Skip to main content

The South Park Experience

Whew. What a week-ender it's been. For all of you currently under the throes of typhoon Yolanda, stay safe! For those of you who're still getting ready for the storm, here's a good list of things you may want to take note of.

But right now, the thing that's on my mind isn't Typhoon Yolanda. Neither is it the blue ribbon committee hearing of Janet Napoles (although I should have something to say about that, but not right now).

No, the one thing weighing most heavily on my mind is...South Park. And how I am increasingly annoyed by the show.

I used to love South Park. In fact, I think the movie is, to this day, one of the better animated films ever produced. It was satirical, slapstick, and unapologetically crass. And best of all, it was funny.

And the show remained funny for the most part. Up until the middle of the previous season, where it stopped being funny, and just bordered on banal satire of American culture. If I had to name an episode where they started to drop the ball, I'd say it was shortly after James Cameron raised The Bar from Marianna's Trench. Ironic, really.

I don't know. The sheer number of characters in South Park notwithstanding, it feels like the show runners are just sitting in front of their news readers every week, scouring the headlines for something trend-worthy, then writing scripts that make fun of it. Usually, it involves Cartman going on an off-kilter mission that only makes him more insufferable than ever. I mean, more than anybody else, this show's become so Cartman-centric that they should rename the show Ericville. Everybody else is secondary to his whimsy, after all.

Eric Cartman
Taken from Funny Junk. Seriously, this character’s getting retarded. You know what they say about trolls – they all get tiresome eventually.

Before you tell me that that’s what his character’s all about, consider this first: what about Stan and Kyle? These two used to be the straight men of the show, the voices of reason in the chaos that was South Park. Now they're just wallflowers, secondary to the creature that is Butters, or even to Token. And that’s real sad, because they brought a (sarcastic) honesty to the show. Nowadays, it’s like even their attempts to be good, honest kids is canned. Ever since Chef left the show, they’ve run out of adults with good intentions to choose from, and it’s affected the kids! Now they can’t even pretend to be good! There is no foil to Cartman’s crazy!

But the biggest sin of all is that Kenny hasn't died anytime recently. I'm one of the old crowd, part of the audience that watched South Park in part only to see Kenny die, or Terence and Philip make fart jokes. I want to see more infantile insults about Cartman's mom, or Gerald Broflovski impregnate a horse.

In short, I miss the days when South Park made gutter humor classy.

These days, the only source of gutter humor that's even remotely funny is Family Guy. American Dad and Bob's Burgers are trying to match the show, but as utterly tasteless as Peter Griffith is, Family Guy actually keeps me laughing. It's unassuming, unpretentious, and utterly obscene - and despite it's many shortcomings, I find that it's that honesty that keeps me glued.

I'm dropping South Park from my watch list, though. Let me know when it stops becoming The Cartman Show. 'Til then, I'm gonna do a Chef and bow out.

Anyway, I have to go make sure the roof isn’t flying off or something. Stay safe people! Martin out.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maynilad Water Chronicles: The Clusterf$%#, Part 2

This is the third post in our Maynilad Water chronicles. This time, we will talk about just how inept their record keeping skills are in the face of a massive overhaul in a given area. This involves a technique used by Meralco in high-risk areas called clustering, and is efficient – if utilized correctly. Needless to say, Maynilad has yet to be able to do this.
Post a Comment
Read more

Clarity in Three Parts

i Maraming beses na kitang nilayasan Iniwanan at iba ang pinuntahan Parang babaeng mahirap talagang malimutan Ikaw lamang ang aking laging binabalikan Manila, Manila I keep coming back to Manila Simply no place like Manila Manila, I'm coming home I walked the streets of San Francisco I've tried the rides in Disneyland Dated a million girls in Sydney Somehow I feel like I don't belong Hinahanap-hanap kita Manila Ang ingay mong kay sarap sa tenga Mga Jeepney mong nagliliparan Mga babae mong naggagandahan Take me back in your arms Manila And promise me you'll never let go Promise me you'll never let go Manila, Manila Miss you like hell, Manila No place in the world like Manila I'm coming here to stay ii. Too, uh, cheesy to mention. Check the lyrics here . iii. I've been drunk or inebriated every day of this week since Saturday last week; since I'm holding an inuman party
1 comment
Read more

Manila Series: Parks of Manila

The other day, I read the post of a friend who was ranting about how Manila can only be beautiful when seen from a specific light. I could understand what he means, because Manila is the center of traffic in the NCR. The poor are here in full force, the most corrupt policemen are here, and honestly, there is no discipline whatsoever. But here’s something that I’ve discovered. You walk Manila. You don't drive it. It isn't the most walkable city in the world, but what can be seen when you do walk it is fantastic. And when you walk around the city, you don’t encounter the corrupt cops (because they’re going after the drivers), you don’t deal with traffic. You can’t do anything about the poor, though. Unless they’re doing something productive, and not just begging, I avoid them. If they’re cleaning up trash, or something similar, then I give them cash.
Post a Comment
Read more