Amazon.com
Four foul-mouthed tykes in parkas and wool caps navigate the treacherous snows of adolescence such as puppy love, sibling jealousy, and alien abduction in the cartoon that celebrates the American art of bad taste with crude, cut-out animation and construction-paper color. The pilot episode, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe," establishes the tone and style of all episodes to come: gentle homilies and childhood innocence arising from a twisted plot with grotesque and bizarre twists, in this case involving UFOs, flaming flatulence, and a 20-foot antenna array that springs out of Cartman's butt. In "Volcano" the boys learn the masculine art of hunting endangered species and meet the mythic wilderness monster Scuzzlebutt while oozing lava threatens their town. In "Weight Gain 4000," "big boned" Cartman decides he must slam dietary supplements to beef up for a TV appearance with Kathy Lee Gifford, while Mr. Garrison (egged on by insidious hand puppet Mr. Hat) plots his revenge. Finally, Stan learns tolerance in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" while his elementary school struggles to beat the 72-point spread in the big homecoming game--a major event in a town where many citizens never got past the fifth grade. Sweater-garbed creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone introduce each episode in bizarre fireside chats in which they proclaim every episode their "very favorite" as they exchange longing, moon-eyed glances and their dog Old Scratch changes size and breed from shot to shot.
--Sean Axmaker
