It's rather easy.. Kenny was a gimmick character. He died, nothing more, nothing less. The gimmick got old, they took him off the show. People wanted him back so they bring him back sans gimmick. Now he just stands there. Another way to think about it, when they removed Kenny from the show, they "replaced" him with funnier characters. Now that Kenny is back Butters and Tweek are pushed back into the background. So instead of seeing Butters picked on, or Tweek freaking out.. we see Kenny.. standing there.

Butters is still pretty solidly in the forground even though Kenny is back

Yeah I like what they have done with Butters.

I prefer Tweak as part of the 4-some over Kenny unless they plan to kill Kenny off every week again.

I think this episode proved how talented Trey and Matt really are. I've seen SOTL spoofed about 10,000 times over the years, yet this particular one had me rolling!

Kenny was never that important to the show and still isn't. He was always a satellite that revolved around them, never really the focus, just a way to add a joke here and there- no big deal. As long as the episodes theme is good and the jokes fresh, I'm all over it. This past episode didnt have me rolling- especially when compared to the David Blaine/SuperBestFriends rerun they aired last night.

Well, whether or not last wednesday's episode was as good as the couple before it or not, I think it's a reallyl good sign for the show. As I said, I thought South Park was headed downhill the past season or so, and was worried that one of the few comedy shows I've really liked the past several years was just going to get worse and worse as it happens for most shows. But Matt and Trey really seem to be pulling through here with fresh, genuinely funny content. You really gotta hand it to these guys.

Like most have mentioned, the whiffle bat was great, but I thought Cartman had one of his classic moments with

"Tada, how you like me now?"

That bit was ****ing hilarious!

MATT