South Park - Season 13

The now-venerable South Park's 13th season was a bit better than the last couple, at least in terms of producing episodes that were consistently funny throughout. The second half in particular provided some good laughs fairly often. No multi-part stories this time, but there was a nice mix of timely celebrity and news references, parodies (some for shows I've never heard of (what the hell is Whale Wars?)), and more timeless episodes about how insane these small-town residents can get. "The Coon" might seem like an attack on Obama, but I took it more as a jab at people who expected too much from him too quickly, and it was an adequate Watchmen rip as well. Kanye West (I'm sure they were kicking themselves for doing an episode before the VMAs), the Jonas Brothers, and the rash of high-profile deaths this year were all targets, and Avatar and 2012 also get poked at (Roland Emmerich makes it so easy). Things like Butters' foray into the prostitution business and Earth's first (not actually first) contact with aliens coming from Stan's dead coercing him into cheating in a pinewood derby were some of the nuttier non-topical stories. While I did enjoy this season, the fact that at least two more are coming does make me still wonder how much longer it will be until the show settles into The Simpsons' territory of complete creative undeath, but however it goes I'll probably watch until it ends.