South park is one of the longest running animated shows in America with a large fan base of fans. The show just entered their thirteenth season, perhaps stronger than ever.
1. The show’s creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have no fear. They will attack anyone if they think it will warrant a good laugh. Sometimes controversial and often attacked by the media and various “offended” personalities, South Park has done the unthinkable. From defaming sacred religious figures, to offending popular celebrities, the comedy duo believes either everything is okay to poke fun at or nothing is.
One example some were appalled at in the media, was when the show was running an episode in which Satan is holding a Halloween party in Hell in which people are expected to be wearing costumes. Satan spots someone in what appears to be a Steve Irwin costume with a stingray impaling him. Satan remarks on the costume claiming it’s “too soon”, to which the person replies that it’s not a costume, implying it really is Steve Irwin at the party in Hell. To which Satan replied that he must get leave the party as it’s costumes only. Such a scene appalled many on an almost international scale, but Matt and Trey make no apologies and have stood by their work.
2. The fresh ideas. In an industry full of re-hashed plots and boring sequels, the comedy show has done hundreds upon hundreds of episodes with undeniably original and creative plots. The episode in which McCain and Obama’s attempts at election were really a ruse for an “Ocean’s Eleven” style theft, or in which the South Park boys want to sue Lucas and Spielberg for raping Indiana Jones and at the same time within that very episode Cartman was trying to stop an imaginary invasion of the Chinese as the “American Liberation Front”. It’s hard to imagine these types of episodes being run by any television series other than South Park. Yet the “Look Out Indy” episode had earned South Park one of it’s highest ratings as the shows’ most watched premiere since 1999, despite perhaps offending millions at the same time.
In the end, the show stands as the lone champion fighting for the right to poke fun at anything and everything in order to provide hundreds of original comedic episodes that have won them one of the largest fan bases in television. Matt Stone and Trey Parker can boldly and proudly take responsibility for millions of laughs, and have helped to bring about change that extends past the borders of their own show as they constantly appear on the news and political talk shows with their bold messages, giving birth to a new group of people who identify themselves proudly as “South Park Republicans” or more recently “South Park Libertarians”. Matt and Trey have hit a vein with America that goes deeper than simple comedy.