Southpark: Gone to shit?

[Cassie]

Is it just me, or does it seem like Southpark isn't even trying to be funny anymore?

In last weeks season premiere Cartman wants to be a NASCAR driver, but he isn't stupid or poor enough to be one. At first I thought the show was going to be about making fun of NASCAR fans, but it didn't seem to stick with that theme, and I ended up wondering who they were trying to offend. Was it dumb NASCAR fans, or women with smelly vaginae, or Cartman himself?

Am I too old to GET Southpark? JUST GOING TO DIE

 

['Gear]

Is it just me, or does it seem like Southpark isn't even trying to be funny anymore?

In last weeks season premiere Cartman wants to be a NASCAR driver, but he isn't stupid or poor enough to be one. At first I thought the show was going to be about making fun of NASCAR fans, but it didn't seem to stick with that theme, and I ended up wondering who they were trying to offend. Was it dumb NASCAR fans, or women with smelly vaginae, or Cartman himself?

Am I too old to GET Southpark? JUST GOING TO DIE

IMO SP didn't have to go anywhere to be shit. I've never been able to get into it.

 

[Cassie]

It was never consistently funny, but now and then it would really crack me up.

 

[Donovan]

I think South Park stopped trying to be funny and offensive a while back and just went with being offensive. The lifespan of good subversive programming is extremely short. Mainly because the show must go to ever further lengths to top itself, setting up more and more outrageous bits, until it either becomes the "establishment" it was mocking, like SNL or the Simpsons, or becomes a caricature of itself like Southpark or Family Guy.

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

The NASCAR ep was lame and made no sense. The one bit of irony was that dozens of people were killed, but Kenny lived. And that joke is so old it's not effective anymore.

But I think the show still has some life to it. Family Guy, however, died two years ago and people continue to watch its rotting corpse on Sunday nights.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Well I haven't seen the latest season yet, but the last one I saw still had some funny episodes. But they often fall into the trap of just repeating the same joke again and again to try to make a point and it doesn't work for me.

 

[Donovan]

It was never consistently funny, but now and then it would really crack me up.

Very occasionally, South Park would do an episode that took satire to a very wicked place and when they hit it was tremendous. The episode where Jesus fights the devil on ppv, the cloud of Smug from all the Prius owners, the point at which AIDS was funny; those were classic satire.

Unfortunately you have to watch a lot of crap to get to those episodes...

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

Loktar: I still think FG has the occaisonal good episode...like Simpsons and SP

I try every week, but there hasn't been an episode as solid as anything in their first 5 seasons since "420", the musical weed episode. Two episodes before that one, FG officially jumped the shark with it's "FOXy Lady" episode when Lois joined Fox News. That was a great opportunity for some scathing in-house satire, but they squandered it and wrote a lame, third grade-level skit that totally missed the mark.

Seth McFartknocker has 3 shows on TV now. FG is a dead mackeral, and The Cleveland Show is wobbly. American Dad seems to be the least affected by Seth Fatigue.

 

[Loktar]

I try every week, but there hasn't been an episode as solid as anything in their first 5 seasons since "420", the musical weed episode. Two episodes before that one, FG officially jumped the shark with it's "FOXy Lady" episode when Lois joined Fox News. That was a great opportunity for some scathing in-house satire, but they squandered it and wrote a lame, third grade-level skit that totally missed the mark.

Seth McFartknocker has 3 shows on TV now. FG is a dead mackeral, and The Cleveland Show is wobbly. American Dad seems to be the least affected by Seth Fatigue.

Really? What about Road to Germany, Road to the Multiverse, the one where Brian and Stewie were locked in the bank vault, and Quagmire's Dad? I liked these episodes. Probably because its mostly Brian and Stewie-centric episodes. I still think they should have given Brian and Stewie their own adventure show instead of Cleveland.

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

Road to Germany happened before FOXy Lady and 420, so it's covered in my grace period. I don't remember much about Road to the Multiverse. I didn't think the bank vault episode was that funny, and it was typical of how the writers have stretched the characters beyond usefulness. The tone of the show is more random now -- the storytelling always was random, but it used to lead to a decent payoff. Like SNL, they don't care as much about the payoff anymore. The haunted mansion ep stunk in this way -- a whole hour of plot plot plot, and the ending wasn't even funny.

 

[CaptainWacky]

The last time I watched Family Guy was the Empire Strikes Back special and it was the worst thing in the entire world.

 

[Donovan]

The last time I watched Family Guy was the Empire Strikes Back special and it was the worst thing in the entire world.

Robot Chicken's Star Wars stuff beat holy hell out of Family guy.

My problem with that show is that they take funny situations and stretch the joke out about five minutes too long. Like when he fights the chicken: good for a running gag, funny for about thirty seconds, but they use it as filler so it goes about five minutes. Or when Peter acts like an idiot or baby or retarded person: funny for about five minutes, they've been stretching it for what, six seasons now?

 

[Loktar]

Robot Chicken's Star Wars stuff beat holy hell out of Family guy.

My problem with that show is that they take funny situations and stretch the joke out about five minutes too long. Like when he fights the chicken: good for a running gag, funny for about thirty seconds, but they use it as filler so it goes about five minutes. Or when Peter acts like an idiot or baby or retarded person: funny for about five minutes, they've been stretching it for what, six seasons now?

Don't forget the stupid gag where Peter falls down and hurts his knee and goes "Ahhh,ssssss, Ahhh..." for about 5 minutes. Glad they haven't used that in awhile.

 

[Donovan]

Funny I used that exact reference with my boy explaining why FG wasn't funny. It's cute to drag something out just a little bit longer than normal, because there's comedy in discomfort. But you have to know where that line between funny and stupid is...and they don't.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I saw the NASCAR episode today. It was okay, I guess.

The video with Cartman complaining about Obama was parodying this.

[YOUTUBE]ZlNQ5gZVytk[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

Memo to Hollywood: When parodying a viral video, make sure that it's actually gone viral first.

 

[Henoch]

Recent episodes, "Medicinal Fried Chicken" & "You Have 0 Friends" from season 14 were pretty funny. SP has always been hit & miss with me, never liked the over the top episodes with Satan & Saddam all that much & hate all the episodes focusing on Towelie...stupidest character ever IMO!!

I'm hoping the new episode "It's A Jersey Thing" will be good. I will watch that tomorrow.

 

[Loktar]

Towelie...stupidest character ever IMO!!

I like Towelie.

Jackovasaurs on the other hand.....

http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/characters/jackovasaurs

 

[Cassie]

It's a Jersey Thing was pretty good. At least I understood what they were making fun of!

 

[Henoch]

It's a Jersey Thing was pretty good. At least I understood what they were making fun of!

Anything that mocks the Jersey Shore has to be good.