Overly dependant? If most of the buzz about a particular entertainer revolves around the latest 'shocking' thing he did, rather than his talent as an artis of whatever sort, that's a sign that he's overly dependant on shock value. Howard Stern is, again, the pathological example: I'm not sure he
has any talent, other than being disgusting and outrageous. Madonna had real talent as a singer, Matt & Trey have real talent in imagining funny situations and expressing them in animation.
I'll admit that the border between overly dependant, and not so, is a bit fuzzy, and a bit elastic. South Park, taken as a whole, is (IMO) somewhere on that border.