I figured with all of the discussion this series was getting on this site all of a sudden, that I might as well re-create its topic, but, uh....not to continue that other discussion, which is done with, now.
Anyways, just share you general thoughts/opinions on this show.
As for me, anyone who knows me knows that I like this show. Personally, its my 2nd favorite modern animated comedy behind Futurama. I'm one of those people who still enjoy the new seasons, though, not as much as seasons 3-8 which were when the series was in its prime, IMO. Still, I find a lot of episodes which get me to laugh out loud a good amount. For season 14, the 2 stand-out episodes for me, personally, were "You have 0 friends" and "Insheeption." The rest mostly ranged from either decent to good, for me, with the exception of 2 particular episodes which I just downright didn't care for; those being "Sexual Healing" and "It's a Jersey Thing."
I get a lot of enjoyment out of this show's style of humor, and for me it hasn't really changed its formula at all since season 5, so it kind of attests to how much I personally enjoy this show that I still haven't gotten tired of it, even if its humor is actually pretty repetitive, if anything.
I guess I am rather polarizing on this show. I first saw the show in fourth grade back in 1998, thanks to the Today Show showing a clip of Kenny being choked to death by the tetherball poll, and fell in love with it(I was already a fan of Beavis and Butthead and a lifelong fan of The Simpsons). I really like most of seasons 1-8(with exceptions like Scott Tenerman Must Die, but I won't get into it if you don't want me to), but season nine came along with "Mr Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" and I kind of changed my views on the show(it's really fucking disgusting, and not even the sex change part; more like a tall Kyle have his knee-caps blown out). I have still watched it off and on, and there have been lots of great episodes since then, like "Make Love Not Warcraft" and "Go God Go" but I haven't been dedicated to it the way I was prior to that episode.
And for the record, I find Bigger, Longer, and Uncut much more enjoyable than The Simpsons Movie. Always have, from that moment I stepped out of the theater after watching TSM until now after watching TSM on Thanksgiving night and realizing it didn't hold up as well I thought it had.
I agree with you whole-heartedly about the sex-change episode. It easily makes my list of the top 10 worst SP episodes ever. I hate any episode in general that primarily focuses itself on gross-out humor.
As for the Scott Tenorman thing, when have we ever on this site discouraged anyone sharing their true opinions on something? Its fine if you don't like it, and if you want to, go ahead and say why. Though, the only thing about expressing your opinion is that you have to be prepared if someone else is willing to defend their opposing opinion on something like that. In this case, though, I'll make sure to keep that to a minimum on my part. :sweat:
Personally, "Scott Tenorman Must Die" is one of my favorite episodes, but I suppose that type of humor just really appeals to me.
I kind of agree that I can't really watch an episode based on gross-out humor. Y'know, out of all the episodes of SP, there is only one that I never watched fully, that episode? PEE! Yeah, out of 14 years SP has been on, that's the one episode I never truly finished. I quit after the 2nd commercial break and never looked back. If I had an organized list of worst episodes, I think that Pee might be the bottom tier, along with Stanley's Cup. For some reason, I get that the championship ending was supposed to be from the opposite spectrum, but I thought that beating up those kids was a little extreme, even by South Park Standards.
Though as for the quality, it's been hit or miss for me recently. Chalmer's post about Season 14 in the Boondocks thread hits home for me, except for the fact that I wasn't a big fan of the Coon saga. I thought it dragged on to the point that most of the resolutions in every 3 part felted forced. Also doesn't help that whenever I think about those episodes, I just think of the BP guy saying "Sorry."
For the record I liked this season. I don't think I disliked a single episode from this one, not even the critically panned Crippled Summer and Poor and Stupid. In fact I still enjoy South Park enough to still watch it. If I truly thought this series was complete shit I would stop. But is it as good as it was in the older seasons? Not at all.
South Park is suffering from the same thing The Simpsons is going through when it's been airing for a long time now and it's running out of ideas. I think around season ten is when it started to show it's age, ironically a season that had huge impact beginning with Chef's death, a poke at both Family Guy as well as censorship and a jab at Richard Dawkins. While most episodes in that season were pretty entertaining, Smug Alert!, A Million Little Fibers, Mystery of the Urinal Deuce and Stanley's Cup were really dull. It seemed to be that way seasons on, only it got worse especially the dreadful season twelve.
What also concerns me is the show's internet fanbase. Not referring to anyone here who is a fan of South Park but I don't think I've seen an animated show, aside from the anime fandom, with a fanbase that has as many nuts on the net as SP. From the disturbing bishi fetishes of the characters (yes I'm aware other shows have these weirdos in their fanbase as well, but fuck they're eight year old kids!) to the blatant suck ups who take any opinion or joke Trey and Matt bring up on their show seriously, it's like SP is a religion to them. And again I am not claiming all fans or even most fans are like this but a lot of whom I've come across on the internet have been.
So yes all that said I still enjoy South Park and I really liked this season. It's not as good as it once was but nothing can be perfect, especially not a show that has been on for more than a decade now.
See, I actually really liked Stanley's Cup. I didn't see the pre-schoolers getting injured being that extreme (we've already seen South Park do bad things to children, and much worse than just getting badly injured), and that's kind of a nit-picky point for me, anyways. I tend to not dwell on short scenes that much, and on the whole I didn't find that episode to be dull at all. On the contrary it managed to make me laugh out loud which very few other season 10 episodes managed to accomplish for me, personally. I just loved the whole sports movie cliche parody.
So, in case you haven't heard, Season 14 is set to be released on April 26, 2011. (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/South-Park-Season-14/14930) This is the moment we've all be waiting for. That moment is, finding out of 200 and 201 will finally see the light of day after all. I will say this, if 200 and 201 aren't on the set, I may skip on getting season 14.
I kind of had to stop collecting the series after season 8 because of the whole financial problems that my family started going through and the basic fact that I can only afford about 1 or 2 DVD sets per year, currently.
Still, I must confess that I am also extremely interested to see if Comedy Central will actually be willing to finally publicly release episodes 200 and 201 again, and if they do, I'll be interested to know if it'll be uncensored or not.
Also, even though nothing has been announced yet, does anyone think that this year's season of South Park may end up being the last one? Trey and Matt seemed kind of pissed at Comedy Central for what they did to episodes 200 and 201, and even brought up the fact that their contract with CC ends in 2011 (AKA this year). They did only say that they'll at least continue making South Park episodes until then, but does anyone get the feeling that they won't try to renew their contract with CC after this season finishes its run?
Personally, I actually king of hope that they take the opportunity to end the series with this season, sort of like quitting while their ahead. As you all know, despite what others think, I still firmly stand by my opinion that South Park is still a great show with plenty of great episodes each season which make me laugh. That said, if anything was my problem with this series, its that its a bit too reliant on formulas that it has been using for several seasons since some of the shows earlier seasons. It still works fine enough now, but I can see it getting pretty old really soon, so I'd rather have the series end on a high-note for me rather than be dragged out longer than it needs to be. Maybe I'm just looking too much into this, though.
I do think that their contract ends this year, so it's entirely possible that Matt and Trey could end it if they so wished.
This may not have been the first time Comedy Central messed with an episode of SP, but they didn't do anything as extreme to any other episode as they have with 200 and 201.
Knowing Matt and Trey, if they were going to stop doing South Park out of anger, they'd probably make a horribly disgusting and insulting final episode that completely ridiculed the staff of Comedy Central.
I doubt it, though, since they are a bit smarter than that, in that they know that if they made an episode like that Comedy Central would probably just refuse to air it in order to spite them back and probably wouldn't ever release it in any public format, either.
You know, I have to say this time that I really enjoyed this week's episode of South Park. Best episode of the week by far. Sure, it was a Butters episode, but it still felt like classic South Park in just about every way from its tones to its jokes, and there wasn't really a running gag that they used to death in this episode like some of the other episodes from the past couple of seasons.
Its episodes like this where I personally say "fuck it" (in my head) to anyone who still tries to find whatever reason they want to put it down. Maybe it just fits my own personal sense of humor, but this was the first episode in a while that actually had me laughing out loud quite a few times, and the over-the-top yet not so out of place (by this show's standards) twist at the end seemed like a really fitting end to the episode (and I really loved the Psycho scene parody at the end).
So yeah, I don't give a shit about what the people on TZ think this time, since I really liked this episode, and IMO, this episode and the previous one were quite good episodes, not just by this season's standards (which are honestly below par on the whole, so far, I'll admit), but they just stand out as good episodes in general, especially this one.
Anyone who hasn't seen the newest episode of South Park by now really should, even if you stopped being a fan long ago. All I'll say for now.
I really liked that ending montage. I actually hope that Trey and Matt don't give the middle-finger to the fans by resetting that mid-season closing like it never happened with the rest of the season, as some might expect them to.
Also, I think it was quite hilarious that South Park finally has an episode that jabs and makes fun of and criticizes the entire series itself. That's beyond meta....
While I thought the first parts were a little boring, with the symbolism of how when you're younger things you like when you're older is shit and vice versa, I will admit that the final minutes where they said were sick with it was handled nicely. After this, I am convinced that when 2013 rolls around, it will be the final season for South Park, and it will be on Trey and Matt's terms, rather than Comedy Central. I'll admit, I don't want them to go through whatever the hell Dave Chappelle went through with the Chappelle show back in 2004-2005. That was kind of nasty looking back on it.
I'd say good on them retiring the reigns on South Park, since their other productions like Book of Mormon show off that they're not one trick ponies and they want to do more with their life than creating South Park episodes. I mean, Book of Mormon is doing pretty well for itself on Broadway right now. It won like 9 Tony Awards and I believe it deserved them.
I remember one guy at toonzone told me about an interview where Trey and Matt said that they didn't want to work with South Park when they were in their 40's. Last time I checked on their ages, both Trey and Matt are in their Early 40's, so I do think they would want to wrap that up and do more things like BoM or Team America. By that, I mean make another play or movie.
Yeah, I can imagine that Trey and Matt are getting pretty tired of doing South Park for so many years. Hell, I'm actually pretty surprised that they even renewed their contract to go up until 2013. I was actually predicting that 2011 would be the year of their last season, and now its 2011 and I hear that they are going to continue up to 2013. Well, while I am one of the few people who think a lot of complaints about the current state of the show are BS and that it still gets out some really quality episodes each season, I do think it should end soon before it really kills its tune and dies out from a lack of any good episodes at all. Right now its still one of my personal favorite animated comedy shows, so I'd rather that Trey and Matt quite while their ahead (well, at least while the show is still watchable) and get it over with by 2013.
Part two of the current season starts today/tomorrow and from the description I've seen on South Park Studio website and my cable provider, they're tackling Asperger's Syndrome. Short version description I've seen for it is that Cartman has to cope with having AS. That and it does seem to have a plot point with Stan trying to get his life on track.
I'm actually quite curious to see how they'll be touching this issue of Apserger's and if Cartman either legitimately has this disease, if he's going to try to fake and milk the hell out of it like he did with Tourette or considering how there are probably a good number of people that are misdiagnosed with having AS if Cartman having this disease is just a mere misdiagnosis.
Interestingly, when I was a kid I was once misdiagnosed with ADD. I then saw another doctor about a year later who diagnosed with with Asperger's Syndrome (I was about 9 or 10 at the time), and that was basically on my school records for a few years. Later on a more sensible neurologist said that I don't exhibit most of the behaviors associated with Asperger's Syndrome but for some reason didn't actually have the authority to retract that diagnosis for some legal reasons or some shit like that. So, my official legal records still say that I Asperger's Syndrome but really while I had certain behavioral issues as a kid which might have convinced an earlier neurologist that I had such a condition, I think it was really just some issue that I had when I was younger that coincidentally had some of the behavioral patterns associated with the condition. Really, I'm perfectly normal now, but that diagnosis does still come in handy since it gets me some pretty convenient accommodations in school, lol.
Anyways, its always nice to see new episodes of South Pak are coming. I'm really interested to see how Stan's particular part of the story-line set up from the mid-season finale will end up panning out. I'm certainly glad that Trey and Matt aren't copping out, though, and totally resetting what happened in that episode, because it now makes for a really interesting character arc.
New episode airs tonight. I wonder if anyone else besides me plans on checking it out....yeah, probably not.
I do want to know how they'll explain that cliffhanger from last episode. Will they just ignore it, will Stan be gone this season, or what?
I actually probably would watch it, except I don't have cable*. Yeah, it sucks.
*Well, the ship has cable when we are in port, such as right now, but it's all shitty, the picture is fuzzy, and we only get like a third of the basic cable channels(and Comedy Central ain't one of them).
I'll be watching it. Right after the 9:30 repeat of the last episode.
So, here (http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20534077,00.html) is a list of Trey and Matt's top 15 personal favorite South Park episodes and their top 53 worst.
Aside from a couple of episodes in their favorite list which I just thought were trash (like Eat, Pray, Queef), I do generally like most of their picks for the best episodes. Also, while I enjoyed the Smurfs episode, I personally feel that "Breast Cancer Show Ever" is by far their best Cartman vs. Wendy episode.
As for their worst, I agree with them that in retrospect the first 2 seasons aren't very good, but personally I found Season 3 to have quite a bit of good in it, personally. At the very least episodes like Chinpokomon and Sexual Harassment Panda still get some decent laughs out of me. It is still very different from the direction that the show went in starting with season 4, but to me season 3 was at least the pinnacle of the more classic style of South Park, and while most of classic South Park wasn't very good, I felt that Season 3 was the one that managed to mostly get it right.
As for their other worst picks, I agree with most of them except for Stanley's Cup, which is an interesting pick on their part since based on their comments they don't even seem to hate it themselves (they even say that they love the ending), so I'm not sure why that episode is here, when I can think of much worse episodes to replace it (such as "Mystery of the Urinal Duece" or "The China Probrem").
I hate Eat, Pray, Queef. Probably the second least funny episode of the entire series after A Million Little Fibers.
I still love the first three seasons. I'm hard-pressed to think of more than 10 episodes out of the entire 14.5 season run-time that I don't find hilarious.
South Park Is Gay and Stanley's Cup are great episodes. No idea why they're on here.
You know, I've never seen "Not Without My Anus". Comedy Central refuses to air it based on the controversy, and I never got season 2 on DVD or anything.
If I'm bored enough, I'll try to finally check it out.
Quote from: Foggle on October 09, 2011, 01:07:08 PM
I hate Eat, Pray, Queef. Probably the second least funny episode of the entire series after A Million Little Fibers.
Well, at least they put "A Million Little Fibers" on their worst list. So, even they acknowledge that it sucks.
QuoteSouth Park Is Gay and Stanley's Cup are great episodes. No idea why they're on here.
South Park is gay is an alright episode. I don't think its great, but its certainly not one of their worst from my perspective, either. I love Stanley's Cup, though. It would honestly be one of my top 15 favorite episodes in the series.
Speaking of which, I'm thinking of doing my own "top" list of South Park's best episodes, but I'm not sure if I want to just do a straight top 15-25 or instead just do a list of my favorite episode from each season so far.
Quote from: Avaitor on October 09, 2011, 01:41:22 PM
You know, I've never seen "Not Without My Anus". Comedy Central refuses to air it based on the controversy, and I never got season 2 on DVD or anything.
If I'm bored enough, I'll try to finally check it out.
Here you go. (http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s02e01-terrance-and-phillip-in-not-without-my-anus) It's incredibly stupid, but then again, that's the point.
I like the rest of "South Park is Gay", but I do think that the Crab People thing was too much for me. I think that's when the "blame it on a cult or conspiracy" angle got played out for my taste.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 09, 2011, 01:47:07 PM
Speaking of which, I'm thinking of doing my own "top" list of South Park's best episodes, but I'm not sure if I want to just do a straight top 15-25 or instead just do a list of my favorite episode from each season so far.
I like the second idea. Makes for more diversity and would be a good read. :)
Yeah, I was leaning more towards that one myself. Also, I was thinking of making it into a blog entry rather than just a regular post for this board, mostly because I don't contribute too many blog write-ups these days, but that's up to Avaitor if he's OK with me doing that or not. I'm fine with doing it either way, myself.
That would be a great blog entry! I thought it was going to be one in the first place. ;)
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 09, 2011, 02:11:02 PM
Yeah, I was leaning more towards that one myself. Also, I was thinking of making it into a blog entry rather than just a regular post for this board, mostly because I don't contribute too many blog write-ups these days, but that's up to Avaitor if he's OK with me doing that or not. I'm fine with doing it either way, myself.
I don't see why it would be a problem. Go for it. :)
Alright, I'll start working on that later tonight.
Oh yeah, speaking of tonight, I believe the making of South Park documentary is supposed to air tonight on CC as well. I'll make sure and try and remember to check that out. It should be pretty interesting.
Earlier I had a post with some of picks revealsed (mostly episodes that I was deciding between), but Avaitor wisely pointed out that it would be giving too much away to potential readers so I removed it accordingly. That said I still may ask for opinions of others in just a few cases when I have trouble deciding between episodes if only because there are a couple of seasons in which picking a favorite is way too hard or me to do myself. That said its still my own list so it'll still pretty much be my favorites, especially since I believe its nearly impossible to be "objective" about top picks for a series such as South Park, as different episodes mean radically different things to different people.
Out of their worst episode picks, I'm sort of surprised to see Chef Goes Nanners, since that basically started their whole act structure where they tried to tie the main story to all the characters and I believe it was one of the few that started the "Tackling a current event" angle, since that story was based on the Georgia flag being deemed racist. In fact, all of season 4 started that angle with the earliest being the Quintuplets with them be a satire of the Cuban boy Elain Gonzalez.
I will say that I do agree with their top picks, like Trapped in the Closet, Warcraft, Weapons, T&P and Woodland Critter Christmas. WCC is my favorite Christmas episode that South Park has produced. I pretty much break out the season DVD it's on around Christmas time and watch it like the other holiday specials as well.
Out of their picks, I do question Eat, Pray, Queef as well since I thought it was boring episode as well. I get the message was about double standards and everything, but I can't remember anything funny about this episode. It's just there for me.
I watched the documentary when it aired last night and ye-gads! That has to be one of the most grueling, back-breaking production process in a animated show. Having to stay overnight at the studio just so they can deliver the show on time? Which is Wednesday morning, just few hours before the show is set to air?
I also found it interesting that much of the voices are heavily manipulated on computer. Cartman's voice is REALLY different coming from Trey's mouth.
That documentary was an interesting watch. I knew most of the stuff before hand thanks to their appearances on other shows like 60 Minutes and past interviews and such. I did figure that their scheduling would force them to do things quickly since they do only have a week or so to get the episode to Comedy Central.
I did like how they showed how certain ideas came to them, like the HumancentiPad, where it's inspiration came from a normal occurrence from Trey saying that iTunes had yet another update, he just clicks on the ToS and didn't read it. Then he wonders if anyone else does read it and got an idea from that.
I've really been enjoying the last couple of episodes of South Park. Last of the Meheecans was a really good Butters episode and Bass to Mouth was suitably hilarious in that over-the-top sort of way where South Park combines normal plot elements with their more ridiculous characters (such as Lemiwinks in this case).
I hear Selena Gomez was used in one of the new episodes. Is that true?
Yes....she made a really brief appearance in Bass to Mouth.
Just watched 1%.
Holy shit, I think this might be one of my all time favorite South Park episodes. Everything involving Cartman and his stuffed animals had me rolling. I haven't laughed this hard at SP in years.
I had some good laughs with 1% as well. I also find it to be fairly unique since most Cartman episodes either involve him being an ass-hole or somehow gaining a high position of power. This one went a bit into how fucked up his psyche was, which is also a hilarious side of him.
My favorite episode for this part of the season so far was probably Bass to Mouth, with Last of the Meheecans and 1% being pretty funny episodes themselves. My favorite of the entire season so far (with the only episode left to come out being the season finale, this week), has been City Sushi.
My favorite episodes of this half season are a tie between 1%, Bass to Mouth, and the Broadway Brodown. Maybe it's the part of me that loves going to a Broadway show or poking fun at the "bro" phenomenon, maybe it has something to do with Shelly getting some focus since she is the most neglected member in the Marsh household. Let's face it, when was the last time she got this much focus? I don't know, I laughed my ass off on this episode.
Bass to Mouth was a good satire of the Wikileaks, especially with Stan showing his hypocrisy about the whole thing saying it was OK when it wasn't him, but when it was him he cared and wanted to get the site shut down.
Is it just me or has season 16 been terrible so far? Have barely laughed at any of the episodes. Last season's The Poor Kid was also pretty bad IMO.
Uh, I completely disagree with you. Cash for Gold was fucking hilarious. It didn't rely on many cheap gimmick running gags and had genuinely well-written humor, especially with Cartman.
As for the other 2 episodes that have aired thus far, they aren't anything special, I'll give you that, but I'd say they are far from terrible. I notice that most people think of South Park as a hit or miss show, and think episodes either suck beyond belief or are outrageously funny. I must be the only person in the world who can look at a South Park episode and get a decent amount of laughs out of it but not think its anything too stand-out or complete and utter garbage at the same time. Maybe that's why I'm the only person I know who still enjoys the series for what it is. :??:
Yeah, Cash For Gold was pretty funny if only for Stan's grandpa and the ending where the old people were convincing the guy to kill himself. The other two, meh.
"Terrible" is a bit of an overstatement on my part, but so far it doesn't stack up very well against any of the other seasons in my eyes. So it's "terrible" comparatively. ;)
Cash For Gold was definitely the best of the lot. Some parts dragged for me, but it was mostly consistent if not outright hilarious. Reverse Cowgirl also had its moments but IMO was pretty weak compared to last season. I thought Faith Hilling was completely awful, though. The trains and Russian roulette scene were pretty funny, but the rest had me groaning.
Well, as someone who finds the horrible overabundance of memes on the Internet to be quite annoying, I got a few decent chuckles out of that episode, but I will admit its one of those throw away episodes that just flat-out won't age well in the span of just a few weeks when South Park parodies something else that's popular at the time. That said, I've seen worse episodes in this category from previous seasons, so its not really all that bad to me.
At any rate, this season has had 3 episodes so far, with 1 of them being solid (IMO), and the other 2 being mediocre. That's pretty much how most of the previous seasons have started out ever since season 10, IMO, so that's nothing new for me. I thought Seasons 13-15 had weak starts of their own and only had a few truly stand-out episodes, so in that regard its not like this season is a decline in quality from the consistency of previous seasons, or at least not to me.
Figured this thread was worth bumpoing, considering the recent announcement that the show is cutting back from 14 episode seasons scattered at 2 parts of the year, to just one straight annual 10 episode order. Kind of surprising, but hey.
Maybe Trey and Matt are slowly trying to wind things down so that they can eventually end the show. I believe they are contracted for at least 2 more seasons (including this year), so maybe this slight cut-back in episode production is a sign that they are ready to call it quits after their most recent contract expires.
Either way, South Park hasn't bee nearly as popular as it used to be with its earlier seasons, so its not like their is that huge of a demand for new material, anymore, and it feels as though Trey and Matt just want to focus on other things, as well (which they sort of have done with a couple of other projects over the past few years), so this all may be for the better, in the end.
Either that, or it could just be that Comedy Central decided to purchase less episodes to save money, and I could just be horribly over-thinking all of this. At any rate, I'll still be watching the new season when it comes out, as I'm one of the few people who finds that South Park can be pretty hit or miss these days (and for me the hits are still worth it), as opposed to just being full of flops.
Well according to this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/business/media/south-park-creators-fortify-their-content-empire.html?_r=1&), it seems like Matt and Trey are cutting their load on South Park to focus on other things, while still maintaining interest in the show.
For the best, really.
Quote from: Avaitor on March 11, 2013, 04:41:32 PM
Well according to this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/business/media/south-park-creators-fortify-their-content-empire.html?_r=1&), it seems like Matt and Trey are cutting their load on South Park to focus on other things, while still maintaining interest in the show.
For the best, really.
I agree, especially when you do consider how big Book of Mormon was for them. I will admit that I haven't seen the play yet, (My mom has wonder if I want that to be my Birthday gift this year, and I did say "YES!") but I did end up grabbing the soundtrack the night it cost a dollar, and I got to say that the soundtrack for it was pretty good. Probably did deserve all those Tony Awards.
Alright, seeing the Nostalgia Critic's list for South Park inspired me to come up with my own list. South Park is one of my favorite cartoons ever, personally, so it was really hard for me to whittle down so many great episodes to a mere list of just 10, and even the list I came up with now is highly subject to change. I think a lot of the episodes I like, though, will be greatly different from that of a lot of other people. What I'm about to give you is my honest opinion, but there are always those ass-holes on the Internet who would see a list like mine, and say something like "really, you think that garbage is funny?" At least over here I can trust that people are at least accepting enough to be dicks about someone else's opinions, but regardless I will give you guys some very brief reasons as to why my favorites are my favorites. Also, another thing I want to point out is how many people claim that South Park isn't that good because it has a lot of current even episodes or parodies celebrities and whatnot and that it doesn't have a lot of substance to his characters or humor. Even people on this board keep saying that certain episodes really dated themselves and complain about stuff like that, when I flat-out don't agree in a lot of cases. I think people just miss the point sometime and focus on something else, but even a lot of those current event episodes are still funny either because they make up a compelling scenario involving the characters that is funny in its own right whether you know that its based off of anything or not, or just because they put more focus on the characters themselves rather than the basic scenario. That said, I think you'll find that my list generally has more to do with episodes that aren't based off any particular events and have more to do with being fun character pieces, or just mocking trends that I myself don't care for. Having said that, I present to you my favorite episodes:
First, some honorable mentions: Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000, Scott Tenorman Must Die, Cartmanland, Towelie, Asspen, The Return Of The Fellowship Of The Ring To The Two Towers, The Biggest Douche In The Universe, Lil' Crime Stoppers, Something Wall Mart This Way Comes, Ginger Kids, Cartoon Wars Part I and II, Imaginationland (3-parter), The List, Fishsticks, Pinewood Derby, Fatbeard, A History Channel Thanksgiving, Cash For Gold
And now for my main list:
Spoiler
10. Chinpoko Mon- The Nostalgia Critic already covered this episode in his list, so I won't really go into any detail, here, but even as someone who got the whole Pokemon craze being that I was a fan at the time as well, I still always found this episode to be funny. It just nails down the general idea of how fads work with kids, and the completely ridiculous plot about how a big Japanese coroporation was marketing to the children to use them as an army was just the classic style of South Park humor that's personally right up my alley. This one will always be a favorite of mine.
9. Stanely's Cup- I've heard so many people hate on this episode in the past, and about 99% of the negativity just goes toward its ending. Personally....I think the ending is funny as well, and I don't see how it turned so many people off considering how many worse and less tasteful things South Park had already done way before this episode. Another thing I notice is that, while people like to point out that South Park is a social satire show that often likes to make fun of current events, I'm surprised that people never seem to credit it for how much it also parodies movies, or in this case an entire genre of film. Having watched a ton of sports movies myself, this episode doesn't leave out a single cliche, and makes sure to capitalize on every joke possible while still remaining a unapologetic as this series has ever been. I love this kind of humor, but maybe I'm the weird one, here. Asspen sort of did the same thing, as well (though, it was more specifically geared toward's cheesy 80's teen movies as opposed to just sports movies), and it was certainly a great episode, but personally I got way more laughs out of this one.
8. Casa Bonita- This is a great example of a character episode. In this case, its more of a Cartman episode, and also somewhat of a Butters episode to a lesser extent. Cartmanland and Gingerkids were 2 other Cartman episodes that I really love, but this one just slightly won out over the 2 of those. The basic premise is that Kyle is going to Casa Bonita for his birthday, which is Cartman's favorite restaurant, and he can take any 3 friends with him. The only problem is that he refuses to take Cartman after what a jerk he's been to him in the past, and decides to take Butters instead. Of course, Cartman will do whatever it takes to get what he wants, no matter how silly of a thing it is, and he ends up going overboard by tricking Butters into thinking that the world is ending to get him to hide and go missing, all while trying to put up an act around Kyle to convince him that he has changed his ways, just so that he can go to a damn restaurant that he really likes. What I love about this episode is that it really shows you how manipulative and conniving of a person Cartman can be. Its part of why he's my favorite character, but also shows you how mean-spirited he is, yet at the same time it comes off being really funny. Of course, there is the part of you that is sort of rooting for Cartman, and the part of you that really wants to see the brat get his comeuppance. This episode is actually a little bit of both, to be honest, but I'd say it leans more toward the former, since even though Cartman is the bad guy here, you can see how badly he wants to go to Casa Bonita that he's willing to lie and scam out his ass to get what he wants. My only gripe with this episode is how Kyle is a bit out of character in how he becomes so trustworthy of Cartman after Cartman puts on such an obvious act. Its a bit out of character for Kyle, as he's usually much smarter than that. Other than that, its a great Cartman episode with a really satisfying and hilarious conclusion.
7. The Wacky Molestation Adventure- Once again, this one is another episode that's more of a movie parody than anything else. It does have some social commentary on what I think was a thing at the time with child abuse being a big thing in the news, and maybe something about people not really abusing their child, but the media and society were too sensitive to anything at that time and even being a proper parent and yelling at your kid about something could be seen as abuse. I'm not entirely sure if even that's close to the mark, but either way, I don't really care. That's not the point of why this is a great episode. At its core, its a really funny parody of Children of the Corn, and movie I sort of have a strange interest in if only because I saw it as a kid and it used to scare the hell out of me. This episode actually helped me get over that movie, and now I like it as a more of a cheesy but still well conceived horror movie. The general plot is that Kyle gets angry at his parents for not letting him go to a concert with his friends by a band called "The Raging Pussies," and tries to get back at them by calling child services and saying that he was molested. It turns out this ploy works and his parents are pulled away by authorities, leaving him to do whatever he wants. As soon as all of the other kids of South Park here about this, they do the same, and eventually South Park becomes an adult-free town. Flash forward in time a bit, and an unsuspecting couple ends up stuck in the newly named "Smiley Town" with Eric Cartman as its mayor, while the other half of South Park is split up and lead by Stan and Kyle. Essentially all of the kids have banded together and formed 2 separate societies, and with this new couple in the middle of the dilemma, you can bet your ass that this episode capitalizes on every Children of the Corn joke and reference that it can muster while still being a very clever and funny episode in its own right. It also pays homage and reference to quite a few other movies as well, and I always love movie parodies (well....the good ones, anyways).
6. A Ladder To Heaven- Its hard to explain why I love this episode so much....other than I just find it to be pretty fucking hilarious. That's really all I can say. I mean, it has a message about how sentimental people can get over something that they completely miscomprehend, and how there are people who can exploit people's emotions for whatever reason, but really I just see it as an episode about Stan, Kyle, and Cartman being the dumb kids that they are and figuring that they can build a ladder to heaven to get a free candy shopping-spree ticket that Kenny supposedly had on him when he died. Its them being completely selfish and partakin in a ludicrous idea all for some candy, and people and the media and even the freaking military taking their actions in completely the wrong way....and I just find that pretty funny. I don't know, maybe its just a good string of individual jokes that makes this episode so funny for me. I really can't explain it any further than that, so I won't. Moving on....
5. Super Fun Time- This one is a Cartman AND Butters episode in equal parts, and you can't go wrong with that. Mr. (or was he still Mrs. at thsi time? I can't remember. And quite frankly I don't care, because its irrelevant) Garrison takes the class on a field trip and tells them they have to partner up with someone to make sure that they nobody gets lost or goes missing. They are going on a field trip to some old country time-period sort of get-up, in which the actors obnoxiously stay in character during their entire shift, no matter what. Garrison tells Butters that he is absolutely responsible for keeping Cartman out of trouble, and Butters takes this very seriously to the point of hand-cuffing himself to Cartman. Of course, Carmtan doesn't want any part of this dumb-trip and as soon as he spots the next-door "Super Fun Thyme," he takes the first opportunity possible to ditch the class and head over there, even forcing Butters along with him. The other part of this episode deals with a group of international criminals (who robbed a Burger King, of all places) holding up in the get-up and holding the entire class and all of the employees hostage, all while the actors still annoyingly refuse to break character, leading to some absolutely hilarious situations. Both sides of the episode are extremely funny, and its good proof of how South Park can do great comedy without even really having to reference any current events or make any social commentary, whatsoever. Of course you could probaly find some of that here if you looked hard enough, but if that were the case then you're completely missing the point.
4. Woodland Critter Christmas- The Nostalgia Critic already talked about this episode, and like him I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who may have not seen it. I'll just say that its funny as hell, and IMO its the best Christmas special ever. Now go watch it.
3. You Have 0 Friends- As someone who used to constantly be bugged by friends about refusing to get a Facebook account, this episode finally nailed down why I can't stand facebook. Its not a forum for intelligent discussion, or a way to truly keep in touch with friends (at least not most of the time). Its a major online gimmick in which friends are treated as commodities and people partake in useless, meaningless "interactions" (if you can even call it that) and mini-games. I still gladly have no Facebook account to this day, and this episode on top of being a great sattire on that, was also just funny with plenty of good jokes. I nearly died laughing when it started becoming a parody of Tron towards the end.
2. The Breast Cancer Show Ever- So, remember how I said a few entries back that Cartman is either the character that you either want to root for or want to see get his own ass handed to? This episode is definitely the latter, and its actually a great character episode for Wendy. Basically, Cartman has never had a problem with picking on Wendy, who to be fair mostly comes off as an ass-kissing goodie-two-shoes that all the teachers love, even if she genuinely cares about what she talks about. However, Cartman ends up going too far this time, when he mocks Wendy and her message as she is making a presentation about the importance of Breast Cancer awareness. This causes Wendy to snap and publicly challenge Cartman to a fight in front of the entire school to finally shut him up once and for all. Now Cartman is in a tight spot, as he knows he clearly can't beat Wendy, but he can't afford to be embarrassed in front of his whole class by being beat up by a girl. This forces Cartman to do everything in his power to try and convince Wendy to call off the fight, all while he still tries to put up an act in front of everyone else that he's not afraid of her and is ready and willing to fight her at anytime. Its funny because once again it shows you how manipulative Cartman can be with his schemes, but in this case its for a problem that he got himself into in the first place. And the ending is priceless, since its once again something Cartman gets himself into, even when he could have very well been in the clear. Its just a really great way of showing you the pathetic side of Carmtan, which incidentally may be even funnier than his more clever side.
1. My Future Self 'n' Me- So, why is this my favorite episode? Well, because for me, it succeeds completely on 2 fronts. One is that its a really funny episode in which all of the jokes just hit home (at least for me), and it never fails to keep me from laughing. Two is that its another episode with a message, but its a message that I can really get behind more than any other that I've seen in the show so far. The episode is all about how parents and public service try to steer their kids away from drugs and other bad things by....flat-out lying to them about it. Anyone with some common sense and true morality knows that this is completely wrong, and you can bet that South Park rips this kind of thought to shreds. I won't really spoil the twist in the episode for anyone who hasn't seen it, but basically this episode is about Stan, and how through some strange circumstances he runs into his future self, or rather this future self runs into him, coming back from the past. The problem is that his future self is a complete homeless junkie who has succumbed to drugs and warns himself from the past to not go down that road. Of course, this being an episode of South Park, all is not as it seems, and since I can't really spoil anything for you, all I can say is that this episode comes up with every clever and funny way to mock just how terrible it is to flat-out lie to kids about drug use, and other such things in general, rather than talking to them seriously and getting them to understand that they need to make the choice for themselves, and realizing that in many cases if given the proper guidance, they can make the responsible choice. In this sense, a lot of the humor from this episode comes from how moronic Stan's parents act in this situation, and it just so turns out that Butters and Cartman have a lot of hilarious involvement in this plot as well. To me, this episode is just the most re-watchable, gets the most laughs out of me, and delivers its message stronger than any other episode in the show, and that's pretty much why its my favorite.
South Park is a show with so many clever, unique, and downright hilarious episodes that you are pretty much guaranteed that any fan will have a very different list of favorites from any other fan. These right here were my top 10 favorite epsiodes, so feel free to comment on them however you wish.
Ah dammit Ensatsu-ken, you beat me to it. ;)
Yeah, those are all really good episodes. "Stanley's Cup," "The Wacky Molestation Adventure," "Super Fun Time," "Woodland Critter Christmas," and "My future Self and Me" are personal top favorites for me as well. Between you and the Nostalgia Critic discussing a lot of the great ones, anything I could say about them would be redundant :sweat:. Even so, I'll post a top ten of my own, which was EXTREMELY hard by the way since I had to narrow it down from like a hundred different episodes (dammit South Park, why are you so darn good :sweat:). I really won't go into too much detail, since I don't want to ramble and am too tired today to go super in depth into these episodes, but I'll summarize why I love them.
Spoiler
10. The Mystery of the Urinal Deuce - I love how this episode spirals into increasing degrees of ridiculousness, all to parody the absurdity of conspiracy theories. Plus, I love Mr. Mackey's continual frustration over the deuce in the urinal, first because I can relate to how something awful on an already bad day can piss you off and also because Mr. Mackey is an extremely entertaining character when he is allowed to shine. Really one of those episodes that'll still be relevant even decades after 9/11, since the main source of the jokes in the episode are how stupid conspiracy theories are, how ridiculous people are for believing in them, and the frustration of a really bad day. Also, the Hardy brother's jokes, as someone who had to read a bunch of them as a kid, were quite hilarious to me. :D
9. My Future Self 'n' Me- E-K already explained why this episode works so well, so I'm not going to go over long here. I could very well relate to how parents try to stray kids from doing drugs and alcohol through over the top propaganda and not a serious, respectful discussion with them. Not to mention Cartman and Stan's parents are great in this episode, and the scene where Butters' parents, in spite of expectation, actually realize that what they did was wrong was hilarious. But really there is just a lot of good humor and satire in this episode in general, which is why it's one of my favorites.
8. Quest for Ratings- I've always liked this episodes' slam on how trashy media and news beats out in popularity of actually good or informative programming. Aside from that, the creative block jokes, satire on the media industry and the self-awareness about writing for a television how itself was always quite hilarious as well. A fun episode all around.
7. All about Mormons - I love to rewatch this episode. The jokes about the absurdity of the Mormon religion while also portraying them as good was a great way to examine why religion is so valuable to communities in spite of outlandish tales. So the jokes in the episode come from how uncomfortable Stan is around the Mormons, how parts of the origin of Mormonism are quite ridiculous, how much Randy tries to emulate them to try to become a better person, and a slam on the intolerance,the persuasive influence, and the value of religious faith. It's great!
6. Stanley's Cup- Oh wow is this an underrated episode. First off, it's a satire on every freaking sports film ever made. Second, the dichotomy of the relative lameness of Pee Wee Hockey with how seriously it is treated in the episode immediately sparks great laughs. Third, Stan, just wanting to continue his paper route, being forced to deal with increasingly problematic and unnaturally serious situations he isn't able to handle adds to the hilarity even when the cancer-ridden kid is in an awful state. Fourth, more hilarious moments from Randy, taking the Pee Wee situation more seriously than Stan, who not only probably doesn't remember, but doesn't care. And finally, the ending of the episode always addresses something that always bothered me about sports films. Who's to say the other team doesn't have dreams, tragic backstories, and goals? Who is to say they didn't work hard and have every right to win? In this episode, the team you weren't rooting for wins, but the rejoicing still happens in spite of that. It hammers home that for every winner there is a loser, and sometimes you just lose, but yours rivals or opponents have just as much of a right to do so as you do. So I really enjoyed this episode on a number of levels. :sweat:
5. Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers- This episode just works. From the Lord of the Rings references, to the parents' fear of their children discovering porn and their reactions to it's name, to the kids' obliviousness of what they have, to how seriously they are taking their game and role playing, everything is just really funny to me in this episode.
4. Two Days Before the Day after Tomorrow- A parody of disaster films, specifically The Day After Tomorrow, one of the stupidest films ever made. Stan's relatable guilt for doing something bad is already enjoyable, but the episode's hilarity comes from how a crises emerges over nothing, how stupid every one is in the "global warming" fiasco, and yeah the Cartman-Kyle jew gold scene was funny too. Really, I always enjoy these episodes where Randy and the South Park adults overreact to a situation and it goes out of hand, but this is the funniest one to me by far.
3. Lil' Crime Stoppers - A parody of cop dramas and films. Again a lot of the humor comes from the dichotomy of how serious the situation is and the indifference of the boys, and how everyone is playing the cop drama scenario straight and the boys are simply caught in the middle of it and don't understand what's really going on at all. Plus, the episode introduces us to Sgt. Yates, Barbrady's much funnier and reusable replacement (I still love ol' Barbrady, but Yates is a funnier character for me). Oh, and let's not forget the boys' overly morbid conspiracy theory about the pie...
2. The Losing Edge- If you were ever, ever forced to play sports you didn't like as a kid, you would get a lot out of this episode. I can relate soooo much to what happens in this episode, from the boredom and indifference of the boys, the ignorant enthusiasm of the parents, and of course the obnoxious brawls between parents at freaking children's league games. Wonderful stuff with Randy in this episode, parodying Rocky and other boxing/fighting type films, and alongside the great and hilarious subversion of the sports movie genre with the boys training to lose, it's just a damn good episode and admittedly a biased favorite of mine.
1. Butters' Very Own Episode- I'm not going to lie, I'm always biased towards Butters episodes because Butters is one of my favorite animated characters ever. A down to earth and naive child who is always picked on and abused but always retains his childlike optimism and able to make the best out of any situation...I could go on and on about why I love Butters. But let's talk about this episode. I think this is the most serious episode South Park has ever done. Scott is having a homosexual affair, and a broken and insane Linda attempts to murder Butters, and when Scott and Linda finally reconcile they realize it's already to late and try to cover up what they have done, but the guilt eats away at them as other "victims" come to their "aid." But of course, throughout this episode, no matter how serious things get, Butters is his cheerful, playful, happy go lucky self and tries his darnest to get back home quickly so his parents wont be sad and they can all go the Bennigans together. And of course, he at the end puts everyone back in their senses, in a situation he didn't even realize was happening. Oh, and of course the mocking and criticism of definite scumbag murderers who lied and got away was simply awesome and hilarious at the same time. So, yeah, I'm totally biased towards this episode because Butters is my favorite character and it's definitely not the funniest in the series, but I do think this is the most serious South Park episode and there's just a lot of good in here that keeps making me come back to it, so right now I would totally say it's my favorite South Park episode. Of course, like I said, I love essentially 95% of the episodes in this series anyway, so it's always hard to chose between them for me. :sweat:
I've always agreed with you that Stanley's Cup is a vastly underrated episode, but I can't really say it's a favorite of mine, either. I like both of y'all's lists a lot. Here's mine:
10. Breast Cancer Show Ever
9. Fatbeard
8. Cartoon Wars Parts 1 & 2
7. Chinpokomon
6. Butters' Very Own Episode
5. Christian Rock Hard
4. The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers
3. 1%
2. Lil' Crime Stoppers
1. Woodland Critter Christmas
If you guys want me to explain any of my picks, I can later... but I kinda' should be working on finals right now. :sweat:
Great lists, guys! :thumbup:
Butters's Very Own Episode is another great one that I probably could have included in my honorable mentions, but I already had way too many in there as it was. It was HARD to even pick those without going overboard. I do really like Butters as a character, though, as he's my 2nd favorite South Park character next to Cartman (and for the record, he's Trey and Matt's favorite character if interviews are any indication).
Most of the episodes that you guys mentioned are also ones that I love.
"Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow" and "The Losing Edge" are also great episodes, and prove that season 9 had some hits as well (which I don't quite get why some people seem to have something against that season).
Christian Rock Hard was another funny episode that I forgot to include in my honorable mentions.
"1%" isn't exactly a personal favorite of mine, but its still a great episode with plenty of laughs. I mostly remember the plot twist at the end regarding Cartman's dolls. That part had me laugh so hard that I shed a few tears.
Yeah, with all of the ad-mouthing that South Park can get at times, it shouldn't be forgotten just how many flat-out great and memorable episodes it has. It says a lot that even when I had 10 favorite episodes and 20+ honorable mentions, there are STILL a ton of episodes that I didn't even mention that could easily be a conceivable top 10 for someone else. The show just has so much variety and the times that it actually churns out garbage or even mediocrity is much further and farther in between than some people may let on.
Literally there are maybe like six episodes in the series so far that I don't like at all and almost 200 episodes that I freaking love, which attests to just how good South Park really is and why it's one of the greatest animated shows ever created.
Anyway, I think that most of the people that hate season nine hate it for "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina," which admittedly is one of the weakest episodes of the series, and also for "Erection Day" which is kinda bland and forgettable. However, every other episode in that season works, and as you can tell I love a lot of them. So I really don't think that it deserves as much hate as it gets, but generally it seems that South Park detractors like to dismiss everything after season 8 as awful, which in my opinion simply isn't true.
Quote from: Cartoon X on May 11, 2013, 10:42:03 PM
Literally there are maybe like six episodes in the series so far that I don't like at all and almost 200 episodes that I freaking love, which attests to just how good South Park really is and why it's one of the greatest animated shows ever created.
Agreed. The only episodes I genuinely dislike are Jakovasaurs, Pip, Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina, A Million Little Fibers, and Eat, Pray, Queef. Those last two are the only episodes I've never finished; they're unwatchable IMO.
Wait, no, never mind, Eat, Pray, Queef is okay. Turns out I mistakenly thought certain scenes from A Million Little Fibers were actually part of that episode. Fibers is just fucking AWFUL.
Come to think of it, I don't think there are any episodes I outright hate. Hmmm. I'll have to ponder which I like the least. :lol:
"A Million Little Fibers" is the episode I not only like the least in the series, but downright despise. It's not funny, at all. In fact, it's such a rare combination of blandness, mediocrity, and juvenile offensiveness that it likely rivals or exceeds the terribleness of zombie age The Simpsons episodes. Worse yet, it took Towelie, a fun and likeable character in short, quick doses, gave him a fucking full episode, and completely screwed his character up the wazoo. I'm really happy that "Crippled Summer" was created so the character could be retired in a good (very funny) episode instead of easily South Park's worst episode ever.
Actually, CX, that's the first one that came to mind when I asked myself if I hated any episodes. I do think it's one of the ones I like least, but I'll still watch it and enjoy it for what it is when it comes on. I do like the banter between the ass and vagina characters.
Which is a sentence no one should ever have to say, ever.
You know, I could do a list of my top 10 least favorite South Park episodes as well, but I'd probably only actually downright hate the bottom 5, so maybe a smaller number would be appropriate. That said, I pretty much agree with Foggle about those episodes being bad, and I could even add a few more that I hate, myself.
But, overall, yeah, this is very much a show in which the good far outweighs the bad, which is why I still feel that it should have made the top 20 in our top 65 animated series list.
Quote from: Cartoon X on May 11, 2013, 11:07:13 PM
"A Million Little Fibers" is the episode I not only like the least in the series, but downright despise. It's not funny, at all. In fact, it's such a rare combination of blandness, mediocrity, and juvenile offensiveness that it likely rivals or exceeds the terribleness of zombie age The Simpsons episodes. Worse yet, it took Towelie, a fun and likeable character in short, quick doses, gave him a fucking full episode, and completely screwed his character up the wazoo. I'm really happy that "Crippled Summer" was created so the character could be retired in a good (very funny) episode instead of easily South Park's worst episode ever.
It seriously makes The Cleveland Show look like high comedy. I wanted to slit my wrists while I was watching it.
As for Eat, Pray, Queef, it's in a similar boat to You're Getting Old for me; while I don't think it's particularly funny, it has enough humorous moments and a good enough message for me to like it.
I think "You're Getting Old" is a really great episode, but "Eat, Pray, Queef" isn't bad thanks to how it approached and followed through with it's sexism message, and I thought the parts with Terrance and Phillip in that episode were hilarious, so I didn't think it was awful in the least.
I loved You're Getting Old... until the following episode completely undid much of what I liked about it. I still think it's a good episode, but it's been cheapened for me a lot.
I agree about You're Getting Old, Foggle. I love that episode, and the follow-up, but I do dislike how they just completely dropped it for the status quo. That, and Stan's drinking at the end. That's one of the only times where I've found something more depressing than funny. I got the same feeling from the end of the Coon trilogy. I love the episodes, but I don't like how they built up Kenny's little sub-plot just to end it on a Mint Berry Crunch joke. I get it; it's the joke that the message is for him, not Kenny, but I didn't like that. We already knew the answer to Kenny's question, hell, we even saw the process by which he's reborn, but for Kenny himself, he never really seemed to get closure as to what was going on.
Yeah, I totally agree about the Ass Burgers and the Coon: Hindsight trilogy's endings. But in the case of Ass Burgers, it didn't ruin the message of You're Getting Old for me since I had already expected the status quo to reset anyway (in fact, I figured they would just continue the show as if nothing has happened, so making a sequel episode to it actually surprised me).
I heard that even Trey and Matt hate Million Little Fibers, they described it as "Weirdness on top of weirdness or wearing a hat on top of a hat" At least, that's what I remember from one of the DVD commentaries. Either that or I'm thinking of that episode where Jimmy and Timmy were in a Special Needs camp and Towelie had an Intervention where they said that. I can't quite recall. So pretty much Million Little Fibers is one of the most top least favorite episodes of South Park.
I need to think a bit about my favorite episodes a bit, or at least putting it in a coherent order, but the ones I did list would still probably make it.
All these years and I've never been able to make it through "A Million Little Fibers". I watched it on TV when it premiered and just stopped. It was just so awful.
Quote from: Eddy on May 12, 2013, 02:09:02 AM
All these years and I've never been able to make it through "A Million Little Fibers". I watched it on TV when it premiered and just stopped. It was just so awful.
Yeah, it's the only episode I've been physically unable to finish.
I've watched it beginning to end three times and have regretted it each and every time. :'(
Meh. Personally I think Jakovasaurs was a worse episode, but their both shit. That said, I prefer to focus on the good stuff rather than dwell on the bad stuff. So in the end I end up finding those episodes forgettable and, well....forget about them. I only ever even recall bad episodes like those when somebody else brings them up.
I don't know about a top ten list, but the only episode I truly hate to watch is "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina". It was one of the catalysts for me to stop watching the show.
I don't really remember "A Million Little Fibers". Like, I know I've seen it a few times, I just don't remember it.
I remember that Matt and Trey put out a top 5 least favorite episodes list for EW a few years ago. I think I have that issue (the Avengers were on the cover), so I'll have to look.
On the top of my head, I remember that they put all of season 1 as its own entry.
Here's the list:
1-48- Every episode from the first 3 seasons
49- Pip
60- Chef Goes Nanners
51- South Park is Gay
52- A Million Little Fibers
53- Stanley's Cup
And their top 15
1- Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My anus
2- Good Times With Weapons
3- Make Love, Not Warcraft
4- Major Boobage
5- Awesome-O
6- The Death of Eric Cartman
7- Woodland Critter Christmas
8- Trapped in the Closet
9- With Apologies to Jesse Jackson
10-12- Imaginationland trilogy
13- Eat, Prey, Queef
14- Dances with Smurfs
15- You're Getting Old
Yeah...I stil don't agree at all with the notion the first three seasons were awful. Season 2 has it's weak parts, but 3 and 1 are golden through and through and overall all three are very good television. And I really like "Chef is Nanners," "South Park is Gay," and I love "Stanley's Cup," but I quess those episodes just didn't meet their expectations. Still, they are all much, much better than "Pip" and "A Million Little Fibers;" those two episodes are shit.
The first three seasons aren't as strong as some of the later ones, but I think it's unfair to say that they were completely bad. I love many episodes from them, like Pinkeye, Starvin' Marvin, Cartman's Mom Is A Dirty Slut (both parts), Chickenlover, Clubhouses, Spookyfish, Rainforest Shmainforest, and Chinpokomon, among others. Not to mention the movie, which was made during season 2 I believe.
"The Death of Eric Cartman" Was another great episode that I completely forgot to mention. I don't agree with Matt and Trey that the first 3 seasons were all bad, though, but I guess from their perspective it was humor that they have now completely grown out of.
Huh, Stanley's Cup is their least favorite episode? I know fans liked this episode but I mutually agree with them. With an exception for the finale, I found the episode very boring and predictable.
Spoiler
From the get go I knew it was building up to the team getting their ass kicked by adult hockey players and the sick boy dying, which was pretty funny but the rest of the episode just felt like padding to me.
The first three seasons lack greatness that later seasons have, though have their moments, especially Chinpokomon. I also liked Chef Goes Nanners and South Park is Gay, while kind of stupid, was stupid in a hilarious way. Also kudos to them for placing the Terrence and Phillip episode as their number 1. It's not the best episode in my opinion but it's decent (again, stupid but funny) and I think it only gets much gripe from the fact that it was Trey and Matt trolling their fans.
I'll be sure to list my favorite episodes sometime later.
I never understood their hate for the first three seasons, some of my favorite episodes are contained therein. I've seen Sexual Harassment Panda a hell of a lot more times than I can count, but it's one of the episodes I consistently can laugh at.
And holy shit, Pip. I always hated when CC reran that episode, because it always forced me to change the channel. Stupid character gets his own stupid episode loosely based off a stupid book(I fucking hate Great Expectations).
Quote from: SSJ Jake on May 12, 2013, 05:29:16 PM
Huh, Stanley's Cup is their least favorite episode? I know fans liked this episode but I mutually agree with them. With an exception for the finale, I found the episode very boring and predictable. Spoiler
From the get go I knew it was building up to the team getting their ass kicked by adult hockey players and the sick boy dying, which was pretty funny but the rest of the episode just felt like padding to me.
Eh, I disagree. The episode purposely followed a predictable formula because it was mocking the predictable formula of most sports movies. The point was in the jokes it got across for every sports movie cliche which I felt it nailed at each point as it followed along the basic plot structure of a typical sports movie. At any rate, I certainly could never find the episode boring, myself, and I still find it to be one of the more underrated episodes in the series. But, to each their own, I suppose.
QuoteI also liked Chef Goes Nanners and South Park is Gay
I did actually enjoy both of those episodes, myself. I'd even say that Chef Goes Nanners had a good message going for it, so I certainly wouldn't consider it one of the worst SP episodes. I can see why people would hate South Park Is Gay, and that's completely justified, but I'd be lying by saying that I didn't at least get a few laughs out of it.
I actually liked the character of Pip a lot, but Butters completely surpasses him in terms of both usability and likability.
I like "South Park is Gay" until the crab people show up.
I love the Crab people scenes. I can never stop laughing at their theme music. :D
I just don't like it when Matt and Trey revert to blaming certain issues or fads on cults and conspiracies. Usually it feels like lazy writing when they go that route, and it especially felt that way here IMO.
Quote from: Avaitor on May 12, 2013, 09:46:41 PM
I just don't like it when Matt and Trey revert to blaming certain issues or fads on cults and conspiracies. Usually it feels like lazy writing when they go that route, and it especially felt that way here IMO.
To be fair, even Matt and Trey hated doing that as well. Their excuse is that, like in many cases, they ran out of time to come up with any better ideas, so they just went with crab people. I'm not saying its justified, but at least it makes sense why it ended up that way.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on May 12, 2013, 09:50:40 PM
Quote from: Avaitor on May 12, 2013, 09:46:41 PM
I just don't like it when Matt and Trey revert to blaming certain issues or fads on cults and conspiracies. Usually it feels like lazy writing when they go that route, and it especially felt that way here IMO.
To be fair, even Matt and Trey hated doing that as well. Their excuse is that, like in many cases, they ran out of time to come up with any better ideas, so they just went with crab people. I'm not saying its justified, but at least it makes sense why it ended up that way.
That's fair. I mean, I'm fine with it sometimes, but this wasn't one of my favorite cases.
Another problem I find is when they come up with a fantastic episode (usually two/three parters) and the next episode is crap. The biggest example being the awful A Million Little Fibers following up the two great Cartoon Wars episodes. I don't blame them too much though as it's hard to out do something great in such minimal time therefore the following episode may suffer. Not always the case, but has been several times. Maybe their ten episode limit this upcoming season will help fix the problem.
As for the Crab People bit, you either love it or hate it. It was a cheap cop out due to time constraints and was idiotic, but good idiotic in my eyes.
I found the Crab People joke to be so stupid, that it just went right back to being hilarious. You just keep expecting some mastermind, only to find out that they're just Crab People. The song helps as well.
Look like crab. Talk like people.
I actually liked the Pip episode. I think Prehistoric Ice Man is far worse, it doesn't have anything going for it at all.
... I also thought the crab people showing up was the best part.
That said, I think season 1 is a lot better than they give it credit for being when it was made and how new it was. Their hate of season 3 is completely odd because I remember in the commentary them saying repeatedly that "Hey, this episode was pretty good" over and over. They both blow the doors off season 9, in any case.
I like Prehistoric Ice Man.
What's wrong with season 9? Aside from "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" and "Erection Day," all the other episodes are pretty on par with good episodes from previous seasons. I myself would take season 3 over season 9, but I think the best of 9 is more entertaining on the whole than the best of 1.
Oh, and like Foggle I like "Prehistoric Ice Man." I'm not sure what there is to dislike about it. As for "Pip," I liked the character a lot and all in his most notable episodes, but the episode is a dreadfully boring re-telling of "Great Expectations" until the whole Genesis Device twist, so I've never really cared for it much.
In my opinion, Prehistoric Ice Man is simply not funny and has nothing going for it. The Cartman schtick is the same joke over and over and never gets funnier with its repetition. At least Pip has the ending, Prehistoric Ice Man doesn't have anything.
Season 9 felt tired to me. It's a hard thing to explain, but most every episode in that season save for a handful bore me.
Cartman's plot isn't the focus of "Prehistoric Ice Man," though. I can understand if you don't find the townspeople thinking a man frozen in ice for three years is some kind of savage funny, the crocodile hunter parody, or Stan-Kyle's argument over naming the guy entertaining. As is it's an average episode for me, and I enjoy it quite a bit.
As for season nine, aside from the two episodes I mentioned before, I like it quite a lot. "The Losing Edge," "The Death of Eric Cartman," "Marjorine," "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow," "Trapped in the Closet," "Die, Hippie, Die," "Wing," and "Free Willzyx" were all quite hilarious to me and still are. Honestly, the season of South Park I like the least has to be sixteen, which only had okay episodes for the most part except for "Butterballs" and "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining," which I found hilarious.
"The Death Of Eric Cartman" and "Marjorine" were both South Park spins on VERY typical cartoon plots (I'm talking about stuff that you'd find on old Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, or Disney Channel after school cartoon shows), and IMO....they were both pretty hilarious, if only because it was fun seeing those types of episodes being told through South Park's very demented perspective.
I agree with Cartoon X; on the whole, I think season 9 is pretty much on par with the other seasons. I just don't see how its really all that boring, aside from a few stinkers. I mean, I liked it better than seasons 1, 2, 12, and 13 on the whole, myself, so its hardly the weakest season in the show.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on May 13, 2013, 05:24:45 PM
In my opinion, Prehistoric Ice Man is simply not funny and has nothing going for it.
:char:
Just a reminder, the new season starts tonight. I'll probably watch this, the ads they've had for this make it interesting. Though from the preview on the website, tonight's episode will have some form of satire against Government monitoring our stuff.
The newest episode was kinda weak. I liked the Butters-DMV subplot, but after the first few minutes of Cartman's story it got really boring. The twist at the end with Santa was funny at the reveal, but they kind of just let it die, I think they could've done more with it.
I agree. It felt like they could have gone way further with Cartman's plot, and Butters' wasn't the kind of gag that can stay funny overall. Not a strong opening.
Love the new intro though.
Yeah, it was a disappointing episode. Not bad, but far from what I expect from South Park as a season opener. Still, Butters' subplot was still quite funny, as most of his plots tend to be. I hope the next few episodes are a step up, but right now it's just nice to have the series back with new episodes again. :)
I thought Cartman's storyline was absolutely hilarious in its social commentary, but it probably won't hold up five years from now. Didn't like Butters' subplot at all.
Quote from: Comeau on September 29, 2013, 12:32:05 PM
The newest episode was kinda weak. I liked the Butters-DMV subplot, but after the first few minutes of Cartman's story it got really boring. The twist at the end with Santa was funny at the reveal, but they kind of just let it die, I think they could've done more with it.
While I'm usually the one defending South Park as still be a legitimately well-written and funny show, I pretty much agree with you on this episode. It just didn't do much for me. I'm not so much of a fan of the episodes that just have Cartman represent some "modern sensation" of the time. That's not really Cartman's character, in the first place. I prefer the episodes where he uses dirty schemes and manipulation to gain a position of power or just something that he wants. He's much funnier in those scenarios, IMO. Either that, or the episodes where the kids are just being themselves and he's a dick to everyone like usual.
Anyways, this was a pretty "meh" premiere (I did laugh at the Alec Baldwin jokes, though), but also not nearly the worst that I've seen from this show. It really doesn't phase me, though, since every season at least has a few episodes like these. I just hope that the following episodes are better.
Oh man, last night's episode was absolutely hilarious! It might even be a new favorite of mine! ;D
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on September 29, 2013, 01:32:16 PM
Anyways, this was a pretty "meh" premiere (I did laugh at the Alec Baldwin jokes, though), but also not nearly the worst that I've seen from this show. It really doesn't phase me, though, since every season at least has a few episodes like these. I just hope that the following episodes are better.
I just hope that with this season starting the whole "10 episodes" thing, the quality will be higher. And yes, I completely forgot, but the Alec Baldwin parts were freaking great.
Quote from: Cartoon X on October 03, 2013, 12:38:55 PM
Oh man, last night's episode was absolutely hilarious! It might even be a new favorite of mine! ;D
While not a favorite of mine, it definitely had me laughing.
I loved the twist where the kids were the one blocking the adult's content.
I just loved the whole idea of adults playing Minecraft. Kind of like how I enjoyed the Warcraft episode, despite never getting WoW. I forgot, did they even find an answer to the kids' security question?
This Zimmerman episode is so fucked up. :lol: Cartman's leaving a fucking body count.
That boy you shot was white.
GUILTY!
Oh man, yesterday's episode was another winner. I laughed so hard through the whole thing. :lol:
Season 17's looking pretty good so far. ;D
I just watched the episode. Yeah, fucked up is an understatement, but it was also hilarious.
No new episode tonight due to a power outage at South Park Studios, instead we're getting Scott Tenorman Must Die. Link for official source. (http://www.southparkstudios.com/news/j2j34b/episode-1704-will-not-air-tonight?xrs=synd_twitter-sp-blackout)
Aw man, and the new episode was going to have the my favorite tertiary characters, the Goth Kids, in it too! :imnothappy:
Wow, they had an extra week and the episode ended up sucking. That's a shame.
The opening was interesting, I'll give them that.
I doubt they used that extra week to change anything to the show other than finish animating it. If anything, the next episode should be the one that should be better than normal since that's the one they've been given a head start on to complete.
As for this episode, I loved it. Not only was it nice to not have a topical episode for a change, but I also found the basic idea of the plot, the interactions between the Goth Kids, the Vamp kid, Edgar Allen Poe, and ultimately, how the twist played out, hilarious. I'll admit to some bias since I love "The Ungroundables" and the Goth kids are some of my favorite tertiary characters in South Park, but I really did think this was a pretty funny episode, even if it wasn't exactly phenomenal.
Quote from: Nel_Annette on October 24, 2013, 03:22:45 PMWow, they had an extra week and the episode ended up sucking. That's a shame.
I thought it was hilarious. I guess I just have a different sense of humor than most people. This was my favorite episode of the season so far.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on October 24, 2013, 05:37:27 PM
Quote from: Nel_Annette on October 24, 2013, 03:22:45 PMWow, they had an extra week and the episode ended up sucking. That's a shame.
I thought it was hilarious. This was my favorite episode of the season so far.
:swoon:
I should also point out that I'm not an avid defender of this show. The last few seasons have had some real duds that I wouldn't hesitate to call out for being shit ("Pee" comes to mind, most of all). But, sometimes I just don't get what other people are looking for.
"You Have 0 Friends" was one of the best episodes of the show, but hardly anyone even talked about it.
"Cash For Gold" got mediocre reception at best, but it had me laughing my ass off.
"Stanley's Cup" was ingenious, IMO, but people hated it because they apparently didn't get the ending.
When I think about it, I've always disagreed with the mass majority on good South Park episodes.
So, when I say I liked this episode, it's not me being a fanboy. I just love the personalities that clashed in this episode, and I like how this series can focus on really minor characters for an entire episode and can still make them just as entertaining as any of the main characters.
I still think 1% is one of the all-time funniest episodes of any cartoon ever.
The Goth Kids were great as usual. This episode was funny, and the ending was great. It was wonderfully unpredictable.
"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "Hot for Teacher" are possibly my two favorite Van Halen songs.
btdubs
From what I've heard, the gag at the end of the recent episode was more of a jab at how South Park is taking a break next week due to Thanksgiving. So expect part 3 of this Game of Thrones/Black Friday thing in 2 weeks. 2 more episodes left in this season.
I'm loving the Black Friday episodes, myself. Kenny becoming a Japanese princess had me laughing my balls off.
That was a Part 2? o_O I only saw the second half of the episode and haven't been keeping up with the second half of this season at all.
Princess Kenny was pretty freaking hilarious though.
Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on November 21, 2013, 07:01:46 PM
I'm loving the Black Friday episodes, myself. Kenny becoming a Japanese princess had me laughing my balls off.
Glad I wasn't the only one. That bit had me in stitches. Highlight of the episode. Along with Butters being trapped at that guy's house. YOU BASTARD! You didn't even order the pizzas.
I've started the newest episode three times now and each time I keep getting interrupted. Guess I'm going to have to wait for some free time tomorrow.... :(
An uncensored version of South Park's controversial Muhammad episode has surfaced - http://www.avclub.com/article/the-uncensored-version-of-south-parks-controversia-107422
Eh, I think the censored version was much funnier. :D
I haven't been watching new South Park much for the past few years, so I decided to catch up and marathon through what I've missed.
So far I enjoyed "Royal Pudding", "Crack Baby Athletic Association", "Reverse Cowgirl", "Raising the Bar", "Insecurity", "A Scause for Applause", "Obama Wins!", "Informative Murder Porn", "World War Zimmerman", "Taming Strange", and "The Hobbit".
There are mediocre episodes, but still, quite a few great ones.
Quote from: Foggle on January 19, 2011, 09:23:00 AM
Knowing Matt and Trey, if they were going to stop doing South Park out of anger, they'd probably make a horribly disgusting and insulting final episode that completely ridiculed the staff of Comedy Central.
thats the 1 thing i had prolems with the show as if something pissed them off they would make a episode about it (case in point return of chef) i mean i love the show but that is a big issue
So let me get this straight? They're taking all the free episodes they had on southparkstudios . com, and moving them all behind a Hulu paywall?
Fucking hell, thank goodness I have the dvds.
Damn it, I loved having all the episodes free to watch at any time. I guess I really will have to start collecting the dvds pretty soon...
That's a shame, but I suppose their DVD sales needed a boost or something. I already own them up to season 7, but that leaves me with 10 more seasons to collect, which is quite frankly just don't have the funds for, right now.
I loved the season 18 premiere episode. It looks like this season is already off to a good start.
I really liked yesterday's episode. But somehow, just like with last year's Goth kids episode, which I also really liked, people seem to hate it. I dunno, it was definitely not as funny as last week's and it had some draggy parts, but it also had some good jokes and I liked how it played off of the ending of last week's episode as well, which is rare for SP outside of multi-parters. Considering Butters' expulsion was never resolved, I wonder if that'll come up again in a later episode or they'll just have him come back to school next week.
This episode was great. People just love to nit-pick this show up the ass. I like how it showed continuity with the ending of last week's episode, and on top of that, it really did a good job of explaining how insanely anal people get about health these days, especially when they're largely uninformed about the science of proper health. As a pharmacist, I've had a fair deal of education on this stuff, so it was great to see one of my favorite shows dissect just how stupid people can be when they think the key to good health is something as simple as just avoiding gluten altogether (which in and of itself is not a recommended thing to do). I mean, yeah, the solution that they came up with at the end is scientifically worse, but the point of the episode is still hit home with that.
Agreed. Yesterday's episode was great, and I loved how the boys' party plot was born from what happened last week. Subtle continuity nods are always a pleasant surprise. Didn't really like the season premiere as much, but generally I've found quite a few of the season premieres weak over the last ten years of the show.
Oh Stan, we all wish we were drowning in bitches.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BzSV8EyCQAAXNCY.png:large)
This week's episode looks interesting.
I liked this week's episode, honestly. It's not as strong as the first 2, but the whole tran/cisgender thing was really amusing, and I also like how, once again, this episode played into the continuity of the last one. It looks like that might be a season-wide thing.
It was Tumblr: The Episode with Cartman being the trans person claiming oppression and Stan being the Cis having no idea what is happening. Oh Stan, you can't fight these people.
That and the plots connection from each week. I can't wait to see what part from this episode connects to next week. I suspect that they'll still have the bathroom up and running by then.
It'd be kind of cool if this continuity ends up building up to something in the season finale. I doubt it, but at the very least, it's an amusing new feature for this show.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 11, 2013, 05:35:28 PMSpoiler
10. Chinpoko Mon- The Nostalgia Critic already covered this episode in his list, so I won't really go into any detail, here, but even as someone who got the whole Pokemon craze being that I was a fan at the time as well, I still always found this episode to be funny. It just nails down the general idea of how fads work with kids, and the completely ridiculous plot about how a big Japanese coroporation was marketing to the children to use them as an army was just the classic style of South Park humor that's personally right up my alley. This one will always be a favorite of mine.
9. Stanely's Cup- I've heard so many people hate on this episode in the past, and about 99% of the negativity just goes toward its ending. Personally....I think the ending is funny as well, and I don't see how it turned so many people off considering how many worse and less tasteful things South Park had already done way before this episode. Another thing I notice is that, while people like to point out that South Park is a social satire show that often likes to make fun of current events, I'm surprised that people never seem to credit it for how much it also parodies movies, or in this case an entire genre of film. Having watched a ton of sports movies myself, this episode doesn't leave out a single cliche, and makes sure to capitalize on every joke possible while still remaining a unapologetic as this series has ever been. I love this kind of humor, but maybe I'm the weird one, here. Asspen sort of did the same thing, as well (though, it was more specifically geared toward's cheesy 80's teen movies as opposed to just sports movies), and it was certainly a great episode, but personally I got way more laughs out of this one.
8. Casa Bonita- This is a great example of a character episode. In this case, its more of a Cartman episode, and also somewhat of a Butters episode to a lesser extent. Cartmanland and Gingerkids were 2 other Cartman episodes that I really love, but this one just slightly won out over the 2 of those. The basic premise is that Kyle is going to Casa Bonita for his birthday, which is Cartman's favorite restaurant, and he can take any 3 friends with him. The only problem is that he refuses to take Cartman after what a jerk he's been to him in the past, and decides to take Butters instead. Of course, Cartman will do whatever it takes to get what he wants, no matter how silly of a thing it is, and he ends up going overboard by tricking Butters into thinking that the world is ending to get him to hide and go missing, all while trying to put up an act around Kyle to convince him that he has changed his ways, just so that he can go to a damn restaurant that he really likes. What I love about this episode is that it really shows you how manipulative and conniving of a person Cartman can be. Its part of why he's my favorite character, but also shows you how mean-spirited he is, yet at the same time it comes off being really funny. Of course, there is the part of you that is sort of rooting for Cartman, and the part of you that really wants to see the brat get his comeuppance. This episode is actually a little bit of both, to be honest, but I'd say it leans more toward the former, since even though Cartman is the bad guy here, you can see how badly he wants to go to Casa Bonita that he's willing to lie and scam out his ass to get what he wants. My only gripe with this episode is how Kyle is a bit out of character in how he becomes so trustworthy of Cartman after Cartman puts on such an obvious act. Its a bit out of character for Kyle, as he's usually much smarter than that. Other than that, its a great Cartman episode with a really satisfying and hilarious conclusion.
7. The Wacky Molestation Adventure- Once again, this one is another episode that's more of a movie parody than anything else. It does have some social commentary on what I think was a thing at the time with child abuse being a big thing in the news, and maybe something about people not really abusing their child, but the media and society were too sensitive to anything at that time and even being a proper parent and yelling at your kid about something could be seen as abuse. I'm not entirely sure if even that's close to the mark, but either way, I don't really care. That's not the point of why this is a great episode. At its core, its a really funny parody of Children of the Corn, and movie I sort of have a strange interest in if only because I saw it as a kid and it used to scare the hell out of me. This episode actually helped me get over that movie, and now I like it as a more of a cheesy but still well conceived horror movie. The general plot is that Kyle gets angry at his parents for not letting him go to a concert with his friends by a band called "The Raging Pussies," and tries to get back at them by calling child services and saying that he was molested. It turns out this ploy works and his parents are pulled away by authorities, leaving him to do whatever he wants. As soon as all of the other kids of South Park here about this, they do the same, and eventually South Park becomes an adult-free town. Flash forward in time a bit, and an unsuspecting couple ends up stuck in the newly named "Smiley Town" with Eric Cartman as its mayor, while the other half of South Park is split up and lead by Stan and Kyle. Essentially all of the kids have banded together and formed 2 separate societies, and with this new couple in the middle of the dilemma, you can bet your ass that this episode capitalizes on every Children of the Corn joke and reference that it can muster while still being a very clever and funny episode in its own right. It also pays homage and reference to quite a few other movies as well, and I always love movie parodies (well....the good ones, anyways).
6. A Ladder To Heaven- Its hard to explain why I love this episode so much....other than I just find it to be pretty fucking hilarious. That's really all I can say. I mean, it has a message about how sentimental people can get over something that they completely miscomprehend, and how there are people who can exploit people's emotions for whatever reason, but really I just see it as an episode about Stan, Kyle, and Cartman being the dumb kids that they are and figuring that they can build a ladder to heaven to get a free candy shopping-spree ticket that Kenny supposedly had on him when he died. Its them being completely selfish and partakin in a ludicrous idea all for some candy, and people and the media and even the freaking military taking their actions in completely the wrong way....and I just find that pretty funny. I don't know, maybe its just a good string of individual jokes that makes this episode so funny for me. I really can't explain it any further than that, so I won't. Moving on....
5. Super Fun Time- This one is a Cartman AND Butters episode in equal parts, and you can't go wrong with that. Mr. (or was he still Mrs. at thsi time? I can't remember. And quite frankly I don't care, because its irrelevant) Garrison takes the class on a field trip and tells them they have to partner up with someone to make sure that they nobody gets lost or goes missing. They are going on a field trip to some old country time-period sort of get-up, in which the actors obnoxiously stay in character during their entire shift, no matter what. Garrison tells Butters that he is absolutely responsible for keeping Cartman out of trouble, and Butters takes this very seriously to the point of hand-cuffing himself to Cartman. Of course, Carmtan doesn't want any part of this dumb-trip and as soon as he spots the next-door "Super Fun Thyme," he takes the first opportunity possible to ditch the class and head over there, even forcing Butters along with him. The other part of this episode deals with a group of international criminals (who robbed a Burger King, of all places) holding up in the get-up and holding the entire class and all of the employees hostage, all while the actors still annoyingly refuse to break character, leading to some absolutely hilarious situations. Both sides of the episode are extremely funny, and its good proof of how South Park can do great comedy without even really having to reference any current events or make any social commentary, whatsoever. Of course you could probaly find some of that here if you looked hard enough, but if that were the case then you're completely missing the point.
4. Woodland Critter Christmas- The Nostalgia Critic already talked about this episode, and like him I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who may have not seen it. I'll just say that its funny as hell, and IMO its the best Christmas special ever. Now go watch it.
3. You Have 0 Friends- As someone who used to constantly be bugged by friends about refusing to get a Facebook account, this episode finally nailed down why I can't stand facebook. Its not a forum for intelligent discussion, or a way to truly keep in touch with friends (at least not most of the time). Its a major online gimmick in which friends are treated as commodities and people partake in useless, meaningless "interactions" (if you can even call it that) and mini-games. I still gladly have no Facebook account to this day, and this episode on top of being a great sattire on that, was also just funny with plenty of good jokes. I nearly died laughing when it started becoming a parody of Tron towards the end.
2. The Breast Cancer Show Ever- So, remember how I said a few entries back that Cartman is either the character that you either want to root for or want to see get his own ass handed to? This episode is definitely the latter, and its actually a great character episode for Wendy. Basically, Cartman has never had a problem with picking on Wendy, who to be fair mostly comes off as an ass-kissing goodie-two-shoes that all the teachers love, even if she genuinely cares about what she talks about. However, Cartman ends up going too far this time, when he mocks Wendy and her message as she is making a presentation about the importance of Breast Cancer awareness. This causes Wendy to snap and publicly challenge Cartman to a fight in front of the entire school to finally shut him up once and for all. Now Cartman is in a tight spot, as he knows he clearly can't beat Wendy, but he can't afford to be embarrassed in front of his whole class by being beat up by a girl. This forces Cartman to do everything in his power to try and convince Wendy to call off the fight, all while he still tries to put up an act in front of everyone else that he's not afraid of her and is ready and willing to fight her at anytime. Its funny because once again it shows you how manipulative Cartman can be with his schemes, but in this case its for a problem that he got himself into in the first place. And the ending is priceless, since its once again something Cartman gets himself into, even when he could have very well been in the clear. Its just a really great way of showing you the pathetic side of Carmtan, which incidentally may be even funnier than his more clever side.
1. My Future Self 'n' Me- So, why is this my favorite episode? Well, because for me, it succeeds completely on 2 fronts. One is that its a really funny episode in which all of the jokes just hit home (at least for me), and it never fails to keep me from laughing. Two is that its another episode with a message, but its a message that I can really get behind more than any other that I've seen in the show so far. The episode is all about how parents and public service try to steer their kids away from drugs and other bad things by....flat-out lying to them about it. Anyone with some common sense and true morality knows that this is completely wrong, and you can bet that South Park rips this kind of thought to shreds. I won't really spoil the twist in the episode for anyone who hasn't seen it, but basically this episode is about Stan, and how through some strange circumstances he runs into his future self, or rather this future self runs into him, coming back from the past. The problem is that his future self is a complete homeless junkie who has succumbed to drugs and warns himself from the past to not go down that road. Of course, this being an episode of South Park, all is not as it seems, and since I can't really spoil anything for you, all I can say is that this episode comes up with every clever and funny way to mock just how terrible it is to flat-out lie to kids about drug use, and other such things in general, rather than talking to them seriously and getting them to understand that they need to make the choice for themselves, and realizing that in many cases if given the proper guidance, they can make the responsible choice. In this sense, a lot of the humor from this episode comes from how moronic Stan's parents act in this situation, and it just so turns out that Butters and Cartman have a lot of hilarious involvement in this plot as well. To me, this episode is just the most re-watchable, gets the most laughs out of me, and delivers its message stronger than any other episode in the show, and that's pretty much why its my favorite.
Looking back at this, my list would remain mostly the same, except if I were to do it now, I'd replace #10 with Cartmanland and #8 with the Black Friday trilogy.
Having re-watched the series over the summer, I found there were a lot of episodes of the series I really, really loved, some more than I once thought I did, so if I were to re-do my list now, I'd say it would probably look like:
Spoiler
10. Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers
9. I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining
8. The Black Friday Trilogy
7. Fishsticks
6. The Last of the Meheecans
5. Stanley's Cup
4. Toilet Paper
3. The Losing Edge
2. Asspen
1. Butters' Very Own Episode
...And it looks like only three episodes from my last list are still in this one.
South Park just has too many good episodes, seriously. :sweat:
Oh, and I can't believe no one noticed this, but last night's episode was officially the 250th episode of the series! Yay for
South Park! :el_hail:
And to think that they once made fun of The Simpsons for having over 300 episodes (and that was just at the time that they made that episode about it), but today they aren't that far off from that same milestone. :sly:
Well, the point of that joke was less about the fact The Simpsons had that many episodes and more about how The Simpsons has done everything and used up pretty much every idea out there because it has gone on so long. Personally, I think South Park has managed to stay consistently good season to season even now, whereas The Simpsons just nosedived hard after the tenth (and before it's 250th episode, I might add). So, I'd say even though it's almost near 300 eps itself, SP has The Simpsons pretty much beat in terms of consistent quality. :humhumhum:
Though, I have a feeling that they'll quit after the 20th season, so the series probably won't make it to 300 episodes, making this their last "milestone." I guess we'll just have to see, though.
I've always said that South Park is a much more consistent show than The Simpsons, but everyone else on this board insists that The Simpsons is better just because you can "ignore" the later seasons, but the fact is that those are still part of the show and still shit, so it's only fair to take those into account while assessing the show's overall quality.
So basically, take your post and direct it at them.
My post wasn't directed at you. I know you aren't even a Simpsons fan in the first place. I was just stating my personal feelings on the two series' respective qualities using my comment on your comment as a branching off point. :P
I wasn't even being serious, dude. :>
So, no direct continuity reference with last week's episode this time, but at least we got a reference to that handicap summer camp episode from a few seasons back. Anyways, I liked this episode. I'm always a fan of when one of the kids innocently starts something that starts becoming really big and then pisses off a lot of corrupt corporate douche bags, and it's especially funny when it's Timmy since you know that he's literally just trying to raise money for Summer Camp and doesn't care about starting a business at all.
And it was also a reference to Timmy in Stick of Truth.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 16, 2014, 02:12:08 PM
So, no direct continuity reference with last week's episode this time, but at least we got a reference to that handicap summer camp episode from a few seasons back. Anyways, I liked this episode. I'm always a fan of when one of the kids innocently starts something that starts becoming really big and then pisses off a lot of corrupt corporate douche bags, and it's especially funny when it's Timmy since you know that he's literally just trying to raise money for Summer Camp and doesn't care about starting a business at all.
Considering he sold the damn business for a very generous sum, I'm going to say that those kids are gonna have the best summer camp of their entire lives. I also lost it when Nathan's mom was playing dumb about what her son wanted because she didn't want that to mess up her vacation plans to Italy. That and the return of Wacky Races! Who knew Dick Dastardly had it in him this time.
Man, there hasn't been an episode where Timmy has a major role, much less one focused on him, in over a decade. It was nice to see one again after all this time. I loved how they were both tackling new group-share automobile services like Zipcar as well as the death of saturday morning cartoons. It was also great to see Nathan and Mimsy return again. I remember in the commentary for "Crippled Summer" Matt and Trey really liked the duo and wanted to bring them back in future episodes, so I'm glad they finally found a way to use them again, here. It was also great that they kept with the classic cartoon theme by referencing Wacky Races in this episode. The only reference to last week's episode in this one was a small Lorde reference, so maybe they've decided to drop that, though personally I wish they would try and keep it up for the rest of the season. I also found it interesting that this is one of the very few episodes to date where the main boys aren't in it at all. The only other ones like that I can think of are "Pip" and "A Million Little Fibers. "That definitely didn't hurt the episode, though. This season just continues to be great stuff.
Yeah, this season is shaping up to be one of the best in a long time. Every other season for at least the past decade has been a mix of hits and misses (though I would argue more hits than misses, overall), but as of the first 4 episodes, here, I've seen 2 great episodes and 2 really solid ones.
Yeah, in the last few years the beginning of a new South Park season would have some rough episodes early on, but I've liked all the episodes this season around equally, so far. I think these have been the best starting episodes to a season since season 14, at the least.
No new episode this week. (http://southpark.cc.com/blog/2014/10/21/new-episodes-return-next-week?xrs=synd_facebook_new_eps) Apparently they call this their "dark week" and they have another planned around Thanksgiving week. Well, a break isn't too bad.
I don't mind, anyways, since I probably won't get a chance to watch any new episodes of anything that airs on Wednesday through Friday this week, being that I'll be back at my cousin's house to celebrate my birthday with my family, and to do some stuff with my dad.
I was wondering if they would do this down the line. I think it's great that they've set aside weeks to relax during the production schedule. Doing ten weeks straight is crazy, after all. Hopefully the next episode will be a really good one to make up for the extra wait.
Well, it's not like they are going to really utilize that extra time. Trey and Matt have made it clear that they always spend just a week on making each episode. They claim to have tried planning them out in advance, and say that the problem is that they always second guess themselves and end up being too overly cautious and restrictive on what they want to do with the episode. Basically, they seem to work much better under stress and the pressure of a deadline.
I meant that I hope it's a really good one to make up for the anticipation of now having to wait an extra week for a new episode, not that I expect that the extra time will help them make the episode better, because I assumed they were just taking this week off completely in the first place.
Oh, I see. Well, South Park has always been like a box of assorted chocolates. Some are shit, others are mediocre, but most are pretty good to even great. That said, you still can never be sure what you'll get with each one.
I feel this season has had the strongest start of any since at least season 14, so I have a good hope that the remainder of the episodes are just as good. In general, though, there always tends to be more episodes I like than those there aren't. New episodes really tend to be the highlight of my week when they come out, which is why waiting another week at this point after only 4 episodes have aired can get me a little impatient. :sweat:
I was about to say that at least there's Wednesday night's episode of Arrow to look forward to, but then I remembered that you don't watch that show. :P
And we're 5 for 5, so far. I loved this episode. I love this season. It's the strongest that we've had in a long time up to this point.
Butters's dad not considering the possibility that Butters himself took the drone since he "can't fly it without his supervision" was priceless, and it's the type of comedy that works because it plays off of established character traits. You just don't see this kind of humor in something like Family Guy, and personally I'd argue that South Park does this sort of humor better than most animated sitcoms.
So, when was the last time we ever saw Satan on this show? Great episode talking about those Fee to Pay games like Simpsons Tapped Out or Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff.
Satan last appeared in the season 10 episode "Hell on Earth 2006," I believe.
Man, this season is on fire. I seriously believe that it's close to being on par with the seasons of the show from its prime years.
It was great to see Satan again after so many years, and for that matter, it was nice to see Stan's grandpa again, who hasn't been absent for as long, but who we don't see very often, all the same.
And fuck yes, I'm so glad that they targeted the mobile gaming market for the stupid as fuck scam that it is. I'm so sick of people raving about that shit all of the time, and the idea of micro-transactions is despicable (and sadly has been plaguing console and PC games as well). Fuck that shit!
Anyways, there were a ton of laugh out loud episodes in this episode. If the rest of the season is still around this level of quality, then I'm totally writing a feature on it.
That freaking alcohol commercial had me laughing so hard. It's right on the ball.
Yeah, I couldn't control myself with that one. It's one of the best parodies that I've seen this season, and that's saying A LOT. :D
Man, yesterday's episode was weird, but I enjoyed it a lot. This season continues it's solid streak!
It was funny even though I have no idea what they were parodying. I mean, I know what Occulus Rift Is this, but I don't know what the story line was based around. Is this their seasonal episode where they do a movie parody or something.
While not as strong as the rest of the episodes this season, I still really enjoyed this one. At the very least I'm glad that it didn't stick with the predictable story-route from the set-up. The whole Cartman tricking Butters into believing a lie that he made up just for him has already been done perfectly with the episode Casa Bonita, so there was no need to do it here. At least with this episode we got a lot of "WTF" twists that certainly kept it feeling entertaining.
Oh man, yesterday's episode. I was howling with laughter in those last 5 minutes. Easily the hardest I laughed at a SP episode this season. Probably the strongest episode in this season yet, which says a lot, considering just how good the previous ones were.
While I wouldn't personally say that it's the strongest, I did quite enjoy it, myself.
That ending nearly had me in tears.
I thought it was boring until Randy was doing the birthday party, and Wendy was revealed to be on the volleyball team after Stan just dissed it in front of the whole class. At that point the whole thing was just a riot and wouldn't stop.
While I am withholding judgement to see in what context they're using Pewdiepie in tonight's episode, I really wish we would stop giving the fucker attention.
I'll give Pewdiepie at least some credit for all of his charity services that he apparently participates in, but I'll never understand why the hell he's actually popular. His personality is incredibly annoying and his content is barely amateur, at best.
There is this (http://youtu.be/EgMqhEMhVV8) popular video explaining why he's so successful, but it still doesn't make sense to me.
Looks like we're getting a 2 parter. Well, we only have 1 episode left.
So, I guess Pews influence in this episode was just using clips of him and being an inspiration for Cartman's online persona. Still interesting in seeing how everything from the past episodes this season is building up to a big event for a SP season finale.
I loved the season finale. It got so full on into "WTF am I even watching?" trrritory that it just felt so right for South Park, and especially this season, which as it stands is arguably the best season of the show that I've seen in a long time. I also love how literally every single pr virus episode of the seeason was referenced in this finale.
Later on, if I get the time, I'll try to individually rate each episode from this season.
South Park is one of those shows that I should watch more. Anytime I do see it, I laugh. A lot. I love the humor and the idea behind the show. But again, that's only when I see it, which is very infrequently.
Also, this isn't relevant to what I was saying above. I'm just curious, when do people say this show went downhill, anyway? Or, at least, when do people say the golden era ended (since, from the sound of things, you guys still enjoy it enough to keep up with it)?
The golden era is generally considered to be seasons 3-8, but I'd argue that it goes consistently strong up to season 10, myself. That's when the show really hit its stride, since the first 2 seasons haven't aged the best, a few noteworthy episodes aside. After that, some people say that the show goes completely downhill,which I veheemently disagree with, and always have. I'll say that, this most recent season aside (which I freaking loved), it does become less consistent, but it also has more hits than misses, IMO, and some of my all-time favorite episodes are from the later seasons.
At any rate, I'd say that if you just wanted to watch South Park at its best, go ahead and start with season 3 and go onto at least the 8th season. However, I'd argue that every season is worth a watch, or at the very least you could at least cherry-pick the best episodes from them, as there are still a lot of great ones in the mix.
To put things into perspective, I'd say that, while I actually liked the later seasons of Futura,a despite some bad episodes, South Park's later seasons were definitely stronger than Futurama's later seasons, on the whole. I can't compare it to The Simpsons or King of the Hill, though, since I still haven't watched enough of those shows.
Yeah, general consensus seems to be that season 9 is when South Park hit a bit of a bump. I don't really see it myself. I feel like every season has basically had the same amounts of hits and misses, and that it's pretty much stayed at the same level the whole time barring the first two seasons.
My favorite South Park episode from each season so far:
1. Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut
2. Spookyfish
3. Chinpokomon
4. The Wacky Molestation Adventure
5. Super Best Friends (my very first SP episode ever!)
6. My Future Self n' Me (favorite episode of SP ever!)
7. Casa Bonita
8. Woodland Critter Christmas
9. The Losing Edge
10. Stanley's Cup
11. Imaginationland Parts I-III
12. Breast Cancer Show Ever
13. Pinewood Derby
14. You Have 0 Friends
15. City Sushi
16. Insecurity
17. Black Friday Trilogy
18. Go Fund Yourself
Some of those choices were really hard to make, especially for seasons 4-9, as well 12, 13, and 18; and yes, the most recent season was excellent. I really couldn't pick between that episode, Handicar, Freemium isn't Free, and Cock Magic, but decided on the premiere for being arguably the best opening episode to any season of this show thus far.
Good choices! For me, they'd be:
1. Mecha-Streisand
2. Chickenpox
3. Sexual Harassment Panda
4. The Wacky Molestation Adventure
5. Butters' Very Own Episode (my favorite episode)
6. Asspen
7. Toilet Paper
8. Woodland Critter Christmas
9. The Losing Edge
10. Stanley's Cup
11. The Imaginationland Trilogy
12. About Last Night...
13. Fishsticks
14. 200 & 201
15. City Sushi
16. I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining
17. Black Friday Trilogy
18. Handicar
My first episode of SP was "Pinkeye," ftr.
Great list, yourself!
3. My second choice, actually
4. :thumbup: For the record, it was super hard to leave out Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000
5. This one came up for me, it was real close
6. This may just be my favorite season; you could pick any episode as the best and you'd have a case for it
7. This was my 2nd or 3rd choice (I can't remember if Li'l Crime Stoppers was in this or season 8)
8-11. :thumbup:
13. That goddamn song is still stuck in my head to this day
14. I AM NOT A FUDGE-PACKER!
15. :thumbup:
17. :thumbup:
18. God, this season was so good; I'd say that every episode except for one was a hit, and even the weak link of this season was still decent, IMO
I've yet to finish season 17 or 18, but here are mine:
1. Volcano
2. Chickenlover
3. Chinpokomon
4. Fat Camp
5. Butters' Very Own Episode
6. The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers
7. Lil' Crime Stoppers
8. Woodland Critter Christmas
9. The Death of Eric Cartman
10. Cartoon Wars
11. The Snuke
12. Breast Cancer Show Ever
13. Fatbeard
14. 200 & 201
15. 1%
16. A Scause for Applause
A fair amount of overlap with you guys. :sweat: Y'all must have good taste!
My favorite episode overall is a four-way tie between The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers, Lil' Crime Stoppers, Woodland Critter Christmas, and 1%. I just can't choose!
From season 17, I'd highly recommend watching the Black Friday Trilogy if you haven't already done so. Aside from getting me into Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire (which of course means that I had never seen or read it prior to these episodes, yet still found them amazingly hilarious as a parody), It has perhaps the best commentary on the current-gen console wars that I have ever seen, and it's an amazing advertisement for South Park: The Stick of Truth. But even more than that, it's just flat-out hilarious from start to finish.
Also, season 18 is arguably the best season since South Park was last in its prime. It also is uniwue in that it has a bit of continuity going throughout. It's nothing too heavy-handed, but it's worth watching in order so that certain jokes make a lot more sense, especially in the final 2-parter.
I've actually seen all of season 17 except for the Black Friday Trilogy, and I've seen a couple episodes from 18 already. Good to hear that I've got a bunch of great episodes in front of me. I'll be sure to watch them soon. ;)
I also have to say that it was super hard leaving out Super Fun Time, but Breast Cancer Show Ever just overtook it by a smidge, for me. Still, that episode is amazing.
The season premiere was last Wednesday. It was pretty solid, with some fun continuity nods to previous jokes and episodes. I have to wonder if PC Principal is really here to stay, though. Much like last year, I have a feeling another season-long story arc is a-brewing...
I loved the premiere. PC Principal is a hilarious new character, and the use of continuity and references to earlier episodes was really clever without being overly-intrusive. And I'm just fine with a season-wide story arc again as long as it's handled like last season, where the episodes can still be watched episodically, but where it all connects to a certain theme.
I also echo the sentiments of PC Principal being the best new character they introduced in a while. So much biting social commentary in this episode with Deflategate where Tom Brady walked away without a scratch on him, Caitlyn Jenner coming out as transgender, Jared Fogle pedophilia charges and also the stuff about Europe's immigration crisis. That and PC Principal and his ilk being SJW while also being frat boys also works on a very humorous level. The irony in those scenes were delicious.
So, yeah, continuity in South Park is definitely a thing, now.
I loved the jab at Donald Trump in this episode.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 24, 2015, 03:21:41 PM
So, yeah, continuity in South Park is definitely a thing, now.
I loved the jab at Donald Trump in this episode.
Canadian Trump was a nice touch, but at the risk of sounding like PC Principal I really didn't like Garrison raping him literally at the end. :whuh: I think that was way too far at the end, but the rest of episode was great. What's nice is now it seems they're going to continue with Garrison going political in addition to PC Principal still being in town. Considering the fraternity they set up last time I have a feeling they'll do an episode on the UAV false rape scandal soon.
I was extremely happy to see an episode focused on Mr. Garrison again, for the first time since season 12! He's always one of my favorite characters in the show, and I've been disappointed that recent seasons have downplayed him so much. I'm excited at the prospects of him being a politician going to continue as a subplot through the season.
Quote from: Peanutbutter on September 24, 2015, 05:59:56 PM
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on September 24, 2015, 03:21:41 PM
So, yeah, continuity in South Park is definitely a thing, now.
I loved the jab at Donald Trump in this episode.
Canadian Trump was a nice touch, but at the risk of sounding like PC Principal I really didn't like Garrison raping him literally at the end. :whuh: I think that was way too far at the end, but the rest of episode was great. What's nice is now it seems they're going to continue with Garrison going political in addition to PC Principal still being in town. Considering the fraternity they set up last time I have a feeling they'll do an episode on the UAV false rape scandal soon.
They did it because, well, it's Trump's own rhetoric. All the rapists coming up over the border, etc.
I got that it was all a jab at Trump's rhetoric, I just don't think it had to be beaten over South Park's fans' heads. I just don't find rape funny, even if it had a political purpose.
Quote from: GregX on September 28, 2015, 08:29:25 AM
They did it because, well, it's Trump's own rhetoric. All the rapists coming up over the border, etc.
Wow, I didn't even think of that.
Quote from: Peanutbutter on September 28, 2015, 10:04:13 AM
I got that it was all a jab at Trump's rhetoric, I just don't think it had to be beaten over South Park's fans' heads. I just don't find rape funny, even it had a political purpose.
I agree with this. I also didn't like those parts of that earlier episode with Indiana Jones getting raped.
...Handbanana is still the funniest shit, though.
Handbanana had the advantage of a meme-worthy one-liner. The South Park rape stuff is just uncomfortable.
Considering that Trump raped his ex-wife, I can't feel too bad for him about this one.
Quote from: GregX on September 29, 2015, 06:36:10 PM
Considering that Trump raped his ex-wife, I can't feel too bad for him about this one.
:whuh: :whuh: :whuh:
Quote from: Foggle on September 28, 2015, 12:59:27 PM
I also didn't like those parts of that earlier episode with Indiana Jones getting raped.
Wait.. what??
Oh, c'mon, Trey and Matt. Are you THAT desperate for ideas these days? :il_rope:
That episode aired YEARS ago. Not "these days." :humhumhum:
^Ah, it's a good thing you corrected me on that one, E-K. That episode must've missed me by a mile.
But still.. :zonk:
Yeah, it was around the time the fourth Indiana Jones movie came out, so that had to be a 2008/2009 episode.
Yeah, it's a pretty forgettable episode despite being so uncomfortable. I actually forgot it even existed until the Trump one reminded me of it.
As far as the Rape joke in the Indiana Jones episode was concerned, the joke mostly felt like that old saying of "MAI CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN RUINED/RAPED" with how that element was handled. I guess your mileage may vary depending on how you view those kinds of people and/or how you felt about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
So, I get the theme of this season, and I'm pretty sure that I have an idea of where it's headed.
The theme is basically how ridiculous the modern obsessions of our culture have gotten, from PC-extremists to self-entitled Internet critics (BTW, if you watched this week's episode on South Park Studios, every ad played was just a Yelp! commercial, which is fucking brilliant). Kyle even sums it up with his line of realization as to what's really going on: "It's all about them." What was interesting was that up until now, Trey and Matt seemed to be letting the clear antagonists win by the end of each episode, but the end of this episode hints that the worst of these people will be getting just what they deserve by the season's end. Of course, I could just be looking into it too much, but this seems to be the case.
You might be onto something. That kinda has been the general theory floating around from what I've been noticing about this season. It does seem to be attacking internet/self-entitlement PC culture.
In fact, the 3rd episode about the gentrification of the McCormick's house was apparently supposed to be an example of what South Park would be like if it bowed down to complaints of the show so it could be more politically correct. Sure there were some hypocrisies in there, but that was part of the story/joke they were going for in that episode. Well, at least at the end of the episode, SoDoSoPa ended up going back to shit since they decided to give that Supermarket to that other part of town.
Yesterday's episode might be my new favorite from the show, no hyperbole. Brilliant take down on people's desire for self-gratification but their inability to handle any form of criticism, wanting to be sheltered from any and all negativity even though such comments should be understood and accepted as a given in modern internet culture. Absolutely loved it. This season has just been incredible so far, and I think it's shaping up to be one of SP's best yet!
Here's my take on this season so far:
Personally, I think that the previous season was a tad funnier on an episode-to-episode basis. That said, while it started the whole continuity thread, it didn't really do anything with it until the very end.
This season to me is still great on an episode-to-episode basis, but maybe not quite as funny as the previous one. However, when looked at as a whole story arc with an overall connecting set of themes, it's much stronger in that regard. It's telling a great season-wide story that makes all of the jokes that we do get hit so much harder than ever before. On that ground, if the second half of this season is just as good, it could arguably be my favorite season of this show as well.
I never imagined they'd tackle yaoi, but this week's episode was hilarious! Tweek X Craig was always one of the most bizarrely popular ships for the show, so I was very amused to see them play with it here, and to use actual slash fanart of them in the episode to boot. I also liked that the ending of the episode was refreshingly more positive and feel-good, considering how cynical the rest of the episodes in this season have been. Cartman's subplot also revealed a lot of issues going on with him that I'd be pretty interested in seeing expanded upon down the line. Man, this season has just been on fire with ace episode after ace episode, and after the last three weeks, I'm half expecting my favorite episodes list to be half occupied with episodes from this season when it's finished with. :D
I think that I bust a gut when watching this episode. :lol:
I still can't believe the South Park crew went out of their way to ask the fans to submit yaoi fan art to be used in the show. Just imagine having to explain to your friends what yaoi is. I think I might just show them clips from this episode from now on. Still a pretty good episode
Hoo wee! What an episode of South Park tonight. Looks like things are really starting to get into gear as far as the story is concerned.
Pretty clever of how the most minor running gag of this season is (apparently) a big plot point.
This episode felt a tad messy in terms of the plot since they crammed in three sub-plots instead of their usual two per episode, but it was a brilliant critique about the hypocrisy of these PC activists and SJWs, or really just people in general, always trying to blame their own mistakes on someone else, as well as turning their backs on the ideals that they preach the moment that they have to struggle through some problems in order to uphold them.
At the end of the episode, they get the cops to help them again by pretending to look the other way when minorities get abused since it suits their convenience. They'll only speak out against it to make themselves look good when it doesn't actually have any affect on their lives.
I'm really invested in seeing how this season ends.
Not even a big South Park fan, but I love this season. That plot twist was amazing, one of the biggest shocks I have ever gotten from TV. My jaw would have gone through the floor if I hadn't been laughing. Leslie being PC Principal's daughter and the fact they are somehow controlling everything will go down in future TV history lists, I'm sure.
The best part is realizing there's still three episodes left. There's a rerun after next week, but could we be in for another trilogy like The Coon and Black Friday?
Holy shit! I swear that this season just keeps getting better and better. Just when I think it may have peaked, it pulls out an episode like Sponsored Content, which is nothing short of brilliant. I almost couldn't stop laughing throughout the entire episode.
Yeah, it was great. Apparently, PC Principal isn't Leslie's dad, he's a living Internet commercial from the same ad as her. Glad they didn't use the Crab People, because they would be a cop-out. After years of non-use I never thought Barbrady would get to be the big hero; and then there's stuff being set up for Mr. Garrison and Principal Victoria.
Don't know how Kyle, Stan and the gang will be involved but the end of the season is going to be epic.
Excellent attack on click-bait journalism. I even got a chuckle of BuzzFeed being a part of Stephen Stotch's nightmare of following links on the internet. Truly the greatest hightlight for me was probably that scene between Randy and Sharon with Sharon calling Randy out on his bullshit from this season with Randy being his PC/Tumblrina pointing out that saying he or she is a micro aggression. That and PC Principal getting unhinged as the episode went on due to not knowing how to deal with Handicap people and his fraternity being "attacked" by Jimmy.
Man, such a shame we gotta wait 2 weeks due to Thanksgiving, since who airs new stuff over Thanksgiving? :P But I have a feeling that this will all be worth it in the end and be even more epic than last season's finale.
Quote from: Daxdiv on November 19, 2015, 02:32:06 PM
Man, such a shame we gotta wait 2 weeks due to Thanksgiving, since who airs new stuff over Thanksgiving? :P But I have a feeling that this will all be worth it in the end and be even more epic than last season's finale.
They could do another Thanksgiving special!
I'm waiting until this season is over to marathon it. I still need to catch up on the last two as well, though.
They could do a sattire on the commercialization of the Holiday season by greedy marketers, but then I realized that they already did that with the Black Friday trilogy two seasons ago.
Quote from: Foggle on November 19, 2015, 04:46:12 PM
Quote from: Daxdiv on November 19, 2015, 02:32:06 PM
Man, such a shame we gotta wait 2 weeks due to Thanksgiving, since who airs new stuff over Thanksgiving? :P But I have a feeling that this will all be worth it in the end and be even more epic than last season's finale.
They could do another Thanksgiving special!
They do tend to make Thanksgiving one of their break weeks ever since they decided to make their seasons run for 10 episodes in the fall rather than diving them up by 7 in the Spring and then 7 again in the Fall. Normally, they only have 2 weeks, but this season we did have a break between Tweek x Craig and Naughty Ninjas for some reason. Dunno why, but speaking of which, I don't think we got a live-tweet of Naughty Ninjas due to the tragedy that happened in Paris. Took me a while to figure out why the 9:30 Repeat was the opener of the season, then it occurred to me like "Oh fuck! That's right! Paris was attack by ISIS. Boy do I feel stupid."
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on November 19, 2015, 04:57:55 PM
They could do a sattire on the commercialization of the Holiday season by greedy marketers, but then I realized that they already did that with the Black Friday trilogy two seasons ago.
Yeah, if you want to see them tackle Black Friday again, just rewatch the GoT satire they did two seasons ago. Still pretty relevant if you gloss over the kids deciding between PS4 or XBONE (Well, maybe a little bit since I do think since they have some age on them that having bundles or discounts on Black Friday right now wouldn't feel that out of place) or even the "ad" at the end where they "advertised" Stick of Truth. According to South Park twitter feed, they said they used live action footage of Black Friday shoppers to just show how "sad" the whole Black Friday thing has gotten.
Quote from: Daxdiv on November 19, 2015, 05:40:43 PM
Dunno why, but speaking of which, I don't think we got a live-tweet of Naughty Ninjas due to the tragedy that happened in Paris. Took me a while to figure out why the 9:30 Repeat was the opener of the season, then it occurred to me like "Oh fuck! That's right! Paris was attack by ISIS. Boy do I feel stupid."
Wow, so it aired during the attacks? That's horrifying. :whuh: Wasn't that episode partially making fun of ISIS, too? Super creepy.
QuoteStill pretty relevant if you gloss over the kids deciding between PS4 or XBONE
I feel like this will become relevant again in about four years, except next time it will be between the PS5 and Original Xbox. ;)
They usually air last week's episode before the new one, but last night they aired the first episode of the season instead. I think the attacks happened a few days after it originally aired.
Good episode. They've really been nailing it this season. Personally, I think South Park is pretty bad about ending its multiparters, so hopefully the end of this season will subvert that and be satisfying.
Quote from: Nel_Annette on November 19, 2015, 11:00:03 PM
They usually air last week's episode before the new one, but last night they aired the first episode of the season instead. I think the attacks happened a few days after it originally aired.
Basically this. Normally the 9:30 episode before the premiere is normally last week's episode and they usually have some form of commentary with the official South Park Twitter account, giving out some behind the scenes details like what inspired the episode, production art and creating scenes. I normally like to check it out every week myself just for the commentary.
Really, the whole ISIS thing was bad timing since the episode did air a day or so after Obama declared that ISIS was detained because the US sent out an attack on Syria where they believed that Jihadi John was located. Then a day later, France got hit with a terrorist attack that outdid the worst attack on Paris since WWII. I can see Comedy Central pulling the episode from reruns for the time being due to poor taste of the Paris bombings and it wouldn't be the first time a network has done that. Provided, you can still watch the episode on Hulu last time I checked, but the fact they pulled it doesn't surprise me anymore.
To be clear, the episode hit the air BEFORE the Paris attacks happened. South Park airs on Wednesdays, and the ISIS bombings happened on a Saturday. Obviously Comedy Central would have pulled the episode from airing if the attacks had happened from beforehand.
A part of me wonders why Wendy, who's the most moral and outspoken character in the series, wasn't the one to challenge PC Principal, but Jimmy's disabilities and more down to earth nature probably does make him a better choice to push him out of his comfort zone and make some waves. It was great to see Nathan again, as well as the continuation of Mr. Garrison's subplot, and I totally did not see that twist about PC Principal and Leslie coming. This episode had me laughing and seriously intrigued in where the story is going, and it kills me that we'll have to wait two weeks to find out. Depending how the last two eps play out, this might very well end up my favorite season of this show.
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This has been popping up my screen throughout this week. I'm amused how this accuses South Park of being reactionary, as if the people they mock aren't reactionary themselves. That said, a South Park that riles people up this much is a good South Park. Any less would make a poor season.
What's funny is that this season has been strongly critiquing SJW's, and the episode "Safe Space" which the author of the post referred to is all about how you can't just ignore any critiques thrown at you and it's something that everyone has to deal with. Clearly he/she missed the point if they think that this show is actually encouraging people to maintain their assumptions about any given topic and never have them challenged. South Park has always thrived on comedy that attacks the general assumptions of society on various political to global topics. And on the contrary, rather than to ignore various real-life issues, this show has highlighted for many people, including myself, numerous social topics that we otherwise would never have given a second thought if South Park hadn't brought it up.
The irony of that post is that the author is basically being a hypocrite. He/she claims that the show just wants to be lazy and doesn't want anyone's assumptions to be challenged, yet clearly expect readers to adopt his/her beliefs without them being challenged in any way, otherwise they are just lazy idiots by his/her definition.
I think this person makes a decent point about a select handful of episodes but either has little experience with the series or is cherry-picking to make their argument seem stronger. Honestly, I've never seen the show as being either particularly offensive or brilliant satire... it's just funny. Even when I don't agree with their views, it's usually funny. The amount of neocons who used the Safe Space episode as an excuse to shit on disenfranchised minorities is troubling, but I'm pretty sure its intention was more to make fun of self-important assholes who co-opt such concepts so they can ignore any criticism thrown their way than it was to, say, laugh at trans people who struggle every day to get others to accept them as human beings. This wouldn't be the first time SP has been misinterpreted by both sides of the sociopolitical spectrum, after all; like that Cissy episode, which was actually pretty pro-trans if you paid attention (few people did).
And we have just one episode left. I would never have imagined that South Park would present a season-wide story arc that would keep me so invested to the point of not being able to wait for each new episode. Here's to hoping that the finale lives up to the rest of the season.
I want to go to NoMoAuchie.
Man, there's so many questions and plot threads left to wrap up I can't believe there's only one episode left! This is going to be one packed finale, and I'm looking forward to it. Even if the finale doesn't end up being the best of the season, I feel pretty safe in saying this is my new favorite season of the show.
They seemed to hint that the story arc will continue into next season. I'm not sure where else they can go after sentient ads, unless they instead focus on Garrison's Presidential campaign which is more likely with the election next year. I'm ecstatic that not only did PC Principal pull a face turn, but also they decided to keep him on. He's the best new character they've had in ages and is utterly funny so I'm glad he gets to stay. I can't remember the last in any other show where a new character added to a show managing to breath so much new life into.
Great season and great finale.
Agreed. The finale didn't go into the direction I thought it would (thought there'd be a bigger twist to PCP being in that ad with Leslie rather than "the ads are trying to psych him out"), but I still loved it and this season was fantastic. Really glad PC Principal didn't get killed. The character caused a lot of the laughs I had this season, so I think he's warranted his stay.
When he interrupted Leslie's evil speech at the gun show, I was really hoping we'd get a final "Put a fucking sock in it!" but alas. And when the show cut to Randy with the townsfolk saying "Why did it have to be this way?" I thought it was going to show that they were hanging PCP like they did with Reality.
Best season of the show. It's official now.
And yes, I admire how the finale didn't go in the obvious route, and was all the more funny for it.
I also agree that PC Principal is a great new character, and I'm glad that they decided to keep him on board.
The season finale was probably the best they've ever done. Once again, thank you SP for not killing off your best new addition to the show.
OK fam, time to rank/rate the episodes from this season.
Stunning and Brave: 8/10
Where My Country Gone?: 9/10
City Part of Town: 10/10
You're Not Yelping: 7/10
Safe Space: 10/10
Tweek x Craig: 10/10
Naughty Ninjas: 9/10
Sponsored Content: 8/10
Truth and Advertising: 10/10
PC Prinicipal Final Justice: 10/10
All in all, a good season. Can't wait to see what happens next year with the election.
Honestly, I feel that Sponsored Content was the best one. It's something that anyone who doesn't live under a rock can pretty much relate to, and it's actually a really great episode for Jimmy, and I just like when South Park can focus on great character pieces for their supporting cast, similar to what they did with Butters' Very Own Episode.
As for rankings, I'll need to re-watch the season again to decide that for myself, but honestly everything except for maybe the second episode (which was still decent) was great, IMO.
That season finale was great. ;D
I'm glad to see that PC Principle is going to be sticking around. He was a nice addition to the cast.
Further proof that this season was the best in years: It pissed off Moviebob. (http://moviebob.blogspot.com/2016/01/note-following-piece-is-possible-in.html?spref=tw)
Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on February 04, 2016, 07:06:15 AM
Further proof that this season was the best in years: It pissed off Moviebob. (http://moviebob.blogspot.com/2016/01/note-following-piece-is-possible-in.html?spref=tw)
Its funny how its mostly SJWs or people who agree with them that are the ones who hated it. What a bunch of pretentious nonsense.
What even is an SJW these days? The term has lost all meaning to me over the past year. I used to think it meant armchair activists who acted like assholes, but then it seemed to become a condescending synonym for progressives, and now I see it used as a word to describe anyone who disagrees with the speaker.
Moviebob is the worst, though.
Quote from: Foggle on February 04, 2016, 11:56:36 AM
What even is an SJW these days? The term has lost all meaning to me over the past year. I used to think it meant armchair activists who acted like assholes, but then it seemed to become a condescending synonym for progressives, and now I see it used as a word to describe anyone who disagrees with the speaker.
Moviebob is the worst, though.
You had it right the first time, don't let anyone fool you. There's always going to be some nimrods that ride coattails.
Ah, okay. I can get behind that usage. :)
Still need to watch the last 2-3 seasons of South Park. :'( My TV backlog is so huge.
Quote from: Peanutbutter on February 04, 2016, 12:16:09 PM
Quote from: Foggle on February 04, 2016, 11:56:36 AM
What even is an SJW these days? The term has lost all meaning to me over the past year. I used to think it meant armchair activists who acted like assholes, but then it seemed to become a condescending synonym for progressives, and now I see it used as a word to describe anyone who disagrees with the speaker.
Moviebob is the worst, though.
You had it right the first time, don't let anyone fool you. There's always going to be some nimrods that ride coattails.
Isn't that what MovieBob basically is? I still remember when he took the Gamergate episode of Law and Order seriously. How far removed from reality can you be?
Quote from: Daxdiv on February 05, 2016, 07:33:26 AM
Quote from: Peanutbutter on February 04, 2016, 12:16:09 PM
Quote from: Foggle on February 04, 2016, 11:56:36 AM
What even is an SJW these days? The term has lost all meaning to me over the past year. I used to think it meant armchair activists who acted like assholes, but then it seemed to become a condescending synonym for progressives, and now I see it used as a word to describe anyone who disagrees with the speaker.
Moviebob is the worst, though.
You had it right the first time, don't let anyone fool you. There's always going to be some nimrods that ride coattails.
Isn't that what MovieBob basically is? I still remember when he took the Gamergate episode of Law and Order seriously. How far removed from reality can you be?
Yes, I believe you're right. He like others just tries to make up for having a lack of friends by clinging to whatever group of people that will listen to them. Especially when its a group that cuddles around freaks like Movie Bob.
Here's a great video about how South Park's previous season (season 19) is one of the most intelligent and hilarious things to have aired on TV in recent years: https://youtu.be/MG7y8J0DXhU
Seriously, if you guys haven't watched it, you really need to check out this season. It's arguably the best season of the entire show to date.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 03, 2016, 09:00:54 AM
Here's a great video about how South Park's previous season (season 19) is one of the most intelligent and hilarious things to have aired on TV in recent years: https://youtu.be/MG7y8J0DXhU
Seriously, if you guys haven't watched it, you really need to check out this season. It's arguably the best season of the entire show to date.
I don't even consider myself a big fan, but this season was amazing. It IS the absolute best they've done, as far I'm concerned. Not just because they mocked SJWs (or cry-bullies as I prefer), but because PC Principal is the most hilarious character they've added in by far. He's added new life to the show.
The show may be ending soon. (http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/e3/news/a797945/south-parks-future-could-be-video-games-not-tv)
Quote from: Daikun on June 16, 2016, 05:18:00 AM
The show may be ending soon. (http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/e3/news/a797945/south-parks-future-could-be-video-games-not-tv)
QuoteDiscussing the series' future, Parker suggested that the pair may do semi-serialisation on TV and concentrate on the gaming world.
Didn't Comedy Central announce that they have Trey and Matt contracted to produce the show up to season 23 before they would have to either end it or renew it again? So, we should still be getting at least four more seasons of South Park unless Trey and Matt have somehow found a way to back out of that deal.
So here's a video of Trey Parker teaching his baby daughter what he does for a living. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BFjyIqspP05/?taken-by=thesouthparkers&hl=en)
Lately, I've been thinking about how people don't like Trey and Matt's philosophy throughout the show, that both sides of a political situation can be just as bad. How that paints a smugly cynical approach on how the world works, except that's not the case at all. They're not saying that any decision you make on the political spectrum is bad, it's just that radicalism is a shitty thing to do no matter what side you're on, and how the left and the right go so far apart that they somehow collide back together again. I had that moment when watching an Alex Jones video and going on a Marxist tumblr blog, and they both said the same thing about the government and how they want to dismantle it, right down to the same exact conspiracy theories. Then I went on even more extreme leftist and alt-right articles and saw they both made the same paranoia-laced arguments regarding how obsolete societal norms are and shit, both so far up their own asses to read their own words and realize how homogeneous radical politics can be. How a crackpot can view the Communist Manifesto the same way a Fundamentalist sees the Old Testament. And I believe that's what makes South Park stand out where other politically-charged cartoons flounder.
I fully agree. And that doesn't just go for politics either. South Park rarely ever paints any subject matter of controversial nature in a purely negative light. On the contrary, it goes out of its way to point out how much of what it criticizes is not inherently a bad thing in and of itself. It's how deluded people get with concepts which they believe in to such ridiculous extremes that the show tends to make fun of.
Case in point: religion. I've seen people ignorantly label South Park as an anti-religious show. This is despite the fact that Trey and Matt have gone on record numerous times stating that they are not against religion. And in fact upon actual scrutiny of the show's commentary on religion, it becomes clear that very little of it is focused on making fun of any given religion itself. Instead it's always the extremists and religious zealots along with blind and ignorant followers that get lambasted by the show. Just like everything else, religion by itself is not portrayed as a bad thing.
South Park clearly takes the same stance with politics, as far as I can see.
This totally slipped my mind, but the Season 20 premiere is tonight. In case it slipped anyone else mind, here is your reminder.
Already knew about it. Their first target is Colin Kapernick, and possibly Black Lives Matter. Can't wait to see if they continue off of last season's story arc. Either way I hope PC Principal is back tonight!
Jeez. Season 20 already? It seems like season 18 was only a few months ago.
Really loving how they're handling their storyline this year. Gerald is becoming one heck of a villain, and in a real-world kind of sense too, and it's going to be interesting to see how he'll be outed and how the ramifications of his trolling will affect South Park beyond the girls breaking up with the boys. I actually felt really bad for Cartman in the recent episode: this is one of the few times where he really wasn't doing something wrong, and he was wrongfully punished. But I'm really enjoying how their tackling people's obsessiveness with their online personas and how they can't separate it from real life. Funny enough, Gerald seems the most well-adjusted and capable of separating his online self from his real life self, in spite of the fact he's a malicious monster on the web. I'm really curious to see where they'll go with this. And of course, I really want to know what the deal with the Member Berries is and how they'll factor into everything.
This season is already everything that I hoped it would be. South Park is continuing with the season-long story arc route, and it's absolutely nailing it.
I love the joke about how quitting social media is seen as the same thing as suicide among the townsfolk of South Park. A really good jab at how over-obsessed our culture is with trying to stay online at all possible times.
I'll be interested to see Cartman's character arc this season since this is one of those rare instances where he didn't do anything wrong....well, OK, he did publicly humiliate the girls, but he's not the one doing it online.
Never thought one of the main character's dads would become the main villain (though Randy went hog wild being PC Principal's right-hand man, but that doesn't count because PC Principal wasn't a full villain). But I'll be darned if Gerald hasn't been killing it. People wanted South Park to mock the other side of people who use free speech to be scummy, well who fits that role better than Skank Hunt?
The funny thing is: other than trolling, Gerald hasn't even done anything destructive yet. He's so far only caused chaos to Kyle's school indirectly. I can't help wondering if this won't lead to something bigger especially with Mr. Garrison's campaign still going.
The best thing is they've actually found a way to make Cartman sympathetic. It helps a bit that he didn't do anything that bad all last season, but this time he's become a victim. What Stan and Kyle with the gang did was low, even in a real world sense breaking someone's stuff without hearing them out is terrible. I won't be surprised if they drop more crap on Cartman to the point of making the fans DEMAND he get his vengeance.
Well, no new episode next week. Especially sucks because of that cliffhanger.
I don't mind because it wasn't bad as last week's. Also, this just means its going to have two post Election episodes at the end.
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Pfft.
Now I'm hearing right-wingers on 4chan complaining that South Park's shilling Hillary, as if calling her a turd sandwich several times and portraying her as unable to make up her own mind is really in favor of her. One thread in particular I'm reading is calling Trey Parker a degenerate for having a black stepson. Jeez.
Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on October 27, 2016, 12:02:15 AM
Now I'm hearing right-wingers on 4chan complaining that South Park's shilling Hillary, as if calling her a turd sandwich several times and portraying her as unable to make up her own mind is really in favor of her. One thread in particular I'm reading is calling Trey Parker a degenerate for having a black stepson. Jeez.
So... were you reading /pol/ or was /co/ being invaded by /pol/ in this instance?
Eh, 4Chan is going to be 4Chan. Whichever way it is, best we just talk about this season instead of worrying them.
I like that the Member Berries thing is coming to a head and now they're their own characters now. Cartman's fantasies were great. I loved that Kyle brought up his past through his Internet history. Obviously, Cartman is going to revert back to his normal self but part of me is hoping it won't be because of losing his girlfriend. I really like Heidi.
God, I hope they keep Cartman and Heidi together. Cartman being in a mutually loving and respectful relationship in spite of the kind of person he is is so interesting and has a lot of potential for humor and character dynamics outside of this season.
It's going to be interesting to see how they handle the post-election episode this year, as well how they'll use Garrison and Clinton in the remaining half of the season. But I really can't wait to see Gerald get a outed as a troll and the karmic payoff that'll come of that.
I would find it funny if Heidi turned out to have a couple of personal demons like Cartman has. Who knows, maybe she hates Jewish people as well.
QuoteThere were several candidates during the Canadian elections. One of them was this brash asshole who just spoke his mind. He didn't really offer any solutions, he just said outrageous things. we... thought it was funny. Nobody really thought he'd ever be President. It was a joke! But we just let the joke go on for too long. He kept gaining momentum, and by the time we were all ready to say "Okay, let's get serious now. Who should really be President?" he was already being sworn into office. We weren't paying attention. We weren't paying attention!
And Matt Stone and Trey Parker were worried "Where My Country Gone?" was going to age badly.
Welp, time for four more years of offensive Trump jokes.
So is Mr. Garrison gonna be President in the show now?
Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on November 09, 2016, 03:52:29 AM
So is Mr. Garrison gonna be President in the show now?
Maybe. It does feel like they were banking on Clinton winning the presidency. That and I think the episode itself is titled "The Very First Gentleman" last time I checked. Tonight's episode is gonna be interesting.
Yeah, it seemed like they thought Clinton was going to win. So it'll be interesting to see how they handle this, whether they'll need to backtrack in later episodes or if they somehow predicted the outcome at the last minute and made adjustments to the episode.
Fucking polls.
It seems they might've called it after all. (http://southpark.cc.com/clips/nwvpus/america-is-going-to-be-great-again)
The episode title has also been changed to "Oh, Jeez."
Last night's episode was a mess. It's clear they had to change a lot of things at the last minute to reflect the outcome of the election, and the result was a bunch of scattered scenes and ideas that didn't really come together or relate to each other in a satisfying way, nor did it provide the kind of cathartic commentary or insight that I think a lot of people were hoping for with this particular post-election episode.
That said, I am curious to see how a bunch of these plot threads are going to tie back into each other, and I really find myself invested in Cartman's efforts to stay together with Heidi. It's really interesting to see him go to such lengths to stay together with her and how scared and vulnerable he feels about the prospect of her leaving him. It's a side of Cartman we've really never seen before, and I'm really hoping it leaves an impact on his character even after this season is over, whether he's still together with Heidi or not.
I just kept noticing how frantic Trey sounded as Randy. You could tell how angry he was they had to make a new episode within a few hours.
So the Denmark leader turns out to be a troll himself. Can't believe I didn't see that one coming. They've been pretty good with the twists in this season. Though with one episode left, and so many plot threads still hanging, I'm curious to see just how they'll wrap everything up. And surprisingly, the plot thread I'm most invested in is whether Cartman and Heidi will stay together or not. It looks like Cartman's insecurities are going to lead him to mistrust and break up with her and revert to his old ways, but man, I really do think it would be more interesting if he stayed in the relationship while still being his ignorant and abrasive self, with Heidi being pretty much the only person he genuinely respects.
Also, while I was glad to see Mr. Slave again, was I the only one who thought that it would have been more clever for them to use Mr. Hat? I feel that Garrison would be more inclined to listen to him more than Slave. Then again, it's always been up in the air whether Mr. Hat is actually sentient or just a persona of Garrison's and I guess they didn't want to waste time going back down that hole again.
I liked last season a lot and still thought the last two episodes of S19 were pretty clumsy. I don't see this mess ending in a satisfying way in twenty-two minutes. The twist with the Danish president sucks. Worked better as a well-intentioned extremist. The member berries weren't even in this episode, and they're supposed to be the other main antagonist of this season.
And what was the point of Kyle and Ike running away as the cliffhanger in the episode before when they just started this episode back at the house, only to end in pretty much the same way?
It's a shame, really. Season 19 was great and this one started so strong. If Hillary winning was such an important plot point, then they should have just said "fuck reality" and had her win in the show, and ignored Trump's presidency completely. Perhaps it's time to go back to the single-episode format, or maybe like season 18 where the episodes are connected, but not to the point that they depend on each other.
Yeah, I will admit that current hang up with this season is how they were banking on a Clinton presidency being a sure thing. Episode 7/Oh Jeez/The Very First Gentleman felted like a rushed mess. It reminds me of that kid that rushed through his assignment on the very last day it was due and it does show in places, even in a bit in the other 2 episodes. Unless the Member berries are going to be the cliffhanger for next season like how they were committed with Garrison being the Trump stand-in, I can't see how they're gonna resolve their plot line, cause I thought the way they handled the Whole Foods last season was just rushed.
I will say that I do like how this season is a bit of an anti-thesis to last season.
Aside from a little wonkiness, I think this season has been good. I don't think Hillary losing affected it that crucially other than Garrison's storyline. They seemed to put things in place for her to be the last villain or at least become a threat down the road. I still like Gerald and Cartman's storylines, as long as both reach a good outcome I'll consider this another win.
I think their approach to doing this season as one continuous serialized narrative as opposed to an arc comprised of individual episodes that built to a finale like the previous two seasons wasn't the best choice in retrospect, specifically because so much of this season revolved around the election and stuff they couldn't predict and had to change course on as a consequence. I think returning to the format of season 18, where it was a bunch of individual episodes with episode-specific topics that still had continuity with each other and were all thematically related and building to a finale where everything tied together would be a better approach for the show going forward.
They actually did manage to tie most of the plotlines together quite well in this last episode. I hope we get something with the member berries next season though. After largely ignoring them these past two episodes, they were at the end montage with Garrison.
Overall, a sloppy season with some enjoyable moments.
Quote from: Nel_Annette on December 08, 2016, 01:34:32 PM
They actually did manage to tie most of the plotlines together quite well in this last episode. I hope we get something with the member berries next season though. After largely ignoring them these past two episodes, they were at the end montage with Garrison.
Overall, a sloppy season with some enjoyable moments.
I'm glad they did what I hoped, bring a good end to Gerald and Cartman's stories. Despite the title of the episode, they left enough loose ends that I don't think they're dropping story arcs anytime soon.
Quote from: Daikun on November 09, 2016, 03:52:00 AMWelp, time for four more years of offensive Trump jokes.
Well... Never mind. (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/south-park-creators-back-president-trump-article-1.2963130)
I know in their commentaries for season 19, they said they didn't want to do a Trump episode in the first place because of an oversaturation of Trump jokes (just like why Bush was portrayed in a neutral light for a handful of episodes and didn't appear at all in Team America, because they thought Bush jokes were stale and unfunny even by 2004), and just put Mr. Garrison in there because they thought he'd fit.
Season 21 begins September 13. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/south-park-season-21-premiere-date-pushed-back-1025083)
I love this clip. (https://streamable.com/bd7zx)
That truly was the best part of the episodes.
I noticed that this week's episode took a jab at the "I used to love South Park, but now that I have grown up and learned empathy, I can see that they are offensive and nihilistic" crowd that have shown in the past few years. I've always rolled my eyes at those people because they always sound so smug and elitist about it, so it was a little satisfying to see them called out for once.
Consequentially, all the threads I've been reading have a dozen people expecting Kyle to die next episode. I have no idea why they think that'll happen.
So, how have people been enjoying the newest season so far?
I'm curious to see what they're building up to if anything. There seems to be an underlying theme of social violence becoming normalized under the pretense of protecting existing institutions and not offending people, with people repeatedly turning a blind eye and ignoring/shunning the problems in society without actually addressing them. Like when the town guilts Sharon into stop pestering them to do something about school shootings because she's making them feel sad, the Catholic Church trying to relocate Father Maxi and silence any witnesses and cover up any evidence of his wrongdoings, or the town banishing Mr. Hankey under the pretense that they're upset about his inappropriate tweets, but in actuality because they don't want to stand by him because he's a politically incorrect figure and they don't want to be associated with him for PR reasons.
Granted, the latter episode also makes it clear that Mr. Hankey is both literally and metaphorically a piece of shit, and he shat his own bed because of his lack of self-control and inability to take responsibility, own up to, and learn from his mistakes. But it really seems like this season of South Park's been commenting on how people make an uproar of being politically correct but when the onus falls on them to engage with those problems and put in effort the change the way things are, people generally opt for the easiest ways out, diverting responsibility from themselves onto others - keeping up appearances mattering more than actually affecting change.
While I felt the concept of the PC Babies and the line "sometimes PC babies don't know what they're crying about" was an immature and self-absorbed deflection of criticism on Matt and Trey's part about critical complaints of the show's content and its influence on popular culture and political discourse, I also there's some reality in the sentiment. Nowadays I notice a lot of people only look at the headlines of news articles that they might see on Twitter and base all their opinions on people and politics just on that or other people's second-hand opinions, without actually reading the piece, engaging with the issues, understanding the problems, and making an effort to do anything about it besides complaining. Like with what happened with James Gunn, and how people were manipulated to turn against him en masse on Twitter for tasteless but harmless joke tweets he made a decade ago, because vocalizing a performative abhorrence of anything that is not politically correct was easier and more important for most people than actually doing the research to check the legitimacy of the accusations against him, and Disney cared more about politically correct than defending their employment of him, despite having known about his background for years and having hired him in spite of that. So I think there's a lot of potential for South Park to explore this idea and how it applies to various sectors of and intersects with daily life, politics, and popular culture, and I'm hoping Trey and Matt don't drop the ball with it and end the season without paying off on a clearer thesis statement.
Quotepeople generally opt for the easiest ways out, diverting responsibility from themselves onto others - keeping up appearances mattering more than actuality affecting change.
I always found that to be a recurring message in South Park. That when people want to change society, they often take the easy answer instead of the right one, rendering any real progress superficial. Like in that Underpants Gnomes episode where people immediate side with Tweek's dad over the Starbucks ersatz, even though Tweek's dad is an abusive parent who's even more corrupt than big corporation. Where people will often overlook the bigger issues just to fuss over smaller matters. And it's still evident within the citizens of South Park this season. Rather than addressing gun violence, they all assume Sharon has menopause. And even when schools are still facing shootings, the adults choose to treat Mr. Hankey as the villain. Whenever critics of the show say Trey and Matt are preaching political nihilism and that caring is bad, I have to believe they haven't watched many episodes of South Park to begin with. The season premiere in particular states out loud that the increasing tolerance and apathy toward school shootings is horrifying, and you'd have to be as idiotic as Randy to think it's no big deal.
Yeah, characters in South Park frequently distract themselves from bigger issues by getting worked up about frivolous trifles, and the show has always been critical of that. If anything, the message in South Park is that you should care - and that you NEED to care - about the things that matter and actually do something about them. South Park isn't apathetic, it's critical of people who focus on blaming and harassing people for supposedly causing problems rather than fixing the problems and helping people. So it's easy to tell whether someone critical of the show doesn't really understand its political perspective if their takeaway from an episode like "Douche and Turd" is something shallow and simplistic like "voting is stupid because both candidates always suck" and not "pressuring people to vote under the assumption that they'll vote the same way as you or bullying them to vote the way you want them too undermines the democratic principle of freedom of choice and what voting represents," which is what I feel like they were really trying to express with that episode. Not every episode of South Park is well thought-out, but Trey and Matt do care about issues and have opinions about the way they're talked about, and that's always been reflected in the show's messages and themes.
I'm on and off with South Park's politics, as in I find myself agreeing with them about as often as I find myself disagreeing with them. While they don't always get their points across gracefully, Matt and Trey are clearly very opinionated people and I have no idea how this meme of the show's overall message being "not caring is cool" got started. I mean, the series does have its fair share of episodes where the moral is "sometimes the truth is in the middle" or whatever, but that's the exception rather than the rule. I think the only genuinely harmful episode (that I've seen) is Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina, which scarred me with its graphic images and led me to believe untrue things about transgender people at age 11.
To be generous to Trey and Matt, they did eventually learn more transgendered people and portrayed them in a more graceful way in Fractured But Whole.
Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on October 16, 2018, 12:19:40 AM
To be generous to Trey and Matt, they did eventually learn more transgendered people and portrayed them in a more graceful way in Fractured But Whole.
I'm not sure I can forgive that episode entirely, but it
was 2005, and they've clearly evolved on the subject since then. For the most part, I think the show is really only likely to influence someone negatively if they're the kind of person who believes Cartman is a role model. It's not the creators' fault that (apparently) lots of people can't understand basic satire.
It's crazy to me that anyone can mistake Cartman, the show's most villainous character whom everyone in-universe hates, as someone you should emulate. I don't know how much more explicit the show can be to make someone who can't recognize that understand he's a shitty person and you're shitty if you act like him.
And yeah, I've always found Garrison to be a really messy character when they try to explore LGBT topics with him, and they've done much better since they stopped having him be the focus of those episodes. "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" is easily one of the worst and most distasteful episodes they've done, and really, most of the episodes focusing on Garrison as a trans-woman were pretty bad outside of "Follow That Egg" and "Go God Go."
Garrison was pretty much the proto-Randy. The character Trey and Matt used to explore topics that even the boys were too young to touch.
Quote from: Foggle on October 16, 2018, 12:24:58 AM
Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on October 16, 2018, 12:19:40 AM
To be generous to Trey and Matt, they did eventually learn more transgendered people and portrayed them in a more graceful way in Fractured But Whole.
I'm not sure I can forgive that episode entirely, but it was 2005, and they've clearly evolved on the subject since then. For the most part, I think the show is really only likely to influence someone negatively if they're the kind of person who believes Cartman is a role model. It's not the creators' fault that (apparently) lots of people can't understand basic satire.
That's a problem a lot of people are having with satire these days. People would rather have characters and plots like that not exist at all rather than admitting that they're just too plain stupid and the blame lies completely with them.
I notice that AV Club, a site that has downhill in quality so much over the past two years, loved this week's South Park episode over the last one. (https://tv.avclub.com/south-park-takes-on-vape-culture-in-one-of-its-funniest-1829830823)And while I agree on the surface, it's telling they enjoy the episode with the simple "Marijuana and vape culture looks kinda stupid, doesn't it?" message over the one that says "Yeah, some people are offensive and shouldn't be brought back in the modern day, but getting mad at a character who hasn't been culturally relevant in almost two decades is a total farce".
Funny how an episode that makes fun of an easy, apolitical and non-threatening target is the show's "funniest episode in years" and the first episode to be given a "A" rating on A.V. Club since season 16. :thinkin:
AV Club died for me when they switched over to that awful new commenting system. Couldn't get on to post anymore, as did a good 70% of the people I used to talk to there.
Took a while, but South Park is banned in China thanks to last week's episode where they were very critical of the Chinese government. (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/south-park-banned-chinese-internet-critical-episode-1245783) Not surprising considering we're talking about a country that has banned Winnie the Pooh & Peppa Pig for being icons of rebellion.
I didn't even know they still aired it until last week. I once searched for Chinese dubs/subs of the show a couple years ago, and they were only up to season 7.
I honestly thought that SP wouldn't even fly in China before this incident. IIRC, they did stereotype the Chinese like they normally do with everyone/thing else, so I'm still surprised in a way that this was the straw that broke the camels back. I know badmouthing the government is an instaban in China, but I thought that they stopped airing after a few other episodes of doing unflattering stereotype.
The last episode I remember they did about China was the one about Cartman holding a PF Chang's hostage because he got scared of the China Olympics, but that episode wasn't taking the piss out of China, but out of Cartman for being a paranoid racist. And that episode about China buying the rights to Star Wars, but I didn't even remember that one until I looked up the wiki.
Of course, then there's the City Wok guy, but I don't think they cared. I watched an episode with some Chinese people, and they all assumed he was actually Vietnamese.
This kind of made me want another musical episode: https://youtu.be/379oevm2fho
Also, is it just me or has Randy Marsh basically become the focal character of the series at this point?
Hasn't he been the focal character for a while now? But yeah, he's been getting more focus than ever lately. I've actually seen a "no Randy cut" of the Pandemic Special circulating online.
That moment you realize that the Pandemic Special was just that, a special episode made that wasn't even the Season 24 premiere & we don't have a date for S24 yet.
As for the Randy note, he did dominate most of the season last year, to the point I was glad that they had 3 episodes that focused on someone else.
Yeah, I don't understand why Trey fell so in love with the Tegridy Farms joke. It was funny for a handful of episodes, but it didn't need to be the new status quo. At this stage, the whole thing makes Sharon and her kids look like idiots for not leaving him already.
The new Vaccination Special recently aired, and the four main characters have ended their friendship.
So, what now? :??:
No way they won't continue their version of the "Q" thing into next season.
South Park has reached a deal to reach 30 seasons. (https://twitter.com/SouthPark/status/1423259931713626117)
They will also be producing 14 original movies for Paramount+, the first of which will be releasing by the end of this year.
What else does Comedy Central have at this point? The Daily Show hasn't been the powerhouse it was since Jon Stewart left; they no longer have Colbert. Trevor Noah is good but he doesn't bring in those numbers...
No way are they getting rid of their only remaining golden goose.
If nothing else, I envy the deal they have with Viacom. CC throws them near a billion dollars just to keep doing what they've always been doing, and they can just keep pushing for more because they know the network needs them more than the other way around.
Let's see, they also got rid of Drunk History, which caused it to trend on Twitter for a while. I know they're trying to do another adult animated comedy block with the revival of Beavis & Butt-Head, along with a Daria spin-off about Jodie. There was supposed to be a Ren & Stimpy revival, but I think that might have got canned. honestly forgot about those shows. There's also a new season of Crank Yankers & some other show called Nora from Queens. But yeah, most of CC line up is just syndicated shows. Hell, I looked at the schedule for today & it's mostly The Office & Schitt's Creek airing with SP later at midnight.
At least it's still scripted shows. Better than MTV's predicament. CC could've easily become an abyss of Tosh.0 reruns if they weren't careful. Though it speaks so dismally of MTV's current state that remakes of MTV shows were/are meant to air on CC instead. Reminds me when The Expanse only started getting attention as soon as it left Syfy and became an Amazon show, because the stigma of Syfy was so poisonous that otherwise good shows were getting bad reputations. And that appears to be the same thing with all these revivals. They don't want you to look at them and think "Fuck no, not another MTV show. I hate that network".
Trey and Matt deserve massive props for knowing what they're worth and retaining so much creative ownership and control of their work. The sheer quantity of South Park to come in the years seems daunting - it's hard to imagine they'll be making 14 movies on top of 7 more seasons - but considering how inventive these last few seasons have been and knowing Matt and Trey I'm sure they'll come up with some interesting and funny stories to keep the show fresh for a while longer.
I saw someone on Twitter the other day call it a "Faustian deal", and I was like "How?" They have creative freedom to do whatever they want for as long as they want, tons of money, so much critical acclaim that they're one Oscar away from being EGOT winners, decades-old friendships with each other, and the position to make executives submit to them instead of the other way around. Any cartoon creator would kill for just one of those things. And they've had success in other fields like Book of Mormon, so they're not pigeonholed as just the South Park guys.
I remember seeing a dude say that Trey & Matt didn't want to work on South Park forever. I mean, it's not like CC forced them work on SP & the duo has even said that they'll continue to make SP as long as CC allows them to do so. Considering this deal, doesn't look like that gravy train is running dry.
Heard in an interview that Trey mostly likes keeping the show around to filter his thoughts, and he said during hiatuses he hears too much Cartman in his head and needs the show to flush that out. Besides, they did once say they didn't want to work on the show forever, but that was ages ago back when South Park was in its 8th or 9th season. And those times they assumed the show would only last a couple seasons, or that the movie would be the series finale, and so on.
I think in recent years Trey and Matt have been able to use the show to break the show's format and status quo in freeing ways, especially with the shift towards more serialized storytelling and the shift in focus to Randy through the Tegridy Farms storyline. I think so long as they have the freedom to use the show to say and do whatever kinds of stories they want making the show will remain fun for them and not feel as burdensome as it has been in their past slumps.
Yeah, I still see people say that either this or The Simpsons will likely end soon, while all signs are pointing to otherwise. Family Guy, though, I could see Seth want to move on from at some point, especially with his recent deal with Universal.
But this brings up a good point (https://www.avclub.com/the-south-park-guys-became-billionaires-by-anticipating-1847470310), Matt and Trey have been very smart and lucky, and now they're worth more than Matt Groening. Who would have thought?
Family Guy will keep going on until the end of time. Seth's been talking about moving on for years, and often mentions how ashamed he is if working for Fox due to Fox News, but he's never done it even when he's in the financial position to do so. I think if he genuinely desired to leave the show, he could've waited out one of his contracts and left ages ago, and then watch as the show scrambles to find soundalikes for all his characters.
Just remembered listening to an old Matt Stone interview, I think it was with Lloyd Kaufman, and he said thanks to shady Paramount movie accounting, they've made more profit from Cannibal the Musical than Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. And that probably convinced them to lawyer up and demand a better deal on their show.
Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on August 14, 2021, 03:45:02 PMJust remembered listening to an old Matt Stone interview, I think it was with Lloyd Kaufman, and he said thanks to shady Paramount movie accounting, they've made more profit from Cannibal the Musical than Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. And that probably convinced them to lawyer up and demand a better deal on their show.
Well, yeah... and "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy" didn't make a profit so Weta Workshop never got paid in full for the work they did on it.
If there's a fire on a sound stage in India that a studio owns, they'll knock that against another movie's profits.
Yeah, they've been burnt by the film industry too much that we sadly haven't gotten projects they've talked about like their own kaiju movie, a That's My Bush movie, their take on a high school comedy. And instead, the next time Trey showed up in movies was Despicable Me 3 of all things. Though they set up their own film studio some years back, so tides might be shifting.
Matt and Trey have become very business savvy after years of being burned, and thanks to their profit-share deal on streaming rights on top of numerous creative successes under their belts, I think they've definitely accumulated enough wealth and influence to make whatever they want at this point, and even self-fund projects if they really need to.
Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on August 14, 2021, 09:02:25 PM
Yeah, they've been burnt by the film industry too much that we sadly haven't gotten projects they've talked about like their own kaiju movie, a That's My Bush movie, their take on a high school comedy. And instead, the next time Trey showed up in movies was Despicable Me 3 of all things. Though they set up their own film studio some years back, so tides might be shifting.
They've also been burnt by the video games as well. It took them a while for them to reconsider that thanks to the success of Stick of Truth & Fracture But Whole, before that they had some games on the Xbox Live Arcade. Apparently they also set up a studio to over see game production, which is I also guess they have a mobile app despite that one episode talking about how predatory a bunch of freemium mobile apps are.
South Park will be doing a time skip. (https://southpark.cc.com/news/qu014k/paramount-reveals-south-park-post-covid-first-look)
Kind of a bleak episode. Stan's all of the worst fears fans had when watching the "You're Getting Old" episode years ago, a cynical washout with nothing to live for besides binge drinking (I later found out "online whiskey consultant" is indeed a real job, but odds are Stan isn't actually one and he's just been mooching off of Sharon's life savings for the past few decades). And Kenny becoming the most successful out of all of them, but the most resentful to his old friends was difficult.
So it's obvious Cartman's playing the long game against Kyle, but are his family also scheming against him or are they just pawns?
My money is on pawns since his wife was a little concerned when Kyle brought up that time Cartman and him got AIDS, though that doesn't really explain why his son is basically a carbon copy of him as a child downright to the fact that he just hates Kyle. Either way, I'm curious to see how much of a role Butters will play in the next special.
The sequel to Post-Covid premieres next week.
Here's the teaser. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMsbqO3O9ck)
Rewatching a few episodes in preparation for the new SP, and it's interesting seeing how many of the themes from past episodes a decade or two ago are still shaping the current show's character decisions, but from an inside-out POV. Take the episode where Stan meets his future self who turns out to be a washed-out addict whose life was ruined by weed, and then remember that's pretty much his plot to the new special in a few days except that did really happen to him and his kid self did grow up to be a fuckup. Or like I said a few posts ago, how the You're Getting Old episode made a bigger change to the show than it seemed when it first aired. Because I look at the seasons since that one, and there's a definite narrative shift. Less episodes of Stan paling around with Kyle, Randy and Sharon's relationship degraded even more until it reached its current state, and a general malaise at the status quo. The shift to arc-heavy seasons was likely based on that annoyance at everything going back to normal by the end of each episode.
I say this because I think SP's in a more introspective phase than it was over a decade ago. Old ideas the show previously held tightly onto are now subverted (if PC Principal were introduced back in Season 8 or 10, they probably would have killed him off or humiliated him in 1 episode instead of giving him a character arc and deciding he's not entirely wrong), characters second-guess themselves more than ever, and there's been that recurring message throughout the last few specials going "Yeah, we miss the old days too where the boys used to go on adventures, but it's harder to get back to that groove than it looks". Obviously, the Trey and Matt making the Paramount+ specials aren't the Trey and Matt who made the first 3 seasons of South Park anymore, and the show's (and the game's) writing in the last few years is their recognition of this.
Spoiler
Okay, Cartman genuinely loving his family and sacrificing his own happiness just so Stan, Kyle, and Kenny could have good futures wasn't what I was expecting. Now I feel bad for him, especially with what his state's like in the new future.
So, I guess the show is rebooting for season 25?
The new season premieres tonight, (https://southpark.cc.com/news/m7o8yu/the-monumental-25th-season-of-south-park-premieres-on-wednesday-february-2-at-8-00-p-m-et-pt-on-comedy-central) and here's the episode synopsis:
QuoteAfter failing to show respect for their teacher, PC Principal revokes Pajama Day privileges for the entire 4th grade class. Cartman is distraught. The kids aren't going to stand for it but PC Principal refuses to back down.
This storyline (and clip shown) seems extremely basic. No masks, no politics, no current events...it just looks like
South Park has reverted to season 1. :??:
EDIT: Also forgot to mention that Mr. Garrison is back as a teacher.
Quote from: Daikun on February 02, 2022, 02:48:53 PM
No masks, no politics, no current events...
Last night's episode was about all these things, lol. The metaphor of pajamas standing in for masks was used inconsistently and seemed redundant to do considering they already did a satire on masks and the anti-mask crowd in the first pandemic special, but I appreciated them pointing out the hypocrisy of people who compare reasonable inconveniences to being the same as living in Nazi Germany despite having actual fascist leanings they're trying to obfuscate, perfectly exemplified with the newscaster who was decrying the school's pajama day ban dressing up and acting like a nazi himself. I also appreciated the episode as a commentary on folks refusing to simply acknowledge when they're wrong and instead go through hoops to justify themselves, even if ultimately PC Principal did find a way out of it. I was worried that they were writing out PC Principal when he said he was gonna resign and am relieved that didn't happen. I honestly liked that beyond the political and social satire, this episode was just funny on a conceptual and character conflict level where something mundane is absurdly blown out of proportion due to the hubris of the characters, and liked seeing Wendy have a prominent role again after so long. It was also nice to see Garrison returning to his teaching role and the love triangle with his lovers that he took out on the kids was hilarious, goes to show he can still be a great antagonist just through his narcissism and selfishness even after so many years of just being a Trump stand-in. I wouldn't say this was a great episode of the show, but I did like it as a return to more straightforward episodes, even if some elements from the past few years like Tegridy Farms are sticking around in the new status quo.
The episode was fine, but after all the specials where everyone's lives and/or futures were at stake and all the shit that happened in Tegridy Farms, just an episode where the consequences are whether or not the kids wear pajamas was pretty low stakes. I was waiting for it to go an extra step and escalate, like I was expecting the Matt Damon references to turn into its own plot or something to go off the rails, but outside of an off-screen school shooting, it didn't take much for Wendy and PC Principal to resolve things. Think it needed things to get more intense, or add a B-plot, because it's fine on its own, but there's definitely a lot of padding in place of a more interesting plot.
Oh, and I guess Trey's daughter is a recurring character now. And everyone's pointed out something was off with Mackey's voice.
You know, I thought the Harry/Meghan episode was funny, but (https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/piers-morgan/the-final-wallop-to-harry-and-meghans-reputation-in-the-us-was-the-south-park-skit/video/57fddd9b8f2a57ba6c141ac57bccbfab) not "breaking news (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjUlb3f38D9AhV5kYkEHa-bC-UQxfQBKAB6BAgYEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Farts-entertainment%2Ftv%2Fnews%2Fsouth-park-prince-harry-meghan-markle-full-episode-b2290152.html&usg=AOvVaw3A2Q9cbdM25sLeT2MK8PQL) for 2 whole weeks" funny (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64730600). Wasn't expecting it to strike that deep a nerve, especially since other people have done Harry/Meghan jokes.
Finally, somebody made a video calling out this bad yet evergreen take on SP. I'm not gonna pretend the show's made bad calls or opinions I disagree with, but "South Park is nihilistic and teaches whole generations that caring about the world is bad!" becoming a popular opinion always confounded me when the show can be incredibly earnest, (https://youtu.be/gTeKQGlrDuE) almost saccharine, (https://youtu.be/s4YAK0mgycM) at times. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSoRUgt9Kvo)
Even while never being a huge nor dedicated fan of it, South Park does NOT teach nihilism to people. Quite the literal opposite proven with any episode ending with one of Stan or Kyle's summation speeches.
Jeez, these journobros.....
Blooms is a pretty good channel & I liked this recent vid of his. The most problems I've seen with the "Cool to not care" take being the dumbest argument ever is the fact that over time, both Trey & Matt's opinions on things have changed. He even pointed it out with the episodes on global warming being a thing where they went from mocking it to going "OK, maybe climate change is a real threat to humanity". They also regretted making the Ramseys & to a lesser extent, Gary Condit out as the bad guys in "Butters' Very Own Episode" being the one few times where they regretted mocking someone. People just like to cling onto views people express many years ago without wondering if said views have changed or not, especially if said person is a creative individual that has shown it in their work.