the first time I saw it, but still thumbs up, albeit a slightly generous one.

The Simpsons Already Did It (air: 6/26/02) – Butters continues his plans to wreak havoc on the world, but finds they’ve all been done by “The Simpsons.” Ah, just like real life. Meanwhile, the boys and new friend Tweek buy some sea monkeys, which they find when combined with semen make a super life form. Hmm. In the commentary, Trey & Matt say this came from a real-life frustration where they’d come up with ideas and have a fellow writer tell them it was already on “The Simpsons.” (For instance, in the season before this, Cartman was to block out the sun) In any event, thumbs up.

Red Hot Catholic Love (air: 7/3/02) – The parents are worried their kids going on a cruise with the local priest will turn into something else, so they all decide to become atheists. And people start eating through their butt and crapping out their mouth. I feel bad just spoiling that, but in this episode there are a lot of great moments and jokes – a bona fide thumbs up.

Free Hat (air: 7/10/02) – After dealing with re-releases of “ET” (where all the guns are walkie talkies!) and “Empire Strikes Back” (where the entire cast has been digitally replaced by Ewoks!) the boys decide to start a club to protect films from their directors. The only people who join their society are a group of whackos trying to free a confessed killer of 23 babies. The commentary for this is a rant against the “Star Wars” prequels, which makes me want to hear Trey & Matt talk about that even more. Thumbs up.

Bebe’s Boobs Destroy Society (air: 7/17/02) – It is what it says it is. Bebe develops some mosquito bites and the kids go primitive over them. This one put a smile on my face multiple times, so I’ll call it a thumbs up.

Child Abduction is Not Funny (air: 7/24/02) – A rash of news reports about child abduction sends the parents into a tizzy, and Tweek actually gets abducted himself. They try everything from child tracking devices to even going to school with their kids before finally deciding to get the City Wok guy to build a great wall around their city. One of my all-time personal favorites, I never miss it in reruns. Thumbs up.

A Ladder to Heaven (air: 11/6/02) – The kids go to claim a five minute candy shopping spree, but quickly realize the winning ticket stub they need was with Kenny when he died. So they try to build a ladder to heaven to get to Kenny and in turn the stub. The parents think it’s touching and the government, Alan Jackson and Japan get involved. This also begins the angle of Kenny being inside Cartman’s body, because Eric thought his ashes were chocolate milk mix. Hilarious. Thumbs up.

The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers (air: 11/13/02) – Stan’s parents rent “Lord of the Rings” and “Back Door Sluts 9” at the same time, and have the kids loan “Rings” to Butters. Only problem is, the tapes got switched. So the kids, in full “Lord of the Rings” garb, retrieve the tape and try to keep it from all its pursuers en route to the video store. A fun adventure with a lot of great South Park humor. Thumbs up.

Death Camp of Tolerance (air: 11/20/02) – Mr. Garrison is reinstated and made the new 4th grade teacher. Once he learns of other gay teachers suing for discrimination when they get fired, he tries to get fired, bringing in Mr. Slave as his teaching assistant. The boys complain and have to go to tolerance camp to learn to accept gays. This one’s pretty well known for the saga of Lemmiwinks, the class gerbil, who gets shoved up Mr. Slave’s ass. I’m running out of superlatives here. Thumbs up.

The Biggest Douche in the Universe (air: 11/27/02) – The presence of Kenny inside of Cartman is taking its toll, so Chef takes the boys to New York to see if John Edward can talk to Kenny, and ask how he can be freed. Their trip makes them skeptical, save for Kyle, and Stan seeks to expose him to the world. Also, there’s a great joke about Rob Schneider movies that’s spot on. I’ve used the phrase a lot already, but this is yet another of my personal favorites and a series highlight. Thumbs up.

My Future Self ‘N’ Me (air: 12/4/02) – A bunch of kids find a marijuana cigarette in the woods, and nobody will throw it away. When Stan steps up to do the duty, he soon finds his future self has zapped back to the past, and he’s a drug addicted loser. While he comes to terms with the person he’ll become, Butters laments the arrival of his future self. Coincidence? I love the message here, because it is crap the way some people lie to kids about the harmful effects of drugs. Thumbs up.

Red Sleigh Down (air: 12/11/02) – Kyle’s cousin adds up all of Cartman’s naughty and nice deductions for the year and finds he owes Santa over 300 presents. He decides to bring Christmas to Iraq because he wants a Haibo doll, an electronic dog you can feed and all of that. I’ve avoided this episode like the plague for no reason - it was pretty good. Thumbs up.

The count (up-middle-down):
17-0-0

Well well! This was quite the season. Not only are a number of these shows some of my all-time favorite episodes, but two shows from this season made “The Hits,” a ten-episode collection of Matt & Trey’s personal picks from the last five years. Some of the funniest South Park jokes are found in this set, and a lot of classic moments.

*****

How else can a season of 17 great episodes get less? The DVDs come with no others extras outside of the mini commentaries, which have been present on every season since the third. I’m big into DVD sets for the episodes themselves; and besides, I like their commentaries, so no lowered marks there.