Review of the 19 and 20 season of "South Park"

I first came across the town of "South Park" when I was about 10 years old. At that time I was mainly amused by jokes about the genitals and vulgar broaching of intimate topics. The older I was, the better I understood that profanity was just a shell and a form of narrative. Thanks to it, you can combine business with pleasure for at least three reasons. First, emotions, whether positive or negative, somehow contribute to the fact that we remember specific things better. I don't know if it results from the fact that we watch things in accordance with our emotional state (so that neurons better convey information) or what, we remember things that moved us in some way. Second, some people think (and I'm one of them) that the easiest way to explain the sense or nonsense of some things is to use extreme and totally abstract examples. Third, it's easier to come to terms with reality when we approach it with humor. Thanks to this, more people will understand better and more accurately why an idea is bad, why it is better not to be an excessive hypocrite (excessive, because each of us denies each other's thoughts or actions, we are as a species), why managing emotions is bad, etc. By the way, also show correct postures and a well-understood balance. For example, that you have to talk about every problem and stigmatize every manifestation of evil, but this does not mean that you can look at people's homes. Unless they hurt another person or limit their rights against their will. Or that everyone has the right to live as they please, with whom they want and not to be offended, but this does not mean allowing yourself to shine with your genitals or chanting about your sexual preferences. In addition, there will always be an asshole or a bored man who will criticize us or make fun of anything, so it's not worth being a snowflake that melts from one name. Life hurts and nobody said it would be easy.

Over time, I appreciated SP for one more thing. Unlike right-wing or left-wing comedies/parodies, Trey Parker and Matt Stone do not limit themselves and do not take prisoners. I do not like it when someone criticizes or ridicules only the opposite of his own on the principle of cherry-picking. Like Sapkowski, although much more often due to different forms of presentation of their content, they have balls to score everyone. Warriors of social justice, social activists, nationalists, Rednecks, extreme LGBT factions, extreme leftists, extreme rightists, conservative Orthodox, or people talking about topics they do not know. They ridicule the vices of every important social group or currently high-profile topic in the media, they make balls of the followers of every religion of the world, but they do not offend Gods. I haven't even seen most of the episodes, but I've never heard them slander Jesus, Christian God, Allah, Yahweh or any other God. Sure, they were joking with them, sometimes offensive to some, but they never relied on slandering God or throwing excrement on him. They mainly laugh at stupid, bad, overly pretentious, criticize celebrities, and bad attitudes of people.

I don't know how the 19 and 20 seasons are in comparison with others, because I started with what Polish Netflix offers, but both gave me a lot of laughter. I have seen a few seasons when I was young, but during my growing up my interests changed. I tried to go back to watching a few times but I was too lazy and I didn't have much motivation. Or when I sat down, I did not know where to start, as a result of which I started something different. Netflix solved this problem because a quick decision (watching / not watching) was enough, a few clicks, and sitting the ass on the couch. I do not know if I could find better seasons or more interesting threads that last longer than one season, but what I got fully satisfies me. For some time I like to laugh at the aggressive attitude of SJW or the followers of the leftist approach to the culture of woke (but in the latter case I could have misspelled it, I chose a term that seems to suit me best if I'm wrong, I'm sorry). I like to point out their hypocrisy and the fact that some show an unhealthy approach to aggression. They have excessive pain in their ass for everything that makes them frustrated for any reason and they too often have a micro-aggression that is not much different from overtly aggressive acts (and vice versa, their right-wing counterparts have the same). Not without reason, the law in some countries punishes for excessive provocation that has a specific effect. Something like digging a cage with a monkey - if I treat someone aggressively or send such signals to him, then it is unwise to expect a different reaction. Or in other words, aggression breeds aggression, action breeds reaction, etc. As I have already written, this does not mean that we are not to point out or mock bad attitudes or remain silent when we see that someone is being hurt. Sure, you need it the most, but you need to know when and how. Drastic solutions are not used for someone who has not done something really bad, but only stupid reptiles and causes that someone's feelings have been hurt. It is usually enough to make the person aware that he is doing wrong. Sometimes, and even more often than sometimes, you need to spend more time translating, but if we have logical and convincing arguments and are a good enough rhetoric, then we usually don't need much more. The right mindset helps us change our attitude from "I'm definitely right!" on "maybe I'm not quite right and a little wrong?". Or another situation - yes, you have to help refugees and those who have it very badly in their country (not because of the so-called "first world problems", but for example high temperature, which actually hampers normal life or living in close proximity with dirt or poverty), but that doesn't mean you have to take them carelessly. This may destabilize our culture or cause the creation of national ghettos, as is the case with Chicago with the Polish minority or the English districts, in which we do not see too many English speakers, but many Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, or other inhabitants of our part of Europe. It is better, for example, to separate them in smaller quantities so that they assimilate with the local community.

However, the real hit is the presidential election. Personally, I still think Trump is a lesser evil than Clinton (they are both about as bad, but Trump has at least improved the economic situation of the least paid, including immigrants, provided them with more work and slightly loosened their taxes, which the Democratic representative would not have done. , at least not to such an extent), but in the long run it doesn't mean much. Mocking both parties, Donald Trump's candidates (in several forms - Mr. Garrison, Prime Minister of Canada) and their constituents was usually very accurate, and the jokes licked like a blow straight at the vaccine. The presidential campaign of both camps gave many reasons to laugh and the creators of SP used it perfectly. Styling the characters on Donald Trump and poking fun at his behavior and texts (and his rivals) is simply gold. I howled with laughter many times and rewound it as often to prolong this state.

I also liked laughing at the too nostalgic approach and hitting new Star Wars and J. J. Abrams himself. Especially now, when I look at these jokes in retrospect and see a bigger picture. Waiting for them to laugh at the end of the saga. I myself am a whore for nostalgia and I love her, but I came to similar conclusions from 9 or 12 months ago. It's nice to remember how it used to be, comfort yourself in the hopelessness of everyday life, but as the creators of SP noticed, this is because we used to have no worries and our problems were uncomplicated and often trivial. Even if we really wanted to do a lot of work, it is impossible to enter the same river twice, or chances and present life run before our eyes when we get too involved in the past, which we will not restore or only substitute it. I know, I throw banalities and truisms, but life is a total of them, only people do not really follow them and we make our lives difficult.

Finally, I will return to the third paragraph. Sure, in my old review of the three seasons "Ricky and Morty" I wrote that they are much better than what I saw in SP, but I meant the old seasons that I saw as a child and teenager. In comparison with 19 and 20 they may be a little better, I would have to compare, but I don't have a great desire for it, because my list "plan to watch" is too long and I do not have time to return to known brands. Either way, even if they are better, it is not a big difference. Both fairy tales in these seasons gave me a lot of thoughts, many very apt jokes about the behavior and attitudes of my own or my buddies, buddy, or family, which I will remember for a long time. Both cartoons made me aware of some things and slightly updated my worldview, but let's be honest - where is Rome, where is Crimea? 3 very good seasons, 4 noticeably worse vs 23? I prefer the topics raised by the creators of R&M, but they are not the same league as SP. Or in other words, as my friend summarized, though in a slightly different context - "That's why he's been out for over 20 years and is still good."