The South Park Premiere and the Many Reasons Why I Continue to Watch

For many of you reading this you have probably watched (or are currently watching) the latest South Park episode. I personally have been a major fan since about the 8th season. Which isn't really saying much about the rest of the shows rather grand Peabody Award winning history. To be quite honest I thought the show was originally far too low brow. In fact the show really didn't begin to take a polical or pop culture satirical slant until about the 5th or 6th season. Thats when episodes such as "Proper Condom Use" and "The Biggest Dousche in the Universe" aired. The latter of which satirized, spoofed, and mocked 'psychic' John Edward. In fact the earliest instance that I can seem to find of South Park doing any sort of is the episode "Chinpokomon" from season 3 (and if you can't figure out what that's making fun of I pity you). Ever since the episode "Trapped in the Closet", that debunks the quackery that is Scientology and the triple play in terms of making fun of Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and R. Kelly, the pressure has been on Matt Stone and Trey Parker to continue to keep the show fresh and funny. Ever since they have not disappointed. That being said the premiere of South Park today was hilarious.

Now there are a couple of very good reasons why it was really awesome. The first being that no cartoon or show has yet spoofed or satirized World of Warcraft. As much as many of you would love to say "But its just a videogame!" well yeah sure it is, but its a videogame that more people play at this time than have ever played any game simultaneously before. I mean hell, Blizzard should give some tips to the tobacco industry. There product is cool, available and addictive. It almost sells itself. Not only that but I love how the animators are willing to use different mediums for their show. Originally it was just the construction paper characters that we all know and love. Then the use of computers streamlined the process, and finally we now have the use of a completely different animation medium to tell the story. The second reason that this show is awesome stems from the first. The issue regarding the animation brings up the adaptability of the show. With changing times some shows have trouble keeping up or are outdated fairly quickly. Like the Simpsons as an example. South Park though keeps its humor as fresh as the times that its making fun of and searches the headliners of our culture for their cannon fodder.

For those of you that have yet to watch an episode of the show I suggest that you watch "Trapped in the Closet" first. Not because I think that the horrors of Scientology need to be exposed (I'm pretty sure the show did that already). However, it is a good episode to ease even the most skeptical person into the show's nuances without going too over the top.