Is South Park getting weird...er?

Groxnax

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South Park is in its 19th season and I am finding that it is getting weirder than ever.

I know that the show has never been anchored in reality and the characters have never been truly what you call "stable" but season 19 has gone a bit awkward in some places, such as P.C. Principal.

What are your thoughts on this season so far.

Do you hope for the death of P.C. Principal?

Or am I the only one that finds the guy truly unlikable.
 

Zontar

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Groxnax said:
What are your thoughts on this season so far.
I really like it. They're continuing last season's running gags and overall serialized story telling where people don't forget what happened with each new episode, and overall the show is as fresh as ever.
Do you hope for the death of P.C. Principal?

Or am I the only one that finds the guy truly unlikable.
That kind of seems to be the whole point. He's intentionally an unlikable douche whose eventually comupentce is going to be satisfying.

I also have to wonder what makes this season so weird. I mean just look at the episodes made before The Movie and recent seasons are downright grounded by comparison. Hell, even the 3 part season-finale arcs of recent years are more grounded then typical episodes from the early years.
 

Drathnoxis

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I don't know about weirder, but it's certainly gotten worse. I got fed up with the show around season 12. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but the show lost some of the charm it used to have and stopped being genuinely funny and started being just eye rollingly crude.

Maybe it's how they've flanderized the characters into being stupid beyond belief. Randy Marsh used to seem like a reasonable father, someone who wasn't the smartest person and tended to get caught up in things, but still someone who knew his parental responsibility and had some good wisdom to pass down to his son. Season 12 he's giving himself cancer to get medicinal marijuana... Yeah, that pretty much says it all. There is no one, No One who would give themselves a fatal disease to get pot, if they were that desperate they'd just buy it illegally. It's just dumb, and gives away how empty the idea barrel has become. That and that episode about shake weights, yeah that's the next big evil that needs to be lambasted by South Park! There were commercials for them for about 6 months and nobody's talked about them before or since. It's a dumb product, there have been thousands of dumb products, why single this one out?

Basically the show has become more about shock humour and bizarre social commentary on the latest fad, and less about actually being a good show.
 

Addendum_Forthcoming

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Honestly, South Park wasn't all that good. Its popularity was born from a lack of supply to meet the demand for irreverent humour that didn't aim very high. Plenty of shows out there that told far better social commentary stories in animation format. The Maxx for instance... What South Park is doing is done better by other shows now, and what South Park did back in its roots merely were popular because nobody was doing anything like it at that time.

People say the 90s sucked. But I'd maim someone for a new Aeon Flux cartoon. Maybe we're due for a return of the darkly comical animated tragedies of early 90s MTV.
 

Secondhand Revenant

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Drathnoxis said:
I don't know about weirder, but it's certainly gotten worse. I got fed up with the show around season 12. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but the show lost some of the charm it used to have and stopped being genuinely funny and started being just eye rollingly crude.

Maybe it's how they've flanderized the characters into being stupid beyond belief. Randy Marsh used to seem like a reasonable father, someone who wasn't the smartest person and tended to get caught up in things, but still someone who knew his parental responsibility and had some good wisdom to pass down to his son. Season 12 he's giving himself cancer to get medicinal marijuana... Yeah, that pretty much says it all. There is no one, No One who would give themselves a fatal disease to get pot, if they were that desperate they'd just buy it illegally. It's just dumb, and gives away how empty the idea barrel has become. That and that episode about shake weights, yeah that's the next big evil that needs to be lambasted by South Park! There were commercials for them for about 6 months and nobody's talked about them before or since. It's a dumb product, there have been thousands of dumb products, why single this one out?

Basically the show has become more about shock humour and bizarre social commentary on the latest fad, and less about actually being a good show.
I honestly thought some of the earlier stuff was more eyeroll in crude. Nothing against a bit of crudeness in and of itself but too much and it's not so funny.

Anyways I don't think the characters need to be likeable or realistic. Really that's not the point of the show. The show itself seems to be totally drenched in absurdity. There is definitely a level of preachiness in its social commentary bit they exaggerate it so much that regardless of whether you disagree or not you can still find humor in it. Or at least I can. Have not watched it lately due to dumping cable for not actually watching it enough but I do wish to catch up a bit.

Also as far as mocking irrelevant things, it doesn't need to be relevant to be funny. At least for some of us.

From what I hear a lot of people seem to be talking again because they like the target. Makes me roll my eyes but whatever. I'm sure people before disagreed with their target while I agreed. I don't take it too seriously it for laughs and absurdity and hyperbole
 

Zontar

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Drathnoxis said:
Season 12 he's giving himself cancer to get medicinal marijuana... Yeah, that pretty much says it all.
At first I thought to myself "wait, that didn't happen a whole 7 years ago", then I looked it up and it was in season 14, which was still 5 whole years ago.

I'll say his characterization has improved, he's about as smart as he used to be now but tries to act like he knows everything, so his comedy stems from things like thinking the Rape of Nanking was the Rape of Don King.

If you gave up on the series I'd say give either season 18 or 19 a chance since they've changed the formate to a more serialized style where jokes arc over the whole season and I have to say it feels as though the show has improved greatly as a result.
 

FalloutJack

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Well, I haven't been watching lately...but all I'd have to be doing is watching ever to know that there is weird is not something you can measure on a scale over there.
 

Casual Shinji

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I haven't really been watching it since, I don't know, season 13. Every once in a while I'll catch a current episode on TV and then change the channel after a minute or so. The humor has just gotten terribly obnoxious, where I imagine the writers are having more fun with it than I am. The last genuinely good episode I saw was the Facebook episode.
 

Saltyk

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I actually quite like it. I like that the more recent seasons have started being connected to each other and how things that happened in previous episodes affect the following ones. I like how they have acknowledged some of their own formulas and even had characters do that. ("Is he giving a speech right now? Seriously?")

As for PC Principal, that is the point. He's an unlikable hypocritical douche and a bigger bully than anyone that he pushes around. He constantly ignores the suffering of some people for the suffering of those he feels need to be protected. And he only ever looks at what someone says and not the intent of what they say. He's everything wrong with PC culture and exactly what people mean when they lament Social Justice Warriors.

Though, I do hope they replace him at some point.

The series is just as stupid and ridiculous as ever. It pulls no punches and takes no prisoners. And all while it makes social commentary on current events. That's what I've always enjoyed about the series. It's probably the only series I've seen go on this long and still maintain what I love about it while changing and evolving without losing it's identity.
 

TheRightToArmBears

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Cartman once fed someone their own parents. Chef got turned into a cyborg-pedophile.

I've seen the first three (four? I can't remember) episodes of this season, it's definitely better although I wouldn't say it's weirder. Making the continuity more solid means that weird shit tends to last much longer and keeps the show fresh (as someone living in a rapidly gentrifying city, I thought the gentrification episode was brilliant). I love South Park, but even I felt the show was starting to get a little stale in the last couple of seasons.
 

Nazulu

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Drathnoxis said:
I don't know about weirder, but it's certainly gotten worse. I got fed up with the show around season 12. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but the show lost some of the charm it used to have and stopped being genuinely funny and started being just eye rollingly crude.

Maybe it's how they've flanderized the characters into being stupid beyond belief. Randy Marsh used to seem like a reasonable father, someone who wasn't the smartest person and tended to get caught up in things, but still someone who knew his parental responsibility and had some good wisdom to pass down to his son. Season 12 he's giving himself cancer to get medicinal marijuana... Yeah, that pretty much says it all. There is no one, No One who would give themselves a fatal disease to get pot, if they were that desperate they'd just buy it illegally. It's just dumb, and gives away how empty the idea barrel has become. That and that episode about shake weights, yeah that's the next big evil that needs to be lambasted by South Park! There were commercials for them for about 6 months and nobody's talked about them before or since. It's a dumb product, there have been thousands of dumb products, why single this one out?

Basically the show has become more about shock humour and bizarre social commentary on the latest fad, and less about actually being a good show.
You and I seem to have much in common.

Half way through season 12 I wasn't being entertained anymore. It is just general poor execution, re-using jokes that have nothing to do with the situation, making the characters either too aware, not responding like they usually do or just becoming flat and uninterested, and really really crappy idea's (especially like Pinewood Derby).

My brother said 19 was different though, so I may give it another go.
 

Ihateregistering1

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If anything I think the show has gotten more grounded since the earlier seasons.

This is a show that featured in it's earlier seasons (among many other things):
-a character who died in every episode
-aliens
-crab people
-Jesus, like the actual Jesus, hosting a talk show.
-a talking piece of Christmas poop.
-a sentient weed smoking towel.
-Satan
-a monster with Patrick Duffy for a leg.

And that's just what I can think of right now. If anything, I think the show has gotten more grounded and less weird since the earlier seasons.
 

Fox12

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I like pc principal, but I hate everything else.

It's not really south park anymore. They've tripled the size of the town, and now it feels like a city of hipsters. It's just too big. Part of the draw was having the ludicrous small town humor. I've enjoyed the self depricating humor, but I'm a little disappointed with the rest of the season. I hope it goes back to normal soon.
 

Ihateregistering1

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Rumplehumpkin said:
Ihateregistering1 said:
If anything I think the show has gotten more grounded since the earlier seasons.

This is a show that featured in it's earlier seasons (among many other things):
-a character who died in every episode
-aliens
-crab people
-Jesus, like the actual Jesus, hosting a talk show.
-a talking piece of Christmas poop.
-a sentient weed smoking towel.
-Satan
-a monster with Patrick Duffy for a leg.

And that's just what I can think of right now. If anything, I think the show has gotten more grounded and less weird since the earlier seasons.
Manbearpig, the Sri Lanken Staring Frog, Mecha Streisand, Canada.
I believe you mean the Mexican Staring Frog of Southern Sri Lanka, racist!! :D J/K
 

BreakfastMan

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Eh, never really liked the show that much, to be honest. There were some good bits here and there, but otherwise I just found a lot of it annoying or unfunny. And the preachiness and smugness of much of it (especially of the creators terrible views, like climate change denial) really gets to me. :\