To my knowledge, only one television show has managed to stay so fresh and relevant through seventeen seasons. Over it's impressive lifespan as a series South Park has been the most consistent animated comedy on cable television. Hell, The Simpsons jumped the shark over a dozen seasons ago and you could say with this recent Family Guy crossover, they nuked the fridge. Simpsons Season 2-10, I love you... seriously though, I think it’s time to buzz off.
 |
| Too many memories... |
If South Park can maintain it's quality I hope it never dies. At this point I’d go as far as saying North America needs South Park. It's a much needed reflection of the western world and it reminds us what is so stupid about our pop culture, and society in general. A brilliant three part episode in the seventeenth season for example parodied Game of Thrones, while also commenting on North America’s rampant consumerism and the abhorrent monstrosity which has become Black Friday. All of this coming from a show where the series premiere involved aliens probing buttholes and stealing cattle. Again we're talking about a show that started in 1997 here. The evolution that the series took around the seventh or eighth season arguably improved the formula. It saw the subject matter mirroring current events with the crude but honest skewering that South Park is famous for nowadays.
 |
| Improved the formula, with diarrhea and WoW. |
This week’s episode on the evolution of how we all ingest our media and the “Youtube” generation was phenomenal. It cements the fact that everyone who can appreciate this sense of humour should still be paying close attention to what Trey Parker and Matt Stone are putting on screen. I mean, if you can’t laugh at South Park then I feel sorry for you, but the main concern here is that young people continue to watch and continue to get a darkly comic glimpse of how extreme things could get if we let things like technology, consumerism, celebrity and appearances get out of hand. This week the boys are starting to see that the younger generation isn’t interested in actually enjoying video games or television. They’d rather watch someone like PewDiePie play as he comments alongside the video, and meanwhile the "living room" dies. It also intertwines with a story about the state of modern music and how sex has moved to the forefront of the industry, above artistic value. The episode ended on a bit of a cliff hanger, so expect a part two to arrive this coming Wednesday.
 |
| ***Spoiler Alert*** |
If there’s anything I’m trying to achieve with this post, it’s just to remind those out there ignoring South Park that it’s still the powerhouse it always has been. As Parker and Stone have grown as creators a lot of the episodes have taken even darker more depressing tones, perhaps concerned that maybe nothing will ever change. Hopefully if they continue to bash society for all of the ridiculous things going on in North America on a daily basis, people might take a closer look at themselves. I’d expect Michael Brown / Darren Wilson episode to materialize in the near future. While it’s going to be difficult to find ways to laugh at such a horrific tragedy, and truly a low point in western civilization, I have faith that the South Park guys could find a way juxtapose the issue better than anyone else.
 |
| Notice I didn't use the word tasteful. Just in case. |
Will Foran
No comments:
Post a Comment