This week, South Park discovered gay fan-fic and handled it with its trademark mix of irreverence, cynicism, insight and even (yes) tenderness.

In "Tweek x Craig" the girls at South Park elementary have discovered yaoi, Japanese romance comics that focus on boys in love, thanks to several new Asian-American classmates.

They're inspired to start drawing their favorite romantic couple, Tweek and Craig (or as shippers call them, "Creek").

Of course, Tweek and Craig aren't gay (or a couple) in real life—er, real cartoon life—so there's confusion among the boys of South Park Elementary.

Why would girls draw them snuggling and taking each others' clothes off?

The kids aren't the only ones picking up on South Park's latest "couple": PC Principal calls Craig and Tweak into his office for a lecture about consent, and all the local parents are thrilled to have some gay kids to show how progressive they are.

Drawings of Tweek and Craig become a popular item at the farmer's market and the community finds their young love inspiring.

Cartman finds a way to make all this drama about himself (as per usual), by bringing Cupid Me back into the picture—having conversations with himself and turning down advances from his imaginary double.

And Stan's dad, Randy, thinks he needs to have a "talk" with his son about all this, but Stan doesn't really have any questions about homosexuality. He's more confused why girls would draw two straight friends as lovers.

"What makes the Asians decide who is gay?" he asks a completely perplexed Randy (who actually calls Chinese Premier Xi Jinping for answer).

Tired of the insanity, Tweek and Craig decide to fake a break-up to end it all. But that just sends the community into a depression, and gives everyone new material for Creek yaoi.

Eventually Tweek and Craig begin to realize the benefits of being South Park's premiere same-sex couple: Adults shower them with money, they don't face punishment at school, and all the attention has given Tweak confidence he never had.

So, the two start holding hands in public, and the rest of the town is free to interpret every little gesture of friendship as romance.

In reality Tweek and Craig yaoi has been a "thing" for some time. Earlier in the week, Trey Stone and Matt Parker actually solicited Creek fan art from viewers, just to give the episode an extra touch of realness.

And they delivered plenty of great material.

This season, South Park's 19th, has seen storylines continue from episode to episode, so it'll be interesting to see if Matt and Trey have more plans in store for Creek.