South Park – A Short Review

South Park is a humorous cartoon about the adventures of four boys in a small red neck mountain town in the Colorado Mountains. As such the town seems to be in perpetual winter. The main characters are Kyle (the Jewish Boy), Stan Marsh (Kyle’s best friend), Kenny McCormack (the accident prone one) and Eric Cartman (the fat obnoxious one). Most South Park stories revolve around them although their are plenty of other characters – Butters, Chef, Mr Garrison, Principal Victoria, the kids parents and many more.

The show is based on what is called toilet humor – low, base, but extremely funny. It shouldn’t be taken too seriously. The show has “attacked” just about every topic with its irreverent humor. Most religions, heaven, hell, God, Satan, homosexuality, abortion, politicians, global warming, stem cell research, sport stars, paris hilton, Saddam Hussein, missing children, child molesting, gun control you named it the more offensive the better. To write off South Park as just offensive and not a social commentary is a failure to see the real message behind much of the shows.

The various messages are often conflicting but one of the common themes is life sucks but its the only life you’ve got so get on enjoying it no matter what comes.

The creators Matt and Trey have made a fortune from the show, movies and licensing rights. Yet despite the numerous changes being suddenly rich and famous the show continues on challenging the establishment, challenging the anti-establishment and just generally trying to offender everyone and anything.