Are our boys growing up?
That’s the question raised by the 10th season of Comedy Central’s gloriously crude “South Park.” Creators, writers and voice actors Trey Parker and Matt Stone have proved themselves unabashedly, almost incalculably offensive in the past. They remain beholden to no corporate or political ideology, instantly capable of stepping on anyone’s toes for any reason.
That’s still true on their beloved animated show’s latest DVD set, which drops Tuesday in typically spartan fashion (no extras except commentaries). The 14 episodes demonstrate a slavish devotion to current events, as if Colorado natives Parker and Stone stood at stiff attention next to their TVs, the nightly news and “Extra” flickering in their pupils.
Much like “The Simpsons,” “The Flintstones” and other culture-shifting animated comedies, “South Park” is a time capsule – albeit one with dirty words and pictures scrawled on the side.
But as satisfyingly libertarian as they are, Stone and Parker hint at creative myopia and a hardening of ideas in Season 10. Episodes like “Manbearpig” are funny enough when skewering Al Gore, who has invented a ridiculous beast (manbearpig) to scare the children of South Park. Predictably, Gore is the only one who can save them with his “special” knowledge.
Casting the former veep as an attention-hungry loser works initially, but the creators refuse to acknowledge that Gore might actually be right about global warming (for which manbearpig stands in). The episode spends loads of creative capital illustrating what a nut Gore is, but ultimately feels lazy and misdirected.
Granted, Parker and Stone have always had cheap, base senses of humor, but in the past they worked because the subjects deserved it. Seeing them spend a half-hour mocking fairly sound scientific principles feels pointless, especially when “South Park” is often the only cartoon taking on other controversial topics like 9/11 conspiracy theories or the cartoon depiction of Muhammad – both of which also show up in Season 10.
Fortunately, the show’s aim only occasionally strays from deserving targets. In fact, through the characters of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny, “South Park” even mocks its own conventions, a meta- logic coup for a show that trades in flatulence jokes.
In the Emmy-nominated episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft,” the kids must defeat a rogue character in the aforementioned massively multiplayer online game. To do so they chunk up and space out, forgoing all in their lives except the game. Half the episode takes place inside the lush, CG-driven “Warcraft” environs (in a feat of creative marketing, the 10th season set comes with a DVD-ROM offering 14 days of free “Warcraft” play).
Mocking video-game nerds is like shooting fish in a paper cup, but it’s evident Parker and Stone know a thing or two about video games. Their willingness to hold up their insecurities infuses the show with both authority and modesty.
The two-part “Cartoon Wars,” which concerns “Family Guy’s” fictional will-they/ won’t-they depiction of the cartoon prophet Muhammad, takes liberal digs at that Fox show. And as “South Park” points out, jokes in “Family Guy” rarely connect to the plot – a hack way to construct a comedy.
Still, at one point, one of the characters also says that everything doesn’t need to have a point or social message, phrasing it in a way that implies self-awareness of “South Park’s” own occasional heavy- handedness.
If Parker and Stone are not growing up, they’re at least growing out, attempting new levels of parody and absurdist humor (casting John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer and Ted Bundy as a comically violent Three Stooges gang) while continuing to gleefully eviscerate celebrities (Oprah Winfrey).
Their recurring digs at Scientology continue in “Return of Chef,” in which that character is killed off by the Super Adventure Club (i.e. Scientology), a “fruity little club” that molests young boys. The violent ending reeks of shock value, but the larger point is hard to miss: There’s no topic “South Park” won’t touch – and bless their blackened little hearts for that.
Staff writer John Wenzel can be reached at 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com.
