Why Did A Generation Of Kids Raised By South Park Grow Up To Be Offended By Everything?

This meme goes around the internet every once in a while to criticize the overall nature of people that get offended by the jokes they see online. 

Our general understanding of the different prejudices and evils of life make a lot of humour less funny. A lot of those 80’s comedies come off racist and sexist to me when I rewatch them after Wanda Sykes told me not to say gay anymore. During that era it was understood to be humour but then the 2010 Medium.com article era took place and we were asked to think a lot deeper.

That being said you would think the people who find South Park, Family Guy & all that funny would have a higher threshold for the crude.

Only I think being a long time South Park fan the opposite holds true.

South Park actually gave us some principles and values, which in turn prevent us from laughing at ignorant shit so quickly.

I have a weird relationship with humour and people shouldn’t take my opinion on comedy that seriously

I don’t like a lot of stand up comedy because I find most comedians I encounter have very little to say.

It must be said I don’t try hard to find new comedy so I don’t want to paint comics at large in any way. 

I do get their jokes. I think about their punchlines and premises. I can see the narratives they tap into and almost feel the inspiration for the joke. Maybe not the comic in particular they are inspired by, but the socio-political wave that would appreciate that kind of humour. I deadass just ruin the jokes for myself.

I always liked George Carlin because he punched up and made sure to focus on things we have in common. Most people who I see that claim to emulate Carlin seem to miss that part of his routine in what they deliver. Anyway maybe comedy isn’t really the right forum for me to throw my two cents into.

South Park’s satire and its effect on people is something else entirely.

South Park is literally a reflection of the absurdity of last week

Every episode of South Park before their stint with the movies in recent years was written in a week. 

They would comment on whatever hot topics were in the media. They have characters that showcased the absurdity of the left and the right equally. The purpose was to be a mirror for society. 

That being said, a lot of the dumb stuff and crude humour we got is because that was what reflected the late 90’s and early 2000’s. I don’t think they were making jokes exclusively for shock value. They were still applying their formula of social satire, only with pushing the line of decency for that time.

That’s why Eminem made more sense in 1999 than in 2019. 

As the line moved and social standards evolved, so did the show and the content (South Park, unfortunately Eminem struggled in that department).

Let’s be real, Matt and Trey are also a lot older now. One must imagine their humour and ethical standards have changed as well. There was a time for Orgazmo and then there was a time for what they are doing now.

Either way they were showing us some of the shittiest examples of humanity we would see.

In one of the fairest reflections we would get.

You’re supposed to evolve into a better person when someone shows you what bad behaviour looks like

The decades-long debate between Kyle and Cartman about terrible behaviour often explicitly allows us to see how people feel when they encounter different types of egotism.

Each of the primary characters has their own set of flaws that gets exploited to make a point. Each of these points are made to show us an example of what not to be. I sincerely believe South Park has raised a generation of former assholes to be a lot more considerate. 

They baited us with the fart jokes then dropped Kyle giving us a heartfelt speech about lowering the bar of decency. South Park literally apologized for accidentally breeding assholes for a while. That episode won an Emmy. 

All I’m saying is through all the petty comedy there were a lot of moral lessons that as we got older and learned more, helped us become better people.

Or maybe I’m reaching and the vast majority of fans are shitheads.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone