Posi O.

Since the creation of cable television, only few shows have been able to not only premiere a golden pilot with immense potential for innovation in entertainment and comedic satire, but to also maintain and stay consistent with delivering top quality episodes week after week for at least 17 seasons. Nowadays, cable TV seems to be overrun with competition programs, "reality" shows (because we know exactly how "real" those are), scratchy teen dramas, and just about everything from shows about dads neglecting their kids, to dads and moms taking care of their 20 kids. But with this enormous influx of shows being created, produced, filmed, and premiered every day, there seems to be an ever increasing minority of shows which are actually worth spending your time on, and with an even smaller portion of these being cartoons, I'm glad a show like South Park sets the bar high and keeps the torch burning bright for adult entertainment (not the naked kind). The 250+ episode show started out as an animated short film in 1992, The Spirit of Christmas, which became one of the first viral internet videos. Comedy Central then hit the jackpot signing up the show's creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and over time, transformed the potential for a good show into an American cultural franchise. With an unorthodox yet immensely effective creative and writing process, it's really no wonder how South Park has become Comedy Central's front runner alongside The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
The show is based in Park County, Colorado in the mountain town of South Park and is centered around 4th graders, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, and fan favorite, Eric Cartman. This simple setting provides the perfect conduit for political and social satire, and the expression of complex and varying issues and personalities. Stan Marsh, the oldest of the group is just a "normal, average, American, mixed-up kid," shy around his girlfriend, and like many others, tries to to find where he belongs in life, (one of these journeys leads to him being the next L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology). Kyle, his best friend, is the only Jew in his school and comes from the only Jewish family in South Park. Of everyone in the group he is of the highest moral standing, and most times makes the most rational decision and statements. Kenny McCormick is the poor kid in school who used to die at the end of almost every episode (he just wakes up later in his bed like nothing happened), and is always wearing a parka which muffles his voice. This dying feature of Kenny's is explained by Trey Parker, who said Kenny is based off a childhood friend of his by the same name who was also the poorest kid in the neighborhood, and used to skip school so much it caused the other students to jokingly claim he had died. Eric Cartman is the obese, spoiled, bigoted, greedy, murderous, manipulative, politically incorrect (you get the drift) character very loosely based off of All in the Family's Archie Bunker. Kyle, the Jew, and Kenny, the poor kid, are frequent targets of his prejudice insults and oftentimes laugh out loud wisecracks. However, what really gives the characterization its pizzazz is not only how these four seemingly different characters always hang out and go through hilarious adventures, but how flexible each characters is, allowing for the portrayal of many societal concepts. For example, Cartman has represented Dog, the bounty hunter, Adolf Hitler, an African pirate captain, leader of a ginger cult, and border patrol leader. All of these portrayals represented what could happen when the wrong person is given "authoritah." The show is setup in such a way that most times, Kyle will represent the moral side of a topic and Cartman the exact opposite, making for some great dialogue and excellent comedy.
As I stated earlier, South Park isn't only notable for it's comedy, but also for its intelligent plots. Their representation of the effect of the global economic recession of 2008, as well as how they synthesized it with the story of Jesus in the bible was incredible to say the least. Kyle represented Jesus, spreading the gospel of economic recovery, Cartman represented Judas, sneakily selling out Kyle for a video game. The episode ends with Kyle paying for everyone's debt by himself, thus bringing them out of the recession. Trey Parker and Matt Stone wanted to put into focus how most Americans treat the economy as a religion, something they don't quite understand yet seems important. This genius episode, Margaritaville, earned the creators the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for Programming less than one hour. Another great episode is the Mystery of the Urinal Deuce, which gave varying perspectives on what happened on 9/11, and also explores conspiracy theories, (Cartman's conspiracy being that Kyle the Jew was behind the attack). It provides the evidence which will make a conspiracy very likely, but then provides a different perspective- that all the mediums that provide evidence for a 9/11 conspiracy are run by the government, or in other words, "the 9/11 conspiracy, is a conspiracy."
At the core, I'd say South Park is a different show because it's created differently. The writers only give themselves one week to produce a finished product to the network, oftentimes working 100 hour weeks and submitting the episode to Comedy Central hours before its premiere. This abnormal process is what the creators claim adds the spice to their show, allowing themselves a one week time slot makes the show not only funnier, but makes the content much more recent, for example, the episode about Obama winning presidency was broadcast the day after he won, and some of Obama's dialogue in the show was taken from the actual acceptance speech he gave not up to 24 hours prior. The show has also resonated well with American culture, spawning its own holiday, National Draw Muhammad Day is support of freedom of artistic expression and free speech, which came about after an episode depicting the prophet Muhammad in a bear costume resulted in death threats aimed at those responsible for the content. All in all, if you're a lover of edgy plots, racy language, and sensitive subject matter filtered through satire and comedy, South Park is the perfect destination.