Preview: You're Getting Old

Recapping this run:

• "HUMANCENTiPAD": the cuttlefish joke gave my friends and I a few weeks' worth of material to reference. Strange how one of the stupidest jokes ever can be so funny. Even though both plotlines (the parody of "The Human Centipede" and the iPad) would have been fresher a year ago, they still worked reasonably well, and the episode wasn't bad. Not great, but not terrible either. (B-)
• "Funnybot": jabs at both Comedy Central (the Comedy Awards) and, I would assume, "Family Guy" (what else could a comedy robot be meant to parody?) didn't work well. If the point was to show that Funnybot wasn't funny, it both failed and hurt the show. The Tyler Perry plot, while probably the best part, was done much better on "The Boondocks," and on the whole it wasn't funny. (C-)
• "Royal Pudding": what has been a trend this season is to have two unrelated plotlines and tying them together in the third act in the dumbest way possible. In this case, it was the Royal Wedding and tooth decay. The only thing keeping this from an F was the references to Scott and Ugly Bob. That, and Rush's song, which bumped it up a notch. (D)
• "T.M.I.": so all guys have penis issues. Very topical. (C-)
• "Crack Baby Athletic Association": this should have been an A. Hell, Cartman was great for a change, as was Kyle. (Loved the poutine joke, even if Cartman doesn't know to add cheese curds to the hot tub.) Then some throwaway gag about Slash took over the third act, and defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory. Or, rather, a first tier. (B)
• "City Sushi": I would have given this around a C after the second commercial break, thanks to the Asian plotline being better than the latest Butters one. And then the third act came, giving the greatest damage to a character since "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina." (D)

The other main trend this run has been to reuse old plotlines. While this isn't necessarily a new thing, it just seemed prominent this season. To elaborate, in order of episodes:

• Cartman's plot of wanting the iPad - "Go, God, Go!" and his attempts to get a Wii.
• Funnybot - variant on manatee gags from "Cartoon Wars." Awards shows are bullshit? Same message as in "More Crap."
• Mr. Mackey directing a school play? Cartman did it in "Helen Keller! The Musical."
• "Chinpokomon" and "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants" both had small penis subplots.
• "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000" also featured the boys being told something wasn't real. In this case, the Tooth Fairy, as well as a few other things.

Plus Butters' plot was the same as most times he's been featured. Too many to count.

Given how bad last season was, it would be hard not to improve, and this run would definitely be an improvement. But it's still a far cry from even season 12, let alone earlier ones.

Tonight's episode shouldn't be any better. On the one hand, I like Stan getting older. Even with the floating timeline, it's still nice to see some age progression. On the other, it appears to be both a Randy episode and ripping on tween music. Haven't Matt and Trey done this stuff already? ("Elementary School Musical" and "The Ring" come to mind.)

I have low expectations for tonight. As usual, if it doesn't suck I'll be surprised.