'South Park' going south

The Daily Iowan ^ | October 22, 2008 | Brian Dau

[EveningStar]

I was watching the latest episode of "South Park" the other day when a sobering thought occurred to me. When this ridiculous animated satire about four elementary schoolers from Colorado first aired in 1997, I was just starting the sixth grade. It's enough to make one feel downright elderly. (Also, it's much more socially acceptable to admit you watch cartoons when you are 11 years old.)

Now in the middle of a 12th season, "South Park," like its audience, has changed dramatically since the airing of its first episode...

[EveningStar]

This is a somewhat negative review of the show but it reflects how quite a few fans feel.

[EveningStar]

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[SolidWood]

Disagree. The show keeps getting better. The quality rises, the political satire is sharper and the boundaries get pushed. I laugh out way more than during the first 4 episodes.

[mnehring]

This season has started out slow, but some seasons that did before ended strong.

[Soothesayer]

Totally agree. It’s without a doubt the bravest, least politically correct show on TV. I don’t think anything else even comes close.

[mmichaels1970]

The Chinese invasion episode missed a great opportunity to poke fun at the Summer Olympics. 6 year old gymnysts, computer animated fireworks, general Chinese “faking” would have been ripe. Wasted episode and opportunity in my opinion.

I may have enjoyed the Indiana Jones episode more had I actually seen the movie, so I probably missed a lot.

The Cartman-Wendy fight episode was my favorite one of the three. They kept it simple.

[HairOfTheDog]

It’s easy to be a critic of comedy. By it’s nature, no two jokes can be exactly the same (or we’d complain about that), and no two episodes will appeal to exactly the same people with exactly the same laughs. It’s going to be really variable. It cracks me up how every single episode has some people who love it and some who think it’s the worst episode ever and Matt and Trey have ‘lost their touch’.

Comedy’s not that easy to guarantee, and the business of social commentary thinly veiled or not is no less risky.

That said... I think Matt and Trey definitely do not subscribe to the ideal of “Less is More”, and I’m not sure they ever did. But there have been more and more episodes where I’ve had to watch through my fingers covering my eyes. ;~)

[meowmeow]

I'm a late comer to SP - after listening to a coworker tell me for years that he was certain I would love the show, I finally watched a couple years ago and he was right. That was also the year I got my DVR so I down loaded the all the episode titles from all seasons and set out to watch every one.

So I've seen all but a couple, and not in any particular order. A few were lame, most were hilarious but it seems like the show has stayed consistent, although in the earlier episodes I have a hard time understanding what Cartman is saying.

[BobbyT]

Colorado coal miner in bar lights a cigarette.
Rob Reiner: “Oh my God! You rednecks haven’t outlawed smoking here?”
Coal Miner: “No...I like to have one with a beer to relax after a hard day at the mine.”
RR: “When I need to relax, I just go to my vacation house in Hawaii!”
CM: “I ain’t got a vacation house in Hawaii.”
RR: “Then your vacation house in Mexico, whatever. GODDAMMIT THERE WILL BE NO SMOKING!”
Cartman: “Isn’t he awesome guys? It’s like, smoking brings a lot of people a little bit of joy, and he comes along and gets to take it away!”

One of the best episodes ever. From the limousine left imposing its will on people from the real world, to the end justifies the means, to we’re lying to you for your own good, to the climax. For a while there almost every episode had a larger “message” with only the occasional break for an off the wall episode...they need to get back to what they do best, which is skewering those who want to control every facet of our lives.

[Catholic Canadian]

The more it trashes the left, the more I love this show.

[SJSAMPLE]

South Park was the only show to call it right on the Evolution vs Creationism/Intelligent Design debate, and they did it with style.
Kudos for the Buck Rogers takeoff. Genius.

"Maybe we should let science tell us how and let religion tell us why?"

[rwfromkansas]

That was great.

[killjoy]

Yawn. Yes, the show is 11 years old, and we are all 11 years older, but so are the writers. IMHO, the show keeps getting better and better and I hope it goes on for another 11 years.

[Secret Agent Man]

Rainforest Episode. Great.

Hybrid car episode (Smug) - totally on the money.

Manbearpig. Ditto.

Old folks driving episode. Yup.

Scientology episode (Tom Cruise in the closet) So much truth there.

Joseph Smith episode. Funny and true.

Election episode (Giant Douche vs Turd Sandwich). Great.

The Imaginationland 3-part series. Great.

Cartman frozen into the future waiting for the Wii/various evolution groups fight each other over the ‘great question’. Another very good one.

Lots of good ones, but I think “Smug” is right now my favorite one.

[jmc813]

This season has started out slow, but some seasons that did before ended strong.

I would say lately that that is the norm for South Park seasons. One phenomenon I've noticed, and I hope I'm not offending anyone here, is that you can tell a lot about a person's intelligence based on whether they prefer early or modern South Parks. The less intelligent people I know love the simple crude humor of the early episodes while my intelligent acquaintances appreciate the complexity and satire of modern SP.

[jmc813]

South Park was the only show to call it right on the Evolution vs Creationism/Intelligent Design debate, and they did it with style.

Science damn it!

[subterfuge]

I love the show but this year? I haven’t laughed much. I’ll still watch every episode though—for now.

[Malsua]

Smug was good...

So was two days before the day after tomorrow.

Personally found Make Love Not Warcraft to be my favorite. It actually got me to re-sub to Warcraft and play for a few months more.

[sharkhawk]

Also the reeduction camp episode was spot on.

[Mr. Blonde]

FTA: Maybe it's an unavoidable result of making an obscene amount of money

What is an obscene amount of money? At what point does money become obscene? I really hate this phrase. It is a nice marker to denote not having to listen to someone anymore. To bad this guy saved it for the last paragraph.