South Park

Though to be fair, the best episodes of the earlier seasons were some of the best in the entire franchise, it's just that I'd rather watch a full season at random of the newer episodes than a full season at random of the older ones.

There's way too much "lol this thing we think is weird is stupid, fuck you if you disagree" in the older seasons, but over time that changed. I tend to see South Park as a good example of a series that survived a long time by changing its approach with its audience, for the better.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jun 13th 2020 at 3:58:48 AM

I get what you’re saying but references to current events don’t always age well.

Neither do immature potshots.

I'd rather watch a good comedy that runs the risk of being dated ten years from now than a comedy that could be better but is recognizable for what it is forever.

For another, South Park was always about dated current events references, it's just that their approach towards them changed over the years. And really, people tend to overstate how badly being dated affects series in the first place.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jun 13th 2020 at 3:59:05 AM

In my opinion, the best season of South Park is whichever was running when the viewer was twelve. It always relied on a rather juvenile sense of humour.

Good juvenile humour, on several occasions, but still.

Edited by Kayeka on Jun 13th 2020 at 12:57:26 PM

The show is made so stupidly fast that there is little to no filter on whatever topic the episode is about, and so the voice of the creators make it incredibly unique rather than being scrubbed away until nothing notable is left. The show can't help but run into Seinfeld Is Unfunny because they shredded the boundaries of acceptable television content, but while the graphic content is nothing special anymore the creative viewpoint has remained rather consistent.

One thing is I didn't realize the "fecal transplant" episode last season was an actual thing (including DIY attempts that went wrong), I thought it was a parody of luxury/cosmetic procedures going out of control.

No, it is a real thing, and it could have medical applications for people with a damaged microbiome (think people who have had radiation treatment, for example). Of course some people read that and think they can just transplant someone else's shit and be healthier for it. This of course does not work: first of all, hospitals filter that stuff down for obvious reasons, and second, not all gut biomes are the same, and some can disagree rather violently to each other.

And yeah, this show has stopped being shocking a long time ago, with a few exceptions.

And the show occasionally makes huge blunders because of their topicality. Remember Butters' special episode, where the creators went out of their way to accuse several groups of parents of murdering their own child? Yeah, turns out several of these were entirely innocent. That is just plain irresponsible, and rather indefensible.

> where the creators went out of their way to accuse several groups of parents of murdering their own child? Yeah, turns out several of these were entirely innocent. That is just plain irresponsible, and rather indefensible.

I'm going to ask for a source on this,please

I think the best parts of South Park tend to be their longer stuff. I'm talking about the movie and the games.

From wikipedia:

From an interview:

Yeah... conviction by media is not a good look, especially when you turn out to be wrong.

And I think calling that a "joke" is rather disingenous. They basically lined them up and had a character call them guilty to their faces. That's not a joke, that is out and out playing judge.

Edited by Redmess on Jun 13th 2020 at 2:11:19 PM

Public apologies are a good look, though,

x4 In the Episode, Butters' Very Own Episode, Butters' mom attempts to kill him; he survives but Mr. and Mrs. Stotch think he's dead and they blame "Some Puerto Rican Guy". Because of this, they befriend O. J. Simpson, Gary Condit, and Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey, all who claimed people they knew who were murdered by "Some Puerto Rican Guy" (Nicole Brown Simpson, O. J.'s ex-Wife, Chandra Levy who was having an affair with Condit before her disappearance, and JonBenet Ramsey, the Ramsey's Daughter).

After the media hype died down around JonBenet's death, investigators had found enough evidence that by 2008 they no longer considered Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey suspects in her death, although there's been some who still think it was them. For Chandra, in 2009 an El Salvadoran man named Ingmar Grandique was charged with her murder; sentenced to life in 2010, he was then freed in 2015 after the courts learned their star witness had perjured himself. All 3 Deaths are still to this day unsolved.

Matt and Trey have regretted their depictions of the Ramsey's and Condit in that episode.

x2

Edited by DingoWalley1 on Jun 13th 2020 at 8:19:30 AM

Yeah, commenting on politics or social trends is one thing, trying to comment on a running criminal investigation is quite another. Thankfully they didn't do any more of that.

False accusations destroy lives of innocent people. They were lucky they weren't sued over that.

Edited by Redmess on Jun 13th 2020 at 2:24:46 PM

There has been a number of times where their train of thought writing has backfired and would have benefitted from stepping back from it or dropping the idea altogether. Unfortunately, unlike regular news media people are more likely to see an older episode of South Park years later so it becomes harder to understand what they were doing in the midst of the media storm. That was probably a lesson to them not to go down those paths.

It is funny, though, I've only casually watched The Simpsons before but with it all on Disney Plus I've been watching from the beginning. It's been an eye-opening journey seeing how the show has reflected the culture of the time, while also having a lot more depth and humanity than given credit. It's become a meme of the show "predicting" just about everything that has come to pass, from Trumps presidency to the "Osaka Flu."

I think we could say that South Park has fallen into a similar direction, as there are still a number of episodes that hit Values Resonance.

You are absolutely right, there, the first seven or so seasons of The Simpsons are widely considered its best seasons. The show has been going downhill ever since then.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/south-park-coronavirus-pandemic-special-comedy-central-1234770770/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

There's a 1 hour special coming out on September 30. It's centered on the Coronavirus.

... Well, that sure is something.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 15th 2020 at 9:14:16 PM

I'm either going to love or hate this episode. I just know it.

I really wish they'd move on from Randy, but it seems they've been using his plots to express discontent with their own work (especially the season finale last season). I suspect they now resent having to be the cartoon to tackle current events and I'm curious to see how they're gonna get through this year.

One thing that confuses me in the preview (spoilered to be safe): They seem to play Cartman as a straw character arguing against reopening of schools, while Kyle seems to be the straight man as usual, but he's concerned about spreading germs. Are they ultimately going to be for or against the reopening of schools, in that case?

Yeah, I'm pretty sick of Randy too, and I agree it seems to be a sign of cynicism about their own show, just like the Cancel South Park stunt.

And honestly, I have no idea what message they are going for. Given their history, it could be either some toothless bothsiderism or just a refusal to take a stance altogether with an "all sides suck" message.

I guess I can see Kyle being like "no school to protect ourselves" and Cartman like "no school bc it sucks lol" but I still don't know what they'd be going for. It'd be interesting (and very relatable) to see Kyle play the sorta-paranoid constant-existential-crisis role, if they go for that. (And God knows what they'd do with Tweek in this scenario...)

& You both nailed exactly what my beef with the show is. I'm sick and tired of Randy, & I'm sick and tired of their "both sides" approach. They failed to say anything meaningful on the anti/pro-vax debate, on the internet troll/misinformation problem, and I'm sure they'll fail to say anything meaningful about the pandemic and the failed response to it. Would be interesting to see them tackle the issues of racism and such with their bizarre point of view, i.e. the rednecks beating Tuong Lu Kim for being a "virus carrier" just by being Asian, until they discover he's not Asian at all. But I bet they'll just put another zany Randy scheme on the front and center and say "everybody sucks, get over it".

At this point South Park needs to be put to rest just like the Simpsons.

Forgot Tuong Lu Kim was still around for a second TBH.

They'll probably do that meaningless thing of slapping together two recent topics and calling it clever like they did in the Season 21 premiere. They already seem to be doing that with the cops teaching in the schools and I doubt they'll do anything truly meaningful with that (like commentary on the very strict rules in some online classes, like no pajamas or eating or looking away from the camera).

They'll probably represent the Floyd protests as being about something stupid. Maybe they'll rope Chadwick Boseman's death into it somehow. Who knows? They can do anything at this point and people will praise them just because it's South Park.

South Park is like that one person who is loud and offensive to everyone in the room,sometimes you wish you could tell them to 'shut up' but you don't want their attention

My problem is some people literally just don't want to criticize the show. Ever. They think satire is some magic shield that prevents criticism and treat it and the creators like a Sacred Cow.

Without getting into detail, I thought "Board Girls" was a poorly done episode with unclear writing and an unclear message. I was bombarded with people accusing me of being politically correct and claiming I shouldn't watch the show if I don't agree with their points, even though there are other episodes I like. Never mind the fact even some episodes that I do agree with ideologically, I don't think are that well done, and vice versa. There are times the episodes are not "nuanced" and it's okay to point that out.

People can't praise the show for poking fun at everybody and then freak out if somebody pokes fun at the show. Satire can be bad - in fact, it's very hard to pull off. I was surprised how many people thought the season finale last year was a stroke of genius because it...showed Santa and Jesus doing coke.

South Park really is Cartman in that case.

I don't think any of those people come here, though.

It's not just satire, either. Some people seem to think that if you are critical of a show and dislike some episodes, you must hate it, and therefore you shouldn't even be watching or talking about it.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 16th 2020 at 12:55:32 PM