Let me introduce you to an American cartoon.
When it comes to American cartoons,
different people have different first reactions.
Some think of The Lion King and Tom and Jerry,
some think of Rick and Morty and Happy Tree Friends,
some think of Superman and Watchmen.
But none of these matter,
because compared to those trashy cartoons/comics,
today we’re talking about an even trashier cartoon:
South Park
In the south of America, there’s a park, called South Park.
We have four elementary school protagonists:Cartman, Kyle, Stan, Kenny.
As everyone knows,
elementary schoolers are monsters.
The daily lives of the Four South Park Musketeers (yep, this nickname is exactly that chunibyo)
are also turbulent.
For example, as a much-watched startup company
about to hold a press conference (S18E01):
For example, as a trans person,
enjoying the right to choose your own bathroom (S18E03):
For example, the Elon Musk cameo (S18E04):
For example, the Canadians inside all have this art style (S18E06):
What’s special about South Park
Rick And Morty’s special quality is its setting, plot threads, and storyline design,
Happy Tree Friends’s special quality is its bluntness and mercilessness.
South Park (SP)’s special quality lies in its worldview:
Everyone is special, everyone is stupid.
SP is anti-Political-Correctness (PC),
they made a principal specifically called P.C. Principal.
Everything he does is politically correct,
and as a result he gets mocked beyond belief.
SP is also anti-political-incorrectness,
although PC Principal gets dragged the whole time,
in the end he still cool-handedly stands up to save South Park,
and delivers a gay little speech.
SP mocks Chinese people.
The Chinese in South Park run restaurants,
small-eyed and can’t stand up straight,
mouths full of weird-flavored accents.
SP mocks Canadians.
Look weird,
think simple,
have weird hobbies,
even their art style is different from others’ (literally different art style)…
SP mocks Americans even more.
For example American TV doesn’t allow the F-word to appear,
SP stuffed more than two hundred F-words into one of its episodes…
In short,
in South Park,
everyone gets bashed.
But this is exactly what makes it special:
Want to bash others, first bash yourself.
Which episode to start watching from?
South Park is now nearly 20 seasons in, 200 episodes total.
But the plot continuity between episodes isn’t particularly strong,
so if you want to watch you can start from the latest 18th or 19th season.
(Just search 南方公园 on Bilibili and there are resources)
Or you can pick some exciting topical standalone episodes:
South Park Season 8 Episode 7: Michael Jackson (SP S08E07: The Jeffersons)
South Park Season 10 Episode 8: World of Warcraft (SP S10E08: Make love, not Warcraft)
South Park Season 17 Episode 7/8: A Song of Ice and Fire (SP S17E07/08: A Song Of Ass and Fire)
But no matter where you start watching from,
it can’t change the fact that you’re all stupid humans.
Kekeke.