The latter half of season 13 of South Park is in full swing, as are Stone and Parker’s proverbial fists, as they tear apart Ghost Hunters (TAPS), Whale Wars, and more. This episode, “The F Word”, started on a narrow concept (loud and obnoxious Harley bikers) and broadened as it progressed, eventually reaching as far as to try to redefine the word Fag. Obviously, Gay Advocacy groups are going crazy over this, but that’s another issue entirely.

The episode starts out with the boys fishing at a local pond, and there’s much effort put into the fact that it’s a beautiful day. As the camera zooms out, you can see the placid locale and there’s harmonious music playing, when all of a sudden a thunderous storm of Harley bikers fly by, tweaking their throttles and making tons of noise. This particular group of bikers in South Park are as loud as they are oblivious to the fact that they’re loud, and in turn oblivious as to why the boys and the rest of the town start calling them fags. After they pass, a strangely but humorously realistic moment of silence lingers, before everybody resumes what they were doing. And it’s for that reason, Stone and Parker speculate, that they become bikers; they want attention.

In their attempts to be noticed, they begin making hilarious noises that resemble the sound of a Harley. Whether or not these noises are actually hilarious will vary by person, but I certainly thought they were, and they reminded me of the old ‘rabble-rabble-rabble’ battle cry that angry crowds in South Park used to chant, but not so much anymore. The more they make these obnoxious noises, the more they get called fags, but in their lack of understanding, they think they’re not being loud enough, employing circular logic for laughs like South Park often does these days. But it’s still a decent source of laughs, and South Park adds little oddly realistic nuances and plenty of style to make up for slightly cheap laughs. And of course, Butters is the one who empathizes with the bikers’ freedom-grasping rebellious nature. He’s almost the Schrute of South Park at this point.

Another cool thing about this episode was the presence of the town Mayor, who I haven’t seen in a while. Is it just me, or did she die at some point? Upon looking it up just now, she shot herself in the head in an episode, but didn’t die. That’s kind of a running gag in the show, at this point. But I’m definitely glad she’s there, as she’s one of the few and declining links to the earlier seasons of the show.

This episode entirely lives up to the scathing and comical standard of this season, and it even touches on some social commentary, which is always interesting, especially in the hands of Matt and Trey. Give it a watch, if only for the attention whore bikers’ noises.