Even with all of this having been said, South Park is still in the end both influential and aware of this influence on America. While the popularity of the show has somewhat declined significantly since its conception, Matt Stone attributes this drop off to previous news hype and the subsequent trimming of his audience to the “true” fan base, the show’s awareness is shown through the metafictional way of several characters speaking directly into the camera. But before the writer’s audience can be fully addressed, much less the deeper issues including the ramification of South Park’s influence particularly concerning the portrayal of the Middle East, it is pertinent to discuss why the show was chosen, a brief history, its construction, its continuing themes, and its eventual somewhat predictable form.
South Park was chosen to be this essay’s subject of analysis because not only is the show edgy and popular, as already stipulated in the opening paragraphs, but because it is grounded in public perception. This latter trait is largely used to describe more traditionally analyzed media like The New York Times or Time but I would argue that South Park at times can be just as effective as print.[1] Cable television and increasingly the internet are used to deliver South Park episodes to a more global audience. South Park is and will continue to be written for consumption in the United States, but that hasn’t prevented nations like Australia, Canada and even Latin American and Russia to pick up the show. Cable television networks have smaller audience pools but they make up for this through specialization. South Park fans quote Cartman’s pronunciations of words like “authori-tie” and buy shirts by the millions each year. South Park may have become so successful in other countries, especially those speaking other languages than English, because of the show’s trademark of low-tech animation allows the character to be easily dubbed over. The international broadcasting of South Park isn’t completely smooth as one show in particular “Free Willyzx” featuring Vladmir Putin as greedy and weak caused the show to be censored in Russia.[2] Another part of South Park’s continued success lies in is its ability to adapt rapidly in order to make shows involving the latest hot topic. South Park’s SNL like work schedule, sometimes producing an entire from start to finish in one week, has enabled the show to be as timely as The Economist. For instance when the controversy over Terri Schiavo was all over the news in 2005, Matt Stone and Trey Parker were able to write, produce and even do the majority of voices in a week’s time for “Best Friends Forever,” a show dealing with euthanasia.[3] While periodicals deal with primarily the assimilation of facts, Stone and Parker unabashedly show their opinions of the debate as a whole. This includes the writer’s portrayal of not only the events themselves but how they are portrayed in the media, private industry, public, and government. So in the aforementioned “Best Friends Forever” Stone and Parker focused not so much on euthanasia, as they interpreted this to be not the main issue, but instead the media coverage of Mrs. Schiavo’s death. As satirically shown through the death of Kenny, it could be easily recognized the disgust of Parker and Stone’s disgust of the media constantly showing the face of a dying women for political objectives.
[1] Both of which have praised South Park.
[2] Season 9 Episode 13.
[3] Stone and Parker do the majority of voices in every South Park episode. The writers digitally raise the pitches of their voices three half tones to do the voices of the children (up two for women’s voices and up five for chimpmonks). Original air date: March 30, 2005. “Best Friends Forever” was Season 9 episode 4.
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