Yahoo Movies After 22 seasons, South Park has learned the same hard lesson as The Simpsons
Note: This article contains spoilers for South Park season 23.
When The Simpsons first hit television screens in 1989, it was clear who the star of the show was. The family(?) animation placed pineapple-headed Bart at the centre of its early episodes, and it didn’t take long for catchphrases like "Don’t have a cow, man" and “Eat my shorts!” to ingrain themselves in the minds of viewers.
But after the third season, then-writer Conan O'Brien presumably grew tired of repeating the same old tropes and basing the majority of the episodes around the four-fingered alternative to Dennis the Menace, because he then led the charge to shift the show's focus from Bart to Homer, increasing the range of social scenarios and activities from the schoolyard to the wider adult world.
After all, there’s only so many times a reasonable person can laugh at Bart saying "¡Ay, caramba!".
In a similar vein, when South Park aired its first ever episode in 1997, in all its hand-cut paper-constructed glory, the main focus of the show was its four warmly-dressed eight-year-olds Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny.
Related: South Park finally comes to Netflix – but there's a catch and Amazon Prime can't resist trolling
And while there was a period where creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone lost interest in the character of Kenny – allowing the likes of Butters, Tweek, Jimmy and Timmy to step forward – and his gimmick of being brutally killed in every episode, the kids have always remained at the core of the show, with Cartman emerging as the main comedy vehicle.
But now, after 22 seasons, South Park has learned the same hard lesson that The Simpsons did: that the adult characters are funnier. Or, more specifically, Stan’s pathetic dad Randy Marsh is funnier.
In recent years, Randy has become South Park's Homer, fronting borderline iconic episodes such as 'Crème Fraîche' and 'Medicinal Fried Chicken' – in the former he develops an aggressively erotic interest in cooking due to his obsession with TV programmes on the Food Network, and in the latter he purposely gives himself testicular cancer (by shoving his genitals in the microwave, which promptly renders them the size of a space hopper), so he can be prescribed with medicinal marijuana.
The increase of Randy-centric episodes is no coincidence. Parker and Stone have previously said that, as they become older, they find themselves identifying more with his character than any of the kids – which makes sense, but at the same time is slightly alarming given the sort of things Randy gets up to.
On gradually shifting the focus to an adult character, Parker told Vanity Fair back in 2016: "We used to be really scared of that, and slowly Randy – Stan’s dad – became just as big a character, if not bigger, than Stan. Now, Randy’s shit is what’s funny to us."
But it's taken until now, in season 23, for Randy to firmly establish his place as the animation’s MVP, with every instalment focussing on his Tegridy Weed marijuana business.
This much is clear from the show’s new opening credit sequence, which now welcomes us to Tegridy Farms rather than South Park itself. Each episode opens almost like the start of a sitcom (or arguably an episode of The Simpsons), with Randy announcing his latest, ridiculous business scheme to his exasperated family at the breakfast table.
This season, we’ve seen Randy sell out to Disney in an attempt to gain profits from China, only to sever ties with both after his business partner Towelie (the perennially stoned talking towel) made him realise that the company needs to be free of the corporate machine. (Randy then brilliantly accused Disney of having no ‘Tegridy’.)
Related: South Park creators make sarcastic apology after show is blocked in China
We’ve also seen him brutally strangle Winnie The Pooh to death, produce his own plant-based burgers in a scathing satirical takedown of self-righteous alternative meat eaters, and it’s even been suggested that he was sexually abused by Harvey Weinstein while baked on his own goods. That was the Halloween special, naturally.
In the same way that The Simpsons originally ran the risk of becoming The Bart Show, South Park once relied heavily on its Cartman-based episodes. And while the rotund sociopath is still a major and essential part of the animation, there's a reason Randy's face is now the first one we see in the opening credits.
As South Park continues to evolve, experimenting with its continuity and increasing the length of its long-running gags, it seems to be veering away from the very foul-mouthed kids that made it such a success. Parker and Stone now choose to satirise their own generation – and their show is all the better for it.
Having said all this, we now fully expect the next season to focus entirely on Butters.
South Park airs on Comedy Central and is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.
Digital Spy is launching a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter accounts.
You Might Also Like
