Was South Park Ever funny?

[Scowling Dragon]

Now Im not saying this in a big angry fashion.

Its not like in family guy I laugh and then feel guilty and stupid for laughing at something aiming so low that its just generally a slightly changed reference....

Was south park ever funny?

This sort of came as a shock to me after watching something like 50 episodes. There generally entertaining....And then I watched the episode about cartman pretending to be Psychic and saw the joke of the Policeman doing this super serious analysis montage to determine that his hand looks different when turned the other way, stopping in the middle of it, forgetting what he was doing and then resumed.

That got a real laugh out of me. I Laughed out loud...Then I realized that I at best chuckled slightly all thought the other 50 episodes.

Does anybody Find southpark Funny? Or is it just me?

[Emperor Ing]

Was south park ever funny?
Yes

I haven't seen any of the later episodes in a DAMN long time but i've always found it funny.

[Mutant Sheep]

I love South Park, and find its jokes far from Family Guy. Family Guy, I just sit there waiting for the rhinosaurus jokes to end, waiting for the gay one year old bestiality pedophilia to end, and the just tearfully bad jokes to end. Only episodes I ever really laughed at were the Star Wars ones and the Quagmire hates the talking dog whose name I cant remember one. Because that ending was too good.

South Park is just outrageous. And outrageously funny.:smallbiggrin: Disgusting, sure, but hilarious. Never Should Have Gone Ziplining. *couldn't stop laughing*

[Serpentine]

I found South Park funny back in the day when they were offensive with a good point. Since they stopped making good points, I've tended just to find it offensive for offence's sake.

[Tyndmyr]

I found South Park funny back in the day when they were offensive with a good point. Since they stopped making good points, I've tended just to find it offensive for offence's sake.

Agreed. It used to be funny. They occasionally have a new winner, but a lot of the shows, it feels like they're phoning it in now.

[Cespenar]

It's actually pretty funny when it isn't being disgusting, repetitive, or heavy handed with "messages".

[Grey Watcher]

Personally, I never cared much for it, even back when it was all fresh and new and edgy in the 90's. A few episodes I found clever, like the Underpants Gnomes, but mostly it was a mediocre combination of being offensive and gross for no particular reason, and Parker and Stone being all anvilicious about whatever bee was in their bonnet when they were writing that particular episode. I guess if you're not finding it funny then, like me, it's just a show that doesn't appeal to you. :shrug:

[Lord_Gareth]

Agreed. It used to be funny. They occasionally have a new winner, but a lot of the shows, it feels like they're phoning it in now.

They actually did an episode making fun of themselves for this. Rumor mill says they might be ending the show soon.

[Emmerask]

Some of the episodes really are, but mostly I found the humor not really to my taste.

But with southpark I would guess its similar to nearly every single comedy series out there...
the longer they run the fewer genuinely funny shows / season and the more mediocre ones you get.

SImpsons for example, lots and lots of "meh" epsiodes the last really good one I remember was the homer fat guy episode :smallbiggrin:
similar Family Guy or how I met your mother or the later scrubs episodes (before the med school stuff which I thought was awesome but well canceled).

[Raistlin1040]

South Park has gone really downhill, but yes, it was funny at one point. There are still a few winners among the last few seasons though (Vampire Kids, 2008 Election) although I haven't watched this season at all.

[McStabbington]

I haven't watched the show in years, so I can't attest to its quality now. I will say that during its first few seasons, it was quite often riotously funny. Starvin' Marvin in Space and the episode where the Super Best Friends fought David Blaine (spoiler: they defeated Blaine's animating the stone Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial by creating a giant stone John Wilkes Booth) were two of the funniest half hours of television I've ever seen. To this day, "Sea Man!", "It's comin' right for us!" and "Underpants gnome logic" are catchphrases among my friends.

[Omergideon]

In the few episodes I watched years ago (the supposed heyday) I smiled on one or two occasions. So for me, it was rarely if ever funny. At best. But the amount of gross out and other humour put me off the show. It is a kind of comedy I find unpleasent at best, offensive at worst.

The same for most "adult" comedy cartoons. Just my opinion.

[Silva Stormrage]

I still find south park funny, sometimes it does get "Preachy up it's ass with messages" but still its a good show. You can't expect a show to be 100% win 100% of the time.

[Pokonic]

I will admit, Family Guy was never that good. Whatever they used to make the early seasons are in use in American Dad, yes, but Family Guy has not made me laugh in a long time. South Park.......I actualy avoided it for a long time. Heck, anything on Comedy Central for a long, long time. Then nothing was on one day in the middle of winter and decided to give it a try.

Said episode was the Christmas Critters one. :smallbiggrin: I still dont watch it, but at least I understand how there can be such a fanbase for the show.

[Gift Jeraff]

The episode mentioned in the OP is my favorite in the series. They should use that cop more often.

Anyway, IMO the first 2 seasons aren't that funny, and it hasn't been that great in the past 5 or so years, but there are still occasional gems which keep me a regular viewer (Medicinal Fried Chicken and the recent Butterballs come to mind). I rarely laugh out loud at TV shows/movies, but Randy bouncing on his balls managed to make me do that.

[Solaris]

Remember that episode where Cartman wound up feeding that kid his own parents for petty revenge? Yeah, South Park was funny. South Park used to be good, but I do think it's time for it to go. They're out of ideas, and it's really starting to show.

[Traab]

Remember that episode where Cartman wound up feeding that kid his own parents for petty revenge? Yeah, South Park was funny. South Park used to be good, but I do think it's time for it to go. They're out of ideas, and it's really starting to show.

Yeah, that episode will never be gone from my mind. Never. The entire episode made me laugh because it was so incredibly wrong, but that final twist? Holy carp. Although, I was glad when they stopped doing that style of show and switched to the message of the week, because you can only kill kenny so many times before it gets boring, and making fun of current events, like the child abductions and those "damn mongolians that keep knocking down my city wall" vote or die, and a dozen other examples keeps things fresh because at least its making fun of new stuff.

I also loved all the cheap 80s film knock offs, and other similar things like, "you got served" and the one where they are skiing and the snooty rich guy keeps referring to stan as "Stan Darsh" Its always a hit or miss style of show, and the brand of humor REALLY wont appeal to everyone. Its also the type of humor you cant just grind through 3 seasons of back to back without burning out really fast.

[Loki_42]

I still find South Park funny, and it is one of my favorite shows on T.V.(Note, I don't find many shows on T.V. to actually be good, so it's a small pool.) Maybe it was better in early seasons, but I still think there are gems. I'm honestly a fan of when it gets preachy, because I'm not the biggest fan of offensiveness for it's own sake, but even the episodes that don't have a message are typically good.

[Tengu_temp]

South Park got better and funnier over time. When it was beginning, it was entirely gross-out humour about sex, poop and swearing*. Meh. It's a curious case where making the show a soapbox for its creator's views actually improved it.

* - instead of mostly, as it is now.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

I think South Park's height came in the few seasons after the Movie. It was edgy (I hate that word) and it was gross, but it usually had a point, sometimes even a novel one. Once Butters started getting the spotlight it started sucking, but that's just because Butters is a horrible character to base this kind of show on.

Still, made me laugh longer than that piece of crap Family Guy. First season on Adult Swim is the only tolerable one since the relaunch.

[Lord_Gareth]

South Park got better and funnier over time. When it was beginning, it was entirely gross-out humour about sex, poop and swearing*. Meh. It's a curious case where making the show a soapbox for its creator's views actually improved it.

* - instead of mostly, as it is now.

The freedom-of-speech episode was especial winsauce.

[Traab]

The freedom-of-speech episode was especial winsauce.

Was that the one where they had a swear counter on the screen keeping track of how many times the dreaded s word was uttered? I nearly laughed myself sick when mr garrison started singing.

[Dumbledore lives]

I really like South Park, and I think one of my favorite episodes was about 5 years ago or so where Stan coaches a peewee hockey team. It was so sad but in a funny way, and was a decent satire of the 80's films with those kind of cheesy plots.

[Lord_Gareth]

Was that the one where they had a swear counter on the screen keeping track of how many times the dreaded s word was uttered? I nearly laughed myself sick when mr garrison started singing.

Nah, it was the one where terrorists (and Cartman) tried to shut down Family Guy.

[Lord Seth]

They actually did an episode making fun of themselves for this. Rumor mill says they might be ending the show soon.Seems unlikely, considering it's been renewed through 2016.


I still find south park funny, sometimes it does get "Preachy up it's ass with messages" but still its a good show. You can't expect a show to be 100% win 100% of the time.Well, what was nice about South Park is that even when they were being preachy, it tended to be done in such a goofy fashion that you could laugh it off even if you disagreed with it. This put it ahead of Family Guy's more preachy episodes in my book.

[Kato]

South Park clearly is ht and miss throughout its whole run but every season (I think, I really have trouble distinguishing seasons when there is no clear plot) always had good and bad episodes. Like... I can both enjoy the preachy, witty episodes (maybe because I tend to agree with most opinions uttered... or what I think their meaning is, sometimes I'm not even sure) or the just dumb fun episodes like 'Scott Tennerman must die'. And then there are episodes like the one with that duck... dinosaur... thing or most of the Canada episodes which are rather meh. But I really can't say there ever was a time when I consideres SP unfunny.


Family Guy... had it's time when all they did was one manatee gag after another... and I really didn't like it then. But it's okay now. I still see myself much more likely dropping this than SP.

[JustSomeGuy]

I think southpark is past it's peak, it just ran out of ideas maybe. A couple years back it was great though, and i could probably watch the rocky/kids baseball episode 50 times in a row no problem.

'Family Guy' is spread too thin now, American Dad is the best but i don't really enjoy the Cleveland Show anymore. Cleveland himself is just poor as a main character in my mind, and the supporting family cast are pretty interchangeable between the shows so it just doesn't have much going for it.

Archer is where it's at now, and Bob's burgers to a lesser degree.

[Das Platyvark]

I'm not a big fan, but from what I've seen, they set themselves up with the opportunity to be really, really funny, and then kill it completely.

[ThePhantasm]

I never found it funny. I don't really go for shock humor though. Just not my thing.

[Traab]

I never found it funny. I don't really go for shock humor though. Just not my thing.

Yeah thats the biggest thing, to like south park you have to enjoy shock humor. It may have its, "You know, I learned something today" messages in most episodes that are usually amusing, (I still laugh at the vote or die message about the choice between nsfw candidates) but if you dont enjoy shock humor, you will hate this show. And even shock humor gets old after awhile. As I said earlier, you can only kill kenny so many times, or have cartman verbally abuse his doting mother so much, before it gets tiresome.

But what has helped keep the show going is the direction it took after the first couple seasons. By parodying current events, and stock film and tv styles, it adds in extra newness to the episodes that helped it keep its head above water for a large number of seasons. If it hadnt, they likely would have ended the series many years ago. That doesnt mean it will last forever or anything, it just means it added in a lot of potential episodes to work with before the well starts to run dry again.

[Gnoman]

South Park was always kind of a gamble for me, as far as "will I enjoy this?" For every "Free Willyx", there was an episode like the Wal*Mart one, where I could see the jokes, recognize them as jokes, but simply say "I don't know why they thought that was funny."

[Whiffet]

Oh, yes. It was hilarious a few years ago. Occasionally it still is. I personally think they peaked around seasons 5-7, started going down a little at a time for seasons 8-11, and utterly crashed and burned for season 12. It seems to have picked up a little in the years since, but only a little.

I still try to catch new episodes, though. I don't actively look forward to them anymore, and I don't really care when I see them, but I still catch them. I know they can still pull off something good every once in a while, if they actually go somewhere with an episode and they remember "humor" is a necessary part of shock humor.

[Saph]

I liked it. Don't watch it much nowadays, but the best South Park episodes made me laugh way, way more than The Simpsons ever did. I can still remember the total disbelief when I watched 'Scott Tenorman Must Die' for the first time. "Yeah, the plan's going to fail and . . . wait, he did WHAT?" :smalleek:

[Zarrgon]

South Park has always been funny.

But it is really a hit or miss kind of show. The show is basically taking real events mixed with popular culture and having them happen in some fashion in Southpark. They can't run out of ideas as long as the world keeps spinning.

Sometimes the show is so funny that you can't stop laughing. Sometimes your shocked that they went there(and still more often then not find it funny). Sometimes the show is beyond wrong. Sometimes the show has a great message and commentary on life. And sometimes it's a waste of time.

The show takes a lot of flack from the 'toilet humor', 'shock humor' and 'gross humor' crowd that complains that is all the show is. And those same people miss all the great commentary the show has....and Southpark is one of the few places where you will see commentary on anything and everything.

And like any long running show, they have had lots and lots and lots of bad filler episodes. But that is what happens with TV shows. You have to put one out every week in the season, and everyone can't be a masterpiece. And that is why we got awful two part shows like gay Satan and Chris...yuck!

[TSGames]

Does anybody Find southpark Funny? Or is it just me?

It depends. South Park has gone through major style changes in both humor and animation throughout its very long animation history.

The major groupings for the humor would roughly be
---The Early Stages---
Season 1 & 2
--Slight improvements to story telling and animation, only minor humor changes--
Seasons 3 & 4
---The Balanced Storytelling Phase---
--Major changes to style, and storytelling, only minor humor changes--
Seasons 5, 6, 7
---More structured story, but starting to run out of jokes---
--Has a few notably good episodes, but overall a distinct change in tone and joke quality--
Season 8, 9, 10
---Ran Out of Jokes---
--Has two or three notable episodes so far, dramatic humor shift, half a step removed from Family Guy at points--
Seasons 11+

The 50 episodes you saw most probably consisted a good portion of episodes from season 11+. Let's not mince words, these episodes are such crap that I'm surprised Seth MacFarlane isn't credited as a writer.

Stick to the first seven seasons with limited jaunts into seasons 8, 9, and 10 and only targeted watching of specific episodes from anything after.

[Sholos]

They actually did an episode making fun of themselves for this. Rumor mill says they might be ending the show soon.

Which one was this?

[Aedilred]

South Park's always been hit and miss; I don't think that's changed. I didn't really appreciate it when it first appeared (partly, I think, because as a free-to-air-only household in the UK, we'd only just started receiving the Simpsons about a year earlier), but it's grown on me over the years. When they do get it right, too, it's fantastic. In fact, when pushed, I chose Bigger Longer Uncut as my desert island movie.

For some reason it seems obligatory to do a compare-and-contrast with Family Guy. I thought the first three seasons of Family Guy were consistently fantastic; the fourth was alright and everything since then has been on the boring side. American Dad! served as an adequate substitute in the days that FG was off the air, but I've lost interest since. I also find that the Seth MacFarlane shows tend to have less re-watch value than South Park.

I can still remember the total disbelief when I watched 'Scott Tenorman Must Die' for the first time. "Yeah, the plan's going to fail and . . . wait, he did WHAT?"
That has to be one of my favourite "things on TV" of all time.

[Scowling Dragon]

I didn't even blink against Scott tenorman must dies conclusion.

[Traab]

I didn't even blink against Scott tenorman must dies conclusion.

Remind me never to make you angry if the idea of that for a revenge isnt enough to throw you.

[Othesemo]

Eh. South park has never provoked more than a bemused smile out of me. It makes good jokes, yes, but it fails to do so with anything approaching regularity. I have never watched an episode and then thought to myself "that was thirty minutes well spent." I more often think something like "I could of spent that time playing starcraft. Why didn't I spend that time playing starcraft?"

[Calemyr]

I'm almost certainly in the minority here, but I loved the early South Park and the reason is seen clearly in the first Christmas special (the Mr. Hanky one).

Everyone is so preoccupied with political correctness that they destroy every icon of the holiday (including the secular ones) and make such a horrific self-absorbed, self-righteous mess of it all that a singing feces who rewards regular people was viewed as a wholesome and acceptable alternative in comparison. Then it ends with Jesus Christ sitting in a dark room with a cake singing "Happy Birthday to Me" in a quiet voice, completely forgotten by people who were too busy arguing whether a serial trespasser wearing brightly colored furs as a mascot was being too insensitive to fat people or reindeer rights activists.

The entire episode was satire to it's most outrageous degree and brutally mocked every camp it visited. It was twisted, it was ludicrous, and it was stupid - but that was the entire point. It took a debate and extended it to its illogical conclusion, painting in cursive... er cursing... just where that road leads. It was genius.

There have been a couple episodes in later seasons that showed that genius as well, but they're few and far between and what you have to endure otherwise is too crude and stupid to be worth it and I eventually just stopped watching.

[JustSomeGuy]

Captain Hindsight
Goobacks
Psychic Cartman
Soapbox derby/intergalactic federation
Stans facebook battle

All worked well for me. Also, lemmiwinks.


EDIT: how could i forget pimp butters!

[CapnRedBeard]

Some episodes are funnier than the entirety of the Simpsons and Family Guy combined.

Butter's Bottom Bitch

Woodland Critter Christmas

Medicinal Fried Chicken

Gingers

Gnomes

Rainforest Schmainforest

[Lhurgyof]

The episode mentioned in the OP is my favorite in the series. They should use that cop more often.

Anyway, IMO the first 2 seasons aren't that funny, and it hasn't been that great in the past 5 or so years, but there are still occasional gems which keep me a regular viewer (Medicinal Fried Chicken and the recent Butterballs come to mind). I rarely laugh out loud at TV shows/movies, but Randy bouncing on his balls managed to make me do that.

I loved that cop.

Randy is hilarious. Every episode where he plays a major role is gold!

I do like South Park. Sure, some episodes suck, but that's bound to happen.

I realize everybody has different tastes, though.

[Aedilred]

Oh, yes. It was hilarious a few years ago. Occasionally it still is. I personally think they peaked around seasons 5-7, started going down a little at a time for seasons 8-11, and utterly crashed and burned for season 12. It seems to have picked up a little in the years since, but only a little.
That is pretty much how I think of the Simpsons, too, although it peaked earlier and for longer (from about seasons 2-6). It seems it's just very difficult to sustain a show for longer than about seven years while maintaining a consistently high quality. (As with South Park, the Simpsons has had something of a renaissance - I think - and seemed to recover some of its old spark around season 19, although it never scaled quite the same heights again).

[Traab]

I think a part of the reason why is that most shows are built around a certain theme. A style of humor and storytelling, and eventually they get boring. you have explored it, and ridden the jokes into the ground. South park hit that stage after the first few seasons, and they survived by stopping the random episodes, and relying on kenny dying gags, and started making fun of current events and pop culture. That added in an entire new spectrum of themes they could use. But once again, a show built around mocking current events can still get boring and old just like any other theme. Some last longer than others.

Simpsons lasted as long as it has, because it wasnt built around a single character, each of the main characters, and several of the secondary ones, has their own theme that lends itself to a long list of episodes. That helped keep the series fresh over the last 150 years its been running for. I just hope south park finds a new angle to come from before they drive the show completely into the ground. No idea what it could be though.

[JustSomeGuy]

I'd agree, and to further add to the point:

Family guy should absolutely stick to rendom 'reference' jokes and nosense. When they do serious stuff (just watched the 'MEg taking abuse holds together the family' and the 'Qagmire's sister' episode which seemed written around one ****ty joke) it just doesn't entertain or hold value because of the cartoon violence and over the top situations they've previously faced.

Conversley, i never really got into Cleveland, it just didn't hold the same outrageous humour - until they did the 'Donna's mum/supremes' episode, which i felt worked really well given the character setup already established.

I'm not sure where American Dad fit's into there, but it was always my favorite of the three (i guess i identify most with Stan, although that doesn't really take much given the other two). I guess i just think the shows should each cover a set niche, instead of treading on each other's toes.

[Raimun]

I think the first few seasons of South Park were the funniest of the series.

After that my interest waned and now I only watch it occasionally, when I spot it on tv. I usually enjoy the few stray episodes I watch and I might get a laugh or two. Still, that's not enough to make me actively watch the series.

To sum it up, South Park is sometimes funny.

Exhibit A: The Russell Crowe show - Fightin' Around the World! (http://vimeo.com/33493710)

Edit: Compared to other western adult cartoon series, I think South Park stands in the middle. Simpsons takes the cake. Futurama is fun too. South Park has it's moments. King of the hill is like watching paint dry. Family guy is like that too but it's also offensive for the sake of shock value only and the animation and the voice acting are torture for eyes and ears, respectively. More power to you if you like Family guy. :smallamused:

[Avilan the Grey]

I think the early seasons were... interesting. Not very funny (basically their best episodes = Family Guy's mediocre episodes IMHO) but interesting.

[Elrik]

Was South Park ever funny? I found it consistently tolerable up until season 11, and then only liked the occasional episodes, among them Faith Hilling, Guitar Queer-o, Cartman's superhero episode, Crippled Summer, Butterballs, and the Cthulhu two parter among them.


I think the early seasons were... interesting. Not very funny (basically their best episodes = Family Guy's mediocre episodes IMHO) but interesting.

IMO Family Guy is alot worse. I can at least grin or chuckle at a few
South Park jokes, Family Guy leaves me cold. I only watch it on adult swim for background noise while I'm avoiding homework, or waiting for Toonami or Boondocks (also rarely funny) to come on.

[Avilan the Grey]

IMO Family Guy is alot worse. I can at least grin or chuckle at a few
South Park jokes, Family Guy leaves me cold. I only watch it on adult swim for background noise while I'm avoiding homework, or waiting for Toonami or Boondocks (also rarely funny) to come on.

And I feel the exact opposite. The jokes on Southpark is just disgusting, with no humor, while on FG the jokes are only 87,5% disgusting and has 12,5% humor in them...

[CapnRedBeard]

To me the Simpsons were tired about a decade ago. Family Guy was a breath of fresh air then also got tired...American Dad was never funny...

Robot Chicken is better...but it won't last forever either.

Metalocalypse is AWESOME but I watch that less now than I used to as well. Maybe I'm just over-saturated with American anime/sitcoms right now.

[Traab]

And I feel the exact opposite. The jokes on Southpark is just disgusting, with no humor, while on FG the jokes are only 87,5% disgusting and has 12,5% humor in them...

Family guy started out funny, but it got old fast, dealing with a show that tries to cram in 20 jokes a minute, half of which are scene breaks to make us laugh about something they said. "Hur hur, that reminds me of a laugh in sketch" /cue scene break to a family guy version of a laugh in sketch, then cut back to family guy again.

[Othesemo]

In summarization, different people find different things funny.

[Avilan the Grey]

In summarization, different people find different things funny.

And that is funny.

:smallwink:

[Tanuki Tales]

I love the Cthulhu multiparter. I in general like every episode for it's absurdest humor, but that was my favorite yet (even over the Killing Joke styled one where we learn that Cartman's father really was a Denver Bronco.).

[Whiffet]

Was South Park ever funny? I found it consistently tolerable up until season 11, and then only liked the occasional episodes, among them Faith Hilling, Guitar Queer-o, Cartman's superhero episode, Crippled Summer, Butterballs, and the Cthulhu two parter among them.

Two parter? It was a three-parter, wasn't it?

I mean, I'm pretty sure...

[Tanuki Tales]

Two parter? It was a three-parter, wasn't it?

I mean, I'm pretty sure...

It was at least a three parter. I could have sworn it was more.

[TSGames]

It was at least a three parter. I could have sworn it was more.

It just dragged on long enough to feel like it had four parts...

[DrBurr]

So what I've gathered from this thread is everyone finds American Dad funny to some degree and most people think South Park has peaked and others think its hit & miss

Me South Park has always been hit & miss ever since they shifted to social satire some episodes are really funny and others are very meh before when they were mostly gross out humor I found the show bland. I personally like any episode with a Randy or Butters subplot they tend to break up the serious 4th grade world the four mains live in with some off the wall comment, but they should avoid giving them multiple episodes typically there should maybe be a Butters Episode in the spring lets say and a Randy one in the Autumn

[snoopy13a]

Family guy started out funny, but it got old fast, dealing with a show that tries to cram in 20 jokes a minute, half of which are scene breaks to make us laugh about something they said. "Hur hur, that reminds me of a laugh in sketch" /cue scene break to a family guy version of a laugh in sketch, then cut back to family guy again.

By "started out" do you mean during its original run around 2000? Or do you mean its first few seasons after the second run?

[Traab]

By "started out" do you mean during its original run around 2000? Or do you mean its first few seasons after the second run?

Honestly? Its been so long since i cared enough to watch it that I couldnt tell you. I just know there were some good episodes, mostly a lot of good jokes in ok episodes, and it just got annoying to me.

[valadil]

Early South Park was weird and quirky. It worked for some but not all.

Seasons 5-10 were brilliant. IMO they were the best thing on TV at the time. Since then it's been on steady decline. I don't think I liked a single episode last season.