Recap: 'South Park,' Season 15, Episode 14, 'The Poor Kid'

"South Park," Season 15, Episode 14, "The Poor Kid" examines such diverse subjects as reality TV, the foster care system, America's treatment of the poor, and a whole slew of rather lame Penn State jokes which are apparently recycled Catholic Church jokes.

Spoilers follow.

The episode begins when Kenny's parents are hauled away by the police and are forced to say to the cameras, "I'm White Trash and I'm a trouble." There seems to be something about a meth lab, but apparently they were busted for being poor and drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, which is allegedly beer.

Kenny and his two siblings are hauled away to another town to live in a foster family commune. The foster parents insist that everyone be agnostic and drink Dr. Pepper, the agonostic drink. Kids who misbehave are suspended from a ceiling and sprayed with Dr. Pepper until they admit they don't know anything.

Cartman, of course, is horrified that Kenny's absence from South Park means that he is now the poorest kid at South Park Elementary. So he arranges his mom to be arrested and himself to be shipped off to foster care. Surprisingly Cartman does not get his first choice of a family in Hawaii. Instead he becomes one of Kenny's foster siblings.

Cartman does not react well to his new circumstances. For one thing, the new school he is attending is not as tolerant of his shenanigans as was South Park Elementary. For another thing, sleeping in the same room with six other boys is not cool.

The episode features the welcome return of Mysterion, the alter ego of Kenny, who demonstrates what a good brother can be by inflicting a beat down on bullies and intimidating psychotic foster parents. But Mysterion will not save Kenny in the end. Nothing can.

The situation is resolved when Cartman reports the foster parents to the police for using Dr. Pepper as a torture device. Unfortunately he is arrested and forced to say the catchphrase as well.

Everyone is back at South Park Elementary at the end of the episode. Then Kenny is eaten by a giant bird thing. Oddly, no one gives the South Park response to that. "They killed Kenny!" You know the rest.