by Abel Horwitz
Daily Lobo
"South Park" is the most popular show Comedy Central has ever had.
With the combination of toilet humor and cultural satire, "South Park" has taken a formula of putting foul words in children's mouths and created a cultural sensation.
On the surface, last week's episode looked like an episode where "South Park" made fun of "Family Guy." It's nothing new for one popular cartoon show to make fun of another. The only difference is that this time around, "South Park" was being serious.
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"'Family Guy' isn't even that well-written," said cartoon fat boy Eric Cartman, voiced by series creator Trey Parker. "The jokes are all interchangeable and usually irrelevant to the plot," he said.
The episode ends as a cliffhanger, with Eric racing to California to get "Family Guy" pulled off the air, and with Kyle hot on his heels trying to stop him.
There's more to the episode, though. As the episode ends, a voice-over begins to ask questions, such as, Will Comedy Central pull next week's episode in fear of retaliation from the much more powerful Fox Network who airs "Family Guy"?
With tonight's episode, "South Park" is seeing exactly what it can get away with. Can their status as Comedy Central's highest rated show give them carte blanche to do whatever they want?
The truth is they probably can.
Two weeks ago, "South Park" was presented with the 2005 Peabody Award, a prestigious award handed out for excellence in writing, citing "South Park" as a show whose politically incorrect satire is better than any other show on television. Not only are audiences paying attention to what "South Park" has to say, but critics are as well.
One of the reasons the show's formula has worked for the past 10 years is its ability to make a show in six days. All the animation for the show is done on the computer, so "South Park" has no problem tackling issues days after they become relevant.
For example, the first episode of the new season saw the death of the beloved character Chef. Isaac Hayes, who provided the voice for Chef, unexpectedly quit the show days before the season was going to premiere. Rumors spread that he had been forced to quit by the leaders of Scientology. Last season, "South Park" aggressively went after Scientologists, which Hayes is a member of, calling them no more than a wack-job cult and begging their most prominent member, Tom Cruise, to come out of the closet, literally.
When Hayes quit, citing "religious differences," the production team behind "South Park" quickly went into action, devoting an entire episode to the scrambling of Chef's brain by what they called "a fruity little club."
It looks like "South Park" has no intention of slowing down. Parker, along with Matt Stone, the other creator of the series, have signed a three-year deal with Comedy Central to continue making the show.
If "South Park" has free reign to make fun of everything and anything it wants to, expect this season and the next three to be just as hilariously insulting as ever.
