Wow, people still watch South Park!? I’m sure they’re still killing it. Just kind of fell off the radar for me.
Not really killing it imo. Most episodes are extremely “both sides”-y which makes them have this milquetoast approach to issues and an unclear perspective. The jokes are often kind of cringe, imo, and the whole thing feels very bland. So its like a political/social satire comedy show that is designed by committee to make mild japes at both sides but not make them too uncomfortable.
It used to be an edgy comedy show (sometimes too edgy for mainstream audiences both then and now) that would lambast social and political figures, but it wasn’t just a satire show - it had a separate identity from that. And it was funny, usually. It pushed a lot of boundaries - the media was always talking about South Park as though it was this super scary show that will turn your kids into hooligans and destroy the moral fiber of the country and should be banned.
So maybe it’s partly that you can’t easily be a super rebellious standout show pushing the envelope every week for 27 years, that they wanted to appeal to mainstream audiences and adopted this bland centrist viewpoint, and that the media landscape is full of edgy-ish comedy shows these days and so it’s harder to stand out.
I am by no means a huge SP fan though and have not watched but like 3 seasons since the old days. So if this take is off and the show has gotten more interesting I’d like to know
South Park has always been Right Wing. Trey and Matt are self proclaimed “Libertarians”. There’s a significant overlap in the Venn Diagram of Joe Rogan bros and South Park fans. “They make fun of both sides bro” and yet some of their most enduring cultural contributions are downplaying climate change and dehumanizing trans people.
They may clutch their pearls about MAGA now, but their promotion of political apathy among Gen X and Millennial men is part of why we have MAGA.
I remember there was a brief moment in the early 00s where the term “South Park Republican” had some cultural cachet until everyone realized it was just edgy libertarianism for contrarian shitheads.
Aren’t they former libertarians? I feel like I heard they realized they were idiots and changed, but I could be wrong.
Its possible. I recall reading somewhere that they regret the ManBearPig episode. Good on them for being able to change and grow.
Still, unfortunately the damage has been done.
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Maybe man bear pig and the hybrid car episodes.
I think Man-Bear-Pig was more satire on people acting like Global Warming and Climate change was an imminent thing that was going to kill them in 10-20 years, treating a nebulous scientific concept into something impendingly dangerous like a car crash or wild animal.
Manbearpig was saying climate change doesnt exist and Al Gore is an idiot. That was the only message. There was no both sides to that episode.
12 years later they made an apology episode to say Gore was right all along.
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Don’t forget that Al Gore made them sad and they created Manbearpig as a response. It was some decades later that they admitted that they were wrong on the topic of climate change and regretted what they did.
Watch the most recent episode. I, like you, don’t really watch South Park anymore but holy shit was it funny.
The Trump stuff killed it. The callback to Saddam, the absurdity of everything going on, the show really hit the nail on the head of how it feels in America right now.
I will & will report back
Edit: yeah it’s definitely an improvement
o7 good luck soldier
They went kind of downhill started with his first term, but looks like this episode is strong
I liked it more in the early days before every episode revolved around current events and people. Like the dodgeball tournament episode, aliens giving anal probes, the kids getting ninja weapons from the fair, or Scott Tinnerman and how he shouldn’t have fucked with Cartman.
I long for the classics like MechaStreisand.
They don’t do regular seasons anymore, and haven’t for several years. Instead, they will do some special episodes each year on a specific topic. These are more like miniseries than regular episodes and I have enjoyed them.
They do, Season 27, Episode 1 just came out
Aren’t the specials still labeled as seasons?
They are labeled as movies for me
Honestly the latest seasons were fabulously on topic, well worth the watch in my opinion
I might go back to it then, any episodes you’d recommend?
I liked the Post Covid part 1 and 2 and Joining the Panderverse specials quite a bit. They’re on Paramount + (or your piracy site of choice).
EDIT: The first episode of season 27 was quite good, too, Finally, after over 8 years, they tore into Trump, daring Paramount to censor them.
It got much harder to watch after it left comedy Central. It switches networks constantly
I’m still watching it in the same place where I’ve always watched it 🏴☠️
I don’t even know how to watch it, I would if I could.
Too bad southparkstudios.com isn’t a thing anymore. That’s how I watched the whole series ~'08
KissCartoon and KimCartoon are decent if you don’t want to torrent it
The very first sentence of the article…
South Park kicked off its 27th season on Wednesday after a hiatus of almost two and a half years
Yeah, they moved from streaming on Comedy Central (and southpark.com, which was free) to Paramount (which is paid). It’s been a shit show ever since, limited to 6 episodes or so a season (if you’re lucky). Then the hiatus after Covid and the specials. It’s been a rough ride, but they’re still kicking.
The next 5 seasons are contracted and paid for at 10 episodes per season
the 6-10episode per season is a death knell for many seasons.
Im Canadian so once they joined paramount they kinda just vanished here. To be fair they lost my interest with the whole tegridy farms thing that never ended. But them moving to paramount erased South Park off every streaming and tv channel in Canada so you stopped seeing ads, and I sure as hell am not getting paramount plus, that’s enough streaming services
Canadian here, can confirm. I never watched the show myself but I haven’t seen any ads for it in many years (though I also haven’t seen many ads in years in general to be fair). No one talks about it anymore either.
Also, I agree with your mom, I think you’re cool too :)
American, and same.
I only have Hulu and I struggled to find new episodes without finding them on a shady website.
I’m absolutely not getting Paramount plus. After what they did to Nathan Fielder and removing the Nazi episode, they can go die.
its only good certain episodes, otherwise its just as good as simpsons currently
Generally, the show has moved on from “topic of the week” style shows and more… self-fulfillment for Matt and Trey. Episodes with Warhammer/Red Dead Redemption/Tegridy Farms/putting their kids in episodes. It seems more like they’re just doing whatever they personally like now that they don’t have to worry about money. I feel like this has kind of made narrative structures fall apart since it’s strung together set-pieces of whatever Matt or Trey currently has in mind.
That’s really all South Park has ever been. They famously typically write the episodes in just a day each, voice them and put them out in under a week.
Not much time for planning and deep analysis of their plot and subtext - it’s just whatever shit’s been on Matt & Trey’s minds that week.
There was even a documentary about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_Days_to_Air
So, just watched the episode, and it’s about what I remember. Not bad. Kind of hope they make the whole season this. Someone needs to.
You likely aged out of the target demographic
Interesting hypothesis, but the show has been evolving as the creators age. For example, Randy has been a much more prominent character in recent seasons. They still poke fun at current events, celebrities, and issues though. Recent seasons tend to have more continuity across episodes, too.
I think continuity is more a result of streaming services being more prominent. That seems to be a media-wide trend. Even kids shows are getting more of it. When you didn’t have to rely on the audience running in at a specific time every week to not be lost, you have more flexibility to not resort to the status quo at the end of each episode.
I think part of this too is with Matt-Trey having kids they want to write more for adult characters as they get older
Its about as good as it always was. Which is to say that if you matured or grew as a person at all after grade 10 then its probably not for you anymore.
What a stupid thing to say, the new manbearpig episodes where they admit they were wrong about climate change is some of the best fucking satire
After their season long “both sides” trump/clinton fuckery in 2016, best I can do is a slow clap.
They had the chance to show how ridiculous trump was back then; when it might have made a difference with their “libertarian” fanbase. Instead they softballed any criticism of him. They showed who they really are, fuck em.
They had the chance to show how ridiculous trump was back then
???
Trump has always been obviously ridiculous. You guys need to get over this idea that the people voting for him are going to have some magical come-to-Jesus moment and join the rest of us in reality after watching an episode of South Park or reading a non-“sanewashed” news article.
I don’t expect anyone to have a come to Jesus moment. I did expect comedians who claim to hate both sides to actually act like it, rather than treat ASN obvious idiot with kid gloves when it actually mattered. Matt and Trey showed they are just Republicans who are to embarrassed to admit it with their entire 2016 election season.
when it actually mattered
It never mattered. It’s a comedy show, no one was going to change their vote based on it. How can you still not get it after two election wins and political influence spanning a decade?
It did actually matter. Anyone who doesn’t realize that pop culture shapes peoples opinions is either lying to themselves or an idiot.
In all honesty, is there any overlap between people who watch South Park and those who voted Trump? I can’t imagine that there are more than a handful.
South Park Republicans are a thing so I’d assume there’s quite a few
Similar to the biker watcher that doesn’t understand that the biker episode was mocking them.
God I love Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Been watching South Park since I was a kid and they haven’t stopped delivering.
Their Trump mockery went stratospheric at the end which caused me to jump around the living room in sheer exhilaration.
If he could reach a glory hole, it’d probably have a mirror so he could stare at the only thing he thinks he loves.
If he could reach a glory hole, it’d probably have a mirror so he could stare at the only thing he thinks he loves.
The vertical US flag is backwards. The stars must always be on the top left.
Probably part of the joke. trump would never know that.
Vertical distress signal.
yeah… that’s going to find it’s place on a wall at work 👍
✊
I push buttons, George Jetson style 😝
Do you even work there?
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A warning first would have been nice before that ended up on my phone in the work lunch room :/
I wish that they actually eviscerated him.
I would be happy with defenestration.
They’re doing an 8 billion merger and 1.5 of it goes to Matt and Trey, god damn those two are swimming in cash
Kind of crazy because South Park wasn’t super relevant for years. Yeah, South Park still gets views and attention. But after all this, South Park is back in the forefront.
If trump hadn’t made such a stink, I wouldn’t have heard about the episode probably
they took several hiatuses i believe. the last time i saw it was when they paraodied putin right after the invasion of ukraine.
They removed his organs!?
Hell yea
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Of all the brain dead shit I expect to read online south park being right wing propaganda was not my list of ever happening, props to you my dude for making that fucking leap in logic.
Also I have no idea where you got that Cartman just gets his way now, we must be watching different versions.
“South Park conservative” is a term from like 20 years ago. They’ve been doing the “both sides are the same” shit since the very beginning and really took it to the next level during the first Trump administration by almost completely punting on the issue and instead doing a bunch of “anti-woke” story lines.
And I say this as someone who was a religious fan since the very beginning. Matt and Trey are not the liberal heroes some people seem to believe they are.
Matt and Trey are not the liberal heroes some people seem to believe they are.
I know Americans only see the world in binaries but there is a lot more to politics than “liberal vs conservative”. The views of the creators clearly sit outside of that dichotomy, and they reference and mock their own political disengagement in this episode.
I have no idea where you got that they did anti-woke storylines during the first trump presidency, I am looking back at the episodes and don’t see any being about that, they are also excellent satirists and there is shit to satirize on “both sides”, but you know the world doesn’t work in the US’s two party system.
I also don’t think “south park conservative” is any meaningful argument, they are media illiterate to a higher extent than more left leaning people, they didn’t even know Rage against the Machine is not fitting for a conservative rally and when taken at face value rather than as a satire south park may seem as right wing lots of times.
Sir, this is Lemmy. You must be this pure (reaches really high) to enter.
There is no villainous satire of women, liberal celebrities, environmentalists, transphobes, or over-the-top outcomes allowed here.
If you are not part of the leftmost 1%, you are right wing scum.
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I am sorry, but if you talk about punching down, you are talking about utter woke nonsense and I say that as a Guillotine supporting leftist.
south park is absolutely right wing propaganda.
matt and trey are republicans, by their own admission. they “both sides” a ton of issues. they normalize and defend using slurs when they could get the same point across without them.
I also normalize using slurs, losing retarded and removed is a damn shame, there are plenty of fucking retards out there not to mention the fucking removeds and I am not talking about people with mental illness or gays.
Look at that retarded removed US president they have over there, what are you gonna call him if not that?
Retard is a “slur” that should definitely be normalised, and indeed it was until a group of virtual-signalling losers decided it was very offensive again and tried to cancel anyone who used it. It stopped being used in relation to the intellectually disabled a long, long time ago and was just another generic insult for decades. Ironically, it is the people who complain about it today who are actually the ones giving the word power - if they had just shut the fuck up it would have continued to fade into irrelevance.
It’s funny because they tried to change “retarded” to “special needs” because people were using it as an insult. Now people call others “special needs” as an insult. There is no world where people don’t use an adjective to describe mentally impaired people as an insult. Seems kind of pointless to try to police speech around it.
It’s called the euphemism treadmill, and so many people don’t realise it’s a thing.
This episode basically commented on that phenomenon. Cartman loses the joy of living because there are no more “woke” people left for him to laugh at. I wish more people on the left understood that by constantly trying to control what everyone else is doing they are just creating things for the right to “resist” against. If people want to use a word in a context completely divorced from its original intent, just let them do it.
It’s also been studied that the more we pay attention to race in society, the more likely people are to be racially discriminatory. Whether it’s positive or negative, having race shoved into every aspect of our lives and every political dialogue is not healthy.
It must be exhausting being you.
I didn’t insult you, it’d be awesome if you could reciprocate that courtesy
I think they’re just good at keeping it real and both sides have stupid ideas/ideals and they should get called on them.
I dunno, the stereotypes (blacks playing bass, jews having secret gold) being true thing is really egregious. The way they satirized Trump’s first election is when I really stopped watching South Park because it showed they don’t actually keep it real and just insult everyone and everything like they claim. If that’s truly the best they could do with that whole trainwreck of a human being then they have lost their talent.
The way they satirized Trump’s first election is when I really stopped watching South Park because it showed they don’t actually keep it real and just insult everyone and everything like they claim. If that’s truly the best they could do with that whole trainwreck of a human being then they have lost their talent.
So did you watch the latest episode or…?
I don’t think South Park is right-wing propaganda, just vapid enlightened centrism.
At worst, maybe they ripped into Bush-era conservatives enough that the alt-right found themselves in agreement, but got the entirely wrong takeaway from it.
It’s just is one of those series where pretending to be stupid or establishing icons/memes will encourage other stupid people to interpret it however they want. Cartman acts like an evil Nazi but fat kid funny so Nazis funny and cool I guess.
The entire purpose and joke of modern Cartman is that he is a shitty person that is now completely surrounded by shitty people. As a result, he no longer feels special now that everyone in America is a terminally online racist/sexist psycho.
Almost always South Parks villains are portrayed in a heavily satirized way. A common thing they do is to portray those attacking eg an environmentalist as ‘normal’, but then overly exaggerate how ‘true’ the attacks are. It’s to ridicule the attackers, not who they attack, by showing just how ridiculous this villain has to be for the attacks to make sense.
Don’t forget how Trey Parker despise atheists
Trey Parker despise atheists
Nah, they do however recognize that a atheist can be just as full of shit as a theist. That south park arc where they seem to make fun of athiest wasn’t doing anything of the sort. They were making fun of people and their beliefs. That even in a world where everyone is a athiest. People can still find something to fight about. If they would have made those episodes about any theist faith it would have just looked like things are today.
They’ve made 10x the number of episodes focusing on Organized Religion vs Atheism
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epstein distractions again,
They call that out right in the episode. Relax Guy!
i hope next episodes will be real fun, instead that self repeating boring episode
monthslong
Having illiterate people copy-editing at Newsweek is a bold move.
I’ve got a bit of a MonthSchlong
What a weird thing to take issue with. Even if you were right, at worst they would’ve made a single typo by missing one space or hyphen. The horror!
But you’re not even right. Monthslong is an actual word.
This account makes so many nitpicky and/or wrong grammar “corrections” on here that I actually recognize the username. Grammar nazis really piss me off, because it’s mostly about feeling superior and it’s often rooted in classism or racism, even if unconsciously. I should know, I used to be like that when I was a kid.
It’s a real word, but, admittedly, it’s not in the OED, which puts it under suspicion.
