Here's to South Park

It is stunning to realize that South Park is ten years old.

As my friends know, I am a huge Simpsons fan. It was a ground-breaking show, and it still has some of the best comedy on television (the "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore" episode last season was particularly hilarious). And it effectively launched the career of Conan O'Brien.

But South Park is the more important television show.

The Simpsons broke some taboos, but South Park smashes them. And does so with utter joy. And unlike with Family Guy (which is good, but a tad bit overrated and nowhere near as socially important as the other two hows), South Park retains the ability to smash taboos while presenting a clear and coherent storyline -- something that's even plagued The Simpsons on occasion.

There are times when Trey Parker and Matt Stone miss the boat completely and leave their audience wondering what the hell they were thinking. But there are too many moments of sheer brilliance where they mock and maim all manner of orthodox beliefs -- the moments that make the show worthwhile and offensive all in one glorious piece.

Quite honestly, this is one of the most educational shows in contemporary America -- it's a great teaching piece on free speech, religion and current events. I know there are plenty of people of conservatives who find the show offensive, but the best part of this show is that Parker and Stone have decided that nothing is sacred. As one example, they've mocked gay people (see Mr. Garrison and Mr. Slave), gay culture trends (see the episode where all the men become metrosexuals), gay marriage opponents (an episode where Mr. Garrison convinces the Governor to rely upon a study of same-sex marriage he's conducting, where two of the boys are being told to take care of an egg) and Tom Cruise (hehe). The best part is, they get it, as noted in this article by Jake Tapper...

"What we've stood behind for 10 years is: It's got to all be OK or none of it is," Parker told ABC's "Nightline." "Because as soon as you start picking, 'Well, OK, we won't do this,' then all of a sudden the ones you did about that shouldn't be OK either. So we were starting to say, 'I don't know that this is a world that 'South Park' can live in.'"

"South Park" has been vilified as crude, disgusting and nihilistic, and the eagerness of Stone and Parker to impale every sacred cow they can reach is a major reason for its success. After all, in the fictional town of South Park, Colo. — home to third-graders Kenny, Kyle, Stan and the evil Cartman — everything is fair game. Even the Prophet Mohammed, who appeared as a superhero in a July 2001 episode called "The Super Best Friends."

"People told us at the time, 'You can't really draw an image of Mohammed,'" Parker says. "And we were like, well, we can. We're not Muslim, so it's OK."

In 2006, however, when Stone and Parker wanted to depict Mohammed in an episode, Comedy Central wouldn't let them. After all, Muslims worldwide had rioted over insulting depictions of Mohammed in a newspaper in Denmark.

It seemed odd to the creators of "South Park," who had been and were still allowed to depict Jesus in any number of profane ways. In fact, the episode in question, "Cartoon Wars," shows a cartoon (supposedly created by al Qaeda) in which Jesus defecates on President Bush.

"That's where we kind of agree with some of the people who've criticized our show," Stone says. "Because it really is open season on Jesus. We can do whatever we want to Jesus, and we have. We've had him say bad words. We've had him shoot a gun. We've had him kill people. We can do whatever we want. But Mohammed, we couldn't just show a simple image."

During the part of the show where Mohammed was to be depicted — benignly, Stone and Parker say — the show ran a black screen that read: "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network."

Other networks took a similar course, refusing to air images of Mohammed — even when reporting on the Denmark cartoon riots — claiming they were refraining because they're religiously tolerant, the South Park creators say.

"No you're not," Stone retorts. "You're afraid of getting blown up. That's what you're afraid of. Comedy Central copped to that, you know: 'We're afraid of getting blown up.'"

"At the same time, just like we always do, we managed to get something on and say something about how we can't say something about Mohammed," Parker says.

...The two offer mock-apologies to anyone offended by their show.

"Part of living in the world today is you're going to have to be offended," Stone says. "The right to be offended and the right to offend is why we have a First Amendment. If no speech was offensive to anybody, then you wouldn't need to guarantee it."

Damn right. Thanks for ten great years, guys. We hope there are many more.