DVD Review: South Park Season Eleven
Comedy Central, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's 11th DVD Collection
Aug 13, 2008
It's become slightly scary that the two longest running comedy shows of modern times are both animated: The Simpsons and South Park. Of the two, South Park was the underdog: back when it debuted in 1997, no one thought an animated series featuring ass jokes, cultist cows, and Barbra Streisand as an evil robot would ever last 3 seasons. Yet the show is still going strong, and shows no signs of losing momentum.
Eleventh Season: Trey Parker and Matt Stone Still Have It
South Park is definitely not for the weak of heart or delicate of sensibilities. Whether it's Bono breast-feeding, a nuclear bomb stashed in Hilary Clinton's privates, or suicides at a Christian camp for "confused" children, show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are not afraid to offend anyone.
But the operative word here is "anyone." Parker and Stone don't have an agenda to push. They're there to knock the pomposity out of everything they take aim at and it's never at the expense of getting the cheap laugh. Many satirical shows take the cheap shot in order to humiliate their objects, and lose credibility by doing so. It's a scatter-gun approach that presumes that, if you throw enough crap at a subject, something will stick. Instead, Parker and Stone go for the direct hit and it always works.
While South Park doesn't shy from the scatalogical or the gory – check out the hordes of pedophiles killing themselves in "Le Petit Tourette" or how the 'Emmy Award-winning Show' gag turns out in "More Crap" – the duo do have something to say. Yes, Cartman may have fun pretending to have Tourette's Syndrome in one episode, but the show offers genuine sympathy to those who have the disease. And "Cartman Sucks" has a serious point to make about so-called Christian camps that try to "pray the gay away."
This scatological-but-smart duality has become central to Parker and Stone's work: not for nothing did former far-right magazine The Western Standard call their 2004 film Team America: World Police, "the smartest satire you will never see."
Speaking of movies, South Park fans will dig on the Da Vinci Code spoof in "Fantastic Easter Special" (gotta love the Krull reference in there, too!), plus the 24 and 300 digs in "The Snuke" and "D-Yikes" respectively. Again, these bits aren't just for the cheap, empty laugh; Parker and Stone make those gags a central part of the plot. Are you listening, Superhero Movie producers?
DVD Extras
Completists should know that the third disc of Season 11 also contains the "Imaginationland" 3-parter that was released on a separate DVD a few months ago. However, the Imaginationland DVD contained some "too hot for TV" scenes that never made the original broadcast. Some fans might go for the double-dip, while others may cry foul.
Speaking of foul (and no, that's not a reference to the "More Crap" episode), Parker and Stone wimp out on the commentaries, only discussing maybe a 1/3 of each episode. While it's admirable that they let the shows speak for themselves, the duo give such such hilarious detail and insight into their own work that it's a shame that they don't do more here.
The Final Analysis
South Park has lasted for 11 years for three simple reasons: it's smart, funny and Parker and Stone keep upping their game with each new season. While the raunchy humour keeps the cock-comedy crowd coming back for more, others stay for the genuinely insightful satire.
There are plenty of moments where Parker and Stone push the envelope of acceptability (heck, they run over it with their cars and then mutilate the corpse!) but South Park is always smart, and funny. And that's why it's still on TV. 7/10.
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