The intent of Matt Stone and Trey Parker

[TheAppleCore]

Might seem like an odd thread.

Sometimes I have trouble understanding other people. South Park seems to me like an incredibly hateful show. It goes beyond illustrating its point with cartoon caricatures, and enters the realm of pure, vicious insult. Or so it seems. Yes, it's a comedy, which affords them some creative license, but a lot of their more extreme violence and obscenity doesn't humor me, and I can't imagine who might enjoy it. So, I'm wondering whether I'm just being my quasi-autistic self and misperceiving the intent of the show, or are South Park creators Stone and Parker partly using their show as a device to insult and hurt specific people, or groups of people?

 

[garrygofast]

You make a couple of valid points. South park for mine, lost its shock value a while back now. Cast members left due to the nature of content, eg scientology, plus multiple groups have been targeted.

The show seemed to serve a purpose many moons ago, when it was an alternative to the sometimes sappy, usually moralistic and predictable "simpsons"- you could watch south park, have the swearing, the outlandish antics, simulated sex scences etc etc and go "wow, this is different". So in that sense, it put other shows on notice.

Now with the advent of creative and clever ädult orientated shows such as family guy, american dad and the waining popularity of the stalwart simpsons, south park seems more irrelevant today than ever.

Don't get me wrong, I liked south park, loved the "team america "spoof movie, but I think they just ran out of ideas and became stale, therefore reverting back to slinging mud at others, which is easy when you have no ideas of your own left. There is a difference between clever observational humour, than terrence and phillip..

Maybe people have become more discearning in what they watch these days.. maybe people want more from a show than seeing fart jokes, or anti gay slurs etc.. I myself have moved on from simpsons/s.p and am enjoying the clever wit of the american dad/f.guy stable.. But who knows, they in turn could become stale and revert to south park shock tactics, in the vane hope to keep viewers. Only time will tell..

 

[Volundr]

I'm not a great fan of south park but I enjoy it from time to time, and imo it is just a light hearted satire of current events for the most part, reflecting on how fucked up certain aspects of our society our, by highlighting them in such stupid situations, albeit ones that can relate to actuality. Of course there is quite a few self-indulgent episodes, but originally they were few and far between, but I think they're kinda useful to develop characters.

Maybe people have become more discearning in what they watch these days.. maybe people want more from a show than seeing fart jokes, or anti gay slurs etc.. I myself have moved on from simpsons/s.p and am enjoying the clever wit of the american dad/f.guy stable.. But who knows, they in turn could become stale and revert to south park shock tactics, in the vane hope to keep viewers. Only time will tell..

??? gotta be a joke? American Dad and Family Guy are examples of extremely in your face, obvious, and un-deep or witty cartoons imo.

 

[garrygofast]

All satire can be viewed from a personal perspective. Ever watch an episode of any adult cartoon, where some laugh at sight gags, others at the observational humour, its all subjective to what makes you laugh.. Tastes change volundr, all I'm saying is at the moment, I'm enjoying something to me that is less stagnent than simpsons and the anarchy that is south park.

That said, if south park, or simpsons changed their direction somewhat, I may be lured back to them.

 

[stimutant]

??? gotta be a joke? American Dad and Family Guy are examples of extremely in your face, obvious, and un-deep or witty cartoons imo.

this.


also i cant see how it could be wrong to insult scientology and other cults, may they be called religions or whatever

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

I think Trey and Matt's only intent was to entertain. They found out pretty quickly that people would pay to hear their irreverent takes on everything, so they got busy. I really don't think they ever had a vision or a message for the world. I don't think they believe in much or care about much. I think they're just making a living and making a name for themselves doing what they do naturally in their free time -- mocking things and people.

I can take or leave Southpark, classic material included. I don't have a mean sense of humor, or a special place in my heart for people who do. I'd be lying if I said Southpark has never made me laugh. But for me it's kind of like candy -- something to turn to as a refreshment when you've just had it up to here with wholesome stuff all the time. But not something to subsist on culturally.

 

[Tude]

I fail to see how American Dad and Family Guy are witty. They're as crude as you can get. Anyways, South Park is just trying to make people laugh.

 

[MrGrunge]

South Park, like every other "adult" cartoon, comments on the absurdity of pop culture by taking it to an illogical extreme. Is their cartoon hateful? I could see it being perceived that way some times, but since it is a cartoon designed to entertain, I tend to view any contentious content as intentionally inappropriate, and not necessarily reflective of the writer's literal opinion.

 

[Belisarius]

Hateful? Definitely not. I see the show as a kind of bully pulpit for highlighting the ridiculousness of issues that we're too afraid to approach head-on, let alone in live action. Not to mention that the show is, IMO, equal parts mockery and fun; the "cheezing" episode was an obvious riff on jenkem, but the Heavy Metal hallucinations were pure play with the form. Boondocks is a more cynical show than South Park ever was, yet it drifted under society's radar even in the black community.

In short, YMMV.

 

[panic_the_digital]

Clearly you guys don't watch American Dad. That show is nothing like Family Guy and shouldn't be lumped with Family Guy based on Seth McFarland's input alone.

BTW, South Park may not be as good as it used to be, but Book of Mormon will make you believers again (in Trey and Matt, not religion).

 

[webbykevin]

i think the only people who are upset or offended by southpark are people who have fallen into one of the categories that were being lampooned and can't take the heat.

It's one of the few shows that says what needs to be said on subjects the other media outlets and commentators are too scared or politically correct to tackle, good on them for having the balls to speak out.

The WOW episode, Harley Fag episode and Facebook episode were spot on and brilliantly funny.

 

[L2R]

by targetting everyone equally, i'll stay tuned. i really enjoy their brand of social commentary.

 

[HoneyRoastedPeanut]

I'm actually a big fan of Trey and Matt. They took the emerging genre of adult animated comedy and took it to its natural endgame, which is the freedom to talk about any topic and find what's funny about it. For this they are nothing less than visionary, IMO. Not to mention that even after 10+ years, South Park hasn't had nearly the drop in quality we've seen from shows like The Simpsons or Family Guy.

If you get the chance, watch the short documentary The Making of South Park: 6 Days to Air, it's on Netflix. It goes into the making of an episode, but you really get a sense of who Trey and Matt are as people. They're not perfect people, but people aren't perfect, and certainly their intent is "pure" if you want to go by those terms.

I think it's easy for people to misunderstand the intent of comedy. One of the big building blocks of humor is taking an expected scenario and turning it on its head. Nobody would say or do the things they say on South Park in reality, and that's why it's funny. When it has a personal target, the intent is often to expose the target to their own hypocrisy, and ultimately remind them of their own humanity, by pointing out how silly it sounds to others when they say they're different or special from everybody else (religions, celebrities, politicians).

I think that's why their episodes always end with that cliched message from the kids about how we should all get along. That's the real message with their real intent coming through, so ignore the rest of the episodes for anything but comedy purposes and focus on that.

 

[shimazu]

Their shows almost always have a moral lesson at the end (you know, Ive learned something today).

The Giant Douche / Turd Sandwich episode is probably the funniest IMO

 

[Cornishman]

The tooth decay one was one of their best imo.

 

[Rated E]

I'm enjoying something to me that is less stagnent than simpsons and the anarchy that is south park.

It's funny that you should say that, when the key criticism that Stone & Parker leveled at Family Guy in the Cartoon Wars episodes was that Family Guy lacked a coherent structure. That the show is, allegedly, a random barrage of pop culture references and one liners.

South Park, on the other hand, tends away from anarchy in that sense. South Park episodes usually has a single overriding ideal that most of the jokes serve to support throughout an episode.

But I love Family Guy and South Park. South Park has probably dragged on a bit now, lost a bit of its spark. I haven't seen Family Guy for a while, but American Dad is better than ever recently.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

When it has a personal target, the intent is often to expose the target to their own hypocrisy, and ultimately remind them of their own humanity, by pointing out how silly it sounds to others when they say they're different or special from everybody else (religions, celebrities, politicians).

See, and I guess this is what I have a limited taste for. I'll admit that this kind of humor has an important place as a buffering effect on people and institutions' egos, and I agree that some folks just deserve to get taken down a peg on national television. But where I part company with the creators and intelligent fans of South Park is who deserves this sort of dressing-down. Maybe I just watched too much Mr. Rogers as a kid, but I don't see anything inherently wrong with people (or groups) sincerely believing they're unique snowflakes, and sincerely saying so. It's only when they cop an attitude that they're better than other people that they deserve a lampooning, in my opinion.

I don't have anything critical to say about Trey and Matt's ability as writers and entertainers -- they're very talented. I just have less of a need, or taste, for what they serve up, than a lot of people in my generation.

 

[DeathDomokun]

To make money

 

[HoneyRoastedPeanut]

Very understandable, MDAO. I think myself and other fans of this kind of comedy would say that probably everybody needs to be taken down a peg at some point or another, and it's better for everybody to get out these frustrations in a comedy format rather than letting our differences isolate us from each other in practical reality. I watched a lot of Mr. Rogers, and Disney etc. etc. as a kid, and go out of my way to be polite and kind, but I like my comedy to be no-holds-barred for that very reason. I think comedy can be very therapeutic if we allow it the freedom to speak about what is most important to us.

 

[Quicksilver56]

"Respect my authoritah!!"(sp) Cartman Love how they portray Canadians. I love Canadians, but the heads that flip up and the "Take a seat, Buddy!It's aboot tie you take a load off, eh? ad about Chef being gone because of Scientology. The groovy thing about Matt and Trey is no one is above being mocked. It is equal right lampooning