'South Park' Season 15, Episode 10 Recap - 'Bass to Mouth'

'South Park' Season 15, Episode 10 Recap - 'Bass to Mouth' From the first five minutes or so, it seemed that this week's episode of "South Park" might turn dark again.

Sure, the whole pants-crapping thing is typical "South Park" fare, but when Cartman is called into the principal's office we learn that Cartman orchestrated a bullying campaign so severe the last time this happened that the bullied kid killed himself. Yikes.

Was this going to be an episode talking about bullying and the "It Gets Better" campaign, and the tragedies we've seen of late with teen suicides?

Nope. It was about Lemmiwinks the butt-gerbil. Opportunity: avoided!

In fact, "South Park" had a lot of avenues to take this episode: the "Eavesdropper" gossip site revealing the secrets of the elementary school kids bore a striking resemblance to TMZ, and was run by a not-figurative rat who went by the name of Wikileaks.

But "SP" didn't say much about the practices of TMZ or of Wikileaks. Rather, it made a continuing gag out of Lemmiwinks and people crapping their pants. So, we got a "vintage" episode tonight, as opposed to a new-school "South Park."

Not that there's anything wrong with that: as a fan, I was oddly thrilled to see the return of Lemmiwinks and his floating ghost animal guides that once led him through the bowels of Mr. Slave. It was a nod to those of us that have been around for a long time.

The ghost animals we played to perfection... it seems clear that Trey and Matt know exactly how hilarious that frog's voice is. Yes, it was dumb. Yes, it was a bit one-note. Yes, the fight between Lemmiwinks and Wikileaks felt a little bit like "The Frightening." But dammit, there's something funny about gerbils, isn't there?

I almost expected more from Cartman in attempting to fix this problem, and I was even a bit disappointed by his "reward" of seeing Selena Gomez get her ass kicked. It seems as though Cartman has lost his edge a little. The boy that made a kid eat his parents has been toned down of late, but perhaps that's a good thing. You can't have him murdering people and preparing them as food every week.

All in all, an episode that doesn't quite live up to the high standards of recent episodes. But if you watched the recent "South Park" documentary, "6 Days to Air," you know exactly what these guys go through each week in creating this show. We can cut them some slack and let them insert some diarrhea rockets every once in a while.