Episode Recap: 'South Park' Season 15, Episode 7: 'You're Getting Old'

In the 14 seasons that "South Park" has been on the air, there's one TV trope that they've always avoided: the comedy episode with a serious twist. Well, we're in season 15 now, and there's a first time for everything. "You're Getting Old," is just plain depressing.

It all starts with Stan turning 10 years old, and receiving an album from Kyle from the "Tween Wave" genre. From Randy's pretense of liking it to try to recapture his youth, we discover that to adults, the music sounds like crap. It literally "sounds like someone taking a s*** in your ears."

This should all be normal for Stan, who is just getting older and starting to realize that the music that kids like is crap. But Stan doesn't like Bob Dylan either (more fart noises), so it's determined that Stan has a disorder that makes him a "cynical a**hole." Because of this, everything starts to look and sound like s*** to Stan, even people.

For a while, it looks as though the "South Park" team is just trying to make some commentary about the state of pop culture nowadays, noting that young singers and big Hollywood movies are all just crap. The movie trailer sequence is horribly digusting but funny and, really, quite true. It really looked like they were going to take a shot at "X-Men: First Class" there for a second, but thankfully they didn't go too far with it. I liked that movie.

But things take a major turn in the third act. Stan's behavior is making it tough for Kyle, Kenny and even Cartman to hang out with him anymore, since he's cynical about everything and everyone. We even see Kyle and Cartman becoming better friends (what?!) as Stan becomes more alienated from society.

But the biggest moment of the episode is an argument between Randy and Sharon (Stan's parents) over Randy's continued bad behavior. It culminates in both of them admitting they're unhappy, and talking about how they're tired of the same s***ty routine every week. "It's the same story but slightly different," Sharon says, and they note how everything just gets more and more absurd to try to make up for it.

Get it? Trey Parker and Matt Stone are tired of this show. They're tired of lampooning pop culture, because everything is s*** anyway. They're done with "South Park." Randy even says "I feel like I don't have much time left." Sounds to me like this is the last season of the show, the way things are going.

To further solidify that idea, the episode wraps with Sharon and Randy splitting up and selling the house, and Stan continuing to be alone and alienated while Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" plays. There's no resolution. You get the feeling that if Trey and Matt had their way, "South Park" would be done today.

As a fan, I can only hope that the guys are just feeling worn down. After all, they put these episodes together in one week, which has to be completely exhausting. But if "South Park" is truly done after this season, then I at least have to hope that Trey and Matt will take on another project. They're too much talent here to let it go to waste.

After all, everything else is s***.

What they're trying to tell us: tween music is s***, movies are s***, and they're totally done with doing "South Park." Also, don't be a cynical jerk.