At Least for One Episode, the Old South Park Is Back

South Park may have just won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Series for its most recent, Trump-skewering season, but there is a subset of fans who desperately yearn for a return to the early years: one-episode storylines focused solely on the boys, where Cartman’s only role is as an asshole, where Butters’ screentime exceeds more than three seconds, and where Kenny dies. Where Randy, and not Trump, is the antagonist; where the episode features no real mention of politics at all. For those yearning for such an episode, Wednesday’s Season 29 premiere offered exactly that, with a storyline centered on competing biker gangs: the children’s e-bikes versus the Randy-led cycling traditionalists and the extremes the latter group was willing to go to rid the town of the former.

The episode wrapped everything up in a nice, tidy bow, a funeral and all, but Trey Parker and Matt Stone still left themselves open to some storylines to explore if they so choose. The November release of GTA 6 as a potential ill for the country’s political fortunes was mentioned multiple times during the episode, for example. And are the duo really going to go an entire season without addressing the circumstances that led South Park to rebrand itself as South America, theme song and all? (Yes, the episode included a re-recorded version performed by Les Claypool.) But at least for one episode, Parker and Stone gave longtime South Park fans exactly what they’ve been asking for: a return to the old formula, where the biggest threat facing the boys was not the state of the world, but whatever ridiculous chaos they had accidentally stumbled into.

South Park Season 29 is now streaming on Comedy Central and Hulu. The next new episode will air on September 30th.