(You should change your title to be the question)

I personally love it. It's not the cleanest of humor, but it's just a pure satire of our society, and I love it. The show has changed as it's aged, it goes up and down, but I love how they're not afraid to call out bullshit we put up with. Season... 22 how every scene starting on the school had gunshots and children screaming? Hilarious to me, because it's so ridiculous how we just put up with school shootings. It's outrageous, and it's meant to offend, and idk I just appreciate it.

When everyone else is trying to appease corporate committees and shareholders, Southpark just says fuck it and writes what they want.

The "both sides are cartoonish idiots" take got a bit old once I was no longer an edgy middle schooler

Started strong, ending weak, like most things that stay on the air far beyond their Best By date.

Matt and Trey got old and turned into the same kind of curmudgeons they used to mock.

It happens to everyone, especially when they've had fame and money and stop being the punk rock weirdos in the biz. They aren't the young upstarts pointing out the absurdity of the business anymore, they're the financial lynchpin of Comedy Central. They're as important to revenue as shit like the Daily Show. Whether they want to admit it to themselves or not, they've grown to become what they hated. As artists working for a big corporation, they represent The Industry.

They don't think of themselves at the rich corporate tools, but they are whether they think they are or not. The run-ins they've had with the staff at Casa Bonita speak to it as well. They're not actually listening to their workers. Further, no word on whether the people at Casa Bonita are allowed to unionize. Wouldn't be surprised if Matt and Trey are outright against unionization. "Why would you want to unionize when we're offering $30 an hour?" Because at some point you can just change your mind about it, like you've already changed your mind on your employees once already.

South Park's real crime was to think they were being subversive and not understanding that Capital doesn't give a fuck about morals or ethics or who gets made fun of, they only give a fuck about money. If being subversive and making fun of everyone makes money then they'll back it to hell and back, social consequences be damned. They don't care if your dumb show makes people think dumb shit, and you don't get to absolve yourself for it by saying shit like "we think people shouldn't get their politics from our cartoons." Sorry, they do get their politics from your cartoon, dumbfucks. You don't absolve yourself of it by handwaving it away like the people are the problem and not the product you're creating.

They don't get to hide from the endless stream of copycat "adult" cartoons that all try to out-offend each other. They're all trash and none of them have ever equaled what South Park originally brought to the table.

EDIT: Also, they went from being the guys who put all the episodes of their show online, for free, on southpark dot com to the guys who made a deal with Paramount to lock everything behind a paywall. If you want to bitch about how the corporate suits are making PIRACY WORSE because they fail to see that access to their content is a SERVICE PROBLEM, then maybe you need to accept that Matt and Trey are some of those corporate suits.

https://www.wired.com/2008/03/south-park-to-o/

In an appropriately glib statement, Parker and Stone said they were inspired to start the site when they got "really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time. So we gave ourselves a legal alternative."

Interesting how times change and now they're simply money grubbing assholes that don't care about locking content behind paywalls? Fuck em. They're fucking corporate suits like anyone else now. Matt and Trey together have a wealth of over a billion dollars combined, but they don't have enough money to put the episodes online for free anymore apparently... Suits.

The first seasons were great, good to re-watch. But it's like they kind of gave up since season 10 or so. The characters, topics and the humor are all different now.

I used to like it a lot... As a kid... As I've grown it seems more focused on being incredibly in the middle than ever actually making any sort of point...

Matt Stone and Trey Parker are just so incredibly "Enlightened Centrist* that it can be painful at times.

They have some good bits and some of their jokes have rightfully stood the test of time... But God damn... If you're going to make a political show... Do something other than the most fence sitting thing possible!

I like it a lot. I thought the anti-vax episode was fuckin hilarious.

Also, "you got cocaine legalized?!" "I told you, it's 2019, dawg."

I've been watching it the day it came out in 1997 and while it had it's ups and downs, the show still mostly holds up today. And even the brand new stuff still sometimes makes you go “They really put that in there??” which I think just shows how brilliant the show is.

South Park is brilliant and was ahead of its time when it first came around.

South Park is great. Most people I've ever talked to that hate it are conservative.

I thought it was silly stupid fun when i was a teen

In my 20s i thought it was genius

In my 30s I think its "both sides are stupid" approach to everything is annoying and an immature stance in a world where one side is shit and one side is super mega ultra shit.

remind me in 7 years to tell you about totally different way i feel about it in my 40s.

Yup. Although I have no clue what it’s release schedule is these days.

Eh, it's ok. I think I kinda got burnt out on South Park in college.

Love it. One example that springs to mind is calling out the NCAA.

"'Student Ath-uh-letes'? Haha, that is brilliant, sir."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61TMtH3Qw4s

I hardly watch TV. I've seen some episodes over the years, and it's not for me. I don't hate it, but it just feels like someone trying to be edgy. It might be that I'm from Europe, so I can't really relate to a lot of stuff going on.

i definitely watched it when i was a youngun, but i'm always surprised to hear it's still running tbh

In general, yes. I've kept up since it first started airing, and it has its highs and lows, with some seasons better than others. But overall I like it.

Generally, I find that the best seasons were 5ish to 15ish. Before that it was a bit too simplistic and crude, and the joke about Kenny dying got old. After that there was a bit too much focus on politics. Sure, it always has to some degree, but I didn't find the Tegrity Farms , PC Principal/babies, and President Garrison storylines that good.

One exception dto the above is that episode (I don't remember when, or what the name was), where everyone started treating The Economy like some diety that they shouldn't anger. It was a response to the 2008/2009 economic issues, so I guess it must've aired shortly after that. I just find the entire arc of that episode hilarious, from the economic forecasts and monetary values being dictated by a weird ritual involving a headless chicken, and to Kyle sacrificing himself by taking on all people's debts.

Honorable mentions of episodes I really like: Casa Bonita, Awesome-O, Cartman dies, Good times with Weapons, The Coon (and the related episodes). And of course, the Game of Thrones parody. And I absolutely love the plot/naming twist of "The Big Fix". And what was the name of that episode that is partially depicted in the style of a Blair Witch found footage, where Craig really doesn't want to be part of the story/plot, but ends up as one anyway.

The early seasons were best. I think because it had more focus on the kids, and they did kid stuff while the ridiculous shit went down around them.

Matt and trey are ridiculously out of touch these days. Rich, a part of the system, can't write, and are coasting on their earlier successes. They have peaked.

What a couple of losers.

Yes