I remember the first time I beheld the raunchy, juvenile genius that is South Park. It was a first-season episode entitled Cartman Gets an Anal Probe. I fell in love with the show on the basis of that title alone, and after watching the herky-jerky animation and busting a gut to the spectacularly rude humor, my love grew into adoration. That first glorious season of South Park is an eye-popping thing of unlikely brilliance, spawned from the minds of a couple of Colorado oddballs.

South Park's second season can't help but lose a little bit of the luster with which its first season glowed. By the time the show returned for its sophomore stint, we'd all had our turns being appalled and amazed by the show, and the return of South Park lacked the element of surprise. But the manic and carefree duo of Trey Parker and Matt Stone managed to produce a solid second season, full of lunatic highs and groan-worthy lows, but entertaining throughout.

For those new to the show, you really ought to take a look at that first-season set. South Park is set in the Colorado mountain town of—you guessed it—South Park. The stars are four young cardboard-cutout boys: Stan Marsh, the show's voice of reason; Kyle Broslofski, the Jew with the abrasive mother and the adopted Canadian brother Ike; Eric Cartman, the fat, obscenity-prone angermonger; and poor Kenny, the unintelligible parka-wrapped dude who dies in every episode. At South Park Elementary and around town, the gang learns life lessons and, each week, find themselves engaged in amazing and disgusting adventures.

The second season of South Park is presented in order of air date. The episodes are as follows:

1) Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus—Instead of resolving a cliffhanger from Season 1, involving the identity of Cartman's father, we get this April Fool's gag, which finds the Canadian duo facing up against Saddam Hussein.
2) Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut—We finally discover the identity of Cartman's dad, and it's more disturbing that you can imagine.
3) The Chicken Lover—We learn that Officer Barbrady can't read. To learn to read, he endures the most unlikely methods, involving the solving of a very strange crime.
4) Ike's Wee Wee—Kyle's adopted brother Ike is about to have a bris. Misunderstandings abound.
5) Conjoined Fetus—The boys compete in a Dodge Ball Tournament while the town of South Park celebrates the school nurse, who happens to have a dead twin attached to the side of her head.
6) The Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka—Thanks to the efforts of the boys, the hunting TV show Huntin' and Killin' engages in a ratings war with Jesus and Pals.
7) Flashbacks—Stranded after a horrible bus accident, the boys reminisce about past episodes.
8) Summer Sucks—Fireworks are banned in South Park, and it looks like the boys' summer is ruined. They get ahold of an out-of-control snake firework that threatens to destroy the town.
9) Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls—South Park hosts an independent film festival, which threatens the fragile subterranean environment of Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo.
10) Chickenpox—When Kenny gets chicken pox, the boys' parents arrange for the kids to infect each other so they "get it early." The plan backfires.
11) Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods—The kids take a field trip to a brainwashing planetarium, and Cartman stars in a Cheesy Poof commercial.
12) Clubhouses—The gang divides and builds rival clubhouses, at which they plan to seduce girls into playing "Truth Or Dare" with them.
13) Cow Days—At the annual Cow Rodeo event, the boys become obsessed with winning some crappy Terrance and Phillip dolls. And in remarkable sequence of events, Cartman becomes an Asian prostitute.
14) Chef Aid—The kids help Chef stage a musical benefit. Plenty of guest stars in this one.
15) Spookyfish—Stan gets a vicious goldfish as a present, and evil doppelgangers of the boys convince them that they're involved in some alternate-dimension trickery.
16) Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!—The boys go to Nebraska to spend the holidays with Cartman's grandparents. Cartman's Uncle Howard breaks out of prison and brings Manson along, too.
17) Gnomes—Inexplicably, gnomes are stealing the underpants of South Park's residents. Also, a local coffee shop faces off against an incoming coffee giant.
18) Prehistoric Ice Man—The gang discovers a frozen man embedded in ice. Is he a prehistoric man? The missing link? No, he only froze a few years back.

Warner presents South Park: The Complete Second Season in a pretty good full-screen transfer of the show's original 1.33:1 broadcast presentation. Obviously, South Park has a very low-rent, amateurish look, and any transfer effort is going to suffer because of the basic nature of the show. The good news is that, once you accept the look of these early episodes, the DVD provides a very good image. Colors are vivid, and detail is exemplary. I noticed some instances of compression artifacting, but nothing really distracting, and I saw no edge haloing. I viewed these episodes on a large set, and I had the usual problems with aliasing, but those with smaller sets should have no problems.

The disc's Dolby Digital 2.0 audio presentation is perfectly in service of the material. Dialog sounds clear and accurate, and the front soundstage has a fair about of depth, if not separation. The music has a good amount of punchiness.

First up is the hilarious Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls music video. You'll be playing this one repeatedly for your family and friends.

The best supplement, however, is the 50-minute Goin' Down to South Park documentary, which—although it's outdated (1999) and repeated from one of the standalone discs—is a great and predictably strange glimpse into the production of the show. Trey and Matt lounge in a hot tub, sipping champagne and fielding interview questions with a terrific haughtiness. They talk about the origins of the show, and later we get a peek at the making of the episodes. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I was disappointed that it wasn't a newly produced feature.

South Park's second season suffers only slightly when compared with the outrageousness and originality of the first season. If you're a fan of the show, you'll need to slip this set right next to the first. My only complaint is that the extras aren't more up-to-date.