South Park: Then and Now

Since its very first episode, South Park has never been shy about offensive humor, profanity, and ridiculous scenarios for episodes. Its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have become famous for their willingness to mock any subject and spare no person or subject of their merciless and crude senses of humor. This is exactly why South Park became, and has stayed, so successful for nearly twenty years, and will continue to achieve success for years to come.

In South Park's early days, the animation was choppy and done by hand, the voice acting was mediocre, and the show was not as widely popular as it became later on. By season 3, South Park had hit its stride with classic episodes such as Chinpokomon. As time went on, the animation improved, and eventually transitioned to using computers, the voice acting and production improved as well, and the creators were able to accomplish much more as the entire process became more efficient. In 2009, South Park aired its first episode in high definition, and the show's creators have since gone back and remastered many of the older seasons into high definition.

Over the years, countless celebrities, musicians, athletes, politicians, and even religions have been the target of South Park's jokes. As the tv show has become more popular and accepted, Matt and Trey have had more freedom to do as they please and without as much censorship. From calling Tom Cruise a fudgepacker to calling Harley Davidson riders really bad names, to calling Sarah Jessica Parker a horse face, and so many more examples, Matt and Trey have really solidified themselves as taking a "no exceptions" approach to creating the show. The best part of South Park's humor is that it often points out the absurdity of a situation and mocks it rather than making a serious attack. Subtle references and jokes, combined with absurd premises for episodes, often highlight social trends and current events, illustrating how foolish something is.

South Park has achieved so much success by being able to create its episodes in under a week. This means that as soon as something major happens, whether it’s a major world event such as a presidential election, a celebrity doing something embarrassing, South Park can create an episode on the fly and push it to air by the time the following Wednesday comes around.

Overall, South Park has come a very long way.