And beside them will be the offended parent brigade who still haven't learned that not all cartoons are for children. No doubt South Park will continue to be derided by those who think the most important social problem today is swearing, yet have probably never sat down to watch an episode. I've watched since the beginning, but they're making an effort not to let South Park go stale. But creators Stone and Parker 'retool' the show periodically with new characters, and try to keep up with current events, and I enjoyed the latest series (8th) for these very reasons. Like any long-running show, some episodes are better than others, not all have something to say, and not all are funny. Other characters on the show usually represent majority/opposing views as the plot requires. That and to provide a lot of the show's humour. Sometimes I think he's there to remind us not to take anyone like him seriously. And of course there's Eric Cartman, the ignorant foul-mouthed selfish redneck, and funny as hell. It has the essential message of 'believe what you like, but leave me alone'. Is the show anti-religious? No, but fundamentalists like to think it is. Stan represents the liberal viewpoint, as does his friend Kyle, who as a practising Jew, allows opportunity for religious comment. The main characters are four children who are basically mouthpieces for their creator's opinions, expressing views that would sound arrogant coming from adults. The episodes tackle a wide range of issues, from 9/11 to violence on television to celebrity obsession to religion, through the use of comedy, which is usually the best way to handle such matters. Nope, this isn't a show for those who don't appreciate irony. The simplicity of the animation, for example, has been criticised by people who miss the point that it's deliberately meant to be simple, in the face of those high-budget major studio cartoons that are more concerned with using cgi and selling toys than having anything to say. South Park is an intelligent, humorous and thought-provoking show that is often ignored or decried by people who judge it only by the very things it deliberately throws in their face, such as profanity, simple animation, and graphic violence, because the creators know that people like this are easily offended by these things, and will always miss the point. If Hulu wants to be the long term default library for online television, they need to work out licensing deals that allow them to upload all historical shows, too.Both cartoons and sci-fi have long been the only place where thought-provoking social commentary can take place, unmolested by censorship, and both are all too frequently dismissed because of their least important characteristics. Hulu only shows the last few episodes of any particular show, so new viewers are unable to start from the beginning. But the fact that the entire catalog of episodes is available makes the site much more attractive. The viewing experience is very similar to Hulu. Revenues from the joint venture are being split 50/50 between Comedy Central and Stone/Parker. The downside is that the episodes are not embeddable (although clips like the one above are), and there are ads includes in the streams. Of course, there’s also no question about copyright infringement when you watch shows on the sanctioned site. The main benefits: quality is significantly better than the clips on Allsp, and are searchable. The joint venture was announced last year, but added whole episode viewing today. Along with Comedy Central, they’ve expanded South Park Studios, where viewers can stream any episode of South Park from the show’s twelve seasons. Instead of fighting BitTorrent and sites like Allsp, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are simply going to try to make them irrelevant by offering something better. And episodes are always available on BitTorrent immediately after broadcast. Sites like Allsp (All South Park) have had the entire catalog available for some time. It hasn’t been hard for people to watch the cult favorite show South Park (possibly the best show on television) online.
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