Christmas isn’t Christmas without South Park Christmas specials! Oh, how Mr. Hankey, Santa, Jesus, Cartman and company have delighted us year after year, making every yuletide gay—or as gay as Mr. Garrison will allow it to be!

Speaking of Mr. Hat’s holder, who sings a better Christmas ditty than Garrison himself? “Merry F****** Christmas!” is one of the most moving holiday songs ever, because not only does it embrace the sentiments of the holiday season—it also explains the entire American outlook during the winter (well, throughout the year, really), when it comes to non-American countries’ holidays, traditions and spiritual beliefs. Way to go, Mr. G, on conveying such a complex concept in one angry song!

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Juvenile humor. Disgusting sight gags. Cartman being a panicky bigot. Randy Marsh turning into a babbling idiot. These are some of my favorite things about South Park. The thirteenth season of the show, which concluded its second half tonight, has been a troubled one. The episodes of the past few weeks have been especially lackluster, often trying too hard to make some satirical point about politics or culture at the detriment of actual laughs. Tonight's episode left that all behind to capitalize on all the heavy (and mostly negative) press surrounding Roland Emmerich's latest awful disaster flick 2012. Oh, a deliver pee jokes. A lot of pee jokes. One might say this episode was a veritable stream of pee jokes (sorry).

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So, here's what I wonder. Are Trey Parker and Matt Stone unaware of what TV network airs their show? I can admit that they did a nice job of lampooning the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, but it kinda takes the punch out of it when a mere half hour after the episode aired viewers could watch two entire programs that have spent years making fun of the exact same target, usually with a more endearing angle at that. "Dances With Smurfs" is a textbook example of what actually makes South Park good and just how much it diverges from that when it tries too hard to make a point.

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This week's episode of South Park ought to be one for the books and it may well be when we look back on it, but something about "The F Word" just didn't feel as poignant as its material suggested. It had everything that makes this show good. There was a strong sense of street-level social commentary, a confident progressive voice and a powerful streak of absurdity. Still, something was just off. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed "The F Word" more than any episode since the incredible "Margaritaville", but I just can't shake the feeling that something was missing.

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When I see episodes of South Park like "Whale Whores" I wonder if Parker and Stone are running out of ideas, or if I'm just out of touch with certain strands of pop culture. Basing an entire episode around The Discovery Channel's Whale Wars TV show was a fairly typical thing to do for this show, but it also wasn't exactly a finger-on-the-pulse moment, either. I've never been a fan of reality shows, so that whole segment of TV is a bit of a blind spot for me, but still I think it's telling that neither I nor anyone I know has ever even heard of Whale Wars. It's possible that a program derivative of The Deadliest Catch may just be the lowest of the low-hanging fruit when it comes to television.

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One thing I've always admired about South Park is how it's capable of running in a completely absurd direction with a plot and sustaining it for the duration of an entire episode. As cultural commentary, this series has a singular angle on the stuff that fills our TV's, movie theaters and iPods. On any other show, it just wouldn't be possible to spend a solid twenty minutes on what is essentially one joke, and usually a pretty esoteric joke at that. This week's episode turned its sights on the world of professional wrestling, a strand of entertainment that is itself so over the top and absurd that it's practically a punchline in itself. South Park's stab was, however, still pretty unique.

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Throughout my stint as a South Park fan, I’ve been scoffed at for my lack of taste. Most family and friends couldn’t believe that I would “stoop” to watch such “toilet humor,” and wondered why I couldn’t find better things to watch. Why I couldn’t I just like Friends or Seinfeld or whatever they were watching instead?

Um, because those shows are boring. They’re about the same people doing the same thing every day—who wants to see that? South Park is full of social commentary, political humor, satire and a plethora of other relevant things. Plus, it’s freaking hilarious.

Want more proof that it’s a worthwhile show? It’s won an Emmy or two. Oh, no, wait—it’s won FOUR. That’s right, FOUR Emmys. Pretty good for toilet humor, right? And it’s been nominated for another four as well.

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I've always appreciated how South Park manages to take ludicrous turns and run with them. After so many seasons it's practically impossible to be unpredictable, but that's not really what I want from this show anymore. It's been years since South Park shocked me, but it never fails to make me laugh, which is more than I can say for most of the comedies on TV today. The show came back from hiatus last week with an attempted powerhouse send-up of the unusually long list of celebrities who died over the summer. "Dead Celebrities" was hit or miss, not that any of the targets were all that difficult to lampoon. This week's was more of a stand-alone episode that didn't rely on any particular moment in pop culture history, so it fared a little better.

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South Park episodes have always pushed the boundaries of what’s acceptable in society, breaking the status quo mold and then some. Often inspired by politics, current events and pop culture, we know we can usually expect new South Park episodes to make fun of anything we’ve recently witnessed. (How about another Kanye West episode, guys?)

But the other night my husband and I were watching “The Coon,” an obvious spoof of The Spirit, Watchmen and The Dark Knight (and perhaps others). And as much as I did not enjoy the first two of those three films, I sadly didn’t enjoy their satirized versions, either. It wasn’t because they went too far, or because they were offensive; it was because they were barely even done.

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We all know how stupid the South Park dads are. From Tweak’s dad to Butters’s dad to just about every dad in town, you know if you’re tuning in for new South Park episodes, you’re probably in for some awesomely stupid dad moments.

Remember when Randy blamed Stan for his and Sharon’s divorce? When Kenny’s dirty, drunken father blamed Gerald for his crappy life—and moved into the clubhouse they had built together? Gerald may be the most sane of the dads in South Park, but he’s still had his moments—like when he sued everybody in town against…everybody in town.

But as stupid as the South Park sperm donors can be, the town mothers are even worse. The thing is, most of them aren’t even that stupid, with the exception of Kenny’s mom; instead, they are simply insane.

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