South Park Appreciation

[diggler]

i feel like i need to see it again because i spent the entire time looking in the background to see who i could recognize. 

[bonanzataz]

i thought this episode was really bad other than the scenes with bay and shyamalan. most of the jokes in the episode were references to pop culture, a writing style which they spent a two-part episode blasting last season.

i think they're overreaching here, it's just not funny. i hate when the show becomes more about the premise than its characters, b/c that's when the show is strongest. not when they create fancy new backgrounds and animate the most ridiculous things they can. when it gets too crazy, the show suffers. why do you think big budget comedies like evan almighty bomb? they're spending all their time on special effects and wacky scenarios and they forget to be funny. i was looking forward to new episodes, instead i get three weeks of this shit (but maybe they'll prove me wrong. they have in the past).

[pumba]

Bonza i almost feel the complete opposite...

Besides Lost's season finale i thought these 3 episodes were by far the best of television in 2007... (episodes 2 and 3 especially)
I just found it so clever, so epic and so fuckin hilarious. I felt like this was the unofficial sequel to the movie. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and i thought it was a nice change of pace from the "normal" episode arcs.

[matt35mm]

I thought it was mediocre.  I was intrigued by the trilogy idea, and indeed there were a lot of good ideas throughout the whole story, but too much of it felt like they were just throwing in whatever.  They have to make each episode so quickly, and I have the feeling that dedicating 3 episodes to one story effectively gave them less time per episode for story construction.  It seems like they had to pretty much come up with the entire story in one week and then spend the next three weeks animating it.

But whether or not any of that is true, I just didn't think it was as funny as I'd hoped.  It felt a bit sloppy and random.  I liked the first episode of this trilogy, but was unimpressed by the second and third.  So I guess I liked the idea of it more than where they ended up going with it.

I find that I tend to like their less outlandish episodes better... the ones based around either Cartman or the adults as a mob taking an idea way too far.  When Bono and Imaginationland come into the mix... well, I guess I agree with Taz that the show is better when based on character than on clever premises.

I still love the show though, because these are just problems that are impossible to avoid when you have a week to create an episode, and I can understand that.  If anything, I respect the show even more for taking these bizarre risks that sometimes just don't pay off.  As long as they keep trying stuff, I'll be watching.

[Gold Trumpet]

Anyone watch Woodland Critter Christmas? It may have been the most fucked up episode ever. Which means it was really funny.

[squints]

their inspiration for the blood orgy came from Event horizon. Hail satan!

[squints]

There was a There Will Be Blood reference in last night's episode.

[Pwaybloe]

You won't believe what happened to my car yesterday.  You just won't believe it.  I mean... wow. 

[MacGuffin]

Kanye says 'South Park' put him in check

NEW YORK – "South Park" may have accomplished the impossible — getting Kanye West to check his ego.

The Comedy Central show skewered the famously self-important rapper on its show Wednesday night, painting him as a narcissistic figure so out of touch with reality he couldn't even take a (very politically incorrect) joke.

West's love of himself and his work has been almost as integral to his image as his music: Just last year, he told The Associated Press that he was the "voice of this generation." Also recently, he was quoted as saying his greatest regret was not being able to see himself perform live.

Yet, on his blog Thursday, West appeared chastened, and ready to turn over a new leaf.

In typical all-caps mode, he wrote: "SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER."

West said that he started stroking his ego long ago to build up his self esteem — but he now realizes he needs to "GET PAST MYSELF."

In the self-reflective post, he said that people won't take him seriously if he keeps it up (perhaps referring to his well-documented meltdowns at awards shows when he didn't win what he expected).

"I JUST WANT TO BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM," he said.

And perhaps to show that he's really serious about making that change, he provided a link to one of the most biting moments from the "South Park" show, and thanked the writers as well.

[New Feeling]

a classy guy

[Pwaybloe]

"I JUST WANT TO BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM," he said.

...and extremely intelligent as well.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

I knew it, Kanye West speaks in all caps.

[Gold Trumpet]

I have to admit it, but I can no longer watch South Park. It's just too stupid. Not only are the set ups to the jokes just blindly dumb and getting worse, but they look really bad because the end of show preaching is still there. I never liked the preaching, but I could ignore it before because the rest of the episode was funny. It's odd, but I now like Family Guy more when I hated it before. The show has no plot or points most of the time, but I ignore the dissolving of plot and really like some of the random allusions for their funniness or charm. You don't have to believe in the stories. You just have to find the characters entertaining. South Park wants you to believe in the story and meaning behind the satire and I just can't anymore. I know people who say Family Guy offends their sensibilities. South Park annoys mine these days and I'm probably beyond forgiveness.

[Reel]

There are two types of people in the world, those who like South park and those who like family guy. Now you can like them both, but at some point you have to make a choice, and that tells you who you are. South park has kept its original two writers the whole fourteen years its been on the air. I just think that says it all, the show is a well oiled machine, it pumps out the funny, its anti- establishment. It will probably go down as a touchstone in comedy cartoons after the simpsons before family guy ever will. My opinion of family guy ( like a lot of points of view actually ) is basically whats said in the first Cartoon wars episode. Its not even a well written show, the jokes are interchangable and irrelevant to the plot. You can go out there and be as edgy as you want, but you better come back to the story, and thats what South park has and always will do. I don't blame people for not liking South park or thinking its stupid, they're right! But that just tells me what kind of person you are, probably the less ballsy type that likes their entertainment spoon-fed to them

[children with angels]

that just tells me what kind of person you are, probably the less ballsy type that likes their entertainment spoon-fed to them

I'm not coming down on one side of this debate (I like both, or at least I liked early Family Guy - haven't seen any for ages), but I was just wondering: how is it more ballsy and less spoon-fed for a show to always have a strong, classical story structure? Surely the opposite would make more sense. It makes it more well-formed and rounded, yes, but more ballsy...? (Though South Park probably IS more ballsy for other - i.e.: political - reasons.)