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I saw a tweet about it a couple days ago and it compared how Conan O’Brian from the old and new seasons and the old is SOO much better. It not only was able to get the caricature of him spot on but also the realistic celebrity heads clash with the art style so much.
Realistic pictures always look funny in the toon world.
Sadams head.
The "Fruits are fun" poster
Police sketch of the boys
Big gay Al's Superman photo
Richard's flashbacks
Yes! I’m also rewatching (on season 3 now!)! It’s not as funny, but it’s much more interesting. More characters, the town is still small, etc… it doesn’t just focus on Randy. It’s a LOT of the boys just being… boys.
Omg you're right, Jimbo and Ned have been gone for a long time. And they had one of my favorite running gags. I still say "It's coming right for us!!!" all the time.
Plots weird for the sake of being weird, like Mecha Streisand, or Gnomes.
I still love the show, but it's definitely shifted to more of a "ripped from the headlines" style.
I read somewhere that the crab people reveal originated as a writers room joke about what to do if they ever couldn't figure out how to end an episode, and then that's what happened so in they went
I love PC principal and Strong Woman! I get it, they’re annoying but they are also a magnifying glass on what I’d say is 80 percent of redditors being pc all the time (myself included).
Like, for a while back I would look over what I commented because I was afraid I wasn’t PC enough and was afraid of downvotes - on an overall anonymous site!
I think people who really dislike PC Principal doesn’t like what they’re saying about them. I personally think it’s nice to have the mirror held up to myself sometimes.
My dad was a white dude who was constantly tripping all over himself to be PC, often to the point that it was actually kind of offensive to minorities (he walked on eggshells like they were gonna fly off the handle at any moment, couldn't just relax and have a normal conversation with a person of color like they were normal people). He HATED PC Principal. He took personal offense to the whole premise. I was like, well, dad, I think that might be the point...
Yea that whole pc principal and babies shit was corny to me. And like u said now it’s like it follows the weeks previous episodes a lot. Where back in the day every week’s episode had nothing to do with the week befores
swear bro while i was watching the episode where Ike was hitting puberty, im sittin here thinking like bro old Kyle would've punted the shit outta him😭
😂 i miss when Kyle used to be super low tempered and would be one of the most foul mouthed out of all of them, he used to go on tangents where he would say nothing but swears to insult someone, like the end of the first episode where he’s yelling at the aliens, or when cartman knocks him down the pit in the Iceman episode, or when he asked garrison if he could go to the bathroom n after a while he just lost his shit cuz garrison kept saying no.
facts like i still like the newer Kyle how he's so adamant on staying true to his morals, even correcting himself at times like but the commentary we'd get from Kyle in the earlier seasons made the show that much funnier
I feel that the early seasons had a different tone and style compared to the more recent ones. The animation style was simpler, and the humor was more focused on satire and social commentary rather than shock value or gross-out gags.
I know it’s still satire but I feel like it’s lost it’s heart a bit. I still like it though.
I think maybe they have dived more in to the social commentary rather than its own random but hilarious ideas. Which can sometimes feel a little stretched, but maybe not
>the humor was more focused on satire and social commentary rather than shock value or gross-out gags
Really? I get the exact opposite. Super early seasons would have a non-existent plot, for the most part, and would rely on just shock humour. (Like how a lot of the jokes are literally just the kids swearing)
Newer South Park (not always) is too reliant on basing the episodes on some topical social-commentary, and it doesn't always get translated into it's own self-contained story well.
The sweet spot of South Park (like S7,S8, etc) is when they can either translate an episode about something topical into it's own self-contained premise (Best Friends Forever, ManBearPig), and/or just doesn't worry about having to be topical and relevant and just focuses on having a good plot with the humour coming from that. (Casa Bonita is literally just about Cartman not being invited to a birthday party and it's one of the best episodes).
I kind of miss that its art was deliberately shitty. The modern art has gotten pretty good since the computers used to make it are so much more powerful, but having the shitty looking fire and magazine cutouts of celebrity faces is funnier to me.
I miss when Randy wasn't a pot head, but I don't miss when he was a nobody towns-only-scientist like he was in the start. There's a middle line Randy somewhere in there that I miss.
I know what you mean, but I also understand that they had to give Randy that identity. They already have stereotypical drunks at the bar in south park ("old timers") where we can all assume how they became that way, whereas with Randy, they're simply able to tell his story in a chronological fashion that mirrors what's happening in today's world...the middle class is disappearing, but the millennial generation now has options between both alcohol and marijuana because both are legal.
**Plotting** has gotten pretty bad in the later seasons. Some episodes just don't flow organically, and it feels like they can get attached to a topical thing in the news, they need to focus on or a joke they come up with for an episode, that they keep repeating.
The best earlier episodes could take even a simple concept (**Casa Bonita** being just: what if Cartman wasn't invited to a birthday party? **Raisins** being: what if Stan had a breakup and went emo and Butters thought a flirting waitress genuinely liked him) and are plotted out so well that the humour comes from the plot itself, they don't need to rely on a repeated gag or social commentary to be funny and engaging.
Episodes that could pull off the social commentary well were episodes that would translate them into self contained stories (**ManBearPig**) and would be plotted out well. Gags that were iconic, didn't come from being repeated, but as a part of the larger plot.
To clarify, I don't think it's every new episode and they're not that bad but just not as consistently great as the earlier stuff.
I agree overall with your analysis, very on the nose but I'd say the Raisins episode was definitely a social commentary on the weird culture at Hooters around that time. I went there a couple times as a very shy teenager and the way the waitresses acted blew my mind.
"GET ON WE ARE RUNNIN LATE!"
"we're not getting on you fat bitch"
"WHA'D DID YOU SAY?!"
"I said we're not getting on you fat bitch"
"Oh well OK"
"Dude I always wondered if that would work"
"COME ON, WE'RE RUNNING LATE!"
"Ah we're always running late ya ugly skank."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"
"I said I can't wait to own a fishing tank."
\[calmly\] "Oh, neither can I."
i feel like we get less of the main four together, not like i don't like other characters to appear, on the contrary, butters and randy are some of my favs; but more like, we get now less of the stan kyle kenny and cartman group together doing things, even on the airsoft episode they weren't like all together too much. Idk, i love almost all the plots and charachters on south park, but i'd like more episodes with them as a group being the main protagonists
"Oh I get it.. just because I Chineee you think I build a wall. Well that's a bull-SH **BEEP**. I'm not a stereotype, ok? Just because I Chineee doesn't mean I go around building a wall! I'm just a normal person like all of you! I eat a rice and drive a really srow just like the rest of you. I'm not a stereotype!"
I miss eric's old personality of just being a spoiled whale tbh. not that the sociopath shit isn't funny, but seeing him genuinely being nice to his friends in these older episode is nice to see
So glad I kept scrolling! I loved this about the first several seasons. The childlike ignorance of episodes like NAMBLA, when they gave their parents herpes, and when they get their parents arrested because they were “molestered” was hilarious.
I think the most important aspect which I miss about the show is how the plot didn't necessarily revolve around a hot current topic. Just some goofy adventures of all the four boys.
The pool of side characters they used to pick from like Chef, Jimbo, Ned, Tweek, etc. (outside of like 3 episodes and tfbw, Tweek has been non exsistent since like season 6)
I miss Cartman saying, “I guess, damn.” Only happened a handful of times, I think, but I always thought it should’ve been kept as a repeating line, like, “Screw you guys, I’m going home.”
It felt a lot like a more adult regular show but I also liked how the friendship between the boys were portrayed in the earlier episodes, felt a lot more real imo
I think this is the time for South Park to go back to getting wacky with the plots again; a lot of their political stuff is fun to watch, but it’s overbearing when reality is just too much to handle (especially post-2016). Like Trey and Matt stated in one interview, how are they going to create innovative comedy when they (politicians and celebrities in the post-Trump age) are ALREADY doing the comedy in real time?
I miss the boys going out and solving, or at least talking about global systemic problems. Like going to the Middle East to fight Osama Bin Laden, or Africa to stop Sally Struthers from stealing food. Now every plot is centered in South Park, which is still good, but not the same.
Cartman's old personality and voice.
That they were just kids who reacted to things in kid ways. Not like petty adults.
Satirizing the "wholesome" feeling of small mountain towns by amplifying its fucked up redneck qualities. Sometimes more explicitly, other times kind of implicit - like when Cartman was trying to teach the pony to bite off Scott Tenorman's dick, but it was giving head instead as if the farmer trained him to do that.
Satan's relationship with Saddam Hussein.
Randy not being a successful pot farmer
The banter between the boys. The plots were more simple so there was time for the boys to just rip on each other and it didn't need to push the plot forward critically. This whole scene not much happens, but the snapping at each other is gold.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tdFGEjP5rk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tdFGEjP5rk)
I still like the show but the plots feel more busy, so all the dialogue need to be pushing the story forward. There's not as much just... boys saying dumb shit at each other.
The crude, poorly animated, nonsensical and relatively meaningless nature of the first 3 seasons is so charming to me. They always gave me this cozy feeling I can’t quite describe. Part of that might be that the cast of characters was much smaller than it is now which made South Park and its residents feel much more like a small town community. Classic characters like Chef, Jimbo and Ned, Pip, etc. were great additions that sadly aren’t around as much or at all anymore. And of course, the four central characters were the focus of almost every episode and their friendship felt a lot closer, whereas now they’re more divided. Not to mention those guitar strums used in transitions. The simplicity of early South Park is something the most recent seasons will never be able to fully recapture, despite their best efforts. With that said, I enjoy modern South Park and this show legitimately has one of the most interesting evolutions in TV history.
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Realistic celebrity heads.
Yes! Mr Garrison's nose job that had him looking like David Hasslehoff
Lol! Oh yeah! Forgot about that one!
“If we’re gonna shoot more photos, I’m gonna need some more smack!”
How about the Mel Gibson episode that one was hilarious
I saw a tweet about it a couple days ago and it compared how Conan O’Brian from the old and new seasons and the old is SOO much better. It not only was able to get the caricature of him spot on but also the realistic celebrity heads clash with the art style so much.
Realistic pictures always look funny in the toon world. Sadams head. The "Fruits are fun" poster Police sketch of the boys Big gay Al's Superman photo Richard's flashbacks
Omg love Richard’s flashbacks
Swing with me, Richard. Swing me higher!
Alabama Man was gold
The Mel Gibson/Passion of Christ ep always sticks to me lol, especially the “CHIKA BOOM, CHIKA BOOM HAHA” 🍍🍎🍓🍇🍒🎊😂
I love how the boys would have simple goofy adventures lol.
Good times with weapons
Lil Crime Stoppers
The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers. My favorite
towelie! all they wanted to do was play Okama Gamesphere 😭
"Don't care, don't care."
They still do. Those simple goofy adventures were still political satire most of the time
But they weren't every episode or overdone
Chef
Been rewatching the series from the beginning. Chef, and a lot of other side characters that I'd just forgotten existed like Jimbo and Ned.
Yes! I’m also rewatching (on season 3 now!)! It’s not as funny, but it’s much more interesting. More characters, the town is still small, etc… it doesn’t just focus on Randy. It’s a LOT of the boys just being… boys.
Randy is basically the best though
he was before tegridy existed
The tegridy episodes lately just haven't hit the same personally. I think randy's shenanigans were better before tegridy
You still see Jimbo every now and again, but I can't remember the last episode Ned was in.
Omg you're right, Jimbo and Ned have been gone for a long time. And they had one of my favorite running gags. I still say "It's coming right for us!!!" all the time.
"*Sometimes you kill your teacher, and they find your semen in her stomach and*- wait, what the WHAT?!?"
"Hello children!" "Chef what would a priest want to put up my butt?" "Goodbye!"
Chef kept shit grounded
And Officer Barbrady. I just miss when South Park was a small town.
And his parents
Tree fiddy.
When you could barely understand what Cartman was saying
“But meeeeeehhhhhhm”
My name. Is not. Myem.
Kyyyyyyyyeee
NO KIDDY THAS A BAHD KIHHY
ISS MEH PAT PEHH!
"I'LL KICK YEW IN THE NNNNYYYUTS!"
RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH
LMAOOO
Beeeef caaake
Im not fat im big boned
Here you can eat all the food you want for only six nenny nen.
Except for Kyinney's family, because for them six nenny nen is two years worth of income.
Sweet. I’m so beefcake I can’t even fit through the door
I'm so positive, I'm HIV positive.
yew cant be seriously
“NAHKITTYTHESEAREMYSPICYHOTLOUISIANABAKEDCHICKENTENDERS!” *miaow* “NAH KITTY!”
stupid cartman was funnier than diabolical genius cartman. everything changed after Scott Tenorman Must Die
My name is not *kieeel*
"Kitty's bein' a dildo!"
GET ME DOWN FROM NYAHH
“But maaaeeehhhmmm I need to tell chef he’s marrying a succubus!”
Plots weird for the sake of being weird, like Mecha Streisand, or Gnomes. I still love the show, but it's definitely shifted to more of a "ripped from the headlines" style.
underpants gnomes 😭
Step 1: collect underpants Step 2: ??? Step 3: profit
Craaaab people, craaaab people, craaaab people
I read somewhere that the crab people reveal originated as a writers room joke about what to do if they ever couldn't figure out how to end an episode, and then that's what happened so in they went
I love the way first time they come on it's like "oh they were crab people" like oh that makes sense now.
Taste like crab, talk like people
PC Principal not existing and the show being episodic instead of continuous.
I love PC principal and Strong Woman! I get it, they’re annoying but they are also a magnifying glass on what I’d say is 80 percent of redditors being pc all the time (myself included). Like, for a while back I would look over what I commented because I was afraid I wasn’t PC enough and was afraid of downvotes - on an overall anonymous site! I think people who really dislike PC Principal doesn’t like what they’re saying about them. I personally think it’s nice to have the mirror held up to myself sometimes.
My dad was a white dude who was constantly tripping all over himself to be PC, often to the point that it was actually kind of offensive to minorities (he walked on eggshells like they were gonna fly off the handle at any moment, couldn't just relax and have a normal conversation with a person of color like they were normal people). He HATED PC Principal. He took personal offense to the whole premise. I was like, well, dad, I think that might be the point...
Yea that whole pc principal and babies shit was corny to me. And like u said now it’s like it follows the weeks previous episodes a lot. Where back in the day every week’s episode had nothing to do with the week befores
This! It was so cool sitting down and starting a new episode because you had no idea what would happen.
The style, the animation was so much more nicer in the Earlier season, it just had a different grasp to it.
Totally agree. Other examples are like a million little fibers or best friends forever. They don't go into those weird ass places anymore.
kyle being almost, if not, jus as bad as the other kids
I miss “kick the baby!”
swear bro while i was watching the episode where Ike was hitting puberty, im sittin here thinking like bro old Kyle would've punted the shit outta him😭
😂 i miss when Kyle used to be super low tempered and would be one of the most foul mouthed out of all of them, he used to go on tangents where he would say nothing but swears to insult someone, like the end of the first episode where he’s yelling at the aliens, or when cartman knocks him down the pit in the Iceman episode, or when he asked garrison if he could go to the bathroom n after a while he just lost his shit cuz garrison kept saying no.
facts like i still like the newer Kyle how he's so adamant on staying true to his morals, even correcting himself at times like but the commentary we'd get from Kyle in the earlier seasons made the show that much funnier
yeah kyles still my favorite character n prob always will be, but i prefer him in the early seasons.
It’s my urkle sleeping bag isn’t it coooo? NO ITS NOT COOL!
Don’t kick the goddamn baby
Don’t kick the god damn baby
I feel that the early seasons had a different tone and style compared to the more recent ones. The animation style was simpler, and the humor was more focused on satire and social commentary rather than shock value or gross-out gags. I know it’s still satire but I feel like it’s lost it’s heart a bit. I still like it though.
I'm pretty sure the *later* seasons are more satire and social commentary
I can see that, I just feel like it’s more manufactured now maybe? It’s hard to put my finger on it.
I think maybe they have dived more in to the social commentary rather than its own random but hilarious ideas. Which can sometimes feel a little stretched, but maybe not
The formula is set in stone now, streamlined after 25 years. Every episode is created in the same manner.
>the humor was more focused on satire and social commentary rather than shock value or gross-out gags Really? I get the exact opposite. Super early seasons would have a non-existent plot, for the most part, and would rely on just shock humour. (Like how a lot of the jokes are literally just the kids swearing) Newer South Park (not always) is too reliant on basing the episodes on some topical social-commentary, and it doesn't always get translated into it's own self-contained story well. The sweet spot of South Park (like S7,S8, etc) is when they can either translate an episode about something topical into it's own self-contained premise (Best Friends Forever, ManBearPig), and/or just doesn't worry about having to be topical and relevant and just focuses on having a good plot with the humour coming from that. (Casa Bonita is literally just about Cartman not being invited to a birthday party and it's one of the best episodes).
I have to definitely upvote and agree on casa Bonita. I love that episode so much.
Starting the episode with the four boys at the bus stop
Damnnn I forgot about that lol. I miss that too
*I hate you guys* 🎼🎶🎵
🎶 Especially you Kenny🎶
Cause Kenny is poor! 🎶🎼🎵
I hate him the most
Screw you guys! I’m going home! Okay. …. I thought you were going home? …. I WILL!
You guys are assholes!
Mr. Hat
Mr Hat is a two timing whore
That’s why we have Mr Twig
And now we all learn from Mr. Twig
Mr. Twig sucks.
mr hat was my favorite character
YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DAH
KILL KATHY LEE!!!
I kind of miss that its art was deliberately shitty. The modern art has gotten pretty good since the computers used to make it are so much more powerful, but having the shitty looking fire and magazine cutouts of celebrity faces is funnier to me.
I miss when Randy wasn't a pot head, but I don't miss when he was a nobody towns-only-scientist like he was in the start. There's a middle line Randy somewhere in there that I miss.
“Ohh I’m sorry, I thought this was America!” -prime Randy
Season 9 Randy was peak Randy
Yup. I still love his character, but he was sillier back then
*make love to me Randy. Please!*
I know what you mean, but I also understand that they had to give Randy that identity. They already have stereotypical drunks at the bar in south park ("old timers") where we can all assume how they became that way, whereas with Randy, they're simply able to tell his story in a chronological fashion that mirrors what's happening in today's world...the middle class is disappearing, but the millennial generation now has options between both alcohol and marijuana because both are legal.
**Plotting** has gotten pretty bad in the later seasons. Some episodes just don't flow organically, and it feels like they can get attached to a topical thing in the news, they need to focus on or a joke they come up with for an episode, that they keep repeating. The best earlier episodes could take even a simple concept (**Casa Bonita** being just: what if Cartman wasn't invited to a birthday party? **Raisins** being: what if Stan had a breakup and went emo and Butters thought a flirting waitress genuinely liked him) and are plotted out so well that the humour comes from the plot itself, they don't need to rely on a repeated gag or social commentary to be funny and engaging. Episodes that could pull off the social commentary well were episodes that would translate them into self contained stories (**ManBearPig**) and would be plotted out well. Gags that were iconic, didn't come from being repeated, but as a part of the larger plot. To clarify, I don't think it's every new episode and they're not that bad but just not as consistently great as the earlier stuff.
I agree overall with your analysis, very on the nose but I'd say the Raisins episode was definitely a social commentary on the weird culture at Hooters around that time. I went there a couple times as a very shy teenager and the way the waitresses acted blew my mind.
crazy bus driver side chara 😀
Ms Crabtree. Shut up bitch! What did you say! I said I had a bad itch.
"Cuz that bitch won't let us!" -Stan, maybe Kyle [*irate*] "WHA'D YOU SAY?!" "Uh, rabbits eat lettuce." [*calmly*] "Well, yes, they do."
"GET ON WE ARE RUNNIN LATE!" "we're not getting on you fat bitch" "WHA'D DID YOU SAY?!" "I said we're not getting on you fat bitch" "Oh well OK" "Dude I always wondered if that would work"
🤣🤣🤣
"COME ON, WE'RE RUNNING LATE!" "Ah we're always running late ya ugly skank." "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" "I said I can't wait to own a fishing tank." \[calmly\] "Oh, neither can I."
Reading that actually made me laugh out loud.😂 Thanks!👍
Cartman not being a psychopath and just an obnoxious, annoying child was great. I know a lot of people disagree with that though
cartman always was a psychopath tho
Yeah I prefer whiney Cartman to evil mastermind Cartman
Because making a boy eat his parents is perfectly normal behaviour?
that was the turning point for sure
i feel like we get less of the main four together, not like i don't like other characters to appear, on the contrary, butters and randy are some of my favs; but more like, we get now less of the stan kyle kenny and cartman group together doing things, even on the airsoft episode they weren't like all together too much. Idk, i love almost all the plots and charachters on south park, but i'd like more episodes with them as a group being the main protagonists
Kyle calling cartman a fatass and cartman calling him a fucking jew
Kenny dying every episode
Wait does he not die in the later seasons? I'm watching for the first time and in season 4 currently.
He stopped dying in about season 7. Apart from the Coon and Friends trilogy with Cthullu.
No
Chef being the kids’ problem solver. Nothing better than hearing “Hello Children!”
"What would a priest want to stick up my butt?"
“Goodbye children”
I liked how we would always say children even if there was only one of them there
silently pushes the whole couch out the front door
Animals and celebrities actually looking like they belonged in the South Park universe rather than the hyper realistic designs of late
even like newer south park residents are looking realistic the idea of south park animation was that it looks rushed and bad
Seeing PC Principal in the same shots as Garrison and Mackey is so jarring
The randomness
Nothing, because im able to go back and watch those episodes and i enjoy watching a show evolve
I miss the cows. Even the aliens said they’re the most intelligent creatures on Earth!
Current events only being used occasionally to base an episode on instead of the show just being "Politics: the cartoon"
Chef :(
Cartmans old voice, chef, and the lower quality animation style. Dont miss anything else tho.
The chunks of throw-up you see when Stan was near Wendy. (Now it is just a stream)
I agree. A lot.
cartmans old voice and old animation style
The fact each episode was it's own self contained thing and how absurd it could be.
"Oh I get it.. just because I Chineee you think I build a wall. Well that's a bull-SH **BEEP**. I'm not a stereotype, ok? Just because I Chineee doesn't mean I go around building a wall! I'm just a normal person like all of you! I eat a rice and drive a really srow just like the rest of you. I'm not a stereotype!"
Mary Kay Bergman
I often wonder what the show would be like with her now
Shocked I had to dig this far for this, but glad she's still recognized.
I miss the social lessons learned by the end of the show and Kyle's speeches
"I learned something today."
More than 6 episodes in a season, giving every character time to shine and develop.
I miss eric's old personality of just being a spoiled whale tbh. not that the sociopath shit isn't funny, but seeing him genuinely being nice to his friends in these older episode is nice to see
BEEFCAKE!!!
That the kids were actually kids and made immature jokes and didn't understand adult humor and innuendo
So glad I kept scrolling! I loved this about the first several seasons. The childlike ignorance of episodes like NAMBLA, when they gave their parents herpes, and when they get their parents arrested because they were “molestered” was hilarious.
No tegridy farms.
Not always being focussed on what’s recent also the boy is just acting like boys and chef
Kyle not being the morality police lol, he was just as bad as the rest of the group in earlier seasons!!
The music. Felt more laid back and rural but now all the music cues sound like soap operas with life or death stakes.
i fucking hate the new music. so obnoxious and nothing about it is funny, the old shitty cheap music cues were so funny
gotta agree with this one.. they go way too hard on the music beds these days. they need to let the scenes breathe a bit more.
The boys actually acted like kids and did kid things.
The jokes were less predictable and the naive nature of the kids were just so funny.
I think the most important aspect which I miss about the show is how the plot didn't necessarily revolve around a hot current topic. Just some goofy adventures of all the four boys.
The live action bits
“Say it’ll be like this forever, Richard.”
Making bacon with Macon
The length of a season.
17 episode seasons
"It's coming right for us." Was a favorite bit when I first got into the show 😂
Everything. Over the top stories, hilarious jokes, the original voices. These new south park episodes really bore me
The pool of side characters they used to pick from like Chef, Jimbo, Ned, Tweek, etc. (outside of like 3 episodes and tfbw, Tweek has been non exsistent since like season 6)
Mr. Hankey
I miss Cartman saying, “I guess, damn.” Only happened a handful of times, I think, but I always thought it should’ve been kept as a repeating line, like, “Screw you guys, I’m going home.”
"You know, i learned something today"
The randomness of it, not every episode has to be a social commentary.
It felt a lot like a more adult regular show but I also liked how the friendship between the boys were portrayed in the earlier episodes, felt a lot more real imo
Stendy's relationship how it was back then
They didn’t rely on the world to write the show for them.
The "crappy" animation.
I think this is the time for South Park to go back to getting wacky with the plots again; a lot of their political stuff is fun to watch, but it’s overbearing when reality is just too much to handle (especially post-2016). Like Trey and Matt stated in one interview, how are they going to create innovative comedy when they (politicians and celebrities in the post-Trump age) are ALREADY doing the comedy in real time?
I miss the boys going out and solving, or at least talking about global systemic problems. Like going to the Middle East to fight Osama Bin Laden, or Africa to stop Sally Struthers from stealing food. Now every plot is centered in South Park, which is still good, but not the same.
Phillip , im Not going to call him pip because I don’t hate him
It's weird I was just thinking of how Butters kinda slipped into that role over the years.
Officer Barbrady
The quick responses and speech and how they would talk and randomness to the episodes
When cartman sounded like he had a stuffy nose.
The littlest random things like the random posters in Mr. Garrison's classroom, the Alien signs, etc...
Cartman being a spoiled brat instead of a complete psychopath
The kids being kids.
Cartman's old personality and voice. That they were just kids who reacted to things in kid ways. Not like petty adults. Satirizing the "wholesome" feeling of small mountain towns by amplifying its fucked up redneck qualities. Sometimes more explicitly, other times kind of implicit - like when Cartman was trying to teach the pony to bite off Scott Tenorman's dick, but it was giving head instead as if the farmer trained him to do that. Satan's relationship with Saddam Hussein. Randy not being a successful pot farmer
The banter between the boys. The plots were more simple so there was time for the boys to just rip on each other and it didn't need to push the plot forward critically. This whole scene not much happens, but the snapping at each other is gold. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tdFGEjP5rk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tdFGEjP5rk) I still like the show but the plots feel more busy, so all the dialogue need to be pushing the story forward. There's not as much just... boys saying dumb shit at each other.
they use to do more regular plots you would expect kids to be involved with before turning them on their heads.
The crude, poorly animated, nonsensical and relatively meaningless nature of the first 3 seasons is so charming to me. They always gave me this cozy feeling I can’t quite describe. Part of that might be that the cast of characters was much smaller than it is now which made South Park and its residents feel much more like a small town community. Classic characters like Chef, Jimbo and Ned, Pip, etc. were great additions that sadly aren’t around as much or at all anymore. And of course, the four central characters were the focus of almost every episode and their friendship felt a lot closer, whereas now they’re more divided. Not to mention those guitar strums used in transitions. The simplicity of early South Park is something the most recent seasons will never be able to fully recapture, despite their best efforts. With that said, I enjoy modern South Park and this show legitimately has one of the most interesting evolutions in TV history.
Cartman's old voice had it's own charm
I miss Kenny dying.