“South Park” premiered on Aug. 13, 1997 on Comedy Central. The show is still airing and coming out with new episodes and does not show any signs of stopping in my opinion. “South Park” is hands down one of my favorite comfort series.

The show focuses on four boys, Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski and Kenny McCormick in their hometown of South Park, Colorado. What makes this show different from other animated adult series is that the boys are elementary students.

By having the main characters being so young, it gives the show the ability to have a unique perspective on current events. At multiple points in the show where having four young boys be the leading figures allows for some funny situations that show their lack of life experience. 

One of my favorite examples of this is in season four, episode five “Cartman Joins NAMBLA.” This episode focuses on Cartman declaring that he is too mature for his friends and says he needs friends with the same maturity level as him.

This leads Cartman to meet with much older men and eventually becomes the face of the North American Man/Boy Love Association. While watching we automatically know what these men want from Cartman, but due to his lack of life experience makes it amusing to see him get frustrated with his “mature friends” getting arrested.

I am currently on my fifth rewatch of the show, and I still love it like it is the first time I binge-watched it, even more so. There are about 26 seasons as of right now, however, the most recent seasons only have about eight episodes each.

Many individuals do not like the show because of its vulgarity and offensiveness. However, I think the show can be offensive to all people. The creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, clearly research the stereotypes they cover.

For example, the episode “Le Petit Tourette” actually got kudos from individuals with Tourettes that the show actually had an accurate description of the disorder and thinks it is one of the best portrayals of it.

While the show may come off as offensive, which at times it does, I still love it. It is one of my favorite comfort shows to turn on when I am feeling sad or need something on in the background. After all, the show is offensive to everyone. That is why while Eric Cartman is a bigot, he is still illustrated as a fat, white kid.

The creators say there are no lines they do not think they would not cross, which I kind of admire. They cleary are proud of their craft and want to touch on all topics and refuse to be silenced.

Boggess can be reached at [email protected].