Most Dated Episodes of South Park. At this point, the reputation of South Park as one of the more culturally- important television productions of the late- 9. The crudely- animated (originally by necessity, now by aesthetic design) series nominally following the lives of four foul- mouthed pre- teen boys living in the alternately depressing or bizarre Colorado town of the title has won awards, opened a hit movie, been nominated for an Oscar, and launched the show business careers of creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone; transforming them from Midwestern indie- film nobodies into in- demand Hollywood players whose musical The Book of Mormon remains one of Broadway’s hottest tickets. But as far as they’ve gone, South Park endures as a pet project that the idiosyncratic creators seem to view both as a kind of karmic burden (as suggested by episodes like “You’re Getting Old” and “Ass Burgers”) and a useful tool for venting their own personal cultural and political hangups to a mass audience. The series has proudly earned a reputation as a pop- culture agent- provocateur, eager to take mean- spirited swipes at almost any institution, idea or even individual person irrespective of political alignment or the potential for “collateral damage” – in some respects pre- figuring the directionless mayhem- for- mayhem’s sake chaos humor now practiced by denizens of web- cultures like 4chan and Reddit. It’s an approach made possible by the series’ accelerated production schedule, which allows Parker and Stone to add their in- the- moment takes on controversial topics to new episodes in a much more timely manner than any other pre- recorded TV series animated or otherwise. However, getting a “fresh take” also means getting a take without a lot of time or consideration spent on the broader implications of what’s being said – or whose ox is being gored. Combine that with the creators’ proudly- stated love of ticking off “both sides” of any given issue and it’s no surprise that, while the series has continued to produce strong episodes, the march of time and concurrent transformation of societal norms have transformed some of its most iconic moments from “shockingly funny” to awkward, uncomfortable or even downright hard to watch. With that in mind (and without any prejudice beyond reason to the “philosophy” of the material in question) here are fifteen infamous South Park moments that just don’t play like they used to. ROGER EBERT SHOULD LAY OFF THE FATTY FOODS (Season 2 – Episode 1. Here’s the thing about mercilessly mocking celebrities on your just- for- yuks cartoon show: If you run long enough, you’re going to end up dealing with having “knocked around” someone whose legacy changes dramatically after they pass away. That’s certainly the case with the late film critic Roger Ebert. While probably the world’s most famous movie critic apart from his partner Gene Siskel in life, Ebert’s profile was elevated from pop- culture novelty to giant of his field when he soldiered on after his body was ravaged by cancer. When he passed away, he became something like a Patron Saint of American film criticism – especially to the generation of younger writers who he mentored in his final years as support- writers for his popular website. All of which goes to make the title of “Roger Ebert Should Lay Off The Fatty Foods” read (fairly or not) as petty in a rather less humorous light than intended.
RAINFOREST SHMAINFOREST (Season 3 – Episode 1)A good rule of thumb for tracking the development of South Park storylines is that whatever the major issue of the day is, Trey Parker and Matt Stone will find a way for South Park to be on the other side of it – sometimes with the noble comedic intent of goading an audience to take a second look at even their positive biases, but much of the time because the pair seem to relish their “culturally unwelcome” (or at least as “unwelcome” as millionaire Broadway producers can be said to be) reputations. Rainforest Shmainforest” certainly felt like the later, even at the time: Ostensibly a riff on Parker’s dislike of a vacation to Costa Rica, the episode is mainly an indulgence in sniping South Park’s favorite target: People in the entertainment industry not named Trey Parker or Matt Stone, specifically environmental activists and the focus that community had placed on rainforest preservation throughout the 1. But while the episode itself remains amusing, viewers not around at the time are likely to be surprised to hear that rainforest activism – now widely accepted as a key aspect of mainstream climate science and biodiversity maintenance disciplines – was ever particularly controversial in the first place. JAKOVASAURS (Season 3 – Episode 4)One of the earliest enshrinings of Parker, Stone and South Park’s now- legendary comic prescience came at the expense of Star Wars: Episode Icharacter Jar- Jar Binks. Intuiting from the CGI- animated sidekick’s presence in the film’s trailer – specifically his delivery of the line “Issa people gonna die!?” – that audiences would end up hating Binks, the pair stuck an imitation of the line into the mouth of a background character in a similar scene in the South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut movie – making the feature- film spin- off feel downright cutting edge by spoofing The Phantom Menace’s unexpectedly negative reception earlier than almost anyone else. CHEF GOES NANNERS (Season 4 – Episode 7)At its best, South Park is a machine that skewers cultural taboos; and its absolute favorite is deflating the “Spielbergian Ideal” of childhood and children as the decent and innocent state of humanity as embraced by the Boomer and Gen- X generations as not only (in Parker and Stone’s view) false but the very engine that creates venal, destructive little creeps like Eric Cartman. But even they aren’t immune to “a small child shall lead them” storytelling, and that’s precisely how “Chef Goes Nanners” pays off: With a brewing race war over a proposal to retire South Park’s town flag (which depicts the lynching of a Black man by a white mob) thwarted by the realization that the wrongly presumed- racist boys were actually so “post- racial” in their outlook that the connotations of the flag never occurred to them. The story, obviously, was based on then- current controversies about retiring U. S. State and County flags that incorporated the Civil War- era Confederate Battle Flag. It’s one of the better uses of the series’ maxim that everyone in South Park is stupid – even the good guys – as a plot device. But while the question of what to do about State- backed Confederacy- nostalgia was largely viewed as a niche ideological debate at the turn of the Millennium, the issue has intensified in recent years and turned decidedly against the of “let’s calm down about this” resolution South Park (however irreverently) arrived at; to say nothing of the rather cringey- feeling “Being aware of racism made me the real racist!”. Today, the forcible dismantling of Confederate monuments is an increasingly widespread policy – and so are protests against such dismantling tinged with (real and often frightening) racist invective that’s a far cry from the “well meaning but dumb traditionalists” embodied by Jimbo and Ned in Nanners. Today, the forcible dismantling of Confederate monuments is an increasingly widespread policy – and so are protests against such dismantling tinged with (real and often frightening) racist invective that’s a far cry from the “well meaning but dumb traditionalists” embodied by Jimbo and Ned in “Nanners.” Obviously, it’s unreasonable to expect a 1. TV episode to have stayed “current” with 1. South Park classics. JARED HAS AIDES (Season 6 – Episode 1)There’s an old joke that the formula for comedy is “Tragedy + Time” – but sometimes it works in reverse. Jared Fogle was a guy who became famous by claiming that he owed a substantial weight loss achievement in part to eating regular meals at the Subway sandwich shop chain and subsequently got hired as the actual spokesman for the company. Cute wordplay, not a particularly memorable episode otherwise. Now, on the other hand, the episode just feels a hundred different kinds of uncomfortable given how much interaction the animated Jared spends around the South Park children: In 2. Jared (who did not sanction or provide a voice for the episode) plead guilty to possession of child pornography and having solicited minors for sex – and is now serving a 1. Not at all South Park’s “fault,” of course, but the fairly gentle (for South Park) goofing on someone who turned out to be a literal monster plays pretty awkward all the same; which is why it wasn’t too surprising when the “character” (who was also a celebrity cameo in the reference- packed 2. Season 1. 9. 1. 0. DEATH CAMP OF TOLERANCE (Season 6 – Episode 1. One could probably have put this whole list together with only Mr. Garrison- centric episodes. As South Park’s avatar of self- hating sexual repression, Garrison has been the frame on which Parker and Stone have hung their in- the- moment punching bag stand- ins for whatever the perceived “cause celebre” sexuality issue of the day happens to be: first a closeted gay man, then an out- and- proud gay man using his minority status to bully people, then a transgender woman doing much the same, now a stand- in for Donald Trump (we’ll get to that); pretty much every Garrison storyline comes pre- packaged with the expectation of uttering “wow – that was considered an acceptable characterization then?” at least once.“Death Camp of Tolerance” is considered one of the series’ turning- point moments, where the most common target of Parker and Stone’s ire was gradually switching from needling conservative bugbears to prodding the “sacred cows” of their largely progressive- leaning showbiz contemporaries – a move that served to (for a time) differentiate the irreverent series from their TV comedy peers, who had otherwise largely united around knocking the Bush Administration. 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