South Park: Classic or Dud?

it's a weird thing to say, especially off the heels of their recent broadway success, but does anyone else think stone and parker have stunted their potential by continuing south park for this long? i think they joked about buying out comedy central several years back, but maybe it could have happened?
it seems like they've stagnated since the south park movie came out.

in contrast i feel like seth mcfarlane has gotten far more career mileage and opportunities out of family guy then anyone could have dreamed possible.

South Park still surprisingly (if inconsistently) great; no potential squandered.

what i mean is they could have gone on to bigger/better things.
it seems like south park's holding them back.

there's been an unfortunate slight decline in quality since the book of mormon, but not so much that i'll stop watching.

also, the "6 days to south park" special was somewhat revealing. a few friends of mine got the impression that bill hader's job is to laugh at jokes that aren't very good, encouraging the writers to settle for something that could be improved, or repeat a joke 15 times that's really only funny the 1st or 2nd time.

there's been an unfortunate slight decline in quality since the book of mormon, but not so much that i'll stop watching.

I haven't seen any of the current season, but the previous two were definitely the patchiest yet.

and it's still better than like 95% of whatever else is on TV.

i dunno this guy's name, but i'm happy they brought him back.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqojcp9bP21qcro1do1_500.png

i haven't watched recent south park, but i'd venture it's not better than 75%, and of the top 25% it's not better than 85%, mostly because TV has gotten so good.

what i mean is it won't be any great loss to shutter up production and maybe give them an opportunity to do something really great. there's still bob burgers, etc...

Dude, if you haven't watched it recently, your argument doesn't really hold water. Particularly when there was a pair of episodes (last season?) that dealt pretty directly with their exhaustion but ultimate willingness to continue SP. And yes, I'd say it's easily still in the top 25% of shows on tv. One of the few I still actively look forward to.

i've watched the episodes that consensus on this thread held were absolute pinnacle masterpieces, and they were fine, but so are any of a vast surplus of good TV we've had recently, so unless the recent season was some revelatory improvement over that, you'd still be spoiled for choice of great TV that's as good or better.

Well, Breaking Bad is better but it serves a different function. It doesn't need to be the best show on tv to satisfy a niche and still be worth watching. It's cool if it ain't your thing.

Man, the last couple of episodes have been pretty good but tonight's Lance Armstrong/Dr. Seuss parody was completely off the charts. Seek it out...

i haven't watched recent south park, but i'd venture it's not better than 75%, and of the top 25% it's not better than 85%, mostly because TV has gotten so good.

― Philip Nunez, Sunday, October 21, 2012 2:28 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what i mean is it won't be any great loss to shutter up production and maybe give them an opportunity to do something really great. there's still bob burgers, etc...

― Philip Nunez, Sunday, October 21, 2012 2:31 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

^^^^ insightful as ever

What Elvis said

the seuss parts destroyed me

I think the last few episodes have been fantastic.

Episode on Viva just now, where the nation loses the internet. Amazing.

"internet porn simulator"

Has anyone else seen Six Days To Air, the doc? I guess it's on netflix now.

It's p cool, and it makes so much more sense now why so many of the eps are so hit or miss. It makes me like them even more for working that way, with the same ppl for so many years. Also I had no idea that Tre and Matt dropped acid before the Oscars. Like that might be the alltime historically worst idea ever. But LOL

http://noise-park.tumblr.com/

A bunch of friends of mine are immortalized on that. It's a big mystery among this community of musicians who the artist/culprit is, though.

at least two ilxors are on there

it's pretty funny

Yeah, I've spotted two ilxors.

nice

9 pages down and Philip Best is still my favourite.

yeah they were airing that documentary the other day Veg - I loved the part where Trey is talking about trying to unwind by playing XBox and he sees the "new South Park!" ad right away

I agree that it really speaks to why the show is so hit and miss; I still maintain that if they did only 10 eps a year the show would be great again

I liked this enough to watch some new south park episodes and then I stopped cause they mostly sucked

It's p cool, and it makes so much more sense now why so many of the eps are so hit or miss.

So why was that?

Guessing because they have 6 days to come up with an idea, write it, animate it, and get it on air.

and they may have to edit out jokes for time, or they end up trying to string 2 or 3 storylines together with other leftover jokes

it was great seeing the human centipede/apple story being created

No idea it was a fairly short window. Does explain how often one storyline within an ep is v funny while a couple of others are that totally off.

yeah early on they had longer time frames, but as they got faster at it or as deadlines pushed forward, they kind of locked themselves into this kinda "hair on fire" way of working

i mean seeing them sitting there day 1 of the writer's room for the new season & it's like *crickets*, nothing... into having a show on day six is crazy to watch

Hope I can catch that doc some day - its quite remarkable when there is a late EP that is funny pretty much all the way through..

I can only think of a couple recently that were good all the way through - Broadway Bro-Down and Cash 4 Gold. The latter is one that I think is one of the best they've ever done but oddly enough it's one of the few that was actually way behind the times. I feel like almost everything since that awful Mr./Mrs. Garrison sex change episode has been real hit or miss, often within the same episode. Can anyone even remember what the "Jackin' in San Diego" episode was about?

this last season was pretty good, I thought. There were a few meh ones but Sarcastaball and Cash for Gold and Nightmare on Face Time were really funny

jackin in sandiego was the Kony ep

oh yeah I know it had something to do with Kony and Stan making a documentary but I forget pretty much any specifics outside of that

the problem is that sometimes they unleash episodes so awful that it makes me never want to watch the show again. examples: the ziplining episode, the one where Jimmy goes to "special camp", any Towlie episode besides the first one

I didn't like the Faith Hill ep, and yeah the ziplining one was superdumb

I'm probably ~2 seasons behind (in the UK), but yes some of the EPs are unwatchable - the Towlie/Oprah one and anything to do w/Garrison's sex change. That was (looking at wiki) the beginning of Season 9 but I'm not sure of when exactly the rot set in.

"Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy" (one of those I caught recently) is really fkn hilarious.

yeah the Garrison ones were bad
and I hated the Oprah ep

Oh man I loved the ziplining episode

Actually every episode listed so far in this conversation has made me lol pretty hard

I went onto their website & have watched Cartman Gets An Anal Probe and Weight Gain 4000. They are still awesome fyi
:D

Amazing that SNL has six days to air, too, and a huge staff of talented, improvisational actors and writers, and no plot requirement, and actual celebrities, but usually sucks.

It's been so long I forgot that there used to be shadowing behind the cardboard cutouts
http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz78/darthraner/South%20Park%20Season%201/10.jpg

the original south park theme song is creepy as hell. I think Claypool had a cold for this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGZnn01j7s8

My 2012 favorites were "Butterballs" (the bully/kony one) and "A Scause For Applause."

The first half was pretty weak, with only Cash For Gold (the best since You're Getting Old) and Butterballs standing out, but the second half was flat-out great. Obama Wins and Raising The Bar were the only disappointments - and even then, the James Cameron stuff in Raising The Bar was pretty good.