South Park, being first aired on Comedy Central on August 1997, is an American animated comical series about four elementary school boys who live in South Park, Colorado. The show is based around an average day for these four boys (Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny) and how they seem to always get in trouble with their rude remarks, stereotypical actions, and crazy minds. Other important characters include: the Chef, Mr. Hankey (the talking turd shown above), Towlie, Jesus, the boys’ families, Satan, and the rest of the school staff.
South Park was first designed back in 1992 by writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who at the time were students at the University of Colorado. While in film class one day, the two decided to create an animated film called Jesus vs. Frosty where they implemented some of th
e characters from South Park, but at the time they weren’t considered by the same names. Three years later in 1995, a FOX network executive saw the film and asked them to create a second film that could be used as a video Christmas card. With the completion of the film, producers began talking of developing a new series for FOX, later determined for Comedy Central, and by 1997 they had created the new series and implemented the second short film, Jesus vs. Santa into one of the episodes entitled “A Very Crappy Christmas.”
e characters from South Park, but at the time they weren’t considered by the same names. Three years later in 1995, a FOX network executive saw the film and asked them to create a second film that could be used as a video Christmas card. With the completion of the film, producers began talking of developing a new series for FOX, later determined for Comedy Central, and by 1997 they had created the new series and implemented the second short film, Jesus vs. Santa into one of the episodes entitled “A Very Crappy Christmas.” The show is best known for its hilarious representation of current events and popular culture parodies. The show continues to represent new characters on a regular basis and bring in animated celebrities to represent current or future events. Some episodes have parodied Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, George Bush, Paris Hilton, Saddam Hussein, and even professional wrestler like Stone Cold Steve Austin. Other examples of movies that have been parodied include: E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones, Passion of the Christ, Titanic, Gladiator, and many more. Also, on some occasions animators will actually create a reenactment of an event in the world that just happened. For example, in December 2003, one episode entitled “It’s Christmas in Canada,” was created to describe the capture of Saddam Hussein, even referring to “the spider hole” where he was found. This was televised only three days after the actual event happened.
There are currently 167 episodes on 11 seasons of South Park that began releasing in the U.S. in 2002. The only real competition it has currently is from The Simpsons, having aired over 400 episodes on 19 seasons, and The Family Guy, having 105 episodes on 6 seasons. The twelfth season of South Park is scheduled to air on March 12, 2008 and still in contract are episodes up until its fifteenth season in 2011.References:
South Park. (2007). Retrieved December 5, 2007, from Wikipedia Foundation, Inc.
Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park
2 comments:
Steven,
I though you did a fantastic job on your analysis. However, I have mixed feeling when it comes to this show. It definitely makes you laugh, but I think it sends a bad signal to the young people people. This is definitely one of the most controversy shows that I have ever watched. I guess the question for me is why they have to use so much vulgar language, especially since they are young boys. Even though in today’s society we have children who remind us of the boys, I still think it’s bad to portray our kids they way they do on the show.
I think Southpark is one of the most poignant and well written shows on television today. I think that Matt and Trey are brilliant when it comes to showing the truth about a situation or a person. Especially when it comes to celebrities that the world idolizes, they really have a way of showing these people for who they really are. Great job on this one!
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