I still remember sitting down 12 years ago to watch a brand new episode of The Simpsons, the season 9 premier, entitled “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson”. At the time I probably laughed, but, even then, I remember having this nagging feeling in the back of my head that something wasn’t quite right in Springfield.
It took me years to put my finger on it, but after a season or two of watching a family I had come to love but could now, suddenly, barely recognize, I latently realized the alarm bells that episode had set off. Starting around season 9, The Simpsons transformed from a show that featured characters which managed to strike a very personal cord with its viewers to, well, a cartoon family. No longer were these just yellow people with slightly exaggerated real-life faults: Homer went from dullard to mentally disabled, Marge turned from strong female figure to downright neurotic, and Bart crossed the line from mischievous to deeply troubled.
It’s really difficult to prove that one specific moment was the tipping point or catalyst for the downfall of one of the greatest television shows ever, but then again, it’s not like there isn’t a precedent for that idea. The obvious cliché to use here is that at some point The Simpsons ‘jumped the shark’, a phrase which derives from an episode of the classic show Happy Days; a cliffhanger in which (I kid you not) Fonzie attempts to jump over a shark on water skis. Now, the show had probably been going downhill long before that, but for many fans that episode -- an ill-fated attempt to boost ratings during a season where the movie Jaws and daredevil stunts of Evel Knievel were the two hottest trends in pop culture -- has been forever crystallized as the moment when Happy Days died.
On October 8, 2008 I had the same feeling I did when watching my ‘jump the shark’ Simpsons moment. I don’t watch much television anymore, but I am obsessive about South Park, which, in my mind, has been the smartest thing in pop culture for the better part of a decade. On that day I was sitting down to watch the first episode of the second half of season 12, the first time a new episode had aired in about 6 months. Obviously my anticipation was high, but unfortunately I would end up quite disappointed that evening. Without giving a long synopsis of the episode, “The China Probrem”, suffice it to say that -- always the racist sociopath -- Eric Cartman’s paranoid theories and misguided prejudice became not only far too cartoonish and unbelievable, but just didn’t seem to serve any larger message other than to obnoxiously shove Asian stereotypes unto the viewer.
“With Apologies to Jessie Jackson”, season 11’s opener, utilized a similar strategy by repeatedly using ‘the N word’ throughout, but at no point did its use feel unnecessary or forced, and more to the point contained some of the sharpest satire the South Park writers had ever come up with, and perhaps their best since taking on the Terry Schaivo shitstorm. But when Cartman starts to think that the headquarters for the impending Chinese takeover of America are located within a P.F. Chang’s, and that all he needs to do to fit in is wear bucked teeth, squint, and use the phrase “herro prease” over and over, what is it accomplishing aside from producing the shock value of seeing these stereotypes on a television screen?
Granted, South Park has always made its hallmark on shock value. However, in the show’s less refined early days, shocking people was still worth something, as the team was legitimately pushing the boundaries of what you could and could not do on cable television. And as it progressed and utilized more social satire, they continued to shock by taking on subjects normally looked at with Holy Cow sentiments, such as religion or abortion. When a subject that came up that was finally considered taboo by their network -- depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad -- the writers decided to bite the hand feeding them and did everything they could to point out the hypocrisy of being allowed to depict Jesus defecating on an American flag (really), but not Muhammad holding a football helmet.
What is troubling is that there are signs all around that South Park has ‘jumped the shark’. Since their “Imagionationland” trilogy aired in October 2007, it’s very difficult to argue that the South Park team has put out anything truly great, whereas before they seemed to come up with something which turned heads several times a season. While there have been a couple moments since then which have led me to hold out hope that they may still have some magic left (“Tonsil Trouble” and “Margaritaville” for example) even their high points just don’t have the same kind of depth as an episode like “Trapped in the Closet” which actually gets better with repeated viewings.
So, season 13 of South Park resumes on October 7. I’ll be watching. However, my expectations will certainly be tempered. As much enjoyment as I’ve gained from the series, it’s equally uncomfortable to watch something you’ve followed with such reverence slowly becoming a shell of its former self. So that being said, here’s hoping that the South Park team have a couple more stories to tell to close out the last couple seasons of their remarkable run.
No comments:
Post a Comment