The season started a run of seasons that expanded from the initial 13 episodes to 17-18, which of course means more content per season than before. While at times it does seem like some jokes don't land as well as they could, the season overall was still a fun, raunchy romp through the city of South Park and all it's inhabitants.
One of my favorite bits of the season is actually a continuation of the plot from the finale of the first season. In the last episode of the first season, Cartman is on a quest to find out who his real dad is, and the episode plays on tropes from soap operas about who his dad in town could possibly be. They're just about to reveal who his dad is when they say it'll be concluded in 4 weeks when the next season returns. The joke is that in four weeks, the day the season came back was April Fool's Day, and so they recap what happened in the first season finale and then do a whole episode all about Terrance and Phillip that has nothing to do with the plot. Then 3 weeks later they bring back the second episode of the season which actually concludes the story, and it doesn't even make a whole lot of sense but they promised they'd answer it and they did.
Throughout this whole season there are still a multitude of solid episodes, from Conjoined Fetus Lady, Summer Sucks, Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls, Clubhouses, and my particular favorite, Chef Aid. Each one has some sort of actual message about our culture as it is and really brings home the point they're trying to get across while still being absolutely ridiculous and overblown. In my favorite episode of the season Chef Aid, Chef finds out that Alanis Morrisette has come out with a new hit song that it turns out Chef had written in the 70's and goes to a record company executive merely to have his name put on the credits on the song, not looking for any money or anything. In response, the comically evil Record Exec. sues Chef for harassment, hires Johnnie Cochran to win his case and Chef must pay the record executive 2 million dollars. Unable to come up with the money, the kids go around to all these music legends that knew Chef back in the day and ask for their help. In the end, everyone from Elton John to Meatloaf to Ozzy Osbourne show up in South Park to play a benefit show for Chef to raise the money, and in the end he wins. The great part of the episode is that all the musical characters who are there to help Chef are the actual people. Elton John, Rancid, Meatloaf, Joe Strummer, Ozzy, Rick James and others are all playing themselves in this 20 minute animated cartoon and they even sing the songs they're singing. As someone who is a big music fan and understands the fight artists have with record labels like this, it really connected with me on that level and then I was also just impressed with how many famous musicians they actually got to appear on the episode.
The episode I liked the least was definitely City on the Edge of Forever, which plays like a clip show episode. While some ideas in the episode were still funny, it just felt too forced overall, trying to make fun of a clip show while kind of being one limits the jokes you can do, and at the end of the day I was real tired of Ms. Crabtree's voice before halfway through the episode.
In the end, the season did a lot of try and expand the world of South Park. Bringing in all the parents more, as well as introducing more kids into the world of South Park and not relying on the same gags over again.
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