The TV programme I am going to use as a case study, and investigate is South Park.

The show’s
broadcaster is ‘Comedy Central television network.’ The show is essential to the network for
its longtivity and success. In 2019 alone, 22 years after its debut, (according to the
hollywoodreporter.com) “Viewers of the show watched a staggering 30 billion minutes of
the long-running series on linear TV in 2019, according to Comedy Central. That figure,
which includes first-run episodes and repeats, jumped by 36 percent over 2018 and is the
equivalent of more than 57,000 years.” This number also doesn’t take into account the new
way of watching, streaming numbers, which would add to the overall viewer count
significantly!
The show has recently been bought for $500 million for streaming rights by HBO and
will make the shift from Hulu to HBO in June 2020. (according to the
hollywoodreporter.com) It is obvious the show is Comedy Central’s major income and
appeal, but it has come with many controversies and backlash. The show’s taste and
decency are almost always attacked and leads to the network getting hundreds, and
thousands of complaints per episode. The show always tackles taboo subject matters, and
dark humour. The portrayal of specific demographics in the show leads it to always be under
fire.
The show caused controversy from the start and almost immediately after airing,
students wearing South Park related merchandise in school campuses were punished, at
another school in New Jersey, principals came together to alert parents of the show’s
content, while another headmaster at a Cambridgeshire school also made sure parents
knew the show’s vulgar content and pushed them to restrict their children from watching.
(According to Wikipedia) “Action for Children’s founder Peggy claimed that the show's use
of language and racial slurs represents the depravity of Western civilization, and that it is
"dangerous to the democracy.” This plus so many more outcries of parents & authorities
pushed the creators Matt & Stone to respond. Their response stated that they weren’t and
will not be opposed to children watching the show, but it is rated TV-MA, and has a warning
at the start of each episode, “All characters and events in this show—even those based on
real people—are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated... poorly. The
following program contains coarse language and due to its content, it should not be viewed
by anyone.”
The genre of the show is an animated comedy sitcom, which is just a sub category of
the sitcom genre that means it is animated, rather than being live action. The appeal of the
show is obvious, and it explains why it connects with such a wide, LARGE audience, year
after year. It is authentic and over the top. While TV networks get more scared to screen,
and be seen supporting more vulgar and ‘rude’ content, Comedy Central has always stood
behind not censoring humour in any way, which attracts a huge demographic in itself. In a
world where censoring is taking over, and making it harder and harder to say the jokes
people really want to say, South Park stands behind its jokes and humour.
Personally, I chose to write about this show as I am a huge fan. The thing that strikes
me most about it is, it is so not your traditional animated comedy, The Simpsons for
example, is a show I grew up watching, a very clean cut, easy ‘safe’ humour show that is
extremely sellable and family friendly. It also has a nice aesthetic, is consistent, and has nice
graphics. The Simpsons to me, was never funny, rather just enjoyable to watch in the
background…South Park on the other hand is the complete opposite, no real consistency,
nor aesthetic, OR nice graphics, the characters were originally made on construction paper,
when they had no budget, and still to this day they have the same ‘cheap’ look. The thing
that is admirable about South Park is that they don’t rely on any of the visual stuff other
shows do, they focus solely on the humour and making sure jokes, and storylines are funny
and understood.
As for merchandising, the team are smart and focus on making simple products such as
t-shirts, hoodies and mugs referencing certain storylines or characters. The smartest
merchandise is a towel made to resemble a character in the show who is…a towel. This item
is always sold out, and their ability to create characters that can easily have merchandise
made of them is smart. South Park’s main merchandise is game spin offs. There are
currently nine, with first released in 1998 and most recent, in 2017. The games were always
made for consoles, but in more recent times, have been designed for IOS and Android users
to download. The games allow players to play as main characters and interact with other
characters and plot their own storylines within the game, that they would see happen on the
show.
This show will and has continued to stand the test of time, and I can’t wait to see what
the creators do next, as they keep me, as a viewer, always on my toes, and unsuspected of
what is next!

By Adam McIntyre.

Resources used:

The Hollywood Reporter

Wikipedia
SouthPark.com