Thanksgiving isn't just about completing your Seven Deadly Sins check list before the year runs out. Thanksgiving is about family; learning where they've been, where you are, and where everyone in your life is going. Food and football are just gravy ... sweet, delicious, artery-clogging gravy. This year, my brother and I flew home with my old man - who hates it when I call him "my old man" - the day before Thanksgiving. That's when a shocker of "Who shot J.R."-esque proportions dropped on the table.
My Dad officially announced that he watches South Park.
The news hit me in the face like Moe giving Curly an eyeful of fingers. Could it be that one of the most beloved shows of my generation and loathed by all previous generations has finally run out of cool?
The only vivid memory I have of him even knowing of the show's existence was during the first season around Christmas time. He was flipping through the channels when Kyle's round head popped on the screen. He was staring into a toilet when Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo popped out and gave a hearty "Howdy ho!" He flipped away fast, muttered to my brother and me, "I can't believe you watch that," and eventually stopped on the Fox News Channel, or as I called it that night, the Irony Network.
Every show tries to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, and the best ones do it without sacrificing their integrity, voice and originality. South Park has done that in ways no one thought possible in its first few seasons. It's inevitable they would attract an older audience since they've attracted the eyes of so-called "South Park Conservatives" and taken a more satiric slant without losing their edginess or ability to make bodily functions even funnier than they already are.
Am I the only person in the universe who feels this way? I'll still watch it every week and buy the DVDs and wear my Cartman "Beefcake!" shirt to the gym until it's no longer needed to motivate me to spend more time at the gym. But the show just feels different now that it's no longer forbidden fruit.
Its brash coolness seems to have disappeared into the stratosphere like so many flaming farts caused by alien rectal probes.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-01-2008 @ 12:13PM
RadioScott said...
People still consider South Park cool? Sorry. I didn't realize this was still 2002.
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12-01-2008 @ 12:46PM
0megapart!cle said...
I assume you never enjoyed the awesomeness that was Imaginationland. Stand in shame, sir, stand in shame!
12-01-2008 @ 1:28PM
Dan said...
South Park still rocks...it just sounds like your Dad is cool, despite his bad taste in "news" channels.
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12-01-2008 @ 12:58PM
StillBash said...
South Park is still cool.
You are a child for thinking somethings uncool because your parents like it. That's just it. Go install some geeky Linux derivate or watch "Dr. Who". Trust me. You still cool, you still da man.
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12-01-2008 @ 1:12PM
Deezul said...
I didn't realize that 6th grade animation techniques were ever cool.
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12-01-2008 @ 2:05PM
MarcDom7 said...
So the show has nothing to do with its humor or message. All that matters is the animation. Is that what you're saying?
12-01-2008 @ 2:30PM
Deezul said...
Yes, I am. Would it still be on the air if it was live action or Simpsons/Family Guy animation? I doubt it. Parker/Stone live action films have not exactly been box office smashes either, so as live action, it would have failed.
12-01-2008 @ 4:00PM
GigG said...
SP isn't about the animation. It is about the satire. Using that type of animation is satire itself not to mention they can get an episode of SP out in a week where the Simpsons takes 9 months.
Take for example the episode that ran the day after the election. They had an episode out that was specific to the results in less than 24 hours.
12-01-2008 @ 5:30PM
JohnADreams said...
Can you explain your argument? If South Park had Simpsons/Family Guy animation (better animation) than it would've been cancelled? Improving the show would've got it cancelled? That doesn't make any sense unless I'm misunderstanding something.
12-01-2008 @ 2:38PM
Malren said...
WHAAAAAAHHH! MY DAD WATCHES FAUX NEWZ! WHAAAAAAAHHH! MY DAD WATCHING SOUTH PARK TOO! HOW WILL I GET MY HIPSTER IDENTITY NOW? WHAAAAAHHH! SOUTH PARK ISN'T THE EXACT SAME SHOW IT WAS FIVE MINUTES AGO BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT WHO ONLY LIKES THINGS BASED ON HOW OTHER PEOPLE FEEL ABOUT THEM! WHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
Seriously. You're just being a douche. Grow up. And stop wasting TV Squad's bandwidth with this retarded drivel.
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12-01-2008 @ 5:52PM
Hank said...
I voted for Turd Sandwich.
12-01-2008 @ 3:32PM
Deanj said...
Marlen,
LOL.... exactly what I was going to say.
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12-01-2008 @ 3:57PM
Franklin said...
Sorry, Danny, but I'm going to have to side with all the commenters thus far. Although, not being familiar with you as a blogger it's very likely you're just trying to be funny and don't mean anything you've said.
Having given you the benefit of the doubt on that point, I'm awarding you the Gilded Douche Bag award for jumping in the cesspool of partisanship with the rest of the whiny socialist losers writing for this Assholes Online site. Had you not taken a shot at Fox News, I would've been fine with your article. Feel free to share the award with all the other, and I use this word as loosely as is possible, "writers" on this shite, er, site as they're as mired in douchebaggery as you are.
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12-02-2008 @ 2:33AM
Mike said...
What about all the cool single guys in season 1 that are now dads but still enjoy the show? Does a dad watching something make it uncool?
OR are you channeling the SP episode from way back where the parents started playing with pokeimon to make their kids stop?
I guess if you had asked your dad how he could do that to your show.. then the old man says, "You are, young man, you have big pen*s". Then this blog would have been kewl... guess not.
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12-03-2008 @ 2:00PM
JR said...
South Park is still funny,relevant, and satirical about life as ever. It's just that it has no shock value anymore. Unfortunately, alien anal probes and Chef's salty balls have become kind of commonplace.
Love the Woodland Critter Christmas :)
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