Come on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine...

I just went through my old blog and the only thing I found disturbing about it was how serious things had gotten. There was stuff about hate speech, hunting, religion, politics, homophobia and even ghosts, but the overlying tone was too sober to reflect the kind of person I often am. It’s no wonder I lost interest in it after a while. I do have my serious moments but for the most part, I can be a pretty ‘fun’ person, despite what you might’ve heard. So instead of contemplating philosophy or discussing politics, here I am with a tribute. And it is for what I see as one of the great shows of our generation...South Park!

Crude, vulgar and featuring eight year old protagonists, South Park isn’t a show that would give you an indication of what it’s really like unless you watch a few episodes. In fact, many people I know were either under the impression that it was a show for kids or dismissed it as twenty minute compilations of toilet humour. This just isn’t true.

Behind all that swearing and low brow humour is an intelligence that defies normal television shows and a political edge that is likely to remain unmatched anywhere. All that controversy about the pot-shots they take at celebrities, politicians, activists and religious leaders didn’t spark from just-for-laughs gags (though we get plenty of those too), it sparked from people realising the pot-shots had legitimate views behind them.

Ater all, the central theme of the show has always been the rarity of common sense. The adults of the town constantly lose control of their lives as they go overboard with the latest trends and at the heart of these events are the boys who relentlessly try to make them see the logical side of things.

I've always had a special liking for South Park, not just because I swear as regularly as Cartman, but also because I can sympathize with the predicament of the boys. The burden of being the only logic-valuing person in a group of superstitious, emotional and (sometimes) very intolerant people is a weight well known to me, and watching the boys get the message across to a town full of idiots gives me a certain satisfaction.

But if it was all messages and no jokes, the show would have never worked. The misadventures of Stan (the main hero of the show), Kyle (the second hero of the show), Kenny (who used to die in almost every episode only to return the next week) and Cartman (evil genius, racist, sexist, narrow minded, cruel, selfish, one of the greatest animated characters of all time) are just as hilarious as they are provocative. Crude and cheap humour it may be, but it’s more effective than almost anything else on television and has more memorable episodes than most shows have episodes in total.

People who dismiss it without having seen more than a single episode aren’t being fair to the show or to themselves. You can ignore the show if you want to, but the loss would primarily be yours. I know many people who once thought the same way, who are big fans of the show now. If you’re looking for a crude show with jokes about farting, swearing and disgusting behaviour in general, this show is for you. If you’re looking for an intelligent show that addresses social issues and does so with a masterfully satirical knife, this show is for you too.

I wouldn’t go far enough to say that the show has often been my moral guide or that it’s the funniest thing television has ever produced. But I’m certainly tempted to.