South Park is probably an overated ,and simultaneously, an underrated show. Its overrated because its rather dumb and immature comedy, its funny, but it isn't as good as it has been overhyped to be.And its underrated because its very smart show, it has taken on a number of topics. From pop culture to politics, the show has made some very intelligent points. Maybe if the comedy wasn't so dumb, it whould be another "Critic", but it dose it own thing and it is enjoyable.

I can't get myself to comment on the crass nature of this show, so the harshest thing I could possibly say is that I don't find it to be all THAT funny.

That said, it seems to be an important pop culture icon, and some of the things that come out of the mouths of these kids can make you snicker. I mean. . . how can you take a show where one kid dies in every single freaking episode seriously?

EDIT, 2008: Just saw most recent episodes, and they were jaw-droppingly audacious. Based on what I've seen, South Park is still pushing the envelope, being funny, and doing it even better than The Simpsons were after this long. I'm giving the buggers 4 stars. Let's face it - these guys are the biggest seachange since The Simpsons, and despite flawed episodes, they're still funny after 11 years.

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Has it really been eight years? I remember watching the first episode of 'South Park' when I was on a trip to the US, and thinking "Wow, this is great - this is different! This is pushing the envelope! And it's funny!"

I don't think I really expected that a season 9 would be in the works for 2005. I thought it would be some fad that lasted a couple of seasons and then went to cult status, as in "Do you remember 'South Park'? Why didn't they ever release it on DVD?"

Instead, within a year of that show, Australian shops were crawling with South Park merchandise, and whereas that level of merchandising might be behind us, the show has survived as one of the biggest cartoons on TV, with a huge fan base. What's more, despite a couple of seasons in its mid-life (so far) which I thought were starting to look shakey and indicating a lack of ideas (the 'Simpsons did it Already' episode probably sums that phase up) it seems to me the show has bounced back stronger in the past couple of years, and whereas it still has dud episodes, the good ones are nearly as sweet as they were in 1997.

'South Park' isn't without its problems. In its determination to leave no sacred cow unturned it's bound to offend almost everybody at some point or other. In the episodes which are heavily socially satirical, it sometimes betrays a lack of real understanding of the issues or even the positions of the groups satirised, and there is always a danger that the corny moralistic endings will actually spill over into genuinely moralising endings where the creators come across as some sort of voice of superior wisdom.

Still, all these things aside, when SP is at it's best, it's absolutely hilarious, and it has probably broken more taboos and done more to stretch what sort of material is allowed on TV than any other show I can think of. I often tend to think, in terms of TV programming, of the 'pre-South Park' and 'post-South Park' eras. It's also a minor miracle that such an obviously adult show should be so hugely popular with grade school kids (at least in Australia), and frankly I keep waiting for the religious Right to get it taken off air or something (even though it takes shots at the liberal Left pretty regularly as well).

South Park's animation was startling when I first saw it, but in hindsight I don't think you could call it revolutionary, because a revolution implies that lots of other people have emulated it, and off the top of my head the only other show I cant think of which looks a bit like it is 'Captain Pugwash', a British show from the 60's.

There's a nice irony too, don't you think, that with the exception of the first episode, which actually was done with cut-outs, South Park is all made on computers, meaning that they probably spend a small fortune trying to make it look like it was made for $500.

Talking of cheapness, Parker and Stone are multi-millionaires. You think they or their network could afford a few more voice actors. Having three people effectively voice the whole show works remarkably well, but inevitably there are characters who sound recongisably like other characters. They get around this a bit by changing the pitch of the voices, etc.

Humour-wise it isn't quite in the league of 'The Simpsons' or 'The Critic', but on a good day it's damn close, and you have to give them points because it doesn't have thirty or forty people writing for it. I nearly docked half a star from the score, but if I had to round off, I think I'd give it four stars. It's a little uneven, but a classic nonetheless.

(edit) I've deducted a star because, when I really think about it, the show has been too uneven to warrant a solid four, even though many episodes, and even several seasons, would rate 4 taken individually.

edit: Aug 07: upgrading to 3.5
edit: Mar 08: upgrading to 4.0