This week’s new South Park episode sort of sucked for me. The topic was stupid, for one; I don’t think I’ve ever been inspired by a musical to perform oral sex. In fact, I don’t make my husband go unless he wants to (which, of course, means he only goes to see Sweeney Todd); I usually go to musicals with my sister, and plan on taking my daughter to the next one I get a chance to see. It’s been a couple of years; hopefully we’ll get to go sometime in 2012.

But I think the main reason it sucked was not because it made fun of Stephen Sondheim and Elton John and a bunch of other people I admire; in fact, I think it’s fun to make fun of just about everyone, and it wasn’t a bad idea altogether. The idea of these guys meeting up at a Hooter’s is also pretty funny. No, I think the show sucked because my favorite foursome wasn’t in it.

Episodes that lack the boys just…suck. I have friends who are huge Randy Marsh fans and love the grown-ups; I think Kyle’s mom is hilarious, myself, and I love Sharon Marsh in the episode where she thinks Stan is killing people and it’s actually his goldfish. But those episodes still have the boys at the heart of them, and when it’s taken away from them and the grown-ups are left acting stupid, I just don’t like it as much.

Maybe it’s because I like South Park to be insane and an escape from the world while mocking it—and when you show it from the perspective of the adults, it turns into something more sad and realistic. Sharon just acknowledging that it’s okay for musicals to subliminally suggest oral sex was annoying for me, too.

The best part of the show was probably when Shelly stood up to the vegan kid’s parents and helped him be a kid rather than an extension of his parents’ cause. Of course, his death at the end because he wasn’t wearing a life jacket was sort of funny, too, even though it would have been cool for Shelly to have a boyfriend for a little while; I could have seen some really funny episodes stem from that alone. Whatever happened to Shelly bullying the boys, anyway?

I hope Matt and Trey have more episodes with Cartman, Kenny, Stan, and Kyle at the helm. If you’d told me that I would be eagerly awaiting a weekly program of four foul-mouthed fourth grade boys ten years ago, I would have thought you were joking. Of course, I didn’t have cable back then…