In terms of the lifespan of the show, the most revolutionary aspect of “South Park”’s 19th season, which ended last night, is that it told just one story. “South Park,” the long-running adult cartoon on Comedy Central, is not typically a show that goes for serialization, but this past season has fit together in one long arc, albeit a rather embellished one. The show, currently helmed by co-creator Trey Parker, is infamous for its short turnaround time; episodes are often finished just days before air, theoretically so that the show can be as relevant as possible. Season 19 showcases a combination of approaches. An arc was planned in advance for the whole season; then certain topical subjects were threaded into individual episodes. In “Naughty Ninjas,” the kids unwittingly scare off homeless squatters by adopting costume and behavior that makes them look like ISIS; later, protestors that use the rhetoric of Black Lives Matter protestors, but are a collection of bougie white people, rally against police misconduct. (They all fail to recognize that the problem might be that a SWAT team was called in to deal with a fourth-grader talking too much during assembly.) In the season premiere, Cartman and Butters somehow find a bunch of Syrian refugee children and deploy them at their rivals; later, in “Safe Space,” a cavalcade of South Park residents (and… Demi Lovato?) wander through a destitute camp of starving children, leveraging the scene’s tragedy for their own selfish reasons.

This season was more socially conscious than ever, but what does that mean for a show that trades in poop jokes?