South Park

[Dyko]

I laughed so hard at Kyle's dad whenever he was onscreen, and the ending with Kyle's knees, as well as his Dad doing that leap were some of the funniest/most disturbing things I have ever laughed at on that show, next to Butters taking the Ninja Star, and Santa taking care of the anti-christ in the X-mas episode.

For a while now, Southpark has been one of the best written comedies on TV, just because of the fact that they seem to not be concerned with who they offend in their episodes (a great example is the one about the story of the Mormon religion "dum-dum-dum...smart-smart-smart"). They are also one of the few shows other than things like the Daily Show that actually cover pop culture events as soon as possible...The Simpsons waited, what, a year before making a wardrobe malfunction joke, and about that before touching on "The Passion of the Christ"? Southpark covered both those things extremely well, without worrying about the "too soon?" that the majority of shows seem to worry about.

I agree, though, that if you base your opinion on the first few seasons, the show does look terrible, because it really was 80% potty humour for the sake of potty humour. Starting around Season 4, they seemed to really start hitting their stride, story-wise, and right now, I'd say that the show is probably the most politcally-charged, well-written, hillarious social commentary that you can find on a TV show (again, next to shows like the Daily show, that focus entirely on that stuff).

For the record, I also am a big fan of a lot of British comedy, and would totally rather watch, say, The Office or Fawlty Towers over 80% of the crap that they dump in there to kill the one hundred and fourty-three hours, thirty minutes* between 24 and Arrested Development (the 2 main reasons to own a TV), but I still totally appreciate Southpark's amazingness, even after not particularly being a fan when the show first started out.

(*Note, I did that math just now while drunk, so if it is wrong, that is just too bad.)

[StoneColdSwede]

And here I am, thinking that seasons 1 & 2 are the best. D'oh.

[apsham]

They are also one of the few shows other than things like the Daily Show that actually cover pop culture events as soon as possible...The Simpsons waited, what, a year before making a wardrobe malfunction joke, and about that before touching on "The Passion of the Christ"?  Southpark covered both those things extremely well, without worrying about the "too soon?" that the majority of shows seem to worry about.

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I liked that too, and I found this on the IMDB one day when I was bored and scanning through everything:

Traditionally an animated series takes eight to 12 months to be completed, making it almost impossible to address current event. In the case of "South Park", computer-animating the show has afforded the creators lee-way to put certain episodes together quickly (such as -"Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut" - 22 April 1998) and identifiable changes between the episodes and that episode's own promo. Most notable have been what are known as the "11th hour episodes", episodes put together mere days - and sometimes hours - before airtime. These include, but are not limited to:

    * "Quintuplets 2000" a.k.a "Janet Reno in a Bunny Suit" (airdate: 26 April 2000). This episode mirrored the removal, by the U.S. government, of Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives; an event which occurred three days prior.

    * "Trapper Keeper" (airdate: 15 November 2000), which parodied the scandal of the 2000 presidential election, which happened a week earlier.

    * "It Hits the Fan" (airdate: 20 April 2001). Numerous story changes kept the episode in production all the way up to the airing. Upon its original airing, the show was notably lacking in numerous completed sound effects. Most obvious was the lack of sound during Kenny's death.

    * "Osama bin Laden has Farty Pants" (airdate: 7 November 2001). Airing weeks after the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001, it became one of the first fictional series to address the matter.

    * "It's Christmas in Canada" (airdate: 17 December 2003) which acknowledged the capture of Saddam Hussein a mere four days after it took place.

[reyrey619]

I remember watching the Christmas in Canada episode thinking: how the hell do they come up with such great comedy in a matter of a few days?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I agree with the Molester with regards to British Comedy > US Comedy in every way, shape and form.

Teachers, Spaced, Peep Show...All magnificent.

However South Park is amusing, one of my favourite episodes being when a girl joins the class whos breasts are starting to grow and all the boys start acting like prehistoric man around her, fighting eachother to attract her attention so what's her name (The girl Stan fancies) feels really left out and so goes and gets breast implants but meanwhile the other girl starts covering her breasts up and it breaks the spell with the other guys who return to usual so when whats-her-name comes into class with her new breast implants all the boys laugh at her.

Incredible.

[apsham]

Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society... heh, she didn't join the class, btw, she had been there already.

The best part though, was Cartman playing "Lambs" in the basement.

[Boogey131]

I'm British and even I must admit.

US Humour > British Humour.

SNL, Simpsons, South Park, Friends, Cheers, Chappelle Show & so many others are way more funny than some of the shit that comes out of Britain that is slapped with a 'comedy' sticker.

Personally I'd take any of the above shows over Red Dwarf anyday.

But yeah - I saw the episode and wasn't very amused by the whole episode - some parts had me smiling but really not as funny as usual. Bad start - but I'm sure it'll only get better.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I'd say British comedy isn't so 'obvious'. We tend to float around either at the slapstick end or play to real-life situation comedy or comedy that's really dark, bleak or just strange. I love that kinda stuff so for me most US comedy just isn't deep enough...

Though US cartoons are great (Futurama, Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy).

The sitcoms are all the same, all look the same, have all the same "Live studio audience" laughter and grate big style with me...

[TMM]

I'd say British comedy isn't so 'obvious'. We tend to float around either at the slapstick end or play to real-life situation comedy or comedy that's really dark, bleak or just strange. I love that kinda stuff so for me most US comedy just isn't deep enough...

Though US cartoons are great (Futurama, Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy).

The sitcoms are all the same, all look the same, have all the same "Live studio audience" laughter and grate big style with me...

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What he said.

I some of the early 80's comedy is good, and a few modern comedies are good like Frasier (which clearly borrows from the British), but things like Friends and other stuff are funny every once in a while and that's it.

To me, American comedies tell you when to laugh. That's how it comes across. The scripts seem as though they're written with a line that says "and the audience will laug here...if not, add in some fake laughter".

Oh, while on the subject, 'Married...with Children' takes the cake as the unfunniest thing in the history of the known universe.

[Cactus Drags]

Wait, slapstick isn't obvious? Are you stupid?

[apsham]

Wait, real life situational comedy?

SITCOMS?

[Guest Brady_3for3]

A Jewphin?

I could have gone my whole life without seeing any of that crap. I did not need to see how testicals actually are connected inside and such, just awful stuff.

[ROC]

Oh, while on the subject, 'Married...with Children' takes the cake as the unfunniest thing in the history of the known universe.

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[illmatic]

WHY DONT YOU GO FIND SOMEBODY WHO DOESNT HAVE A VAGINA! YA FAG!

[Herr Matzat]

the best thing ever to come from the us clearly is married with children

[Pander Opiate]

Am I the only person to think that South Park is more sterotypically British in its humour then American?

[Monkey D. Lars]

at leas the uk has Mr. Bean

[Boogey131]

Am I the only person to think that South Park is more sterotypically British in its humour then American?

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Edited March 15, 2005 by Boogey131

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

If you look at something like Monty Python or Fawlty Towers for example, they balance absolute slapstick with far subtler humour.

I would say it's nothing against American comedy but it is...

I saw some rubbish US comedy the other night which was on after "The Mighty Boosh" which is an average UK comedy. It has that woman from Ally McBeal in and was about a family with a bald dad who's in jail and the son is a director in some company...

Dunno what it was called but that was nicely left field for the US but still wasn't funny.

A lot of UK comedy is poor too, I just feel that we get some real gems in the UK more often than the US. Now I'll admit I've never seen Seinfeld which I'm told is fantastic so I'll let that pass, and Frasier is good too, though I would say that's slightly more British in humour.

I'd rather watch Spaced, Teachers, Peep Show, The Day Today, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, Nathan Barley any day over anything from the US.

Though Scrubs is pretty good.

Also, Shaun Of The Dead blew 'mainstream' comedy films out of the water.

THAT is British humour and I lover it.

[lafunky xxvii]

GET THEM! THEY DIDN'T PAY THE 2 DOLLAR ENTRANCE FEE!