WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the South Park Season 23 finale, "Christmas Snow."
In the South Park Season 23 finale, the town cuts loose like never before. All the parents are behaving as if they're in frat houses or sororities, which worries the kids who wonder why their caretakers are acting like such hormone-driven teens. But the most confusing aspect of the episode, "Christmas Snow," comes when the boys discover their parents' most disturbing and oh-so deadly Christmas ritual: the drunk driving game.
It's akin to the Grand Theft Auto franchise as the parents jump into their cars, night after night, party after party, and careen into buildings and each other. Whether it's mailboxes, their garage doors or their living rooms, it's fun and games as they go rampaging around town. It's as if they're chalking up points for each crash, which the show makes even scarier as a kid in the street -- surprisingly not Kenny -- gets run over and squashed. Yep, it's that gross and that gory. What's even more disorienting is the fact the parents are in high spirits, uncaring as they see this as their duty and "the right to get shit-faced" as something earned over the year.
Think of it like the Purge but with accidents. There are no repercussions for these bloody auto sprees the next day as they all check on each other, not to see who's feeling unwell, hungover or who arrived alive but to see who had the most messed up night and by extension, the craziest accident. It's chaos they're enjoying as a ritual, right up there with making eggnog, hanging stockings, or putting up the tree. And boy, oh boy, it freaks the kids who see their parents laughing off these problems.
However, Santa Claus doesn't like them ruining the holiday season so he gets alcohol banned from the town until after New Year's. Everyone's pissed off because he's taking away their bad habit, but the ritual goes into overdrive when the mayor gets Randy Marsh's Tegridy Farms to produce Christmas Snow, a cocaine-laced weed. This fusion takes the town's high to the next level. Since their in higher spirits, the death races to see who also arrived home in the fastest time create even more havoc. It's a bigger risk with more deaths and destruction because coke has them amped up a million times more than weed did -- a selling point Randy takes pride in. And Santa, who's basically a walking, talking PSA against drunk driving, is at a loss for words as he just can't find a way to stop these adults behaving so childishly.
Even when Santa gets weed banned, Randy gets the government to make coke legal so no matter what, the parents get to carry out this sadistic ritual they see as fun and a little yuletide delight. It's not cheery for the boys, though, when Butters' mom speeds down the road with a sight that they'll never forget.
"Butters, your mom has so much holiday spirit that she's riding an ATV with her tits out," Cartman tells him, fear in his eyes. "Yeah... that's a little too much holiday spirit, if you ask me," poor Butters responds, with the gang looking on in shock at the hypocrisy their parents are putting on display. They're just spectators as Santa, viewed as a buzzkill, tries to fight the battle, but he keeps meeting defeat at every corner, realizing no matter what, this is one thing the parents will never ever sacrifice.
Starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park airs Wednesdays at 10 pm ET/PT on Comedy Central.