Subject matter in South Park

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that South Park#Controversy be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

See also South Park Republican regarding a pop-culture attempt to define the show's political viewpoints.

South Park has attempted to cover and satirize a large number of topics over the course of its run. In more recent years, the use of computer animation has made it possible to edit episodes in days, quickly commenting on recent events (Elián González, 2000 U.S. Presidential Election, the capture of Saddam Hussein, etc). The creators also have engendered a mix of socially liberal & politically conservative viewpoints, espousing a libertarian ideology in both real life and on the show.

1 Abortion
2 Celebrities
3 Censorship
4 Drugs
5 Environmentalism and Global Warming
6 Nazis
7 Homosexuality and Gay Marriage
8 Religion
9 Politics
10 Saddam Hussein, the War on Terror, and the Iraq War
11 Other

[edit] Abortion

Abortion is heavily lampooned in South Park. Whether this is meant to be a pro/con argument is speculative.

Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut: Cartman's Mom attempted to get her son a "42nd trimester" abortion, only to figure out later that she wanted him adopted instead.
Kenny Dies: Cartman attempts to get Stem Cell Research (using aborted fetuses) legalized in a feigned attempt to save Kenny's life.
A Ladder To Heaven: Upon realizing that Kenny's soul is inside his body, Cartman decides to go somewhere where they "remove living souls from inside" of him. He then proceeds to go to an abortion clinic where he gets into an argument with the lady at the counter, stating that he can't live this way and demanding that they just suck Kenny's soul out. Incidentily, at this point a couple walk in and upon hearing Cartman's rant, the girlfriend states that she "can't do this" and runs out. At that point, the visibly angry boyfriend throws a rock at Cartman.
Woodland Critter Christmas: The (mountain) lion cubs are taught at an abortion clinic how to stop the AntiChrist porcupine from being born. After they give Kyle an "abortion".
Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina: The newly sex-changed Mrs. Garrison becomes convinced she is pregnant because she doesn't start having a period, only to find out at the abortion clinic that she has no uterus (which are not created in sex change operations) and therefore cannot get pregnant.

[edit] Celebrities

See also: List of celebrities on South Park.

Barbra Streisand: in "Mecha-Streisand", she gains evil-powers and destroys the town as a MechaGodzilla-style creature; in "Spookyfish", different visages from her TV and movie work appear as "Spooky Streisand" sidebars. Her name also seems to be something of a curse word in the South Park universe, as in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and "Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants." In the first season DVD commentary the creators claim that she is the only celebrity from the show that they truly hate.
Starvin' Marvin & Starvin' Marvin in Space lampoon the charity efforts of Sally Struthers, who appears as a Jabba the Hutt figure in the latter episode.
Butters' Very Own Episode: the parents of Butters Stotch try to conceal his attempted murder with the help of Gary Condit, O.J. Simpson, and the parents of Jon Benet Ramsey.
In the episode Fat Butt and Pancake Head, Cartman makes a Jennifer Lopez hand puppet, which suddenly develops a personality of its own and becomes a singing sensation. As a result, the real J-Lo is fired from her record label and Ben Affleck falls in love with the hand puppet.
Affleck, prior to Fat Butt and Pancake Head, also appears in How to Eat with Your Butt, where it's revealed that he is the long-lost son of a couple suffering from a fictitious congenital condition called "torsonic polarity syndrome" (TPS), which causes victims to appear to have buttocks in place of their face.
Rob Reiner is derided as a hypocritical activist (who overeats, but opposes smoking) in Butt Out.
John Edward's mentalist/medium practices are criticized in The Biggest Douche in the Universe.
Jared Fogle is satirized in Jared Has Aides: a play on his use of personal trainers in the episode.
Russell Crowe is playfully mocked for his Gladiator role and his violent fights in The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer.
Mel Gibson is the subject of Cartman's fascination with The Passion of the Christ, culminating in The Passion of the Jew, wherein Gibson retaliates as a crazy Braveheart figure for Stan & Kenny taking back from him the $18 they spent on The Passion.
Paris Hilton is caricatured as a "skank" in Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset.
Tom Cruise and John Travolta are famously caricatured in Trapped in the Closet for their participation in Scientology. This episode resulted in the departure of Isaac Hayes as Chef in The Return of Chef, where Chef is brainwashed into a made-up organization lampooning Scientology (of which Hayes is a member of, and claimed religious insult because of "Closet"). The title of the "Closet" episode references Trapped in the Closet by R. Kelly, who is also a participant in "Closet."
Prior to Trapped in the Closet, Travolta was featured in The Entity, demonstrating Mr. Garrison's monowheel vehicle known as "IT."
George Clooney is considered a source of "smug" in Smug Alert! for his speech giving Hollywood credit in the American Civil Rights Movement.
David Blaine is satirised in Super Best Friends as being the leader of a cult known as Blaintology.
In the episode Red Hot Catholic Love, Martha Stewart uses Cartman's method of digestion (which involves shoving food up the anus and defecating out the mouth) to eat a whole turkey.
In the episode Here Comes the Neighborhood, Token convinces rich African-American celebrities such as Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey, P Diddy and Bill Cosby (who is shown having an obession with Jell-O pudding) to move to South Park. Oprah also makes an appearance on the episode A Million Little Fibers, where she talks about selecting Towelie's memoirs as her Book of the month.
U.S. Army troops mistake a goat for Fleetwood Mac lead vocalist Stevie Nicks in the episode Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants.
In the episode Tsst, Cesar Millan from the show Dog Whisperer is brought in to discipline Cartman after Nanny 911 and Super Nanny fail.
Al Gore is satirized in the episode ManBearPig, where he warns the town of South Park about a terrible creature that is "half-man, half-bear and half-pig."
In the episode Ginger Kids, when Cartman presents his report about red-haired, pale-skin, freckled people, his slideshow displays pictures of Carrot Top and Ron Howard.
The Fab Five from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy are parodied as Crab People in the episode South Park Is Gay!
In the Episode The Snuke Hillary Clinton has a nuclear weapon in her vagina.

[edit] Censorship

The primary subject of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, censorship is a repeatedly cited concern in multiple episodes. Notable episodes involving censorship include It Hits the Fan and Cartoon Wars Part I/Cartoon Wars Part II.

[edit] Drugs

Ike's Wee Wee: Mr. Mackey is forced out of his job for losing a marijuana joint in a drug-education class. Ironically, he goes through a cycle of experimentation (ending up in his adopting hippie ideology and happily marrying a woman he meets), before an enforced treatment (after being captured during his honeymoon in India by the A-Team, no less) and becoming a spokesman against drugs.
My Future Self n' Me: Stan and Butter's parents find an indirect and strange way to try to prevent their children from experimenting with drugs.
Towelie & A Million Little Fibers: Towlie is forced to confront his marijuana addiction in times of crisis.
Up the Down Steroid: Jimmy Vulmer is chronicled through his use of steroids; combines the subject of the current 2006 Baseball steroids investigation with a Lifestories: Families In Crisis episode about steroid use.
Die, Hippie, Die: The Hippies have their Jamfest in South Park to "Stop Corporations" and Kenny, Kyle and Stan join the hippies. In the end, the boys realize the hippies smoke way too much pot and are just as selfish as the corporations they complain about by trying to forget about their troubles when they don't have any.

[edit] Environmentalism and Global Warming

Rainforest Schmainforest parodies environmental activism.
Goobacks: the proposed solution to the illegal immigration issue of people from the future is to "fix" the country through environmental activism. However, the boys conclude this would be "gay" and resort to their previous attempt at a solution: "preventing" the future through the use of a "gay pile."
Spontaneous Combustion uses global warming as a source of trouble for the townspeople, caused by their own flatuence.
Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow & Manbearpig lampoon concerns over global warming.
Smug Alert!: Hybrid automobiles, while praised, nonetheless have owners who are touted as a source of "smug"; San Francisco is considered as the "smug" capital, destroyed in a "smugstorm" à la The Perfect Storm.

[edit] Nazis

Hitler is seen multiple times and is Cartman's idol.
In the South Park movie and The Death Camp of Tolerance, they have death camps. In the movie, it was to hold Canadians, where they were treated just like victims of the Nazi death camps.
In Passion of the Jew, Cartman rallies a Nazi Mel Gibson Fanclub.

[edit] Homosexuality and Gay Marriage

Big Gay Al is used in several episodes (and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut) to promote tolerance for homosexuals. Mr. Garrison later comes out as gay for several seasons, and lives with Mr. Slave until he undergoes a sex change operation. Big Gay Al and Mr. Slave are later married in Follow That Egg!. A solution to the conflict regarding gay marriages is proposed by a character, who stated that although gay couples should be able to have the same legal benefits that marriage brings, their union should be called something else and treated differrently so as not to offend people who think marriage is a sacred union between man and woman. South Park parodies the real-life "civil union" compromise by proposing gay couples be allowed to have the same rights as married groups, but be called "Butt buddies."

The 2007 Episode Cartman Sucks Parodied and critcised the Ex Gay Movement, though it mostly focused on children whose parents force them to attend such "therapy".

[edit] Religion

Starvin' Marvin in Space: Christian missionaries and Pat Robertson attempt to cajole Starvin Marvin's people and the Marklar into accepting their faith.
Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus addresses the Year 2000 hype/hysteria and introduces God (in a non-stereotypical visage) to the series.
Super Best Friends has the key members of the world's faiths join together to fight a cult.
Christian rock music is the subject of Christian Rock Hard: Cartman attempts to start a Christian Rock band as a scheme to get an award.
Red Hot Catholic Love parodies the Catholic sex abuse scandal (the town's pastor is seen trying to convert other Catholic priests from molestation) and the Separation of Church & State as demanded by atheists
All About Mormons chronicles the arrival of a Mormon family in South Park, and the story of Joseph Smith.
Bloody Mary was criticized for its portrayal of a Virgin Mary statue as bleeding from her anus (later found out to be from her vagina, as declared by Pope Benedict XVI in the episode). It also addressed the religious origins of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Do the Handicapped Go to Hell? and Probably depicts Stan, Cartman, and Kenny being frightened by the town Priest's descriptions of hell and those who are headed there. Determined to save their souls and those of their friends, including Kyle, a jew and Timmy, who is mentally handicapped, they seek out advice from the local clergy. When the boys find the priest having sex in the confessional, they decide to make their own church aimed at salvation. They continue this course until it is revealed that Cartman, in a possible reference to L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, only did it to make ten million dollars, and Jesus shows up to shoot down the views of fire and brimstone preaching.
Scientology is the subject of Trapped in the Closet where Stan is declared the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard
Radical atheism is also shown be equal to radical religion in the episode Go God Go and sequel, Go God Go XII. In the future, all religion has been destroyed and everyone is atheist in hopes that reason will prevent war. However, fanaticism nonetheless grows and there are several warring factions trying to decide whose logic is correct in determining their name. They also use 'Science' as an alternative to 'God' as a curse, e.g. 'Science Damn You', 'Science H Logic!'.