Not even Cartman can resist HSM

Don't get me wrong. I'm OK with my 10-year-old daughter watching High School Musical and its sequels again and again. We'll take that over any exposure to MTV's "My Super Sweet 16," "The Hills" or the new "Knight Rider."

But there has been collateral damage - just try and get "We're All in This Together" and the rest of the HSM singalongs out of your brain after repeat plays at home and in the car stereo. Secondhand smoke never seemed so good.

So when "South Park" took on the Disney phenomenon that is High School Musical Wednesday night, I could empathize with Cartman's dismay over the pop culture phenomenon that has his classmates breaking out into Broadway-style dance numbers with the snap of two fingers.

"If this is what's cool. I'm done," Cartman says. "I no longer have any connection to this world."

Of course, this is the same program that looks for any excuse to squeeze in a musical number, albeit with lyrics raunchier than anything lip-synched by Zac Efron. But in Trey Parker and Matt Stone's bizarro world, South Park Elementary serves as the backdrop for a mirror image of the storyline presented in the Disney franchise.

So instead of a dreamy high-school jock who rebels against his overbearing basketball coach of a dad by taking the lead in his school's musical, we have a 3rd-grade sing-and-dance prodigy who defies his stage dad's wishes to play basketball.

"It's my dad," the Efron stand-in complains. "He thinks basketball is for sissies."

Subtle as always, South Park indulges in some "we shouldn't be laughing at this" humor by depicting the kid's slap-happy dad as an effeminate Great Santini who decorates their home in "Phantom of the Opera" posters. Did we mention that this twirling, lisping terror of a dad is named "Mr. Queermo"?

Not exactly high-brow, or even worthy of a guilty chuckle, but anyone who has been subjected to High School Musical can empathize with Cartman and the gang when they finally give in and accept the new reality where singing and dancing rule.