South Park, "Gluten Free Ebola"

Ah, it’s been a while since the people of South Park have been in a full-blown panic. When there’s a story about something that could harm us, you can count on the little mountain town losing its collective crap. It always makes for some free laughs (at least from me), and more than that: every time the news ominously strokes our fears about the latest threat, the ridiculousness of the townspeople’s rabid hysteria cuts the tension and lets us know we shouldn’t all freak out. And that reassurance couldn’t have come at a better time than now.

This time, the threat sending the town into a frenzy is a potential health crisis. No, not that one (though the episode clearly has its allegorical eye on it, spelling it out in the title for those who can’t catch the connection otherwise). The culprit causing all the panic is gluten. In one of their patented reversals, the show appears to be ripping on the latest food trend (going gluten-free) and its adherents who take every opportunity to tell people about it. But low and behold, the little wheat compound causes some hilarious maladies.

The episode doesn’t go as far with its concept as it could have, and doesn’t make much of a point about gluten-free dieting or disease scares, other than that panicking is a bad idea. But then, that seems to be by design. The final revelation about the now-retired food pyramid (anyone else remember that?) seems to distinctly not make a point besides saying "Screw you!" to fad diets, while reminding those looking to dissect the episode for a bigger message that it’s just a cartoon.

The solution worked well and was funny. Many other parts—the vulgarly macabre gluten deaths, the aforementioned panic scenes with dim-witted everyman Randy front and center, Cartman’s supremely weird dream about pyramids and Aunt Jemima—were, too. The B storyline—a conclusion to last week’s plot in which the four main boys try to get Lorde to perform at a party to win back their friends—was a disappointment, however. After building the point up the whole episode by referring to but never actually showing the singer, they could have at least provided an amusing celebrity parody instead of just more Randy.