South Park is the best social criticism around

The show is not nearly as funny these days, but it's acerbic and poignant. Yesterday's Lance Armstrong-based episode was outstanding. Does anything even compare?

 

I missed that episode, but I enjoyed the spoof on "The Shining" with Randy buying the abandoned Blockbuster video store and everyone not understanding that Cartman was the Incredible Hulk.

"Aww, it's Honey Boo-Boo".

 

Yeah, it's not as good as it was at its peak, but it's still pretty damn good...

 

Their ability to create a show weeks after the news event helps, but they have a fantastic way of looking at a situation and showing the real problem and not just what people are screeching about.

The episode where Butters takes the throwing star to the eye is a perfect example. People become incensed about public nudity, which is harmless when you really think about it, instead of looking at children fighting with weapons and severely injuring themselves.

 

My favorite episode of all-time is called "Kenny Dies" and it is brilliant social satire on stem cell research and if there is 30 minutes of television that is as powerful and profoundly hilarious, I've never seen it.

 

Last night's was pretty damn good...

Nice spoof on Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches...

 

Maybe because it's an animated show and can get away with it, but what's always struck me about "South Park" is how it skewers all sides of an argument or social issue. And with speed, like the reference to the end of the Packers-Seahawks replacement ref game less than 48 hours after it ended. It's what "Weekend Update" or the second segment of "Tonight" with Johnny Carson was.

 

I think the creators are willing to go places that other shows won't go and they don't have to answer to anyone so they're not worried about getting notes from Comedy Central about toning down a joke or something like that.

There definitely are times where they seem to push the envelope just for the sake of doing so, even if it's not that funny, and when they do that, the show suffers... But, for the most part, they do pretty well...

I read an interview with Trey and Matt within the last year and they were pretty open about looking at episodes that weren't as funny and they can usually point to another project they were working on at the time when the quality slipped. That was the case when they worked on the SP movie, Team America and the Book of Mormon...

I'll be very curious how long shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park last... I can't imagine them ever being canceled. You just have to wonder at what point do the creators decide to do something else... Or maybe they're all smart enough to just keep cashing those checks...

 

This is what I was getting at.

Because of South Park's one-week turnaround and Matt Stone and Trey Parker holding a general resentment toward all idiocy, they provide relevant and balanced social criticism in a way no one else does these days. The Colbert Report may be the leading contender, but it's so politics-heavy. The Daily Show is even more political, and it comes entirely from one side of the view, making it easy to dismiss. The late-night shows have been beaten into submission on social criticism.

Most of my favorite episodes of South Park are more funny than incisive, but I like that the show has turned toward the latter style to keep itself relevant. It's impossible to be funny for 15 seasons. South Park has become a serious social criticism mixed in with some of the same fart jokes that have always buoyed the show. It's light-hearted but important.

 

I like that it mocks all sides. Colbert, Stewart and Weekend Update are typically one-sided.
But I don't like that 'South Park' often foresakes humor in favor of commentary.

 

I'd still put The Onion at the top. The written part. I do like most of their videos too but they're probably a notch below the paper/online.

 

The Onion as faux newspaper cracks me up. Still does.
The videos and the show, I've never really cared for them.

There's something inherently great about the dryness and absurdity of the written stories.