South Park Discussion Thread

[deadpoolRKO]

So Season 15 started last night , and it was soo hilarious

Spoiler:

I'll never agree to something without reading it again. That was such a perfect thing to tap into that almost everyone can relate to.

"mom.. could we go get some dinner? cuz i like to be whined and dined and after i've been F*CKED" ! lmao

[Revan]

I caught this episode. I thought it was pretty funny as I never read before clicking agree to updates.

And not to sound all noble since I am far from it, but there were parts of this episode that I could not believe were on television.

Spoiler:

When the CENTiPAD $hits into each others mouths... Now I have seen it all

Anyway the point was received and I thought it was funny.

[deadpoolRKO]

Spoiler:

lol yeah the metaphor behind it , how Steve Jobs " connects us all " was pretty funny.

definantly gross though

[Candy Kappa]

I wonder if anyone at South Park watches Cinema Snob, or likes the kind of movies he reviews

[deadpoolRKO]

i wonder if they'll do a charlie sheen episode this season

[BubblyShell22]

They better do a Charlie Sheen ep. As for this ep, I liked the Cartman story, but not the CentiPad thing. That was a bit gross.

[Cure]

South Park is garbage now. Too much focus on Randy and characters besides the four kids.

[Leo656]

Yeah, you can tell they'd much rather just spoof current events than tell stories and it's been a big problem. They always DID spoof current events, or at least try and be topical, but it's become very overdone. And the entire Season being dedicated to One Joke every year for most of the last several was annoying. Miss an episode, lose the plot, BUT the jokes aren't funny enough to make up for it.

Like, the Cartman and Heidi stuff is just painful and depressing to watch and I don't know what it adds to a "comedy" show. It's obvious that the writers want Heidi to be sympathetic, because Cartman tricked her into a relationship under false pretense and manipulated her into becoming just as big of a scumbag as he is. And they beat you over the head with "But she was such a good person before they got involved" and devote many, many, MANY episodes worth of subplots to them. But I'm not invested, because of One Simple Thing: She saw anything GOOD in Eric Cartman, and that means that she was a f*cking idiot from the jump, and doesn't deserve any sympathy or empathy because she created that situation. She decided to give the benefit of the doubt to a guy who once made a kid eat his own dead parents... and she got burned. "Oops." Now the result is just one MORE unlikable character on a show that's overflowing with them.

Does it happen all the time? Is it "REAL"? Sure, but Jesus, it's South Park. Does anybody watch it to see 10-year olds navigate the very real cesspool of Toxic Relationships? "Aww, isn't that funny? That girl's gonna be in therapy the rest of her life, this show is so topical and relevant."

Part of it feels like their clumsy attempt at spoofing the "equality" movement since the Cartman/Heidi stuff started at the same time as the "PC Principal" stuff. Like Trey and Matt said "Fine, if women wanna be 'equal' so bad, we'll show that girls can be just as ignorant and toxic as boys are" and set about creating a Female Cartman. But one Cartman was bad enough even though he's necessary for the show. I know women who've been in abusive relationships who used to love South Park, and they can't even watch it now because the Heidi stuff hits too close to home for them. Does anybody really wanna watch SOUTH PARK to be depressed? Not even "offended", but just plain depressed? It was a bad move.

My wife still loves it, so I see it often, but it's definitely fallen off. Even when they tried - or said they were gonna try - not to make One Joke into a whole Season, it kinda felt like it was too late. They SAID that and then did "Tegridy Farms", so I kinda don't believe them. And so, SO much "We were really high when we wrote this" kinda stuff. Santa Claus doing cocaine, that's fun. That's really, really cute, You Guys. I GET it, you love drugs. Jesus, just be funny!

I do still laugh at some of it, but mostly because their spoofing of over-the-top "PC Culture" is so bang-on that it drives the nail right through the board. It's very on-the-nose but at least SOMEONE is saying it. PC Principal being all about not bullying people while being a huge bully who literally beats up anyone, even children, who don't agree with him, "PC Babies don't even know why they're crying", all the stuff about needing multiple consent forms just to have sex with a woman... ALL of that is spot-on and very funny... The first time. I don't know how many times they really needed to REPEAT those jokes over the last five years, though; I'm PRETTY sure that anyone who was gonna get the joke, got the joke the first time.

I'unno, there's not always much on at 3 in the morning. And the two RPG games were terrific. But I can't really say it's that good. I feel like Trey and Matt have mentally moved on, and that if it were up to them they'd just have a show that did nothing but spoof current events, like a Daily Show with a less-Liberal slant, and are just using South Park as a vehicle to do that while fulfilling contractual obligations to the network.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by Cure

South Park is garbage now. Too much focus on Randy and characters besides the four kids.

Yeah, what is this recent appeal of Stan's father Randy? The rare times I hear people bring up South Park, they usually mention him. Are they trying to make him the next Homer or Peter? I rarely watch the show, usually like once in a blue moon and the most recent one I saw involving him is that apparently Stan and his family moved and Randy takes up weed and tries to sell some or something.

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

Yeah, what is this recent appeal of Stan's father Randy? The rare times I hear people bring up South Park, they usually mention him. Are they trying to make him the next Homer or Peter? I rarely watch the show, usually like once in a blue moon and the most recent one I saw involving him is that apparently Stan and his family moved and Randy takes up weed and tries to sell some or something.

The creators always seem to realize right when a character is becoming popular. I remember first beginning to notice Butters and suddenly he was in nearly every episode and a fan favorite. Same with Randy a bit after.

The characters just became popular.

[Leo656]

Trey and Matt are also big drug enthusiasts, and Randy gives them an avenue to lean into drug humor without involving the kids.

A thing I've noticed about cocaine people, for example, is that even if you don't ask, they will let you know how much they love cocaine. Like ALL the time. And when you have a show run by people who love cocaine, eventually, the show itself becomes all about cocaine. Family Guy started leaning heavy into it after it got successful; at first the main characters were all very anti-drug, but then once the people writing it started doing tons of blow, so did Peter and Lois. "Archer" pretty much pissed away an entire Season on cocaine jokes. It's a common and noticeable pattern; when the writers start spending a lot of money on drugs, the characters in the show they're writing follow suit. Because coke people just can't seem to shut up about how much they love coke. It's like Kevin Smith with weed; you can tell how much weed he's smoking by how terrible his latest project is.

I mean, I'm sure there are other reasons they use Randy so much, but you'll notice that he wasn't a COMPLETE degenerate early on. His slide into "total alcoholic/drug addict who's barely functioning as an adult" went hand-in-hand with the show's success and how off-the-rails Trey and Matt seemingly are in their personal lives. And I mean, I get it; they "force" themselves into a 6-day turnaround time for each episode so they can stay "fresh". Therefore, I'm pretty sure their entire studio looks like something out of "Wolf of Wall Street". But it's not actually funny, is the thing.

[ABrown]

Looks like I'll be watching South Park's Pandemic Special (on 9/30) on Philo since apparently the show's deal with Hulu is finished.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Leo656

If I want plots and likeable characters, there's a million shows I can watch. But sometimes, I just want to placate my Inner Scumbag. And frankly, I think if that's the only criteria, Family Guy surpassed South Park at that about 10 years ago. Because regardless of things like character consistency or plot, Family Guy is just plain more consistently funny than South Park. At least in the last decade or so.

I actually agree with everything you said in your initial post...but just for me, I know I'd probably still enjoy Family Guy if the characters still acted cordial with one another since that's how the series started and that's what was established. Like I said, I didn't have a problem with the humor...just hate that everyone is so mean to each other now. If it had started off that way, I'd probably be more cool with it.

In some ways, Family Guy also feels like the creators are tired. Didn't Seth originally want to end the series after like season 8?

Originally Posted by drgon78

I still watch the show, I agree that I would like more episodes that focus on the main 4(well 5 because Butters). I would love more episodes like Coon and Friends, Major Boobage, Imagination Land, Make Love, Not Warcraft, etc. Basically episodes with the kids being kids and ones where there grand or at least wacky adventures. But there has still been good episodes in recent seasons especially their Halloween episodes.

Don't get me wrong I like it when they focus on a character who rarely gets attention like Pip, Wendy, Scott Malkinson, etc.

That episode last season with the cable company I thought was funny and it did focus around Scott Malkinson. I really really liked it mainly because it focused around the kids and it was interesting to learn that Scott's father worked for the cable company and how deadset against streaming services he was for his family when Scott asked his father to get Disney+ since he wanted to impress the new girl who was also diabetic and watch the Mandalorian, which she was a big fan of. It was really cute, but I felt sorry for him too in regards to his crush. The extremes he took to try to get streaming at his house was crazy and using Nathan, I think it was, for Scott to buy accounts of of, or whatever, to get the service was so silly. lol Too bad I don't recall much from the rest of the season. That ep just stood out to me. Wait, was this also the episode where at the end of the ep the viewers could dial an actual phone number?

Oh another episode that was more recent that's popping into mind for me that I did find funny, was that one with Strong Woman. I LOVED the Macho Man Randy Savage references for it.

It was an interesting take on the whole Trans people in sporting competitions thing and how conflicted PC Principal and Strong Woman were because of their overly PC views. They couldn't discriminate because it wouldn't be PC, but they felt it was unfair, which led to more conflicting views on the topic. PC Principal wanted to defend Strong Woman, but felt he couldn't because it wouldn't be PC because she's a strong, independent female who doesn't need a man to fight her battles. I do feel that things are a bit overly PC now, though, and crap like this is just another problem with this whole PC culture.

Oh, that Halloween episode I think a couple of seasons ago was interesting since it was a Kenny episode and he was with Mr. Mackey. Not often you get that. They need to do more Kenny episodes in general. I loved the Coon & Friends stuff and wish they'd bring that back. I kinda wish they'd revisit the Kenny not being able to die thing again, actually. I wouldn't mind them doing another ep on Stan's Asperger's Syndrome stuff or one of his other issues...but...they pretty much already established that he has addictive tendencies like Randy and his Grandfather. I only liked the episode because we got to see Satan again and it was cool seeing him take over Stan's body, with permission, to fight the Canadian devil. lol

If they do another Coon & Friends thing, they should take some elements from the Fractured but Whole game. The final villain...so stupid. lol They could even bring back Mintberry Crunch. Bottom line, I want another ep 200/201...only with Coon & Friends. Maybe also bring back Scott Tenorman because he never fully got his revenge on Cartman.

Trying to think of another recent episode....wait, didn't they have a Christmas episode recently? I think Randy was selling really good coke or something with all the adults in town getting hooked and Santa and Jesus were in the episode...meh, the ep didn't really stand out for me.

I wonder how Matt and Trey will approach the whole COVID-19 stuff when the show returns for its usual 10-episode run.

[Leo656]

THAT was definitely one of the better episodes South Park has done recently, for sure. Literally saying "I'm a woman!" with his bushy beard and his testicles swinging around like speedbags. I mean when they want to, they can still knock out a really good one.

I pretty much see a couple episodes of both shows almost every day on account of my wife, so I've had a lot of time to really nail down what Does and Does Not work for me with either show over the last couple of years. Again, not much else on at 3am!

Altogether though my BIGGEST problem with South Park in recent times is how Comedy Central only seems to replay the same 25 episodes on a loop lately. I've seen Stan cut his stupid bracelet off so many times I don't even care anymore. But that's the network's fault.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Leo656

THAT was definitely one of the better episodes South Park has done recently, for sure. Literally saying "I'm a woman!" with his bushy beard and his testicles swinging around like speedbags. I mean when they want to, they can still knock out a really good one.

I pretty much see a couple episodes of both shows almost every day on account of my wife, so I've had a lot of time to really nail down what Does and Does Not work for me with either show over the last couple of years. Again, not much else on at 3am!

Altogether though my BIGGEST problem with South Park in recent times is how Comedy Central only seems to replay the same 25 episodes on a loop lately. I've seen Stan cut his stupid bracelet off so many times I don't even care anymore. But that's the network's fault.

Ah, we don't have cable, so I was streaming the show on Hulu, but they no longer have it. It's on HBO Max now and I'm not about to get that just to watch South Park. lol

Yeah, that ep with the trans athletes was hilarious. What was that bracelet thing with Stan? I kinda remember something about that, but I guess nothing particular stood out for me to remember anything specific.

[Leo656]

It was a Lance Armstrong/"Livestrong" spoof after he got caught doping. It turns out Jesus was on performance-enhancing drugs when he performed all of his miracles and so everyone was cutting off their rubber bracelets except Stan. Everybody made a big deal about Stan being a person of strong conviction who wouldn't cave in to public pressure and consensus, turning him into a celebrity with a bunch of Nike endorsements and "StanGround" commercials... until it turned out he did cut it off and then glued it back on once people started giving him so much attention, therefore his "convictions" were just a big play for attention and reverence, and he was just a big hypocrite like everyone else.

The "moral" was that people love to virtue signal so that everyone thinks they're Good People, but in truth just about everybody's a big phony and it's all for attention anyways.

Kinda funny. They replay it a LOT though.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Leo656

It was a Lance Armstrong/"Livestrong" spoof after he got caught doping. It turns out Jesus was on performance-enhancing drugs when he performed all of his miracles and so everyone was cutting off their rubber bracelets except Stan. Everybody made a big deal about Stan being a person of strong conviction who wouldn't cave in to public pressure and consensus, turning him into a celebrity with a bunch of Nike endorsements and "StanGround" commercials... until it turned out he did cut it off and then glued it back on once people started giving him so much attention, therefore his "convictions" were just a big play for attention and reverence, and he was just a big hypocrite like everyone else.

The "moral" was that people love to virtue signal so that everyone thinks they're Good People, but in truth just about everybody's a big phony and it's all for attention anyways.

Kinda funny. They replay it a LOT though.

Oh I remember that now...vaguely. That's so Stan, though. He cares about his image a lot. Interesting how Kyle is the opposite of that.