Crack Baby Athletic Association

   I'm still enjoying this season, and critics are still determined to say that it's at best average.  I hate always bringing things back to my opinion, but part of analyzing TV is viewing how it reflects culture, and even though many people watch South Park, they are still far outnumbered by the people who don't.  I, however, am even farther from the everyman than any South Park fan.  This is probably, subliminally, why I have been jumping between the two opinions, in a poor attempt to give the full reflection of our culture.  How about we get to that episode now?  Cartman starts a new sport pitting crack babies in a cockfight, and convinces Kyle to get in on the business.  The episode is spent with the team trying to work around paying the babies, while Kyle constantly tries to ethically justify the whole business.
   I'll spell it out for the three people who don't understand what's going on.  You see, college athletes do not, and are in fact not allowed, to receive compensation for anything.  This is something I disagree with, and apparently so do Matt Stone and Trey Parker.  In this episode we get to watch as student athletes are compared to slaves, and Cartman gets to do one of his famous catchphrases in a funny accent.  Is South Park trying to appease fans with some abortion jokes and other crude humor?  I don't think so, there's really only one point where I would call the humor fairly crude, and even that is still tame by South Park standards. 

Kyle is crying with laughter

   What's amazing is the first 25 seconds of the episode are, what I think is a satire of the South Park audience.  In these short seconds we see Terrance and Phillip (the crude Canadian television show) fart and poop on each other.  This is immediately followed by Kyle and Stan pronouncing it the best episode ever.  It's possible that I'm reading between lines that don't exist, but this would not be the first time that Terrance and Phillip were used as a double-coded messenger representing South Park.  With critical response still only grudgingly conceding that the newest episodes are average, I think Matt Stone and Trey Parker are painting a picture of their audience, namely that they are childish and live to see crude and offensive material.  Given that any message in South Park is exaggerated, this is a justified message.  The South Park audience is mostly under 30, and many children watch it as the quintessential middle finger to their parents.  And while I'm tempted to disagree with the second portion of the statement, the currently most popular episodes this season are "T.M.I." and "HUMANCENTiPAD" which each have more crude humor than any of the other episodes. 
   I don't think Matt Stone and Trey Parker hate doing South Park, and I'd be surprised if they didn't love their audience, but it has been clear all season that the two want to branch out a little.  This is exactly what they've done this season and it hasn't sat well with fans.  It is important to note that the last contract between Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Comedy Central, required the two to finish 15 seasons of the show, but I have not seen anything about renewing the show for a 16th.  Do not fret, I have no doubt that South Park will be around for another 5 or 10 years, but with the negative reception to the creators ideas, they might not have such a prominent role with the show in the upcoming years, especially with Matt Stone and Trey Parker running off with their musical dream.  So either fans will warm up to the new humor, a new audience will emerge, or the show will revert to using the same old poop jokes as before.  I have no idea what will happen, but if it's the last option, I will not be the only one to cry, and it won't be happy.

T.M.I.

   By now you've caught on to my formula, I watch a South Park episode a couple times and post about it as soon as it becomes old.  This week I'm determined to not get as huffy about my opinion as I did last week, but since this is a blog, you should know what you've signed up for since all good blogs are filled with personality.  It's unfortunate that you guys are stuck with a high-horsed, cynical prick, but I'll try to be a studious, high-horsed, cynical prick.  This time I'll talk about "T.M.I."  where Cartman gets sent to anger management after all the boys penis sizes are posted on the schools bulletin board. 
   T.M.I is an obvious pun on the body mass index, or BMI, which South Park satirizes in it's own little way that we all love. While the BMI itself has gotten a large amount of press in America, the land of the obese, the BMI is fairly well known internationally.  While humorous satire is lost when the episode is viewed out of context, it is still hilarious to watch grown men get uppity about the size of their wangs, a fairly universal obsession.  Also on the end of the prodding stick are many, very American things that make little sense outside of context.  Season 14's best episodes were very clear from the title what they satirized, "You Have 0 Friends", "It's a Jersey Thing", and "Insheeption" are all fan-favorites but they make a clear from the outset what they're making fun of and they spend their entirety on those topics.  The oldest South Park episodes did not have this format, while some episodes were spent on one subject of satire, most simply told a funny, crass story about the civilians of South Park and littered the social commentary in the episode.  A brief scroll through the Wikipedia page of South Park episodes shows that single topic satire episodes have become more common and are the majority of recent episodes.  It is completely subjective which format is better, but all recent episodes have had either one or two topics that formed the broad focus of the satire. 

Randy doesn't want a women telling him how to measure his junk

   While there is nothing wrong with this, it becomes a little formulaic to watch South Park constantly follow patterns like creating an episode where the norm is strange and the uncommon is the norm (See HUMANCENTiPAD).  Another common pattern is the belittling of something through metaphor and then proceeding to make the intelligent metaphor as obvious as possible.  It's a fairly obvious connection that cultures recent obsession with fitness and having a healthy weight is being compared to the male obsession with penis size; that is, illogical.  After asking those in my loop who are big fans of the show why they enjoy it, the response is never for the intelligent social commentary.  In fact to paraphrase a friend, the show is enjoyable because of poop and abortion jokes.  Since South Park obtained most of its initial publicity from it's over-the-top, crass humor, it makes sense that true fans really want nothing more than what they came for, humor that pushes the envelope as far as possible.  Matt Stone and Trey Parker, however, have made it clear that they do not like recycling material and when the envelope has fallen off the table it's difficult to continue pushing it.  After 14 seasons of pushing the envelope Matt Stone and Trey Parker have started spending less time, or at least have had a harder time pleasing their perverted audience and has started playing to a much more mild one.  Unfortunately, South Park has put its name in the books as a show that is not for those who are easily, or really difficultly, offended.  The show is still not for that audience, but while the show has slowed the amount of crass humor, the audience has only marginally increased, which is probably a big part of why critical response to the show has been less positive as of late.

Royal Pudding

   I find that as South Park progresses, the public opinion of an episode seems to be inversely related to my opinion.  Last weeks episode, "Royal Pudding", predictably rips on Canadians and the royal wedding.  However, thankfully, the actual wedding is only glazed over, almost as if it's not even worth making fun of.  I've heard a lot of talk about how the current season isn't the best and how its only getting worse.  My opinion, however, has been the exact opposite, with this episode being a perfect example of why I think South Park has a good sense of humor, even if they sometimes decide not to use it in order to please the plebeians. 
   As I said the royal wedding is the cause of the plot, but is not the centerpiece as a couple minutes in the Princess of Canada is kidnapped and the Canadians have a call to arms.  For the benefit of those not accustomed to the show, Canadians are South Park's stand-in for whenever there's an itch to make fun of a culture.  In the South Park universe, all Canadians are high-horsed, "fart-loving", arse-holes.  This is why it's surprising that Canadians, and the royal wedding itself, get a relatively blunt end of the prodding stick.  While some may be disappointed, in the end the funniest parts have nothing to do with satire or poop.  In this sense I am incredibly pleased with the show as no one could guess what the humor could be until the episode is already on.  Anything that helps a show become less formulaic, even if it's only a little, only improves my opinion of a show.  This in addition to the fact that it is the funniest episode yet, and I don't know why I'm the only one loving this season.
   It is documented somewhere on the internet, that Matt Stone and Trey Parker were less than excited to do another season of South Park.  Fans of the show will know that the two killed off Kenny for almost all of season 6 because the joke of him dying was getting old.  It is quite clear that Matt Stone and Trey Parker are tying to keep thinking of new ideas, and certainly do not wish to do anything that feels stale.  This is shown in the two's most recent project, "The Book of Mormon". While I have not seen the musical, I have heard the soundtrack.  While I do not know many musicals, it sounds like a completely original story; a comedic musical that I hope appears somewhere near where I live, but now I'm rambling.  The point is that South Park has slowly moved out of its crude beginnings and the creators are still trying to move it forward even if only to keep it from staying in one place for too long.  Poop jokes will always be a constant in the show to varying degrees so worry not low-brow humorists.  However, South Park is currently giving a tiny bone to the high-brows and I'll enjoy it while I can, because I'm sure something more crude is on the horizon.  While I would agree that season 14 was better, I still love this season and I hope Matt Stone and Trey Parker don't let me down.

Funnybot

   Today, a new episode of South Park aired, however not to get ahead of myself, the second episode of the season should not be ignored.  When I first saw Funnybot, I enjoyed it, and as a fan of stand-up comedy I know I understood more than other people.  The basic premise is as follows.  Jimmy starts a comedy awards ceremony in the school and gives Germans the prize for the least funniest people.  The Germans do not take well to this and so they create Funnybot, the funniest robot in the world.  From that summary, most people should be able to guess why I mentioned my attraction to stand-up.  So, can you all see where this second paragraph is going then?
   The humor from this episode is pulled completely out of the freak-show display of stereotypical bits and jokes.  Black comedy, insult comedy, substitution jokes, etcetera, nearly all types of comedy are shined in a ridiculous and decidedly non-humorous light.  The entire episode shows funnybot as simply a machine that follows specific word patterns and inflections for humor (ever seen Dane Cook?).  When Tyler Perry shows up we all have a laugh as black people can't stop themselves from giving him money.  It is obvious that the creators are trying make a statement about how absurd some comedy has become, and I think it's safe to say that they don't like it.  At one point they very subtly reference their own show, but it is more in respect to Matt Stone and Trey Parker's confusion as to why people are still shocked by shock comedy.  The comedic forms that aren't beaten over the head with satire, or at least are beaten softer, are clearly the comedies that South Park has some respect for.
   There is a third layer to the show that is infinitely more obvious, but was unnoticed by me until I stumbled upon the fact that Comedy Central has its own comedy awards show.  While it may have actually been the centerpiece of the satire, people like me, who are out of touch with what is on TV could not notice.  About a minute of googling shows that the comedy awards show was not a success, and despite winning an award, the creators of South Park are not thrilled.  The  idea of Jimmy's award show is constantly made fun of throughout the episode, and somewhere on the internet is a quote of Trey Parker making fun of the award he and Matt Stone earned.
   I don't know much about Matt Stone or Trey Parker, other than their light-hearted and foul sense of humor. However, they hold an ire for comedy awards that I cannot understand.  Funnybot explains that excepting a comedy award requires taking comedy seriously, but a comedian can't take comedy seriously.  I would have to disagree with both of these assumptions, I would also like to argue my point, but that's just my comedy nerd acting up I'll try to ignore him.  As per usual, South Park successfully makes fun of another aspect of our culture, and while they do spend a lot of time making fun of Comedy Central's award ceremony, the fact that Comedy Central allowed this episode to air shows that they might agree.  Perhaps comedy shouldn't be taken seriously...perhaps.

HUMANCENTiPAD - South Park Season 15 Premere

    Another year and we have yet another season of South Park.  After the first episode premiered to critical praise on April 27^th­ this season promises to be more of the immature satire that fans love.  Like most South Park episodes, "HUMANCENTiPAD" has the subtlety of a sledge hammer, but that's okay because the best part of the show is that it has never taken itself seriously and you can tell that the writers are just trying to have fun.  This, however, doesn't mean that there is never anything to take from the show, and even if it does, commercialism has taught me people will nearly always take something away from a show anyway. To those who want to read into the show, the opinions of the creators are always obvious and even if their goal isn't to send a message. 

   For the first episode of the season, South Park picks several "apples" from the orchard of our culture.  Anyone who understands the pun humancentiPad can make a pretty good guess as to what hijinks will ensue; I have not seen "The Human Centipede", the dutch horror film that this episode borrows its plot from, but my own predictions were fairly accurate. While the main plot of the episode revolves upon "The Human Centipede", the centerpiece of the satire is Apple and the online terms and conditions that we agree to everyday.  In the episode we see Kyle get kidnapped and used for Apple's technological experiments.  The cause of all of Kyle's grief is from his agreeing to the terms and conditions in an iTunes update, without actually reading them.  Throughout the main plot Kyle is part of the humancentiPad and is taught to read by Steve Jobs.  
   As a PC fan, I would say South Park paints an accurate, if hugely exaggerated picture of Apple.  Apple always releases new hardware versions of all their products every year like clockwork. Even when there is no practical difference between models, Apple goes to great lengths to make every iteration seem like the greatest thing since sliced pastries.  In the show, Apple connects multiple humans to one iPad in order to get the iPad to walk and read (supposedly the only things the iPad can't do).  The functionality and practicality of this confuses me, similar to other "advancements" Apple has made.  

The Council of Geniuses preform a quickening.

   Towards the second half of the show Kyle's Dad attempts to help his son by going to the apple genius bar.  The entire segment is spent with the children treating the geniuses like holy men, but the loling really starts when the geniuses start preforming sacred services in order to help Kyle's Dad.  The parallel is obvious here. While I am a biased PC owner, I can honestly say that I don't know a Mac owner that is computer-literate.  Whenever I hear an Apple fan give reasons for why Macs are better, it is either a quote from a commercial, or some nonsense about it being cooler.  South Park gives people like me a literal representation of what we've been calling Apple and it's fan-boys for years, a cult.
    While more parallels could be conjured, (such as the relationship between Apple and it's consumers) and more specific examples could be given (like the opening scene or the Toran-Ra) South Park makes a clear representation of Apple.  It's important not to assume that the creators of South Park hate Apple (I do, but I still own their products); Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been known to poke fun at some of their least and most favorite things.  The fact that Apple is now on the butt end really only means that the creators acknowledge that Apple is relevant in culture today.  These are current topics, however, and bring up larger questions unrelated to the show, such as the line between advancement and frivolous fancies, the role of big business versus the responsibility of the consumer.  I'm sure that bringing up these questions was far from the main goal Stone and Parker had in mind, but they would probably be pleased to know that their crass portrayal of culture can inspire such thoughts.