I don’t know about you, but waiting for new South Park episodes can sometimes be excruciating. Is the second half of season 13 ever going to get here? We wait and we wait and we wait… Then we think, what the hell, I’ll watch one of the newer episodes again. And then you go to watch them “on demand” or whatever, and all that’s there are a handful of really old episodes you’ve already seen a thousand times before.

If you’re like me, you’ve got a bunch of the old episodes on DVD, but that can get really old really fast. So what’s the next best thing to watching a new episode of South Park?

Playing around at South Park Studios, says I!

I remember back when South Park Studios was super lame. I mean it—when I first started playing around on the site, even on my college’s (so-called) high-speed connection it took forever for a single thing to load. There were always errors, everything looked stupid, and nothing held my attention for more than five seconds (which sometimes is hard to do anyway).

But have you been to South Park Studios lately? The site is pretty stellar. The avatar creator is a fun way to waste time, and there’s news about upcoming episodes. The “Crap” section offers a whole bunch of free image downloads, ringtones ($2.99 each), a free newsletter, and links to the South Park Store.

There’s even a section just for fans, which includes the avatar creator plus a chat, forums, a FAQ, character descriptions, and blogs about what it takes to make the show. Another feature is the “Six Days Till South Park” section, which includes storyboards, videos, and text explaining just how a single episode is made.

Then there are the games. I had no idea how many there were until I took a look, and there are a ton! From the South Park Ass Kicker to Trapper Keeper to the unforgettable Lemmiwinks, there’s plenty of stuff to keep you occupied—and perhaps even happy—until season 13 resumes.

And the best part? You can watch all the South Park episodes you want, for free. You can even click the “random episode” generator and watch whatever pops up. This feature still takes a while to load on my computer, but it’s much better than it used to be—and worth it if you’ve missed a recent episode and can’t wait to catch the rerun.