'South Park' Season 16, Episode 6 Recap - 'I Should Have Never Gone Zip-Lining'

An exceptionally strange, but creative, episode of "South Park" last night, no? It's good to know that even after 15 seasons (and a few episodes more), this show still has some tricks left in the bag.

The main conceit here is that the boys are in a re-enactment of their zip-lining tour from hell, spoofing documentary shows like "I Shouldn't Be Alive" and "1000 Ways to Die." It starts predictably enough: the boys decide to go ziplining, they're annoyed and bored beyond belief by the annoying people in their tour group, and we get some talking head segments.

Two things made it really special, though. One was the little medical illustrations that explained the biology behind Stan and Kyle's rage/boredom with the people around them, and Cartman's pretty epic junk food diarrhea. The latter was maybe a bit much, as we got a much closer look at Cartman's anus than I think any of us ever wanted.

The second thing, and the one that really kicked this episode up to memorable status, was the live-action re-enactment. Yes, four real-life actors were cast as the four boys and acted out their very slow escape on a boat, which involved all of them catching herpes, Cartman having diarrhea over the side of the boat, and Stan making the dramatic revelation that it was his idea for them to go ziplining all along... and that he sold out his friends for an iPod Nano. Oh, and Kenny died.

The joke is simple enough, but for some reason it really worked for me. Maybe because I watch too many of the documentary shows they're spoofing, and also I hate tours. And seriously, ziplining is pretty boring.

Anyway, the boys are eventually saved by Mr. Hankey and his Helicraptor, Seven-Dirty-Seven and Poo Choo Express. Because of course they are.

What they're trying to tell us: Ziplining sucks, boats are boring, and when you say "long story short" you are a LIAR.