South Park Appreciation

[grand theft sparrow]

When you say it like that, it's not funny.

[squints]

from Southparkstudios:

"Cartman and Kyle are at war over the popular cartoon, 'Family Guy.' Kyle loves 'Family Guy' and hates Cartman. The two boys embark upon a mad chase across the country and the fate of 'Family Guy' lies with the first boy to reach Hollywood."

--------------------------------------------

This sounds interesting. Cartman would probably kill Stewie and feed him to his family.

[RegularKarate]

SIMPSONS DID IT!

[grand theft sparrow]

South Park isn't much better than family guy these days

Good episode.  They nailed Family Guy's entire shtick in 30 seconds, touched on the ridiculousness of starting a holy war over a cartoon, and called Comedy Central out for pulling the Scientology episode.   Is this the final season?

[squints]

Comedy Central orders more 'South Park'

Comedy Central has inked a deal with the creators of "South Park" to bring the long-running animated series back for three more seasons, the network announced Thursday. Executive producers Matt Stone and Trey Parker will write, direct, and edit 42 more episodes of "South Park." Currently in its ninth season, "Park" will stay put through 2008. "I was at Comedy Central when we launched the first season of 'South Park' and I am thrilled to see them continue through 2008," says Herzog. "Matt and Trey are creative geniuses and a huge part of the Comedy Central family and we look forward to continued success." A new season of "South Park" begins Oct. 19. The series started in 1997.

nope

[grand theft sparrow]

That was BEFORE the Scientology episode.

[grand theft sparrow]

Garam, why do you even watch the show anymore?

[Ravi]

I hate to sound like a negative Nancy all the time, but that really was a chore to sit through. The Family Guy parody was accurate and funny, and the Muslim guy saying 'Seriously, Family Guy isn't all that good' was funny also, but it would've made more of an impact if South Park hadn't become equally predictable and tired. Matt and Trey are too smug and self-referential these days. South Park spends 22 minutes (44 minutes if this indeed a double episode) to make a satirical point that the Simpsons would've made in 30 seconds in its prime.

The Family Guy parody was spot-on, the heads-in-the-sand-thing and the overwrought HW film score were funny.  The episode didn't gel as a whole though.  Its as if they had two different things they wanted to parody and put them in the same episode and they didn't quite go together.  But South Park has enough quality under its belt from past seasons that they're allowed to make fun of Family Guy.

The FG parody was so close to the truth that it can hardly be called a parody.

They also mocked themselves with Cartman's lines about making fun of a religion.

[©brad]

i really want to see this damn FG parody but i never am able to catch a SP episode.

[Ravi]

Cartoon Wars torrent

[squints]

Little Danny Pocket

[ono]

(but I did laugh the first time I saw the chicken bit on Family Guy.)

That's because the chicken bit WAS funny the first time.  Family Guy has its moments, but gets stupider with each passing day.  The older episodes have the best moments, and everything else is a rehash of stuff it's already done, or stuff other shows have done.  First time around, the joke made sense in context of what was happening (which everyone knows is a rarity for Family Guy).  It made it a seminal moment for the show, and that's why MacFarlane (who's proving himself to be more and more of a dumbass) saw fit to ape it when the show was revived.  The second time around, the chicken bit was stupid because there was no reason for it -- the chicken just popped up out of nowhere.

Anyway, still waiting for the second part to download.  I gave up on South Park a second time a year or so ago, but we'll see if this apparent resurgence in quality makes it worth it again.  Doubtful.

[squints]

(but I did laugh the first time I saw the chicken bit on Family Guy.)

First time around, the joke made sense in context of what was happening (which everyone knows is a rarity for Family Guy).

Peter doesn't take a coupon from a guy in a chicken suit and says "Not after last time" cut to the extensive chicken fight. How the hell does that make sense in the context of what was happening (the end of the world because of the year 2000)? It was just another one of those weird family guy moments and lately those moments have been getting weirder and weirder (and not funny most of the time).

Anyway, still waiting for the second part to download.  I gave up on South Park a second time a couple years ago, but we'll see if this apparent resurgence in quality makes it worth it again.  Doubtful.

I don't understand this "resurgence in quality". I think the show has been consistantly funny for the past few seasons, hell, for the entire series (and i've been an avid fan since day 1). The Scientology episode wasn't the funniest of last season and the new season doesn't even compare to season 8 (Paris Hilton, the anime episode, michael jackson episode, "they took are jobs" episode, jimmy on steroids, cartman stealing an idea from the farrelly brothers, the boys robo-tripping, and the Woodland Critter Christmas). With the new season i think they've said what they needed and wanted to say about Issac Hayes leaving and the whole Scientology/tom crusie debacle, so hopefully they'll move on. Probably.

[ono]

(which is ironic, as dogs don't have souls.)

Debatable.

squints, complete sentences: they're your friends.  Otherwise, your argument makes no sense.  So until that, I stand by what I said about Family Guy (re: the chicken).  I was a fan of the show ever since it got kicked around in '99.  It seems as if I was the only one who knew how great it was (and it was great at first), one of the first to have the DVD, etc.  So the quality decline is disappointing.  I look to Futurama for consistency, and await new eps, if it ever happens, though that's beside the point.  Point is, what I said remains about the randomness working for Family Guy when there was some point to it.  But what caused it to stop working was the writers being aware of it, and only basing their humor on other episodes of the show instead of what is funny in the world.  That's why the second go-'round for the chicken didn't work and the first was brilliant.  It was one of those surreal, exaggerated moments cartoons are known for using in moderation to great effect -- Critic's done it, too.  I'm no expert on the Simpsons, so I'm unaware if they have, but it's a valid technique as long as that moderation is observed.

http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=2440.msg131529#msg131529  <-- That's when South Park started to suck for a second time.  It's sucked since then except for a few good episodes here and there.  But really, nothing can touch the first four or five seasons anyway.  Anything else after that is pretty much extraneous.

[squints]

I'll agree that The Passion episode was one of the worst. It was one of those instances where they tried to mock something that was happening probably as they were writing the show and it didn't work out for them. I think there would've been a lot more clever of a way to take jabs at Gibson instead of making him smear poop on everything. But that was the SINGULAR episode of season 8 that was not that funny. Every single other episode from that season was gut-bustingly hilarious. So your argument that it went downhill around then is bullshit. at least, IMO