The Wisdom and Brilliance of South Park

I'll start this by admitting something; sometimes I'm embarrassed about how much I love this show. After all, I'm a bit older than most viewers and it is an animation that has been branded as vulgar and obnoxious by most people. But I don't care, because having seen every single episode released to date I can safely say that this is one of the most brilliant shows on television, leaking subtle yet ingenious pieces of wisdom out of its comic anus.

Sometimes shows tackle taboo or controversial subjects purely for shock value and easy laughs. What Matt Stone and Trey Parker (the creators) have done is create an entire community full of bizarre yet well thought-out characters that becomes a fantastic launch point, both for absurd ‘Monty-Pythonesque' scenarios and confronting real issues in their way. I have yet to encounter an episode where the subject isn't completely dissected from all points of view leading to a fair conclusion, and it is in this multi-perspective world that we can see things as they truly are. It's indeed very rare to find a show that excels in comedic genius as well as philosophical intelligence.

Here are some of the particularly brilliant episodes:

(S6-ep08) Red Hot Catholic Love

The issue: The absurdity of religious dogma

When the local catholic priest surprisingly discovers that it is, in fact, commonplace for all priests to molest young boys, he decides to go to the Vatican to confront the issue at its heart, where he discovers the problem is much bigger than that (Queen Spider, Galgamacs, etc). Basically what they're trying to say by exaggerating the dogmatic beliefs and illogical actions is that we have all moved very far from the root of religion. The power system, the doctrines, the do's and don'ts are all man made. We spend more time discussing trivialities than actually learning to love each other, something all religions teach.

(S8-ep09) Something Wall-Mart this way comes

The issue: The evil ways of capitalism and how it plays on our greed.

By making out the new branch of wall-mart that has just opened in South Park as an evil, self running entity (an obvious allusion to the Matrix), we are shown just how human greed is an essential component of capitalism. When everyone finds themselves dedicate all their shopping time to this one store because of all the bargains (and actually spending more overall) which leads to the smaller stores closing, the wacky citizens decide to burn it down. It immediately comes back and amazingly they find themselves still going there. If our entire lives become about buying more and more products that we use to ‘define' ourselves then we might as well just blow the planet up.

(S8-ep04) The Passion of the Jew

The Issue: Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and all the hoopla surrounding it.

I myself thought that this movie was a ridiculous waste of time (does two hours of watching a guy getting tortured sound like fun?) so I was happy that the South Park boys decided to ridicule it as well. The episode mirrors how many people were immensely impressed by the film and actually decided to become ‘better Christians' after it, and how different their plans turned out when they accidentally started a hate war on the Jews of the community (led by Eric Cartman as a miniature Hitler, of course). You cannot be ‘guilt tripped' into being more faithful. As another direct hit on Catholicism, it does not make any sense at all to teach people love and faith through guilt and fear.

(S11-ep01) With Apologies to Jesse Jackson

The issue: Racism and Ignorance

There has been so much that has happened to do with race in America that the situation truly has become very complicated now, especially so long after ‘it' happened (slavery). So I was impressed when they used more than one perspective in this episode, where Mr. Marsh accidentally says the ‘N word' on national television and becomes one of the ‘nigger guys' along with comedian Michael Richards. The thing is, there has been so much wasted resource on race conflicts that I think people should just learn from what happened and move on; accept the fact that we are all the same and that it doesn't matter what colour your skin is or where you're from. Or is forgive and forget a bit too naïve and optimistic on my part?

(S11-ep07) Night of the living homeless

The Issue: The homeless problem.

Not all have most of us become accustomed to living with the idea of poverty around the world, we have actually come to the point where we can step over the homeless people at work without so much as a glance. Not to say that people like this are ‘bad' (I myself do this), but fixing this problem should be at the top of our priorities. In this episode the town becomes infiltrated by hundreds of ‘homeless' who are more like zombies than people, driving everyone insane with excessive pleas of “you got any spare change sir?” A hilarious episode that presents the problem in the most ingenious way; we actually see them as sub-human because of their circumstances, which indirectly we are the cause of.

(S6-ep10) Bebe's boobs destroy society

Issue: Human instincts

I've always found it very interesting how a person can educate and enlighten themselves to the point that they're thinking on a different plane to everyone else, yet they are still crippled by human instinct and needs just like everyone else. This is one of the more light-hearted episodes, yet it does hit home on this important issue, when of the girls in the class (Bebe) suddenly develops tiny breasts that turn out to have a disastrous impact on all of the boys by making them act like cavemen. It really is a terrifying thought; what if most of the world's problems are caused by men being insecure about the size of their wieners or wanting to be attractive to many women? Terrifying, I say…

P.S. The new episode, 'Le Petite Tourette' is out NOW! Not much wisdom in this one, but screw wisdom, it's funny as hell!