Chickenpox: Stan's simply frightening sister Shelley is in hospital with a severe case of chickenpox. As she's in her teens there are concerns as the older you get the more dangerous the disease can be, so the parents of Stan, Kyle and Cartman gang together and plot to get the lads sick with it too - for their own health, of course. Despatched for a slumber party at Kenny's, who has already succumbed to the variant of herpes, Stan and Cartman fall ill, but Kyle somehow remains resilient. Whilst at Kenny's festively plump boy Cartman is incensed at the lack of food available (frozen waffles with no side dishes!), whilst Kyle ponders as to why they are so 'have not' whilst his family is so 'have'. Kyle overhears details of the plot to get them sick, joins force with Cartman and a very dodgy looking Stan, and on Chef's advice hire herpes-infested prostitute Old Frida to run rampant in their houses, sucking on toothbrushes, backwashing milk and other such delightful things (cue the strangest use of The Monkees' I'm A Believer you'll ever witness) so their parents too will become ill. Kyle's school paper on 'haves' and 'have nots' brings up a few home truths for his father, and cartoon-in-a-cartoon favourite Terrance discovers he has ass cancer. Kenny also carks it...

Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Food: It's field trip time! Grade three head off to the planetarium, where they meet the rather odd Dr Adams, who strangely keeps calling the place "the plane_arium". Stan and Kyle sense something is weird about the place - like what's with all these automaton type kids? Meanwhile, Cartman is sidetracked by the Cheesy Poofs talent ship, on the search for just the right kid to sing the Cheesy Poofs song for a new commercial. He auditions and eventually becomes regional champion (you have to see his priceless rendition of Donna Summer's She Works Hard For the Money!) Back at school, the kids learn the Japanese art of haiku (which, according to Mr Garrison, are just like American poems but don’t rhyme and are totally stupid), and school counsellor Mr Mackey does a mind meld in hopes of finding out just what is going on at the plane_arium ("please nurse, you're throwing off my chi, m'kay?") The kids drag Officer Barbrady to the plane_arium, and he gets transformed into Elvis. Uh-huh. This episode is notable for possessing probably the most irrelevant title of any South Park show, although Mr Ebert does appear briefly as a constellation. Oh, I almost forgot - poor Kenny explodes.

Clubhouses: Whilst the boys have a charming little game of Americans versus Bosnians, Wendy approaches Stan in regards to setting up her friend Bebe with notorious girl-hater Kyle. She wants them all to play 'truth or dare' in their clubhouse, the only problem being that they don’t actually have one. So, Stan and Kyle get to work, although it's rather tough going without nails, and on learning of the construction project Cartman, in his inimitable style, gets jealous and teams with Kenny (well uses Kenny as a slave would be more apt) to construct his Ewok Village 2000. Relationship problems abound - things are tense between Stan's parents, Mr and Mrs Marsh, resulting in the world's quickest divorce (she gets a new live-in love, he gets a convertible), whilst Mr Garrison is still clutching on to Mr Twig as Mr Hat, the "two-timing whore", is still missing in action. Kenny is given the task of picking up some chicks for the Ewok Village (in the end two sixteen-year old runaway tarts). Meanwhile we are introduced to cartoon The New Fat Abbot Show (no prizes for guessing what it is based upon), which features more "bitches" and "hos" than the record library at a rap only radio station - giving Stan an idea as to how to deal with his new stepfather. There are some poignant points to be made about family, and Kenny dies.

Cow Days: It's the world's 45th biggest rodeo and carnival, and it's right in South Park! And this, the 14th annual Cow Days, is special. As well as the traditional running of the cows (got a point to make with this, Matt and Trey?) there is the unveiling of the Cow Memorial, which proves a strangely bovine Mecca for those that it commemorates. Forget that though, the kids are into the carnival - and are hell-bent on winning Terrance and Phillip dolls by playing the 'Put the Ball Through Jennifer Love Hewitt's Mouth' sideshow. When balls keep popping out of her mouth rather than going down (oops), Kyle declares "shenanigans!", but on investigation by Officer Barbrady the carnie in charge switches balls to ones that fit, leaving the boys with egg on their faces. Desperate, Kyle convinces Cartman to enter the bull ride competition to win $5000, more than enough to gain possession of the grail - the T & P dolls. After getting "broken" (suffering head trauma), Cartman believes he is Ming Lee, a Vietnamese prostitute ("sucky, sucky five dorrah?"), yet still manages to win the $5000 - with which the boys purchase ALL the T & P dolls. Meanwhile, the town's curiousity is piqued as to why all the cows think they're lemmings... Yes, and Kenny shuffles off this mortal coil.

Well and truly into season two episodes now, and there really isn't much to say that I haven’t in my previous review. Compared to watching them on Stupid Bloody Snowstorms they look and sound simply wonderful, and whilst not being of mythical "reference quality" what we do get should be sufficient to satiate any fan. Unlike Volume 5, there weren't any obvious glitches, however the Braniff and Comedy Central logos are still savagely severed at the ends of the first three episodes, which seems rather needless and bloody-minded.

There's still no chaptering within the episodes or any extras whatsoever, and as I (joyously) plummet my way through the next however many volumes I daresay I'll be saying the same thing again and again.

This is a fabulous collection of four of the more classic and oft-quoted episodes from season two, which in all was rather hit and miss after the sheer classicism of the first season. Those Canadian terrors Terrance and Phillip feature in every episode in one form or another (hooray for fart jokes!), and the wonderful balloon-headed Mr Mackey pops up in three of them - which is definitely a good thing. South Park fans, if you haven’t already then get thee to a DVD emporium...