South Park

Well, happy 200th episode-day South Park! I never thought you’d make it to this point. There were some funny times, and some shaky decisions, but your place in television culture is secure. Astonishingly. In the early days, I couldn’t imagine that your style of humor would stick around and avoid being banished. Then as I watched more and more I didn’t think the hilarity could last. How long could a show go on and still be funny and fresh, despite the main characters remaining in elementary school? After a couple of seasons of not having television, I got back to watching to see that the show I had found so funny before wasn’t that great anymore. Maybe it was me, or maybe they just ran out of jokes. But I watched a couple of episodes of last season randomly, being too lazy to change the channel, and was surprised to find that it was funny again! Imagine my excitement.
I think my feelings were shared by a lot of fellow watchers. After following the show through my teen-age years and watching every episode, suddenly things just weren’t the same. Main characters disappeared, new ones appeared, the jokes seemed to try too hard. I lost interest, and have only seen a few episodes of seasons 11 and 12. The last episode of season 12 was a good one, about the goth kids getting edged out by trendy new ‘vampire’ kids. Despite enjoying that one, I didn’t feel like I had missed out on anything earlier in the season. The first episode I saw that really entertained me again was “Butters’ Bottom Bitch”, in which timid Butters becomes a playground pimp. I was completely surprised by it, and I think it’s one of my favorites ever. I still didn’t keep up with the show, though. When I heard the 200th episode was coming on, my mind was slightly boggled. Before watching it I watched the beginning of the season, to make sure it was still on its funny streak. The writing is still going strong, cleverly combining often disparate bits of popular culture. The humor is still based on curse words and bodily functions, with some intelligent wittiness thrown in to balance it out.

The first episode of this season was pretty funny, but mainly made fun of Tiger Woods. Though Tiger getting his ass kicked by his wife is comic gold, I got over it about 10 minutes after I first saw it on the news. The second episode, cleverly making fun of The Catcher in the Rye, censorship, and literary interpretation and criticism, was funnier. The third one though, that one was hilarious. Stan’s dad microwaves his balls to get cancer so he can obtain a medical marijuana prescription, and Cartman becomes involved in an illegal KFC smuggling ring. That sounds really silly written out, but it’s the best episode I’ve seen since Butters’ entrepreneur adventures. I was laughing nearly continuously. The fourth episode was about Facebook, and everyone is obsessed with it except for Stan, who literally gets sucked into the website. It addressed a lot of the inherent ridiculousness of social networking, and also made fun of Farmville. It was awesome.

Then I finally got to the latest episode, and again wasn’t disappointed. From the synopsis I had read it sounded not that great. The premise is that lead by Tom Cruise, the celebrities that have been made fun of on the show threaten to sue the town. The episode was full of funny references to older episodes and jokes, and was almost sentimental. The old question of who Cartman’s dad is was revisited, when it was suggested to him that he had been lied to way back in the second season. And of course there was a cliff-hanger ending, just begging me to remember to watch it this week. Watching this episode was like watching the whole series condensed. It was a fun way to revisit some of the past controversies and subplots, and see how much nonsense has been covered in the history of the show. That this show, which seemed so simple, casual, and temporary, would have a history at some point didn’t ever occur to me until now. I’m glad that it’s stuck around though, to point out the universe’s natural silliness and keep the world from taking itself too seriously.