Author: SOUTH PARK: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON

Brand: Paramount Studio

Format: Animated

Release Date: 02-22-2005

Details: Product Description Now all 14 classic episodes from South Park's hilarious fifth season are available for the first time in this exclusive 3-disc collector's edition. Join Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny as these four animated tykes take on the supernatural, the extraordinary and the insane. For them, it's all part of growing up in South Park. The image on site reflects the updated art & package and might be different from the actual image on the item. However the content is the same for both, only the packaging is different. Amazon.ca Comedy, Lenny Bruce once said, is tragedy plus time. Less than two months--hardly any time at all--had elapsed after September 11 when South Park broadcast an episode that addressed the tragedy. Wit and satire have their place, of course, but in the aftermath of epochal upheaval, sometimes good old-fashioned ridicule can diminish an enemy and help to heal a grieving nation. The Emmy-nominated episode "Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants" does the cathartic trick, as Cartman plays Bugs Bunny to Osama's Elmer Fudd with a series of humiliating pranks, one of which reveals Osama's miniscule Bin Laden. "This is how we deal with stuff," creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone remark during the "commentary-mini," a listening option on each episode. In this fifth season, "It Hits the Fan," to quote the title of the notorious season-opening episode, in which the "S" word is uttered a staggering 162 times. In another series milestone, "Kenny Dies," and actually stays dead (at least until season 6). One of South Park's best characters gets his own half hour in "Butters' Very Own Episode," while one of the series' absolute worst, "Towelie," also gets his. Over the course of these 14 episodes, many life lessons are learned about sex education ("Proper Condom Use"), prejudice ("Here Comes the Neighborhood") and stereotypes ("The Entity"). But perhaps the most valuable lesson is: "Don't tick off Cartman," as witness his diabolical revenge against the unfortunate ninth grader who rips him off in "Scott Tenorman Must Die." The genius of South Park is its uncanny ability to make satiric hay with such otherwise sure-fire comedy killers as aborted fetuses, concentration camps, and cancer (which becomes instantly funny when the words "up the a**" are added to it, and funnier still when spoken by actual members of Radiohead). 2001 was a rough year for America, and while this country's "problems" provide Stone and Parker with a fount of material (most of it objectionable), we can take odd comfort that they remain vigilant in rooting for their "team." --Donald Liebenson

UPC: 097368799042

EAN: 0097368799042

Languages: English

Binding: DVD

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood