If you’ve ever heard of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, then you know Comedy Central’s animated series South Park. They are the creative geniuses and voices behind the raunchy show that breaks so many rules of both modern television and social norms, with banter that much of society deems unacceptable. The show’s animation is nothing too special—it’s the voiceovers (most of which are done by Stone and Parker), and the imitations of celebrities and other distinct groups of people that make the show so spectacular. South Park takes different headlines in pop culture and transforms otherwise serious subjects into satirical parodies. They hit upon a plethora of heavy topics on various facets of life—including immigration, disease, and religion—which they tend to deride until resolution at the end of an episode where a lesson is conveyed.
The show is gritty and doesn’t care about being politically correct or offending people of any gender, age, race, religion, or sexual orientation. There are jokes about topics that can definitely come across as hurtful to a lot of people. For this reason, the show is absolutely not for everyone; however, if you have a dark/dirty sense of humor or are just interested in seeing what Stone and Parker are putting out there, I recommend giving it a try.
The show aired in the summer of 1997, and since then they have produced 23 seasons, two specials, and a movie. Each season has ten or more episodes, and each episode is about 22 minutes in length, so it is quite easy to binge. Also, you don’t have to watch the episodes in any specific order, other than a few that are meant to be watched consecutively. This allows you to jump around and binge the episodes or seasons that appeal to you most. The show does a great job staying up to date with current events and introducing stories that are relevant each year.
Even though the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to just about every TV and movie production process, South Park stayed relevant by releasing two one-hour episodes, called “The Pandemic Special” and “South ParQ Vaccination Special.” These episodes sort of scoff at people who believe in far-fetched theories about the legitimacy of the coronavirus and its origins, and what getting the vaccine would be like. This gives you a sense of the ridiculousness of South Park. These episodes were called ‘specials’ because they were each an hour long and didn’t fall under any specific season. Currently, the highly anticipated, full-length Season 24 is being created.
Although each episode is carefully planned and well thought-out, the humor is very crude and has the potential to be offensive to a large portion of the audience. Before the first episode of Season 1, Stone and Parker created a 10-minute episode, released in 1995 while the creative duo was still in college at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This short episode, called “The Spirit of Christmas” or “Jesus vs. Santa,” spread rapidly and gave the show recognition from Comedy Central, which is why they were given the go-ahead to develop the show. It mocks Christianity and other religions, which may be displeasing to many viewers—but it does so in a way that there is a lesson at the end of the chaos. Such lessons are always told through the perspectives of the main characters Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman, who are in just about every episode. The most ironic part of South Park to me is that most of the sexual humor and profanity are being displayed by these four boys, who happen to be fourth graders.
Here’s the backbone for the script of most episodes: they introduce the setting, which is the town of South Park, and then they create a problem, usually comical, with one or more of the main characters. Then the episode will use spiteful humor while solving the problem, which will be resolved in a foolish way. One of the characters will always act as a voice of reason and tends to be on the right side when the resolution happens. The show often uses parody to ridicule famous people that they use as characters. They portray everyone from Mark Zuckerburg and George Bush to Kanye West and Michael Jackson. Most of the time these characters are represented as exaggerated versions and in belittling ways that would be highly offensive if they saw it.
The show has been sued three times, most notably for copyright infringement for an episode called “Imaginationland,” but it has never lost, as parodies fall under the doctrine of fair use. Additionally, it has never been canceled for being too harsh or too hostile. Of course, I’m sure that many people despise some episodes. However, it does well enough to be renewed (now through 2022), which means there will be at least two more seasons. The show has won Emmy Awards for the “Outstanding Animated Program” category for numerous episodes. Ideally, the upcoming season will bring more Emmy nominations with plenty of hilarious content for South Park bingers to laugh at.
To me, the show seems to keep getting funnier and we can expect more insensitive and absurd jokes from the infamous comedy duo. In all, South Park is a simple, raw, and groundbreaking show for its time. It opened the door for pushing the limits on what is allowed to be said and getting away with it, with an attitude of “we don’t care” that has made for great television moments!