South Park is Brilliant for Kids

Adult animation can be very immature but that does not mean it cannot be smart at the same time. South Park is a great example of walking the line from absurd to brilliant. South Park is inappropriate and juvenile, but the show is genuinely brilliant when it comes to political satire. 
The show understands how far to push certain subjects without being called out for being too inappropriate. Which leads me to my point, South Park knows it audience really well and knows how to cater to them. And even though middle school kids or younger shouldn’t be watching this show they still do and the creators know that. Because the writers are aware of this, they are able to connect to their younger side of their audience and get them to take interest in political issues. How do they gain their interest? Juvenile humor that kids can easily understand and enjoy. Through this humor, kids get hooked and slowly begin to gain interest in different social issues. It all starts as a meaningless episode about farts and then it becomes so much more meaningful with time. For example, in the episode Not Without my Anus, the show uses farts jokes till the very end of the show. Most would argue that the fart jokes in the episode get old real soon. It starts out funny, and then it gets old real fast but then after a while the joke becomes funny again because of how repetitive and stupid the joke become by the end. This form of humor is the gate way for younger audiences to begin to take interest in the social issues of the world. CNN is not going win over a seventh grader into caring about climate change. But with time, if they see these issues from a funny and entertaining source they will begin to take more interest in using less paper to safe the planet. 

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 28, 2018 at 1:04 PM

    I like your point that a show like this will have more outreach to younger people than CNN would. I love that South Park creates its own discourse about political and social issues and doesn't try to cater to any political affiliation or expectations.

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  2. UnknownOctober 28, 2018 at 3:04 PM

    So True! and South Park is just one example. Family Guy and American dad are constantly teaching "life lessons" through there show. South Park used to do this as well, Kyle used to end almost every episode with a speech about "what he learned today". South Park was smart and killed this off as other characters made fun of Kyle saying he wasn't making a difference. Which is also comedic since South Park is episodic and therefore can't ever be "fixed". Getting rid of these life lessons also make fun of the people, like news organizations, that tell you what you need to do, take climate change as an example, Don Lemon telling me not to wipe my hands with a paper towel after I wash my hands won't make me stop, but if South Park makes a good point while keeping me interested, I might.

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  3. ReneeNovember 7, 2018 at 10:11 AM

    I feel like there has been a lot of backlash against southpark for their humor over the years, yet, it does cater to a specific audience. I never enjoyed southpark because it makes me feel crazy and sweaty and gross (haha) but I'd say it is one effective way to create a social commentary that is non-threatening to viewers. It is a safe environment to talk smack about a lot of things

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