Struggling.
Definitely trying for the cheap laughs, a lot more average episodes than anything else.
I like them. I have been laughing at season 11’s stuff (Naggers!). I agree though, average episodes than anything else.
With Apologies to Jesse Jackson, Cartman Sucks and Night of the Living Homeless were all quite good, and there’ve been a few other decent ones. Both of the new second half of the season episodes, Le Petit Tourette and More Crap, were disappointing, though. Season 10 was excellent IMO (The Return of Chef, Cartoon Wars, Tsst, Make Love, Not Warcraft, Mystery of the Urinal Deuce, Go God Go and Stanley’s Cup are all superb,) so I’m not terribly surprised that 11 has been something of a letdown.
That is some hardcore I-talicization right there. (not that it’ll show in the quote)
But yeah, the second half of Season 11 seems like they’re recycling from the warehouse of wacky plotlines and making a handful of jokes stretch out over 22 minutes.
Yeah. South Park is at its best when they create an entire socially and/or politically relevant episode 3 days before it airs. I get the impression the last couple of shows don’t fall into that category.
Ironically, that’s when I hate South Park the most. I think the best episodes are the ones that centre on the kids being kids, like the ninja battles or the returning of the porn tape a la Lord Of The Rings.
To me they seem to do a lot of their best work when they’re utterly exhausted and out of ideas. Season 8 is, in my humble estimation, the best of them so far. Nearly every episode is a bona fide classic, and yet it was produced during their “year of hell,” when they reportedly suffered from a lot of writer’s block due to making Team America at the same time. Same deal with Stanley’s Cup, they were exhausted and couldn’t think of where to go for it, and it’s the best episode of the season.
Anyway, just something I’ve noticed.
Eh, the political episodes can go both ways. Sometimes you get I’m a Little Bit Country, sometimes you get Manbearpig.
(and sorry about the excessive use of italics. I wanted to offset the episode names since I was listing a lot of them, and I hate using bold, and quotes just make them harder to pick out.)
Remind me what “I’m a Little Bit Country” is, and tell me whether ManBearPig was good or bad.
A Little Bit Country is the 100th episode, where Cartman knocks himself out to see what the founding fathers would have thought about the Iraq War. ManBearPig was stupid, except for Cartman eating (and subsequently crapping out) all the fake gold.
That’s funny – given the choice, I’d watch ManBearPig again.
ManBearPig is basically a 22 minute one-note joke about how Al Gore is dumb. Now, if you really, really think Al Gore is dumb, and in turn think that’s hilarious, then I suppose it’s funny. If not, it’s cute for about 30 seconds and then gets old but continues to drive itself into the ground anyway, just in case you didn’t get the fact that Trey and Matt think Al Gore is dumb. The only reprieve comes from the aforementioned subplot of Cartman eating a bunch of fake gold, which is admittedly hilarious. I get that you guys are republibertarians or whatever, but harping on the exact same joke for 20 minutes is just poor form, no matter how ripe you believe the target is for ridicule. There are funny ways to lampoon Al Gore, but ManBearPig isn’t one of them.
At any rate, I think it was the low point of season 10.
It never ceases to amaze me that South Park once called out Family Guy for lazy comedy writing. That’s like Rush Limbaugh calling somebody out for being a pill-popping hypocrite.
Eh, to be fair they called out Family Guy specifically for having completely interchangable jokes. The AVClub recently described FG as a joke delivery mechanism, which is pretty accurate I think. South Park’s jokes, even when they’re not funny, are at least relevant to the plotline for the most part.
Then the next episode was randomly about Oprah and had nothing to do with South Park.
What? Family Guy is lazy comedy writing. It’s a bunch of rapid-fire jokes and pop culture references strung together by a very bare-bones plot. In South Park you actually have to connect the jokes with a (generally) coherent story in between. You don’t refer to Family Guy episodes - you refer to Family Guy bits (with a few exceptions like the Star Wars episode).
Ironically, the ninja battle episode was one of the more “Hammer it home” commentary episodes, because it was basically shouting “Violence is fine but nudity is EVIL!” the entire time.
Yes, I know. But for South Park to call them out on it is humourous, because they are equally as lazy. Hence my Rush Limbaugh comparison.
What? The nudity was the end plot twist. before Cartman stripped and sidled up on stage no one had mentioned or showed nudity, and the whole nudity is EVIL gag was the very last bit of the show which was what made it funny. The boys expected to get in trouble for throwing a sharp metal object at butters and dressing him up as a dog, instead everyone got upset at Cartman for stripping. Cue surprise. The End.
I don’t think South Park is lazy at all… its pretty sharp. Even after 10+ years… I just started rewatching it after that WoW episode.
Imo, South Park has SURPASSED Simpsons as the best animated comedy show…even one of the best comedy shows. The last two seasons have been weaker but compared to what else is on tv, they’re still up there.
go to http://allsp.com/ to watch em all.
etc