Easily the most brilliant show on television today -- if not the past decade (sorry, Simpsons) -- Trey Parker and Matt Stone have kept South Park from disintegrating into your average television comedy by keeping the material consistently fresh and timely. This couldn't be proven better than with the show's latest volume to hit DVD, "The Passion of the Jew" (August 31, SRP $19.99).

Being released the same day as that OTHER Passion movie, "The Passion of the Jew" features three of South Park's more recent episodes, each one dealing with religion in its own unique South Park way. There's "Red Hot Catholic Love," which tackles the then-recent Catholic Church sex scandal, "Christian Rock Hard," which has Cartman creating his own Christian boy band and "The Passion of the Jew," which has Kyle questioning his Jewish faith after seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Each episode both tears apart Christianity and reinstates viewers faith in religion at the same time, while keeping audiences laughing throughout.

But while anyone can poke fun of religious topics, what makes South Park so brilliant is how Parker and Stone go about making fun of religion without ever insulting viewers so much that they'll turn the program off. Sure Catholic viewers may be disgusted at Cartman crapping out of his mouth or South Park's Catholic priests' bewilderment over how to keep young boys quiet about their sexual escapades, but that's just what Parker and Stone do best -- they take viewers to that line of decency, cross it and then make everything okay again by giving the show a moral lesson. What type of lesson can come out of Cartman crapping from his mouth, you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

Of course, this collection of episodes would have never hit DVD until their respective season collections if not for "The Passion of the Jew." Timed with the release of Gibson's Passion of the Christ in theaters, the episode originally aired on March 31, 2004, at the height of Passion's popularity. Parker and Stone built up the episode with the first two episodes of season eight by having Cartman continually reference the film and yell at his friends (especially Kyle) to go see it. Finally, in this episode, they do, and to mixed results. Kyle is traumatized by it and feels personally responsible for what happened, while Stan and Kenny just feel ripped off. All of the characters go on their own little quests after seeing the movie: Kyle to his fellow Jewish community to get them to apologize for what happened on that fateful day, Stan and Kenny to Hollywood to find Mel Gibson and get their money back and Cartman -- fake mustache and all -- to the hard-core Passion fans in South Park where he tries to get them to band together and carry out Passion's "message." Controversial? Of course. Borderline insensitive? Naturally. Hilarious to the point of tears? You betcha.

Probably the funniest thing on this three-episode disc though isn't in "Passion of the Jew" (though when Mel Gibson finally does show his face it is pretty hilarious), but in one of the bonus episodes, "Christian Rock Hard." In the episode, Cartman, Butters and Token skyrocket to stardom as Faith + 1, a Christian boy band that simply takes love songs and replaces key words like 'baby' with religious references and words like 'Jesus' and 'Christ.' Hearing Cartman sing lyrics such as "Body of Christ/Oh what a body, I wish I could call it my own," "Whenever I see Jesus up on that cross, I can't help but think that he looks kind of hot" and "I want to get down on my knees and start pleasing Jesus/I want to feel his salvation all over my face," will have even nuns howling with laughter.

But don't worry -- "The Passion of the Jew" DVD doesn't just make fun of Christianity and religion in general. Parker and Stone also find the time to poke fun of popular musicians like Britney Spears, Master P and Metallica, as well as Mel Gibson. What more could you ask for?

Running a mere 66 minutes in length, "The Passion of the Jew" DVD packs in more laughs than most 2-hour comedies. The only thing missing from the DVD is a commentary by Parker and Stone on why they decided to make "The Passion of the Jew" in the first place, not to mention how they manage to continue to make such timely episodes week after week. But then again, great magicians never tell their secrets, so why should they.

SOUTH PARK: "THE PASSION OF THE JEW" WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT STORES EVERYWHERE AUGUST 31, SAME DAY AS MEL GIBSON'S THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. SOUTH PARK: THE COMPLETE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH SEASONS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD.