South Park: Season 14 Review

It's Thanksgiving in America again – a time for reflection and gratitude for the things we have. I personally am thankful for many things, but as a writer and culture addict, I'm thankful that South Park is still on the air. Season 14 of SP had some tremendous ups and downs, but it also had the greatest controversy and greatest challenges the showrunners have ever faced. I'm thankful nothing disastrous came of that, and happy that the show's subversive humor is still there to ridicule the ridiculous.

The season started off with an old-fashioned celebrity lampooning with "Sexual Healing", a story that poked fun at Tiger Woods' marital issues. It was cleverly written, and had one of Kenny's most hilarious moments (dying of auto-erotic asphyxiation in a Batman suit). It was a good start for the season, but there was room for improvement.

The season soon hit its stride with two consecutive excellent episodes: "Medicinal Fried Chicken" and "You Have 0 Friends". These stories focused their satire on marijuana bans and the Facebook phenomenon, respectively, and made heavy use of movie references like Scarface and Tron to create the unique kind of social satire that really makes the show stand out from the rest.

But sometimes, apparently, satire can go too far. To celebrate the 200th episode of the series, Trey and Matt put out an epic two part episode that covered a lot of ground. A hoard of celebrities revolt against some biting ridicule, and Cartman's true father was revealed (again). But without a doubt the most important aspect of this arc, and the season as a whole, was the controversy with the show's depiction of Mohammed. It stirred up Islamic extremists and led to some very serious threats being thrown at the series staff and the network, and it led to episode "201" being heavily censored without Trey and Matt's permission. For a while, South Park became more than just a cartoon with foul-mouthed kids – it became a symbol of the kind of terrorism and fear that have become so prevalent in today's world.

The heavy-handed censorship brought South Park to the forefront of social conversation for a while, but it also seemed to have killed some of the enthusiasm of the writers. After the mid-season break, the season returned with a string of episodes that, with the notable exception of an Osama bin Laden spoof, lacked any controversy and served up easy jokes that were often repeated ad nauseam. The writing team even got caught "borrowing" some jokes for the "Insheeption" episode. Rumors started circulating about Trey and Matt just "mailing it in" after being extremely disappointed with how their work had been treated.

The season bounced back with the Coon and Friends arc, which started off a little shaky, but ended strong. The arc was filled with countless clever ideas and references to comic themes, as well as a brilliant tie-in with the identity of Mysterion and the true "superpower" of one Kenny McCormick. The arc wasn't exactly the most hilarious stuff the show has ever produced, but it did have some brilliant ideas that were executed very well.

The season closed with "Creme Fraiche", a hilarious take on food porn and the exercise oddity known as the Shake Weight. It was a true return to comedic form for the series, and a sign that the future of the series is far from bleak.

It is often said that South Park is more than just a TV show – it's an American cultural phenomenon. No season illustrates that more than this one. Many of us will take to the skies during this holiday time, and encounter the privacy-encroaching measures that have become the norm in our nation. You can bet that when South Park returns, they'll have something brilliant to say about it, and we should all be thankful for that.

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