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.

There are so many incredible episodes of South Park that I can’t even keep count. Here are the top 5 that really stand out in my mind. Enjoy!

1. Rainforest Schmainforest
The boys accompany a teacher (voiced by Jennifer Aniston) and her song and dance group to Central America to raise rainforest awareness. Also of note in this episode is that Kenny falls for a girl in the choir and Kyle has trouble mastering the dance steps.

2. Gnomes (a.k.a. Underpants Gnomes)
In this episode, the boys meet Tweek, a loveable kid addicted to java, and a group of gnomes who have an obsession for underpants. Also, real world economic issues… but don’t get worked up, you’re not going to learn anything!

3. Asspen
The boy’s parents are parented with a free skiing vacation to Aspen, but as always, there is a gotcha: they must attend a one hour long presentation on time-shares. In the meantime, on the ski runs, Stan has an encounter with a local and is goaded into a race down a treacherous ski slope.

4. The Jeffersons
An eccentric and wealthy African American man and his son get lots of attention. The kids of South Park are enchanted by “Mr. Jefferson,” his son and their house full of puzzles, games, toys, and creatures. Cartman will stop at nothing to get “Mr. Jefferson” to love him, while the South Park police department resents him for being African American and wealthy. So they decide to take him down.

5. Gingers
Cartman convinces all the other children that people who have red hair and freckles are wicked. But then, ironically, his hair turns red and he starts developing freckles!

South Park mostly follows the exploits of four elementary school kids – Cartman (who’s overweight and sarcastic), Kyle (who dreams of eliminating his little brother Ike), Stan (who throws up at the sight of a girl he likes), and Kenny (who manages to get killed in every episode). All four attend South Park Elementary School where third grade teacher Mr. Garrison educates them with the use of a hand-puppet named “Mr. Hat” and cafeteria employee “Chef” McElroy (Isaac Hayes) dispenses his advice while periodically breaking into 70’s love songs about making love to women. South Park is the setting for numerous oddities such as alien visitors, a monster with a hand of celery and the leg of Patrick Duffy, and Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride. South Park also hosts a number famous people from time to time, such as the Devil, Saddam Hussein, the Antichrist, Kathy Lee Gifford, Scott Baio, Tina Yothers, Elton John, and Jesus Christ – who has his own cable access show…

The South Park DVD (Season 1) features a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe” in which Kyle tries to rid himself of his baby brother Ike by playing a game of “kick the baby” at the bus stop. Meanwhile, Cartman reveals to his friends that he had a nightmare in which he was abducted by aliens, leading Stan, Kyle, and Chef to the conclusion that aliens inserted an anal probe in Cartman. As cows are mutilated in South Park, Cartman continues to live in denial of the alien machine residing in his anus… Other notable episodes from Season 1 include “An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig” in which Kyle’s science project to cross-breed an elephant with a pig is made possible when Chef and Elton John create the necessary atmosphere for proper loving-making, and “Pink Eye” in which Kenny dies early in the episode but is turned into a zombie by accident…

Below is a list of episodes included on the South Park DVD (Season 1):

Episode 1 (Cartman Gets an Anal Probe) Air Date: 08-13-1997
Episode 2 (Volcano) Air Date: 08-20-1997
Episode 3 (Weight Gain 4000) Air Date: 08-27-1997
Episode 4 (Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride) Air Date: 09-03-1997
Episode 5 (An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig) Air Date: 09-10-1997
Episode 6 (Death) Air Date: 09-17-1997
Episode 7 (Pink Eye) Air Date: 10-29-1997
Episode 8 (Starvin’ Marvin) Air Date: 11-19-1997
Episode 9 (Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo) Air Date: 12-17-1997
Episode 10 (Damien) Air Date: 02-04-1998
Episode 11 (Tom’s Rhinoplasty) Air Date: 02-11-1998
Episode 12 (Mecha-Streisand) Air Date: 02-18-1998
Episode 13 (Cartman’s Mom is a Dirty Slut) Air Date: 02-25-1998

The Dead Celebrities episode gets started with little Ike being haunted, seeing ghosts of dead celebrities, mainly Billy Mays who is constantly pitching him products in that loud television voice. During the course of Ike freaking out, he runs down the hallway and opens doors to see more of the deceased, including Farrah Fawcett and David Carradine who still has a rope around his neck. Ike is really scared and his family are all concerned, taking him to see a psychiatrist.

Kyle is very concerned and tells his friends, strangely Cartman seems to care deeply, we find out he is a big fan of Billy Mays and uses a product he endorsed. That sets up a fantastic running joke that runs throughout the episode. The boys call in the team from “THe Ghosthunters” television show and they turn out to be scared of their own shadows and see ghosts in everyone and everything. That leads to Ike being admitted to the hospital where a doctor who specializes in the paranormal explains to the boys that the celebrities may be in purgatory and unable to cross over. Cartman is scared that Billy Mays may not be able to rest.

The doctor reaches out to the spirits and a bunch of dead celebrity voices are heard before Ike becomes possessed with the ghost of Michael Jackson who believes he is a little girl. Meanwhile on a spirit plane, the ghosts of the celebrities are anxiously waiting to cross over and we see that DJ AM and many others are there. The stewards are continually giving them excuses as to why the flight is being delayed and now they have to wait for Michael Jackson.

The boys realize that Jackson is looking for recognition of what he really is so they enter Ike into one of those beauty pageants for little girls and after he wins, Michael Jackson returns to the plane and all the celebrities are able to cross over to their final destination which turns out to be hell. This was a funny and clever episode and you can see a clip of it below.

]]> http://omgtheykilledkenny.com/2009/11/south-park-returns-with-dead-celebrities/feed/ 0 http://omgtheykilledkenny.com/2009/11/south-park-butters-bottom-bitch/ http://omgtheykilledkenny.com/2009/11/south-park-butters-bottom-bitch/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:36:22 +0000 admin http://omgtheykilledkenny.com/?p=70 South Park returned for another new episode with season 13, episode 9 titled Butters Bottom Bitch and the show took on ACORN and turned perennial looser Butters into the big man on campus with hilarious results. It starts off with all the boys hassling poor young Butters Stotch in the school yard because he has

Continue reading South Park: Butters Bottom Bitch

The boys setup a backyard ring at one of their houses and have a script they wrote which like professional wrestling, has very little to do with moves and a whole lot to do with drama. They each have their stage names and begin to work out scenarios in the ring involving infidelity, murder, an 8 year old Vietnam vet and Cartman dressed as a girl and relating a tale of being addicted to abortions. The towns people start to gather around and are stunned at the revelations, becoming hooked on the supposed real life drama going on with these kids. Word of mouth starts attracting more and more fans. There are folding chairs scattered around the ring and they are quickly filling up as the afternoon show wears on.

At a local bar, some of the fans of W.T.F. are having a beer and talking about all the hardships those poor kids have gone through. AT another table, the school wrestling coach is listening and getting angrier as the talk goes on. He finally gets up and starts yelling at them that it is all fake before taking out his IPhone to show them video of real wrestling. They, in turn, tell him to get out of the bar with his gay porn.

The boys wrestling shows are getting more popular and one of them comments back stage that its a good thing they added more seats. We then get a look at the stage and they have built an entire Colosseum in the back yard with thousand of seats and a big Roman stage background. They get a letter from the WWE saying Vince McMahon would be coming to scout them. This is more than the coach can handle and as the President of the WWE shows up and settles into his luxury box in the kids backyard, the coach who has just lost his job at the school fires a rocket at the stage. There is a misfire, so only Kenny dies.

The coach then takes to the stage to give a monologue about losing his job and the entire crowd gets in his corner before Vince McMahon comes down and offers him a job. The boys are left jobless in the ring and start fighting with each other over who’s to blame. The crowd gets bored with the fighting and says its not real wrestling as they start to walk out. Another great episode from the South Park people.

While it is inevitable that Family Guy is a very popular show, it still remains tasteless, unfunny, and unoriginal. You can compare and contrast each main character of Family Guy and you still come up with the same conclusion – They are the exact same prototypical family as The Simpsons’ main characters. The smart, sex-appealing mother in Marge Simpson and Lois Griffin, the fat, stupid drunkard in Homer and Peter Griffin, and the smart, gawky, dweeb of a daughter in Lisa SImpson and Meg Griffin. Not only that, but Brian Griffin, the dog of Family Guy, looks almost identical to Snoopy of the Peanuts. You can’t also help but wonder if Stewie Griffin, one of the most popular characters of F.G., is a direct rip-off of The Brain from Warner Brother’s 90’s cartoon, Pinky and the Brain.

As for the jokes and gags of the show, it is clear that the writers recycle every single joke that they have already used. Every joke is either a sexual innuendo, a flashback to something irrelevant to the plot, or a joke that goes on for a long period of time, which is supposed to make it funny. I once watched a F.G. episode in which Lois comes home to find baby Stewie on the roof. As she goes into the house to chastise Peter for letting such an event happen, Peter, trying to distract Lois, introduces a clip of Conway Twitty, saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Conway Twitty.” I smirked at first at the randomness, but the clip was just too much. The Conway Twitty gag went on for about 4 minutes of him just singing. The tastelessness of the joke left me wondering; are the writers of Family Guy seriously this lazy, or do they just not care? So what makes the vulgar, offensive 9 year olds from the small town of South Park such a show? I’ll tell you. Each episode has a meaning. That’s right. Aside from the vomiting, farting, dying, and bloody explosions, Each episode of South Park usually has a metaphorical interpretation installed. Whether its religion, abortion, global warming or politics, South Park provides something Family Guy never does and never will. 

One of the most brilliant South Park episodes of all time came in season 13 episode 3 entitled “Margaritaville.”  See a clip below. The episode parallels the story of Jesus’ death to the current state of the economy. As the economy begins to become worse, Randy Marsh (Stan’s dad) starts to preach untrue sayings about the economy, saying that spending less and being afraid of the economy is going to help the situation. When Kyle begins to get irked by his teachings, Kyle stars to preach that the economy is not evil or mean, and that everyone should just keep spending. Many people start to condemn those who spend excessively. While one man is publicly being stoned for buying little, unimportant items, Kyle preaches “let one who hasn’t bought a stupid thing throw the first stone.” Kyle proceeds to preach about the economy while Eric Cartman (Judas) turns him in to Randy Marsh (Pontious Pilate) for speaking blasphemy about the economy. During the end of the episode, Kyle and twelve of his followers are eating at a Pizza Restaurant. During the supper, Kyle explains that he has a “funny feeling that someone will betray him.” Eric Cartman then stands up and says that no one would betray him, saying that “whoever betrays him is an asshole.” This episode shows the true greatness of satirical comedy, displaying wittiness and jocularity at the highest degree.