South Park Is The Third Longest Running Animated Series

As something people tend to hold the most dearly, culture can be a sensitive topic to discuss and engage in. Often, it is made even more difficult due to issues of the past and the way different cultures influence one another. Moreover, the concepts of cultural assimilation and mainstreaming have brought light on problems regarding the treatment of minority cultures within American culture, specifically with the use of stereotyped imagery and hijacking outside cultural ideas. The issues of cultural stereotyping and assimilation, as seen in South Park, have garnered attention due to the nature of offence and its subjective nature.

Satirical comedy is a form of aggressive humor that attacks its target from a sense of outrage and with hope of some reform. In contrast, transgressive humor has no such moral desire. Transgressive humor does not expect or desire change and is childish in nature. Though not in its nature, transgressive humor does have the ability to playfully criticize ignorance, prejudice or stereotypes. Such is the case in the most successful, transgressive comedy based show to date, South Park. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park is a half-hour show, purposefully animated poorly, and focuses on the adventures of four nine-year old boys in a small, redneck mountain town. The boys, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny, constantly abuse each other, invoking racist and

Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven

Dick Cavett, a famous American talk show host, once said, “Censorship feeds the dirty mind more than the four-letter word itself.” Censorship limits free speech, and it is used constantly today. In South Park’s situation, the writers use logic and evidence to express their opinions on controversial issues, and people think that it should be censored. Just because the show uses morally questionable techniques, does not mean that it is useless. In fact, South Park has taught people a lot; it changes our point of view and encourages us to think deeply about the issues at hand while simultaneously making us laugh. For people unfamiliar with South Park, it is an animated comedy television which airs on Comedy Central. The show revolves

South Park has been around for a while now. Since it was aired for the first time on 13th August 1997, the show has constantly pushed the boundaries taking on everything, leaving out nothing. The reception among the wider population and the media had a wide range from “shocking” to “excellent”. One of the aspects of this success story is that, because of its provocative tone the show has managed to stay in the limelight. Public debate was evolving around certain episodes, bringing more and more attention to the show. As it was constantly picking up contemporary themes, topics or events, expectations were growing and “ 'How will South Park deal with x ' has become a common catch phrase” (Johnson-Woods 257). Another

In a technological and social sphere of cynics, commentators, and subjectivity, cult comedy introduces itself to the user as a category of media entertainment. Evidence indicates that through its encoded text, television allows the digitalized ability to inspire, fortify, and modify its viewership’s perceptions. Television has demonstrated characteristics found in both the instrumentalist and determinist technological school of thought, as well as an established staple in the average home. However, the plots and narratives in the television show South Park instigate a widespread discourse about relevant and representative content, which is far more influential than the images on the screen. In concentrating on the intimate stories of four male

Ever since 1997, South Park has revolutionized the cable TV scene as a profane and obscene program that isn’t afraid to mock religious, political, and cultural topics and not get away with at least offending somebody. Throughout its twelve seasons, some of the most prominent events in pop culture have suffered the wrath of ridicule from the show’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and succeeded in making millions of Americans laugh until they cry. The creative genius behind these cultural and controversial statements has exalted the series to iconic status in our entertainment industry for its satirical voice in each episode. Throughout its ten years on air, South Park has broken multiple political,

South Park, the animated TV series aired on Comedy Central was created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker and is one of the many new shows that involve animation with high-level adult comedy that parodies current events going on across the United States and throughout the world. South Park is just one of many new shows that involve this sort of high end entertainment and they are taking the television ratings by storm. This show, along with others of its nature such as Family Guy, The Simpsons, and King of the Hill are all extremely controversial in nature and in regards to the situations portrayed on the television screen. These shows have gotten consistently more obnoxious, racial, and detrimental

South Park is a television show that was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It circumvents the lives of 4 boys namely Eric Cartmen, Kenny McCormick, Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski around the town of Colorado. This show mainly aims at picking up various stereotypes in different societies and making fun of them. It is highly racist and makes fun of different genders and performs the act of gender

The question of immigration had been one of America’s biggest issues since the 1500s. Mass immigration began in the late 1600s and became uncontrollable for the native population to control. In fact, many began to move west where opportunity existed. After the ratification of the Constitution in 1789, the question of immigration died down until the Irish and German immigration wave in the mid-19th century. Today, immigration is no longer a major issue, but illegal immigration is. All through the late 20th and early 21st century, many Latin Americans began to come to the US, undocumented. Media and government address the issue of illegal immigration in many different ways. The government is usually strongly against illegal immigration and some politicians make it the issue of their campaigns. The media, on the other hand, may vary in their views on the issue. South Park and The Simpsons both satirize the issue of illegal immigration in their own different way.

The difference between the intended meaning of media texts and what the audience actually perceives can be shockingly different. Producers of media can do everything possible to force audiences to experience their work in the way they want them to, but in the end they still take away many different meanings even within the same audience. Stuart Hall outlines this in his encoding and decoding model. One of the most apparent examples of this is the television show South Park. The television show South Park is a media text with the producers’ preferred meaning of being decoded as joke or as being satire, but many audience members take an oppositional stance of taking it seriously. This is clear from the examples of controversy when South Park aired episodes focused on Scientology, red-headed people, and Islam. Through these examples it is demonstrated that the producers of media have less power compared to the audience in determining the meaning of media.

The Simpsons first aired on December 17, 1989 under the Fox Broadcasting Company. Since then, the show has gone on to become the longest-running American animated program and sitcom. Currently, the show is at an astounding 625 episodes and counting. During its 27+ years on the air, The Simpsons has brought in an estimated $13,015,000,000 in revenue ranging from movie tickets, DVD and merchandise sales. Although the program brings in an income from various aspects of sales and media, until recently, it rarely made a lot through streaming. It is not that The Simpsons was wildly unpopular with those who preferred to stream shows instead of watching them live. Instead, it all had to do with the fact that until 2014, Fox did not have the authority to sell the program to cable networks because they had a syndication deal with local television stations. This seventeen year long deal made it impossible for Fox to sell the show’s syndication rights to virtually

In 1979, Nickelodeon, “a cable channel for kids 2-11 years old, was launched in the United States”. Nickelodeon provided a wide-range of programming which including “live-action, comedy, drama, animation, music and sports and game shows”. By 1995, Nickelodeon was the highest rated basic cable network and international expansion was very realistic and just getting started. To successfully transition internationally Nickelodeon allowed the channel to have its own “on-air identity and slogan” for each endeavor. Nickelodeon used an “International Swat Team” to launch the network into other countries and once established turned it over for local personnel

Media ownership today can be traced back to five main companies: AOL Time Warner, Viacom, The Walt Disney Company, Vivendi Universal, and Sony (VC, 2010). The chart provided below summarizes the more popular media.

High ratio of total equity over total assets and near-zero gearing ratio indicate that TVNZ is heavily funded by equity and low level of debt, generally a small portion of loan and borrowings. With adequate equity, TVNZ is expanding through transmissions of programmes and integrated advertising opportunities. They relinquished its stake in both Hybrid Television Services and Igloo and is now paying more attention on TVNZ OnDemand as a new platform for launching more innovative service in the future.