Blog Post #8: South Park
March 22, 2010
While brainstorming about what cartoon I should blog about this week, I was thinking about the longevity of animated shows and what makes a cartoon successful over a long period of time. In class we talked about animators branching off from Disney and showcasing cartoons that negate the bubble-drawn, talking animals that frequented Disney animation. Like these productions I would argue that South Park is extremely successful as a long-standing social commentary that pokes fun at cutesy, “Disney-like” animation in the form of paper-cut outs. Now on its 15th season, one could trace almost every major cultural (whether is be pop-culture, celebrity scandal, political mayhem, social changes and international issues) that has taken place over the past decade!
Each episode starts the disclaimer: “All characters and events in this show—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated…..poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone.”
Is true, the main characters are depraved monsters in the bodies of angelic looking children. Lewd as can be;probably. But funny, oh so funny. South Park is like a good tabloid in cartoon form. But maybe, we as a society where insane amounts of cultural insanity runs rampant, we need a show like South Park as an outlet to poke fun and perhaps make sense out of this nation’s obsession with consumerism and celebrity.
So many episodes to choose from! So I will just give you the links to the latest one. Be warned, extremely foul language and content.
ETA: I commented on Amanda’s
and Bonnie’s
March 22, 2010 at 5:41 pm
On an unrelated note: its strange that all the text was backwards. It appears that was sampled from one of the creators computers? anyway… I completely agree about the social commentary. I was floored in 2008 when, the day after the election, they had an episode showing Obama winning & had parts of his acceptance speech in it. I realize they did much of the work before hand, and that he was favored to win, but that was QUICK as anything! I think part of it is their minimalist style of animation (it takes only a week for an episode to be animated) but it still creates for timely commentary. Another timely favorite was the episode where Kenny is in a coma at the same time as the on-going argument over Terry Shiavo’s fate.
March 22, 2010 at 11:51 pm
To this very day I still love watching this show. I think it’s great that a cartoon can go for so long and get a way with so much things. We definitely need a show like South Park to parody current events and poke fun of it because it lightens the tension. It reminds us to lighten up a bit and laugh at the situation. I remember reading an article about the South Park movie where it makes fun of Saddam Hussein. In the media, he is seen as this tyrant executing innocent people, but in South Park’s world he is this annoying verbally abusive character who is dating Satan. It’s great how this show makes everything so over the top that all you can do is laugh at it. great topic!
March 22, 2010 at 11:53 pm
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March 30, 2010 at 7:24 pm
I agree to a certain extent on how South Park is great sometimes for comic relief when dealing with political, national and celebrity issues. However, I stopped watching years ago when I felt that it was ALL they were using the program for. I felt it was better when they just made fun of everyday stuff. Also, I had enough when they had a episode on aborion, it’s already a sensitive enough issue witout having to see it on a cartoon, seriously!