Oh my God, South Park killed political correctness

In 1997, Comedy Central launched one of the most amusing and influential television programs in history- South Park. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of Colorado, this show about the adventures of four young boys from a small mountain town has made fun of just about everything and everyone over the years. It has managed to evolve itself with each passing season, going from an obscure cable television experiment with a considerable focus on humor (no matter how immature) to becoming a significant political influence in the culture of America while still finding a way to maintain the laughs.

In the early years, South Park was dismissed by most as a raunchy, crude show for teenagers. In a way, it was. But it never failed to be funny. The boys did everything from going up against a power-hungry Barbra Streisand to watching a boxing match between Jesus and Satan. These storylines were certainly worth a laugh, but political insights were rare (yet still present). To avoid becoming stale, Parker and Stone almost reinvented themselves by the fourth season. They became less focused with ways of killing Kenny and more focused on delivering serious messages presented in the most creative of ways.

In the first few episodes after Y2K, South Park started tackling very important and controversial issues, such as hate crimes and racist flags (mirroring the issue of the South Carolina state flag during the 2000 elections). There was even an episode in which one of the boys (Cartman) innocently joined the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) looking for adult male friends. Each lesson provided at the end of the show usually seemed to give a rather conservative, politically incorrect viewpoint, surprising in the very liberal world of humor. The boys concluded that hate crimes were a "savage hypocrisy" since all crimes are based upon hate. They realized that not all people wanted a flag to stay because it was racist but because it represented a history of their ancestors. When a NAMBLA member states his case about freedom to love little boys, Stan (voiced by Parker) simply counters with, "You have SEX with CHILDREN!"

South Park has always made its point heard through these types of pithy statements and by employing elaborate storylines parallel to the issues of the day, and has continued to improve at achieving this as the years have passed by. A major reason it is successful is because it can disguise a serious issue as something else. For instance, there was an episode about people from the future who spoke a strange language who transported to South Park. They were taking jobs from the locals because they worked for much less money, and the town had to figure out a way of dealing with the problem. Parker and Stone managed to do an episode about illegal immigration without actually doing an episode about illegal immigration. Genius.

There have been other notable episodes South Park the past few seasons. The boys were sent to the "Death Camp of Tolerance," where intolerance of others' behavior was not tolerated. Parker and Stone defended smokers in "Butt Out" and called out Rob Reiner and the anti-smoking brigade for restricting the rights of people nationwide who simply want a cigarette to relieve stress. This past season, South Park took on two issues in one episode, mocking the global warming panic from "The Day After Tomorrow" and being more concerned with the victims of a flood (parallel to Hurricane Katrina) than figuring out who is to blame for the disaster.

South Park isn't a right-wing partisan program; Parker and Stone dedicate a lot of time to each issue they explore and are willing to expose anyone they feel deserves it. Their views are generally conservative, but not always. They give a moderate opinion about the war in the episode "I'm a Little Bit Country." They simply argue that we need protesters to keep the United States from looking like war-mongers and we need people who support war so that we don't become lackadaisical about confrontation. In "Best Friends Forever," just days after Terry Schiavo officially died, they pointed out that it could be considered "playing God" by keeping people alive on machines just as much as it is letting them die.

The show has also explored the topic of religion and spirituality many times, picking on Catholics, Mormons, cults in general, psychics like John Edward, and most recently Scientology. The people it parodies tend to be loudmouthed or spoiled celebrities, including Rosie O'Donnell, Russell Crowe, Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson, and Tom Cruise. Politicians like John Kerry and George W. Bush are rarely the target of its comedy, as South Park usually criticizes the bureaucracy of government in general.

Whether you always agree with its views or not, South Park is much more than a goofy kids' show. It is politically aware and always original, and it pokes fun at so many people and different aspects of our society without offending people, at least those who don't take themselves so seriously.