South Park- More than a Cartoon

When I was younger my brother and I would sneak and watch South Park Late at night and although we succeeded we took absolutely nothing substantial away from it. Just tear jerking laughs from Mr. Garrison’s voice and the disrespect he endured from his students. When I was older to watch I did not look at it as anything worth watching because of how I viewed it as a child. I have not watched an episode of South Park in years, so watching it this past week has been amazing. Now that I am older and I’d like to think much wiser I can see past the animated children and take away from the show what’s intended.

This reminds me of a cartoon version of The Daily Show. They are making fun of serious issues while exposing the stupidity of people who honestly can’t afford to be so stupid. I completely agree with Satires Brew  calling them a new types of teachers in todays media world. They aren’t just trying to make you laugh but they are giving you the comedy everyone wants. They are really trying to educate us from a completely neutral point of view. The three episodes I watched; Douche and Turd, Margaritaville, and You have 0 friends all touched on social issues that are impacting Americans at a disgustingly high rate.

South Park, the ‘Equal Opportunity Offender’ as Satires Brew calls it does not discriminate against the different shades of BS! According to the text “their philosophy and ideology ranging from libertarian too liberal to conservative and everything in between. They’ve insulted all and left no one in their good graces”. It is so crucial to the reality of the show that the creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker do not care about pissing people off. When being honest you’re going to upset people, not many can handle their mistakes being put under a microscope and being made fun of. Satires Brew Touched on a dilemma the show faced when trying to air a specific image due to Comedy Central not wanting to offend muslim viewers, This occurred after the 9/11 attacks so clearly it would be more sensitive than before. This is a show that offends! It is fueled on the first amendment if them showing the muslim image would not be allowed in order to protect the feelings of specific people all offensive things should not be said.

Season 8 episode 8, Douche and Turd hit home for me. The 2016 presidential election will be my first time voting. I wholeheartedly believe Bernie Sanders is neither a douche nor a turd and would make the perfect president, however I do see some of his competition as turd sandwiches and giant douche’s. Let’s take Donald Trump for example, he’s like a perfect combination of the two. Him being in the race is making people feel like it doesn’t matter who they vote for as long as it’s not him because he’s horrible. But you have to sit back and really think about your options because someone else may be better but still extremely crappy! Like Hillary Clinton, the lovely blonde haired ray of fairy tales and falsities. People are paying attention to the fact that Trump is a clown and Hillary being a woman and a Clinton and completely overlooking other candidates.

In this episode Stan thought his options for mascot both were ridiculous and saw no reason to vote for either one because neither would make him happy, I understood his stance entirely. If all I had to choose from was Trump and Clinton I’d pass, I waited almost 21 years to vote what’s 4 more? But like they said in the show, it’s always going be a douche or a turd that you have to vote for and you taking a stance on who you feel is better is important. Stan not wanting to vote got him banned from South Park, his decision to not vote caused a rift in his parent’s relationship and “jeopardized the other students” at school. His parents collectively agreed that voting was important but the two didn’t even agree on who he should vote for. Everyone telling him to vote honestly created a blind leading the blind situation, they argue amongst themselves on who was best because they saw the options were horrible but they just wanted him to choose nonetheless.  

During the debate between douche and turd, turd did something that I saw recently. He was asked a question about safety for the athletes and his response was actually no response at all, he turned the attention to giant douche saying if he was asked he wouldn’t be able to answer. In a debate between Hillary and Bernie, Hillary was asked about the crime bill passed by her husband in 1994. Clinton said Senator Sanders voted for it too why don’t you ask him, this backfired on her. She had no suitable response as to why the black community should trust her now and put the question on her opponent and in the end made herself look bad.

On Page 138 in Satires Brew it says “Matt and Trey are satirizing our fear after one of the most traumatic events in American history” this was said in regard to the episode that aired after the 9/11 attacks. In this episode Stan’s mom was glued to the TV watching CNN, which my own mom did. She initially thought it was an accident when she heard the first plane had hit the tower, after learning about the second plane and the intent she was heart-broken and cried for the people who’d lost their lives and their loved ones. My mom was in complete disbelief that anyone could have done that on purpose, she grew up in a different country and had not experienced such tragedies back home.

In episode 3 of season 13 you see another example of satirizing the fears of American people, the collapse of the economy sends the residents of South Park mad. What went on here is something you see every day, the economy was made out to be some all-knowing power that had the ability to give and take, sound familiar? They spoke of the economy in such high regard without realizing the economy is an idea made up by us. money is literally paper we could rip it up and the world would not stop, it only has the value we give it. Lately many people have been losing life savings due to bad investments, the worst part is the victims are being advised that the investments would be safe. Jon Stewart took on Jim Cramer in an episode of the Daily Show in regards to him giving bad investment advice because he advised people to invest in businesses that ended up going bankrupt causing people to lose everything.

South Park has the power to teach you a serious life lesson as well as expose you to the rampant stupidity in your community. The ‘you have 0 friends’ episode the show tackles the way people value relationships these days. My grandparents always complain to my siblings and I about our constant use of cell phones and ask if we would survive without it. I’m going to be honest here and say no I can’t! Hopefully that would one day change but I digress. In this episode everyone in South Park discovers Facebook and it takes over every friendship and relationship, it also is used as a medium to develop new friendships. With the many different forms of social media we have today who needs to meet up or make a phone call?  There is a constant output of new sites and apps to knock the older ones out the way and keep virtual interactions strong. When South Park discovered Facebook everyone’s relationship did not exist unless it was shown on Facebook. The intention behind this episode was to show how ridiculous we all behave with social media. Facebook and other sites have a hold on our lives, everything we do and feel is on the internet. It has taken away from meaningful personal interactions.