'South Park' Season 16, Episode 3 Recap - 'Faith Hilling'

"South Park" has tackled the world of YouTube videos before, so the fascination with all things Internet is there with these guys. But if they were to truly go into the world of Internet memes, it would probably take most of a season. Thankfully, they kept it simple in this episode and stuck to photo poses.

The episode saw the boys obsessed with their favorite meme, "Faith Hilling." That's when you pose for a picture by pulling out your shirt to simulate boobs. The boys love Faith Hilling so much that they even manage to do it on the stage at the Republican debate. They love it so much that when it gets replaced by a new meme, they're extremely sad.

The idea behind the episode is that "memeing" is dangerous, because every time you pose for a meme photo you get hit by a train. The gag is pretty good in the instructional video, which shows people attempting to Tebow in various locations and getting hit by trains as a result, and also outlines the three acceptable memes: peace sign, bunny ears, and fake weiner.

The rest of it spirals out of control pretty quickly: the boys try to incorporate Taylor Swifting (dragging your bare butt along the ground like a dog), Oh Long Johnsoning (putting yourself in a dangerous situation and saying "Oh Long Johnson" as many times as you can) and cat breading (putting a piece of bread on a cat's head) in order to keep with the times.

Meanwhile, the professor in charge of teaching the kids about meme safety is summoned to investigate the evolution of cats, as they have become intelligent enough to make their own memes (hence the cat breading). That makes them as intelligent as humans (sounds about right).

This is all leading up to the big finale, which has Cartman doing an epic Faith Hilling at the Republican/cat debate while singing the Sunday Night Football theme. This, as the reporter tells us, is pandering. Absolutely correct: not much of a joke here except for having Republican candidates making boobs with their shirts and having a YouTube cat saying "Oh Long Johnson."

That said, the "Embassador of People" gag wasn't bad, and the Oh Long Johnson cat was milked for a few good laughs. Still, not the best episode of late: it seemed unclear exactly what "South Park" was trying to say about memes, except that they become outdated very quickly (duh) and that they're kinda dumb (also duh).

What they're trying to tell us: Memes become outdated very quickly, and they're kinda dumb? Also, watch out for cats.