South Park: The Complete Seventh Season (2003)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

'Park' and Bite

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Along with "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, "South Park" is the only satire in America brave enough to take on all comers. But, above and beyond Jon Stewart's humor, "South Park" genuinely gets away with non-party politics. It's a true equal-opportunity offender.

Take the anti-war episode I'm a Little Bit Country, which aired in April of 2003, just after America went to war in Iraq. At that time anyone who spoke out against the war was considered an anti-American, Communist weasel. But creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker concocted an episode in which gun-toting rednecks and hippie protesters attacked each other over which side was right. To add a little perspective, Cartman travels back in time to study the founding fathers for a school paper. He realizes that the founding fathers had exactly the same trouble. When, if ever, is it appropriate to go to war? Do we look weak if we don't go to war? Cartman returns and reports that America needs both the right-wing freaks and the left-wing weenies to keep up appearances. That way, we can "go to war but still look like we don't want to go to war. We can have our cake and eat it too." That's pretty bold stuff, and yet it manages to be funny. The key to the episode is that Kyle, Cartman, Kenny and Stan only join the war protests to get out of school for the day. They have their own priorities.

DVD Details: The rest of the 15 episodes in Paramount's three-disc set are just as golden. I loved Krazy Kripples, in which Jimmy and Timmy try to form a gang called the Crips, before realizing that such a gang already exists. Or South Park Is Gay, in which the "metrosexual" craze takes over the town. As for extras, Parker and Stone provide the usual commentary tracks.