Right now, Comedy Central is airing the 12th season of “South Park”. When the show first aired, I was in college and, much like every 20-year old male, worshiped the show. I have watched the first two episodes of this season and, well, I am not impressed.
The problem is that the first two episodes of this season haven’t pushed the envelope, but instead, have been obnoxiously crude. Last week, the episode dealt with AIDS. I won’t lie…I have laughed at stand-up comedians (Louis CK) and other funny things (”Family Guy”) that have made jokes about AIDS. The problem with “South Park” is that it was a 30-minute AIDS joke. That really isn’t funny.
Then, last night, the “South Park” guys decided to make their own personal “Leave Britney Alone” video. I don’t have a problem with that, heck, I even agree with them. The problem was the delivery. It was sick, gross, twisted, and hypocritical. They took shot after shot at Britney and the entire time, tried to show how obsessed Americans are with her. Don’t get on your high horse and try and tell the world to leave her be, then sixty seconds later, turn around and make jokes about her weight. I’m not a Britney supporter, in fact, she is a complete whack-job.
Maybe Trey Parker and Matt Stone have run out of shocking topics? Maybe they are getting a bit too mean as they get older? Maybe my tolerance for sick humor has decreased as I have gotten older? Whatever it is, “South Park” has become a bit too twisted for me.
18 Comments
March 20, 2008 at 1:35 PM
Actaully, you missed the point. The Britney jokes were actaully not supposed to just be a ‘joke’, they were to point out how shallow the media can be when covering someone who they should be decent about and back off, instead of explioting.
March 20, 2008 at 1:39 PM
No, I get it…it’s just not funny.
March 21, 2008 at 6:13 PM
I think the problem is the first two episodes of season 12 have been “one-punchline” jokes. There was only one real punchline in episode 1, i.e., the cure for AIDS is cash. Episode two didn’t even really have much in the way of humor; rather than one punchline, it kinda had one “point,” the point being that America is stupidly obsessed with tearing down its icons. Valid… but not enough to carry a whole episode by itself with out more creative humor along for the ride.
March 21, 2008 at 7:46 PM
That is exactly it. You are right on the money John. Each episode has been one joke and that is it.
March 21, 2008 at 10:01 PM
It’s not about getting old, age has nothing to do with it. I am the same age as Trey Parker and unlike him my sense of humor has remained intact. This show has just changed on an epic scale and is not funny anymore. I have been reading south park fans reactions to the Britney episode and am shocked to see that so many people thought it was “hilarious” and “genius” while the rest of us who thought it sucked are being told we just “didn’t get it”. I for one “got it”, and have been trying to get rid of it ever since. This episode was disappointing on many levels, mostly because, as Will says in comment #1, it “wasn’t supposed to be a joke”. Well excuse me Will, but isn’t South Park supposed to be funny? And if South Park isn’t joking anymore than what good is it?
April 10, 2008 at 11:36 AM
I had been waiting anxiously for season 12 – up to season 11 there had still been sterling episodes in each season. Admittedly some were average, but there were still various comic moments throughout each episode – the dialogue and characterisation has been great, one of the main reasons why I’m still watching this thing.
Season 12 has been a disappointment so far, though. I understand that there are messages in each episode, and I recognise that it isn’t overly crass for the sake of being offensive or controversial. In fact, perhaps the messages are even more acute now than before. However, my main gripe is that it just isn’t funny anymore! The comic timing, the blend of slapstick and wit in scenes, it’s missing from these episodes. In previous episodes almost every scene had some sort of comic effect produced, whether slapstick or ironic. The few Season 12 episodes released as yet have few jokes – like the previous commenters say, just one underlying joke per episode, a joke that is stretched out and dissected to such an extent that it loses any comic effect that it may have had the potential to create. Most of the scenes aren’t so much of entertaining as just trying to further the plot, to make the point and contribute to the underlying joke (which by then has grown stale), while the previous success of South Park lay in some of the dialogue, which played expertly with viewers’ expectations and perverting them to great comic effect.
I’d watched 1201 and 1202: there was still a semblance of humour, and yes, they had a purpose, they had messages out for the viewers, if not humourously presented. However, the recent episode 1205: Eek, A Penis!, was just horrible and crass, even for South Park standards. The subplot (in fact, one of the two equally trivial plotlines in the episode) of Mr Garrison chasing his transplanted escaping penis was simply ludicrous and gross, to put it plainly. I didn’t even get what message South Park was trying to put across in this. The other plotline, of Cartman teaching the black children to cheat, was slightly more comprehendable, but there was really only one joke reiterated over and over.
To be honest, I wasn’t never big on the sexual and insensitive humour portrayed by South Park, but what offset all these in the past was the great dialogue, the comic timing, and everything else that allowed it to survive despite its mediocre graphics. However, I’m not seeing any of this in the latest season.
April 23, 2008 at 4:42 PM
I don’t know about you guys but I’m European. ‘Nuff said.
About the show, I don’t understand it anymore. When I first saw it I was 12 years old and my reaction was “Oh my god they’re swearing on tv, how funny, especially the *Bleep* sounds. When I was 15 I couldn’t see the point in the show anymore. Messing with cencorship in US ain’t that big. It ain’t even funny to begin with. What are Matt&Trey thinking? “Look at us! We are showing a penis on a mouse on tv and we show this ’cause we can!”
As with the jokes, where are they? An episode usually contains a running joke of some sort which isn’t funny, especially when it is repeated again and again. And the “jokes” are just plain randomness, like penis-on-a-mouse, where the funny thing is, well, penis-on-a-mouse. It is absurd, but not absurd humor. It is just a penis-on-a-mouse. A thing. A noun. A thing every second grader could have invented.
The plot is just pure randomness too. Humor, no matter how insane, has a logic. But in South Park, every plothole and fallacity can be repaired with even a bigger plothole.
And what is with the second class American celebrities, phenomenas and movies? If that is satire, I think all the deceased European satirists and Mark Twain are spinning in their grave. South Park isn’t satire ’cause it barely makes any strikingly amusing statements about the society by using WIT! For example, taking Mel Gibson, making him a coprofilic sado-masochistic lunatic who goes around wearing only his undies isn’t neither truthful nor funny. M&T propably thought it would be funny ’cause he is, afterall, Mel Gibson. I mean, you could have made so many anti-semite related jokes on him, how he is denying everything and all but no; shit and sadism is all the viewers will get. Same goes with all the celebrity parodies that are sucking so hard we people here in Europe can barely keep our socks on.
I could break every episode into pieces ’cause by watching one, you’ve seen them all. They’re all just shit and celebrities with no real humour in them. M&T are just making these series ’cause they don’t know how to make anything else. Even know they’re propably laughing at the hardcore fanboys calling the newest episode “a masterpiece”. The joke is on you, viewer, and it isn’t funny.
April 23, 2008 at 6:26 PM
I miss Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Animal Sanctuary.
oh yeah, and when South Park was funny back in 1998.
May 6, 2008 at 1:50 AM
Towlie? for real?
May 26, 2008 at 9:19 PM
Agree South park dose seem to have lost there touch. i enjoy watching the older Eps. more then newer ones. I have a pretty good feeling South park is coming to an end. Which is Sad but there just not as good anymore.
I blame Kenny, someone should kill him =P
June 11, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Totally disagree! I think it’s awesome! Only ONE single episode sucked donkeyballs out of over 10 seasons. And that was the episode all about “Pip”.
Though I can say that I once was a huge The Simpsons-fan, and now, I’ve found South Park as my source of a daily laugh. Simpsons just doesn’t cut it anymore. I like the cruelty that still isn’t more than a harmless joke. Making fun of Jarred, Britney Spears, Jimmy Buffett, Alan Jackson, Michael Jackson, Barbara Streisand and many other is pretty funny, and you know that it isn’t personal. Though they maybe went a little too far with the “Steve Irwin with a stingray in his stomach”-thing.
South Park still rules, though I miss Chef and Isaac Hayes!
October 25, 2008 at 7:36 PM
South Park is ridiculous. That is the point. It’s a satire on current events. The only people who will understand this show are the ones who understand that our culture has problems. as far as the britney episode, it was great. What was funny? the attack on the media/american public obsession with britney. The weight/camel toe/peeing on a lady bug subjects were being used against the media in the show, not against britney. They were emphasizing that these topics were ridiculous to use against her just as many that are really used. For example making stories on how she’s lost her mind or her bad parenting (which is used in real life). I’m not sure how you all missed that but w/e.
November 6, 2008 at 9:45 AM
[...] Sorry if it’s not funny. Posted by Dan Collins @ 2:45 pm | Trackback Share This [...]
November 24, 2008 at 11:35 PM
You are fucking retarded. what are you looking for in this show? just for it to be an envelope pusher? well they pushed it and now it’s too sick and twisted for you. go cry about it you biggity bitch. Rule out the obscenities they add for dramatic effect (because thats all it is DRAMATIC EFFECT, which is damn hilarious) and get your head out of your ass and you will see that south park is truly one of the most glorious show’s ever made.
November 25, 2008 at 12:42 PM
wow. angry much?
and I think you mean biggot-y. however, what part of this post makes Mr CC a biggot? *sratches head*
April 15, 2009 at 11:09 PM
wow…glorious? what kind of acid are you on…things that are worshipped are described as glorious…..
as for south park…its really losing its mojo…fast…the last couple of episodes have been really …….really weak…like the pinewood derby car episode…complete garbage…or the fishsticks joke….im like fuck already man
June 6, 2009 at 7:37 PM
dude here is the thing. you were around 20 when it south park first started. this means that you are around 32 now. see as you grow you mature. this means that the shit you thought was once funny is now immature. therefore south park today, for you, isn’t funny. seeeeeeeee. so pretty much screw you guy. i’m going home
July 6, 2009 at 2:04 AM
Anonymous is right. It’s like they say in that Red vs. Blue PSA about tattoos:
“You are a goddamn idiot, and I would like to prove this mathematically if I may. Take your current age. Subtract 10 years from it. Were you smart back then? No, you were a goddamn idiot. Truth is, you’re just as much of an idiot now, it’s just going to take you 10 more years to realize it.”
I’m a 20 year old college student. While I will admit there is the occasional dud episode, I think this show still kicks ass.