What Is Too Far?

Posted by Cynical Sarah on December 14, 2006

Through the magic of our digital recorder, my husband and I have the luxury of recording every South Park that comes on each day and watching them at our leisure.

They recently started televising some new episodes – new to Canada, but not new to the U.S. – and I’ve begun to question if the show is going just a little too far in their plotlines. I don’t want to go so far as to say the show has “jumped the shark,” but it’s certainly having to reach deep to keep coming up with original, relevant material.

South Park used to seem like fairly harmless satire. Yes, a Christmas Pooh is quite disgusting, but still funny. I still laugh every time I see the Scuzzlebutt episode and Cartman is getting shot at on the mountainside as he tries to impersonate the supposed monster.

The introduction of Towlie as a character gave me some doubts about the show. The good news was that at least the makers of the show recognized their error and managed to turn it into a joke too. I crack up every time Cartman says “Towlie, you’re the lamest character ever.”

My faith and love of the show was reaffirmed with the Tom Cruise coming out of the closet episode. I’m continually impressed with how well the show can say so much without really saying anything at all.
The last few weeks though, I’ve seen some pretty disturbing things on the show that have started to change my mind again.

There was the Mr. Garrison sex change operation episode. I have no problem with the plotline, what got me was the addition of real-life footage of a sex change operation.

As far as I could tell, the only real purpose of that footage was the gross-out factor. There was no real need to show real footage of the surgery, especially since it’s an animated show.

Oddly enough, the next episode I saw that really turned me off from the show also dealt with genitals. If you haven’t seen the Oprah episode, I advise you to just skip it. The plot was so off the wall and really out of line, that I wouldn’t even watch it again.

You may want to stop reading if you’re sensitive to talking about genitals and asses, or if you haven’t seen the episode and want to be surprised despite my warning not to watch it.

In the episode, Oprah’s vagina and ass decide to try to derail her career so she will take more time for herself, and of course, to pay more attention to them. When their plot doesn’t work, they pull out a gun and take people hostage trying to get transportation to Paris.

Weird is about the best way to describe the whole episode. Not much for laughs and really just way over-the-top in trying to make something out of a current event. It also felt like a desperate attempt to get laughs – cheap toilet humor laughs.

The show has always had some cheap humor thrown in – both with toilet humor and with Kenny’s recurring deaths in the beginning – but it was lightly sprinkled in with a much higher wit.

It’s really disappointing to see it going heavier on the toilet humor. I think South Park does a great job of commenting on society, and I hate to see it sell itself short like that. They’re taking things just a little too far where it’s not funny anymore.

That being said, I watched the much anticipated (by my husband) World of Warcraft South Park episode this week. There is still hope for the show. This one was brilliant.

My husband is a WOW junkie and was laughing from the first few minutes of the episode to the very end. I too was definitely finding the funny in it as some of it was all too familiar based on my hubby’s behavior with the game.

The show was going back to its satirical roots with this one pointing out a seriously funny flaw we all know is out there in the gaming world. I could have done without the Cartman pooping scene, but at least the rest of the show carried on with a level of wit and hilarity South Park is known for rather than the potty jokes.

Filed Under: Blog - Comments: Be the First to Comment

Tags: humor, television

top