It's amazing what you can do with two guys and a ton of construction paper (South Park)

Member Name: hewhoisme

Product:	South Park
Date:	09/06/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hilarious characters and a no holds barred approach to comedy,

Disadvantages: It can be very offensive

South Park was one of those shows everyone used to watch in primary school, not because we liked it but because it was full of swearing and therefore cool. It wasn't until several years later that I started to fully understand the show, and completely fell in love with it.

South Park is an animated TV show created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, that takes place in a small back water Colorado town called South Park. The cartoon focuses on the lives of four forth graders, who seem to get themselves inexplicably involved in a series of bizarre occurrences, either social, political or supernatural, and are forced to reluctantly save the day, often at their own expense. Like the Simpsons South Park has a vast array of colourful characters, ranging from the overweight xenophobic sadist Eric Cartman, to the sexually confused Mr/Mrs Garrison, often with several famous personalities such as Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson being drawn into the firing line. Matt and Trey delight in taking everyday occurrences and pulling them through the comedic wringer, creating highly overblown parodies that are often a very accurate reflection of societies own behaviour.

In the world of South Park nothing is sacred. Indiana Jones 4, Cloverfield, Scientology, euthanasia, even Jesus: they all get it. Stone and Parker truly have no fear, or any censorship, and take great joy laughing in the face of political correctness. Although SP can be incredibly offensive each episode usually has a very important moral message, often poking fun at humanities over reactions to the smallest of incidents. It is this fact that makes South Park so controversial, as they tread in water shows like the Simpsons and Family Guy would never even dream of approaching.

Although the humour can sometimes be a bit infantile it is on average very intelligent, and some of the running jokes (such as Eric's constant taunts about Kyle's Jewish heritage, or Kenny's terminal bad luck) never get old. Despite the fact the series has been running for 13 seasons the material is never stale, always focusing on new topics and escalating to greater heights, something that other animated comedies have failed to do. Admittedly South Park doesn't appeal to everyone, as it is not the subtlest of shows, and it is unavoidable that some people will be genuinely offended by it. To be honest I don't blame them, as there have been a few moments when even I wondered if they'd crossed the line, but I personally find Stone and Parkers uncompromising attitude towards comedy incredibly endearing. As long as they keep producing new episodes, I'll keep on watching. Just don't lose that spark lads.

Summary: One part social commentary, one part foul-mouthed mayhem.