Why Does ‘South Park’ Suck This Season?

There have been dozens of truly incredible shows this year, shows that have broken new boundaries and expanded our television universes. South Park is currently not one of them. We’re more than halfway through Season 20, and the nicest way I can describe this season is inconsistent. There have been a couple of shining moments, but the lows of this season have hurt.

To me, watching South Park has always been a bit like watching Saturday Night Live. You watch both series for the jokes, yes, but more than that, you watch to see what these comedic geniuses can come up with during a week turnaround time. When South Park works, it’s really a thing of beauty. The onslaught of Penn State jokes that dominate “The Poor Kid” are impressively timed and surprisingly barely offensive. Likewise, the over-the-top insanity of “About Last Night” will go down in history for its timeliness for the 2008 election and its sheer stupidity. South Park’s job is to gleefully make fun of everyone and criticize our society in the most brutal and silly ways imaginable. More often than not, it does that job well, but not this time. During arguably the most insane election season America has ever faced, South Park has ranged from forgetful to just wrong. So what’s up? Why does this season feel boring instead of barbed? I have a few theories. Spoilers for South Park ahead.

The Show Jumped the Gun in Season 19

Do you remember how Season 19 started? In the season’s second episode “Where My Country Gone?” the Canadian Donald Trump was raped and murdered by Mr. Garrison. From that moment on, South Park established two things: Season 19 would be targeting Donald Trump, and Mr. Garrison would stand as the show’s insane Trump surrogate.

“Where My Country Gone?” premiered in late September 2015, months before other comedy shows would jump on the Trump-mocking bandwagon and almost a year before it was socially acceptable to mock the candidate as ruthlessly as South Park did. Because of this, Season 19 was ahead of its time. Though it’s unclear if Matt Stone and Trey Parker ever expected Trump to get as far as he has, the show predicted months before any other outlet the candidate’s loyal rise to power and the savage response from the media. However, that put the show at a disadvantage this season. Because they already attacked Trump, continuing to do so felt a bit repetitive, yet ignoring the candidate would be an even greater misstep. Like it or not, Trump has dominated pop culture for months now. He’s unavoidable, which led to a second problem for the series.

The Election Has Been Covered So Much, Any Additional Commentary Feels Bland

Overall, this ridiculous election has been pretty great for comedy. Stephen Colbert brought Jon Stewart on his show and revived his Comedy Central character (more or less). SNL was the first comedy outlet to comment on the Trump tapes. John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight rants and Seth Meyer’s Closer Looks have been amazing. Samantha Bee has been dominating. Even The Daily Show has produced a couple of gems. However, there are only so many jokes you can make about Trump and Hillary Clinton. At some point, that well runs dry, and it went dry weeks ago. That’s the comedy environment South Park returned to, one where the series had to cover a topic that had already been covered to death. That’s when the series started gambling, and it got it wrong.

In Season 20, South Park characterizes “Trump” as an angry, racist menace to society who realizes that being president has real responsibilities. Most of this season has involved Mr. Garrison desperately trying to throw the election. There have been some smart takes thrown in. During his debate with Turd Sandwich (Hillary Clinton), Mr. Garrison begs America to vote for her instead of him, to which Madame Sandwich robotically responses “My opponent is a liar and he cannot be trusted.” The series has done a solid job portraying something most other outlets gloss over — both candidates aren’t great. However, South Park’s reality hasn’t reflected real life. Trump has not had a humbling revelation. He’s charging toward the White House full force. Likewise, Clinton has taken great strides to improve her robotic criticisms, making the premise South Park is playing with feel outdated. One of the last things you want to be during this ever-changing election cycle is outdated, which brings me to the series’ biggest flaw this season.

South Park’s New Serialized Seasons Have Interfered With Its Timeliness

In Season 18, South Park decided to do something it has never done before. It decided to connect all of its episodes to create one story that lasted throughout the entire season. When you first noticed that Randy was in fact Lorde from episode to episode and that gluten was still toxic, it felt like uncovering a special little surprise. South Park was experimenting, playing with its own DNA to create something new. Seasons 18 and 19 followed this new direction with both hits and misses. Though the season finales of both have been a bit lackluster, these seasons have produced some delightful in-season Easter Eggs. However, this innovation has cost South Park one of its strengths — it’s timeliness.

The jokes of Seasons 18 and 19 largely dealt with pop culture and technology trends rather than breaking news. The jokes that worked the best — you can’t make fun of Lorde, gentrification is toxic, there is a dark side to PC culture, targeted advertising is really disturbing — hinged on larger ideas. Meanwhile, the episodes more closely related to news bursts were often the weakest. South Park’s drone episode “The Magic Bush” felt misguided and a bit frantic as did “Safe Space.” The constraints of the show’s new format have limited it from creating the insane, timely, and cutting episodes it has created in the past. Now that every episode has to connect to each other, the show’s creators have to think about their plots more intimately, especially with how each plot relates to the series’ protagonists. That brings me to one last obstacle.

South Park Has Been Experimenting with Its Characters More Than Ever

Much like its animated comedy peers, there’s typically a reset button for each episode of South Park. You know that next week, Kenny will be alive, Stan will have forgotten about the child hockey player who died of cancer, and Kyle and Cartman will have recovered from whatever horrors they have inflicted on each other. However, the series has been playing with its DNA on more than just a plot-based level. South Park has been subtly changing its protagonists.

This isn’t completely new. Early on, Stone and Parker played with killing off Kenny permanently, replacing him with Tweak and Butters throughout most of Season Six. Even the much-loved frenemy relationship between Cartman and Kyle was something that came from character experimentation. But recently, the show has been playing with the nuances of its characters more and more, and much like those linear commitments, these changes have altered the show. Kenny is no longer just a kid who mysteriously comes back to life; he’s the product of his parents’ deal with Cthulhu. In “You’re Getting Old,” it was established that Stan likely has depression and is an alcoholic. Even Season 20 has introduced a sweeter, softer Cartman in a relationship with Heidi. All of these changes, while subtle, influence what these characters will and will not do. No longer are the four boys pegs you can drop into any role. They have their own motivations and limits, which is impressive and fun to watch but certainly difficult from a storytelling level.

In a sentence, the reason South Park isn’t working this season is because of its own ambition. The series is playing with so many new and, at times, conflicting concepts at once, it has yet to find a balance that works. And again, all of this has to be plotted out and created within a week. It’s made for a less exciting season, but I think this is actually a really good thing. South Park isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It could lay down and do what it’s done for years or it can stand up and try something new. It can experiment and fail on air, and through those new lows, the series may be able to discover new highs. That’s what the series has been doing, and that’s pretty cool. I’ll take experimentation and effort over lifeless rehashing any day of the week. So yes, the series isn’t amazing right now, but give it time. If there’s one thing South Park has consistently thrived on, it’s the show’s ability to surprise us.

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