South Park

A/N: Hm, well, this was bound to happen one time or another. I am a huge fan of South Park and I really appreciate the satirical qualities of the show... So here's an essay about it!

Almost everybody is familiar with South Park, a show about four foul-mouthed boys from a podunk town in Colorado. It is infamous for slandering nearly every race and religion, every pop culture icon and celebrity. Because of this and the shows dark, crude, humor, many people disregard it as a stupid show, made by ignorant people. Is this really the case, though? South Park may actually be an adept satirical comedy.

In nearly every episode of  South Park you can find a celebrity, current event, or new fad. You find it, and it's completely skewed or portrayed melodramatically. A good example of this is one of the older episodes, Chinpokomon (S3E10). When this episode aired the "in" thing was the Pokemon franchise. Matt Stone and Trey Parker (The creators of the show) took this fad and stuck it right into the small town of South Park, under the name of Chinpokomon. The boys became obsessed with the toys, the cards, the games...everything with the name on it. This is very similar to how children were acting about Pokemon outside of the show.

In this episode, as well as many other episodes, they touch on two subjects. The Chinpokomon episode not only touched on how obsessive children get over the new thing, but also how quickly the newest thing becomes old. This, of course, is exaggerated but it makes a very good point When one of the boys, Kyle, gets a Chinpokomon doll and shows it to his friends, they tell him that is was, "So yesterday," and proceed to tell him how the new thing is the Chinpokomon video game. This keeps happening to Kyle, as the cool new thing constantly changes every day. Just as, say, Silly Bandz were the coolest thing to have about a year ago, and now almost nobody is seen with one.

South Park doesn't just touch on pop culture and fads, but is also very big on religion. Jesus and Satan are common reoccurring characters in the show, along with other religous figures such as Moses, Joesph Smith, Budda, and even God himself. The show points out the worst in nearly every religion, not singling (or leaving) one out. This has sparked much controversy within the audience of the show. Two of the most recent episodes, the 200th and 201st episodes, are a great example of this. The Muslim audience of the show became very upset when Muhammad was shown in the show. The creators received death threats and lawsuits. The show even had to go on a long hiatus because of this. When the episode aired, Muhammad had to be censored. A censor was even played every time Muhammad's name was spoken or mentioned. This resulted in nearly a minute of continuous censored dialogue and a very confused fan base.

At the end of nearly every episode, one of the four boys concludes the show with the line "You know, I think I've learned something today." or with a reflection of the events within the episode. In the episode, Super Best Friends (S5E03) , the boys join a cult, being promised powers and magic. This ends up with the cult planning a mass suicide (a play on the Jonestown cult mass suicide in 1978). After they manage to get out of the cult (With the help of the Super Best Friends, a league of the popular religious leaders), Stan reflects on the events of their day by saying, “Cults are dangerous because they promise you hope, happiness, and maybe even an afterlife, but in return they demand that you pay money. Any religion that requires you to pay money in order to move up and learn its tenets is wrong. You see, all religions have something valuable to teach but just like the Super Best Friends learned, it requires a little bit of them all."

Once you look past the immature jokes, the crude language, and the overall absurd nature of the show you will find that South Park makes many great points, and is actually a very clever satire. They touch on religion, fads, beliefs, race, and everything in between. They not only insult them, and point out their weaknesses. They insult and say why. The boy's speeches at the end of the episodes are the voice of reason in the town of South Park, and maybe even be the voice of reason to the fans.