This week, South Park offered something it has rarely offered, much less given, in 21 years of mercilessly skewering public figures: an apology.

It was offered to Al Gore, the former vice-president who first visited South Park 12 years ago – or at least a bearded, high-pitched 2D version of himself did, voiced by co-creator Trey Parker.

In that episode, Gore tried to warn Kenny, Kyle and Stan about an imaginary monster called ManBearPig which roamed the earth, attacking humans. The kids agreed to help him find it but in the process of trying to kill it, they all nearly died. The monster was never found but a preening Gore became a star. As Stan put it: “You just use ManBearPig to get attention for yourself because you’re a loser!”

Climate change is fiction, fighting it will cause more harm than good, Gore only keeps bringing it up because he wants the spotlight. The allegory has not dated well.

It might be assumed that the episode was created at a time when we were less informed about the dangers of global warming. But Pew Research says that when the episode aired, in 2006, a marginally higher proportion of Americans, 77%, thought the Earth was definitely warmer than today, when 72% do.

Still, South Park went out of its way to give Gore a hard time for trying to focus the world’s attention on climate issues, which the cartoon suggested were inherently uncooool.

Gore never demanded an apology and only relatively dedicated students of the series have criticised the episode. One such critic, Deidre M Pike, is the author of a book, Enviro-Toons: Green Themes in Animated Cinema and Television.

“Environmentalists,” Pike wrote, “might feel as threatened by this show as they were by various environmental resolutions enacted by the Bush administration.”

This week, Parker and Matt Stone took action, with an episode that begins with the revelation that ManBearPig is actually real. The grotesque and murderous beast wreaks murderous havoc. Only Al Gore can stop it, of course, and so the children have to ask for his help.

Gore is initially unwilling and demands grovelling, repeated apologies. It turns out the only way stop the terror is to continually tell Gore he was right. And thus, South Park manages to find a way to apologise repeatedly while still mocking Gore as a narcissist, who wears a Nobel medal and a cape.

As this is South Park, there are lots of other zeitgeisty punchlines. The police believe the killings are school shootings and are therefore blase. Gore would rather be playing Red Dead Redemption.

Please, Mr Gore.

Many TV shows which felt groundbreaking even a decade ago now appear problematic. Friends, Seinfeld and Ally McBeal: all have been criticised for demeaning attitudes to women and a lack of minority characters. But they are still celebrated as products of their time.

Shows which began in the 1990s and are still going to face a different, more complicated reckoning. The most high-profile example has been The Simpsons, in which the character of Apu has been severely criticised for stereotyping south-Asian Americans. The makers of the show have responded bitterly and a dispute continues.

South Park has demonstrated more humility, while managing to stay funny. It acknowledged a major misstep without any pressure to do so and found a way to apologise while remaining on brand. And for good measure, it had an episode this season which mocked the Simpsons’ saga.

Entitled A Problem With A Poo, it saw long-running character Mr Hanky The Christmas Poo run out of town because of political correctness.