I just watched my very first ep of South Park . . . Tivo is my friend . . . yeah, I know, what the hell took me so long?
I saw the one about the school nurse with the dead conjoined fetus on the side of her head.
Are that all so strange? I hope so.
Yes, most of them are. Try to catch the current one about Britney Spears. That’s typical of Matt and Trey’s style. Or catch some of the earliest ones such as “Cartman Gets An Anal Probe” or “Death.” Some of the episodes are better than others, some of them sail pretty wide of the mark, but over 12 seasons, South Park has maintained a consistency as one of the most warped and funniest animated shows on TV.
P.S. Definitely see the motion picture “South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut.”
I suspect what took you so long was the same thing that took me so long: the first few seasons stink. They play up being as shocking as possible with no underlying theme or strength. Then somewhere along the line they started pairing that up with some clever ideas and that’s when the show got to be good.
I’d say about a third of the episodes are pretty clever, a third are entertaining, and a third are pure schlock.
The tooth fairy episode, the ninja episode, the Scientology episode, the WoW episode, and anything involving Jesus are good bets. But sometimes they do get too caught up in putting in as much blood, gore, shit, and vomit as they can, and those episodes get tiresome very quickly.
I think South Park is one of the most important shows on television.
A good portion of the time the message is virtuous and more strongly and plainly spoken than most mainstream media dare. It’s also nice to know that Parker and Stone don’t seem to take themselves too seriously and they step down from their soapbox on a regular basis to make episodes about poop, or whatever.
The NAMBLA episode has always been my favorite. It’s one of the more juvenile ones, to be sure (lots of blood and shit and puke), but it never fails to make me laugh until my asthma acts up. And cry at the struggle undergone by Kenny. Yeah, I’m a big wuss. 
I disagree that the early seasons were bad. Lots of the episodes are even more bizarre than current ones, but that’s okay. I mean, who can’t love Mecha-Streisand or Damien or Gnomes?
The pilot, Cartman Gets An Anal Probe is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. To me, the rest of the episodes pale by comparison.
Agreed. Except for the first appearance of Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo.
I haven’t watched South Park in years. I didn’t like the constantly escalating gore, shit and vomit. It just wasn’t funny to me anymore.
But I still think the movie surpasses even the best of the show and completely stands on its own.
Good humor is enhanced by blood ,shit and vomit. South Park has been a funny and provocative show since it started. I do not like Mr, Hanky or Towlee episodes so much. They are still funny. When they got rid of Chef it was great episode.
I’d say that’s not an unreasonable estimate. What I like about South Park is the combinations of different types of humor, from slap stick and juvenile, to dry and sophisticated, to just plain twisted. Most of the episodes are timely, like the Britney Spears one this week. On the surface, these episodes are just juvenile fun-poking at her, but later on, you realize they’re really making social commentary on our celebrity obsessed culture.
A lot of the other episodes have plots that are just meant to be humorous, and don’t make any social commentary; some good famous examples would be episodes like “Scott Tenorman Must Die” or “Good Times with Weapons”.
Any episode dealing with Godzilla, Sea Monkeys, the Easter Bunny, Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo, googly-eyed woodland critters, religious hucksterism, the sex lives of Mrs. Cartman and/or Chef, weight loss/gain, gay runaway pets, space aliens, genetic engineering, birth defects, pedophilia, the War on Terror, the misadventures of Randy Marsh, Chef’s “salty balls,” or liberating killer whales is probably better than average.
Any episode centered around Mr./Ms. Garrison is probably worse than average.
Enjoy the process of delving into those back episodes. There’s a big, wide world of creative perversity out there to discover.
I wish I could just now discover South Park. Oh the laughter I could cram into two weeks instead of spreading it out over 11 years!
I’ve seen every episode from day 1. I’d say Just Some Guy’s esitmate is on the right track but I don’t think fully a third are pure shlock. Maybe 5 or 10%.
My recommendation is to buy or rent the seasons and watch them in order. There’s not much of an underlying narrative but there is lots of character development, a few running jokes, and some long story-arcs that are well worth it (like when Kenny died and they had to find a new 4th friend.)
Also, I can’t recommend highly enough the movie. Sitting in the theatre watching that was one of the hardest laughs I’ve ever had.
If you’re still a fan after all of that, watch Cannibal! The Musical, Orgazmo, BASEketball, and Team America: World Police.
I wouldn’t say that “Good Times with Weapons” has no social commentary, but the fact that Matt and Trey are so good at mixing social observations with so many types of humour on a regular basis is why I like the show.
Even though some of their best episodes involve the adults being complete idiots (see"Child Abduction is not Funny"–Stan’s last comment sums it up nicely) I much prefer when the kids misunderstand something–it brings a nice air of reality to an otherwise insane show. That, or Cartman plotting something. He would probably cure cancer if he would get something out of it. “Look, my own Shakey’s Pizza!”
The Out of the closet episode, skewered Scientology. They did one with the Mormons too. They put a lot of info in those cartoons. They bare not afraid to tackle the icons . They did a great job with Johnathan Edwards. Biggest douche in the Universe episode.
Yeah, the early seasons are great. And look for the short that started everything: The Spirit of Christmas.
Agree 100%. Early episodes mere shock, later ones quality satire.
Ah, I love this show.
I miss Terrance and Phillip. 
I liked the riff on The Lottery. ‘Here, Davy.’ Heh.
Any episode that involves adults being complete idiots is a good start. There are a lot, after all, but the ones that seem to revolve most around adult idiocy are The Wacky Molestation Adventure, Child Abduction is not Funny, The Death Camp of Tolerance, and Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow.
Much like older Simpsons, part of the fun of South Park is playing catch the references. They don’t go out of their way (most of the time) to point them out like Family Guy does. Either you know what it is or where it comes from or you don’t.