South Park + Its Political Sperging (?) Thread - Season 26 ongoing!

[Grin Machine]

South Park has always been “left-wing edgy”

"Left" and "right" as political descriptors are stupid and mostly for signaling which team you're on. South Park had always taken "left" positions on some topics, and "right" positions on others. For example, "Summer Sucks", an overregulation bad episode, and "Pee", an episode about the dangers of migration that compares migrants to piss in a swimming pool. "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" ends with a happyish ending for Garrison, but we are not meant to feel sympathy for him. The show didn't devolve into tranny coddling and PCshit until 2016ish.

It’s a “guns bad, hunters stupid” episode.

The target of the episode's jokes is sport hunting/trophy hunting specifically, and killing for fun isn't ethical is not a "left-wing" position. I have a strong distaste for hunting, especially the way it's done today in the West, and no one would mistake me for a leftist. In fact, animal welfare is more of a "right-wing" thing.

 

[Kalsarikännit]

I have a strong distaste for hunting, especially the way it's done today in the West, and no one would mistake me for a leftist.

I feel like this statement betrays your ignorance on the subject. Especially the emphasis on “today”. Today’s hunting is well regulated with licensing, tags, and consideration given to the balance of nature in handing out said tags. Plus, the killing of nuisance animals like wild hogs in the south and pythons in Florida are not only good, but necessary to help protect the environment.

You forget that, since humans have run off the predators of deer in many places, we must serve the role to control their populations.

I think it would be hard to find anyone who would say that hunting has become “worse” since the days of Total Bison Death in America, or the trophy hunting of big game in Africa (which yes, still occurs, but not nearly as common as it was).

Poaching, of course, is not good, but hunters are not poachers and vice-versa. To put the sin of poachers on hunters is disingenuous.

And finally, hunters are NOT retards who throw their guns around being stupid. Firearm discipline is important to these people and portraying them as careless with their guns is inaccurate.

And as for my use of the term “left wing”, I used it because I couldn’t think of another way to briefly say the general leanings of their messaging. Even in supposedly “right wing” episodes, there’s a veneer of disagreement, or framing it as a mindset one needs to move past, or to put it another way, “progress beyond”.

 

[Grin Machine]

This is a lot of off-topic sperging that doesn't address my points on the show until the end, so I'll address that first and unspoilered: yes there is a veneer of disagreement, because, like I said, the show and its writers was not simply left-wing or right-wing (in its heyday). All points of view were were subject to be mocked, and nothing was sacred (except Muhammed, fuck Comedy Central). Since then, it's clear Matt/Trey/the writers room have skewed "left-wing edgy" on most topics, and that they'll bow to popular opinion (look at climate change) but I just don't think that was always the case. You're free to disagree.

Spoiler: Sperging on Hunting

My use of "today" wasn't to compare to it to ye olden days of TBD and Teddy Roosevelt-style safaris, it was to emphasize that, at least today in the West, people are not hunting because they have to. I have family who are bowhunters, so I'm familiar with the lifestyle. They enjoy the sport of it.

Plenty of people still go big-game trophy hunting, and that's what the episode was mocking anyway, so I don't know why you're hanging on it being less "common".

There are a handful of reasons why culling of certain animal population can be necessary, some of which you've cited, but that is not most hunting and besides: that's not why you're hunting. You're hunting because you enjoy killing things, and I find that pretty gross man.

hunters are NOT retards who throw their guns around being stupid

This is just as much of a generalization as what was on "Volcano", and much less funny. I know plenty of hunters who are retards. In fact, while many practice good gun safety, most of the hunters I know are retards.

 

[Kalsarikännit]

You're free to disagree.

That I do, and that I will.

You're hunting because you enjoy killing things, and I find that pretty gross man.

This is just retarded, though.

 

[MirrorNoir]

I wouldn't say South Park was anti-hunting, as Jimbo and Ned were major characters in the early seasons and treated sympathetically. The season one episode about hunting treated a kid's first hunt as a big thing and even made the main story being that Ned was unknowingly making Stan jealous because he was showering the other kids with more attention than Stan on Stan's first hunting trip with his beloved uncle.

Also, South Park is heavily libertarian at least for the first 14-15 seasons, with an added dash of contrarianism tossed in. This is the same show that had Big Gay Al refuse to rejoin the boy scouts after public outcry forced the scouts to ask him to come back into the fold after all. Also, the show simped SUPER SUPER HARD for Bush II and even did an episode for the 2012 election where Obama outright stole the election and referred to Mitt Romney as being "too honorable" to call out the steal as far as being a pathetic "honorable loser".

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

South Park always especially demonized bible thumpers and ignored shit like Joe Lieberman being at the forefront of banning violent media despite being a jew democrat. In the end the bible thumpers were 100% right in everything they said will be caused by influx of horny and violent media.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

South Park always especially demonized bible thumpers and ignored shit like Joe Lieberman being at the forefront of banning violent media despite being a jew democrat. In the end the bible thumpers were 100% right in everything they said will be caused by influx of horny and violent media.

Nah, the bible thumpers were still 100% wrong. D&D didn't teach kids evil dark magic and video games still don't cause real world violence.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Nah, the bible thumpers were still 100% wrong. D&D didn't teach kids evil dark magic and video games still don't cause real world violence.

No, DnD teaches them homosex and degeneracy instead, and Earthbound has caused trannies and furries.

 

[Jacques1194]

What the fuck is it with Tumblr weirdos who obsess over the sexualities and relationships of fictional cartoon 10 year olds? And why the fuck would they decide that Kenny is gay? Everything we've ever been shown about Kenny paints him as straight and a future poonhound to boot. An entire episode is focused around him trying to use the Jonas Brothers to get his girlfriend to give him head. His original lines in the theme song are literally him proclaiming his preference for girls who have "big fat titties."

I know i'm replying to a month old comment again but i thought about this more, and the main reason is because they made Creek canon.Before Tweek, and Craig became a couple, tumblr users were obsessed with pairing tweek and craig together because of the one episode they fought each other.Ever since it became canon, the south park fandom has gotten worse with yaoi because they now believe that if they make enough art of two other characters being a couple (like Kenny and Butters) that eventually Trey will make it canon.Making creek canon only fed these mentally ill people's delusions that their yaoi fantasizes will come true if they try hard enough to make it true.

 

[RybenZ999]

Another reason why I progressively started losing interest in South Park after season 6 is because the characters act too much like.... real people, for the lack of a better term. I think that "Everything is shit" episode from season 15 and the recent seasons have been the acme of this. Take Liane for instance. The early seasons had her act like an air-headed slut, which is what made her funny. In season 2 "Chickenpox" there's even a scene where she says something along the lines of "There's nothing wrong with purposefully setting your kids up to get chickenpox. My mother used to let me get chickenpox all the time." Like the humor of the scene stems from the sheer absurdity of what she's saying and how non-chalantly she says it. In the newer seasons on the other hand, aside from one-off jokes, she acts like a real person from the real world. Like in that Streaming Wars special, her thunderstruck reaction to Cartman suggesting breast implants is how a real person would react. Earlier seasons would've had her non-chalantly consider it and reject it politely but do it for a completely unexpected reason (Like have her go on a tangent about how breast implants will give you aids or something) I guess my point is her new "Struggling hardworking mom" gig, outside of being a lame and generic characterization, doesn't really fit the premise of South Park, which is about a crazy town with crazy hicks.
(Here found the scene I'm talking about)

Sharon	...and then the doctor said that it's much worse as you get older. My daughter is in pretty bad shape now, but if she were in her twenties, she could die.
Sheila	My God, I never knew chickenpox was such a dangerous illness.
Liane	I guess it's much better to get it when you're young.
Sharon	So tell me if I'm crazy, but I started thinking that we should intentionally have our boys play with a child who has the chickenpox. Let them get it now, while they're young.
Sheila	That's not crazy at all, Sharon. Mothers do it all the time.
Liane	Oh, yes. When I was a child, my mother had me go over to a little girl's house who had the chickenpox, just so I would get it.

Another example would be Stan and Kyle. They've always been the good guys but even in the older seasons they had their own moments of craziness which made it believable that they're part of the town. Like that scene in the same Chickenpox episode where Kyle writes an essay about putting poor people in concentration camps. If that episode was done today, it'd probably be Cartman writing an essay like that, Kyle would do his generic "teenage girl on her period" thing of ranting about it and the both of the do their generic back and forth (Blah Blah Fatass! Blah Blah Jew!). Stan and Kyle were better when they were edgier.

I guess what I'm getting to here is South Park characters went from being crazy to like 2 people (Cartman and Randy) being crazy to every other character doing their generic eye roll "Sane guy" thing. Some people point to that "Dead Kids" episode as a refute to my point but it's not the same. Like, I can't properly articulate why but there's a difference between Pinkeye and Dead Kids. It feels... I don't know what the word I'm looking for is but it just ain't the same. I miss stuff like this

Dr. Doctor	He'll be okay, but it's a good idea for us to monitor him for a while.
Sharon	[Anxious.] Oh God, what have we done?
Dr. Doctor	There there now, it's not your fault.
Randy	Doctor, we-uuuh purposefully sent our son to stay with a friend who had chickenpox so that he would get it early.
Dr. Doctor	Oh. Wow, you did? Wow. You guys suck.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Good Times with Weapons is still really really really fucking funny
the build up and payoff of Kenny using his ninja star is basically perfect because it allows you to see exactly where this is going just long enough before it happens

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Good Times with Weapons is still really really really fucking funny
the build up and payoff of Kenny using his ninja star is basically perfect because it allows you to see exactly where this is going just long enough before it happens

It perfectly captured that feeling as a kid when playing went too far, and you realize you're all in big trouble.

 

[Wulfpack Legend]

 

[José Mourinho]

Rather late into the "making fun of live action remakes" territory, but unsure why this needs to be a special among other choices especially we waited months.

Honestly, no matter the reason for the token to tolkien name change, i got more annoyed at how south park social media kept repeating this joke for months and wouldnt stfu about it.

It used to be funny, and them changing the subtitles to Tolkien retrospectively for previous episodes is funny in terms of concept, but execution is just rather poor and if I have just one image it'll be this:

How am I supposed to look at this and take this joke seriously?

 

[OrionBalls]

No, DnD teaches them homosex and degeneracy instead, and Earthbound has caused trannies and furries.

I must have missed that lesson. Of course, one of our Elders is DM, and the Associate Minister, his daughter, and the Youth Coordinator are in the group. Also, it's AD&D.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

https://x.com/toonhive/status/1712169927124103221

 

[Blue Gem Kosher Queen]

View attachment 5404913

https://x.com/toonhive/status/1712169927124103221

/aco/ is going to get even weirder for the next couple of weeks.

The only way this had any chance of being funny is if only Kyle had been swapped on account of the aforementioned 'teenage girl on her period' personality and everyone acts like he had always been Kylie.

 

[Tequila Jong]

Good Times with Weapons is still really really really fucking funny

ｐｒｏｔｅｃｔ　ｍｙ　ｂａｌｌｓ

 

[The Ugly One]

/aco/ is going to get even weirder for the next couple of weeks.

The only way this had any chance of being funny is if only Kyle had been swapped on account of the aforementioned 'teenage girl on her period' personality and everyone acts like he had always been Kylie.

He's also the only redhead.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

There are several "turning points" for South Park quite frankly:

1. Seasons 1-3, which Parker and Stone have disowned and disavowed without full scale unpersoning those seasons.

2. Quintuplets 2000, which was the official start of the "ripped from the headlines" direction of the series

3. Scott Tennorman Must Die, which officially saw Cartman go full psychopath.

4. The season five episode where Kenny officially dies and stays dead, which was supposed to be permanent but got overruled by Comedy Central.

5. The episode where they killed Chef, which is an irreversible dividing point in the franchise due to how radically things changed with Chef's death in terms of removing the one adult who seemed to care about the main four and allowed Randy to take his place

6. The PC Principal season; while the previous season had continuity, it was loose continuity whereas PC Principal's debut launched the serialized era for South Park.

7. The debut of Tegridy Farms and the never ending pot farm arc.

the first 4 turning points can all be explained by them assuming up until season 5 that the show would just be canceled, which sort of made sense, most cable shows didn't last long and the other shows from comedy central rarely lasted longer than 3 seasons (still true to this day) Its also why during those 4 seasons they had other projects they were doing at the same time like Thats my bush or the movie.

Season 5 is where they realized "oh we aren't just some number to these guys, they really do like us and won't vanish us like every other tv show"

You can sort of see this in the way the episodes played out, the first 4 seasons are extremely childish but in a good way, they really went for broke as it were, sort of reminds me of workaholics where every new episode could be about anything and it was very "whatever makes me and my friends laugh this week" you could have an encino man parody or mecha barbara or an episode about turkey killing or about a charles dickens play or a clip show or a musical episode

Season 5 you really start to see them really go hard on the concept of "these are kids having adventures" whereas before they were less characters and more stand ins for matt and trey. like they could have been high schoolers or college students and the 4 would have been acted mostly the same. You can also understand why the show was called south park in those early seasons too. characters like Ned, Jimbo, Pip, Chef, Officer, The Bus driver, Mr.Hankey, etc. all had bit parts instead of it being the Stan and Kyle show.

Season 6 feels like they really focused on the characters a lot more and especially on making them feel like real kids, the LOTR episode is one of the best episodes and its because it feels so real and true to what tween boys are like. The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer and Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society and Fun with Veal in the same season almost feel like stuff ripped out of a show about growing up. Obviously its heightened but the concepts are still there and solid in a way that you didn't really see much in the earlier seasons, although a lot of that may be because they replaced kenny with butters so the show feels more authentic because there isn't a death sequence every episode but there is constant worrying about being grounded from the soft boy they hang with. as you said they also start taking advantage of being able to rip from the headlines too. People don't realize the WOW episode is from before even the first expansion.

Nah, the bible thumpers were still 100% wrong. D&D didn't teach kids evil dark magic and video games still don't cause real world violence.

also gangs were literally killing each other and crime was rising but somehow the bible thumpers cared more about stopping D&D than either the bloods or the crips. in fact they led the way for midnight basketball and Affirmative action.

even reddit is hyped for this. really tells you how shit modern society is that 5 years after everyone online saw this shit happening someone with a tv show might be calling it out. Mind you SNL has been joking about it for awhile now too.