Chef Aid: Cartman just can’t get Alanis Morrisette's new song Stinky Britches out of his head. Chef overhears him singing it and is incensed, as he actually wrote it around twenty years ago. He approaches Capitalist Records and plays his version simply to seek credit, however Mr Comb-over Record Exec sees no resemblance between the two essentially identical songs and takes Chef to court - employing lawyer Johnny Cochrane (OJ Simpson) no less. The Man wins, thanks mostly to the Cochrane's wonderfully confuddling Chewbacca defence, and Chef is left with the option of paying two million dollars in 24 hours, or spending four years in jail. After Chef's attempts to whore himself to make the money (he falls short, only earning $410,000 in a day!) our four teensy heroes come to the rescue, approaching past friends of Chef such as Sir Elton John (Chef introduced him to lyricist Bernie Taupin) and Meatloaf (who had no success until Chef convinced him to change his name from Cous Cous to something beefier) to help out. Chef Aid is born, and we're treated to appearances from the aforementioned stars, Rick James, Ozzy Osbourne, Primus, Rancid, Ween and The Clash's Joe Strummer. Cochrane grows a heart and eventually ends up defending Chef, Mr Hat comes back, and we get to see Cartman's German dance. Kenny gets his head bitten off...

Spooky Fish: Stan's Aunt Flo has come to visit. She comes once very month, and hangs around for five days. For some reason his mother is always grumpy during this time, you work it out (grow up Messrs Parker and Stone!) Anyway, whilst Shelley gets a funky TV/stereo thingy, Aunt Flo brings a pet goldfish as a gift for young Stan, that has a freaky stare and renders the lad sleepless - especially when bloody corpses start showing up in his room. Meanwhile Cartman is acting hella-weird, appearing with a moustache and goatee and being essentially the anti-Cartman, giving compliments to his friends and even delivering a food parcel to Kenny's place on a rather stormy night. Something doesn’t smell right, until two Cartmans appear simultaneously, and evil Stan and Kyle pop by for a visit. This episode is presented in 'Spooky Vision', which essentially involves pictures of (gulp!) Barbara Streisand stuck in all four corners of the screen throughout the entire show (hella-yuk!) Kenny dies...

Merry Christmas Charlie Manson: Cartman and his mum are off to Nebraska for the family Christmas get together, and the other boys have been invited along. Stan's grumpy mum won’t let him go, so he just goes anyway. After enduring six hours or so of repetitive Cartman family sing-along they finally arrive, and Stan, Kyle and Kenny get quite the shock on meeting the entire dysfunctional Cartman clan - although they at least discover the sources of most of their friend's annoying habits. Jailbird Uncle Howard breaks out and hides out in the house, and he brings a friend - one Charlie Manson. Desperate to visit the mall, where Mr Hankey is making an appearance, Kyle and Co. get a lift with the Christmas special addicted Mr Manson, and pandemonium ensues as Kyle unmasks the giant Mr Hankey as an impostor. Cops arrive, recognise Manson, a car chase ensues, and there's a siege situation at the ol' Cartman place featuring police and a rather pissed-off Mrs Marsh. Notable for a rather alternative take on the classic It's A Wonderful Life, and a song and dance number from Manson, this is one episode that always leaves me scratching my head thinking, "what was that all about?" Kenny gets machine-gunned to death.

Gnomes: The school board is considering firing Mr Garrison for not keeping his class up with current events. The class is divided into groups to make presentations to the council to save his butt, and our four fave 8-year olds get lumbered with the rather twitchy kid, Tweek - the son of the local coffee house proprietor. Having turned down a buyout offer from corporate conglomerate Harbucks (now who could they be taking the piss out of here?), who then decide to open a store next door to his, the idiom-spouting Mr Tweek writes a paper for the coffee-addled kids' assignment, condemning the practices of such big companies. They are too busy waiting up to disprove the existence of the underpants-thieving gnomes Tweek keeps raving about, so succumb and present his paper to a rapturous reception, and to the great relief of Mr Garrison. The Council goes nuts for the whole yay-the-underdog thing, with chat shows, demonstrations and gigs by hoary '70s musical ickmeisters Toto, whilst the kids befriend an underpants gnome who takes them to their underground village and doles out a few lessons on big business. Kenny gets squished like a bug...

Prehistoric Ice Man: Fascinated by the Australian Outback Guy's televisual exploits, the boys go out in search of crocodiles. Kyle falls into an ice cavern, Stan is lowered down to rescue him and they spot a guy frozen in the ice ("Dude, it's a dude!") Fighting over naming rights (Kyle wants Steve, Stan wants Gorak) they (somehow) drag him out of the hole and sled him into town. Weird scientist Mephisto is agog - could this be the evolutionary missing link? Managing to unfreeze Steve/Gorak and discovering he's alive, Mephisto dates his origins to... 1996. The issue of who found Steve/Gorak brings Kyle and Stan to the point of fighting, whilst their find himself is having immense troubles adapting to this strange future world. Deciding Des Moines is the place for him he makes an escape from Mephisto's lab (and the incessant Ace of Base muzak being played at him to help him adapt), but Australian Outback Guy is after him (better watch your butthole!) A rather stranger than usual episode, it has a nice little moral about friendship, and an utterly classic trainwreck to boot. Needless to say, of course, Kenny dies...

Comments on the video and audio I have made in previous South Park reviews apply to this disc much the same. If your only run-ins with the show have been courtesy of SBS, and if your reception is anywhere near as bad as mine was (for I can’t get it at all now!) then you'll probably do a classic cartoon-style eye-pop when you see how nicely they scrub up on DVD. The logos are still mercilessly slashed from the ends of all but the final episode, a good example of how bad this is can be found at the end of Merry Christmas Charlie Manson, where the video is frozen with Stan's mouth alternating open and closed at a great rate of knots.

(Amy presses the tape recorder 'play' button...) None of the episodes have any internal chaptering, and the disc contains no extras whatsoever (Amy presses the 'stop' button). Mercifully too this is the last disc in the series that comes in a dreadful, flimsy and thin jewel case.

And so season two comes to an end. This disc contains five episodes rather than the more usual four, and a couple of absolute classics at that (yum tum diddle tum tee!), so offers fantastic value to fans, or anybody perhaps testing the South Park collecting waters. Hella cool!