No show has been affected by the passage of time as South Park

Vox

South Park's recent mea culpa on climate change is a reminder that, by their very nature, animated shows tend to be out of step with the times, according to Todd VanDerWerff. That can be seen in how South Park has had trouble handling the rise of Trump. "It’s as if the series isn’t sure how to live in a world that governs itself by South Park logic," says VanDerWerff. "Yet that’s the larger conundrum South Park finds itself in. For a TV show driven by the same rationale as an internet troll — that provoking a reaction from those who care about literally anything is funnier than anything else on the face of the planet — it’s also become a show that increasingly seems uneasy about living in a world where the trolls have their way." From The Simpsons to Family Guy to South Park, "the thing about animated TV shows is that they don’t really change, while the world around them does," he says. VanDerWerff adds: "But no series has been as affected by the passage of time as South Park. On one hand, the series has been able to pivot more successfully than others, thanks to (Trey) Parker and (Matt) Stone’s continued involvement in every aspect of its production. On the other, it has never quite shed its status as TV’s most libertarian show, built atop the ethos that you shouldn’t bother caring about what other people do, unless they try to make you do something for the greater good, in which case, you should make fun of them. In the 2010s, South Park has occasionally grappled with this element of its legacy....And yet South Park is still trapped, to some degree, by having launched in 1997, amid a booming American economy, where the issues that got Americans most worked up too often amounted to trivial bullsh*t. Even if you disagreed with South Park’s central 'caring is stupid ethos, it was a lot easier to let the show have its fun back then, without worrying about its cultural impact." He adds that with the recent climate change episodes, "now even Parker and Stone seem to wonder sometimes what South Park’s legacy might turn out to be."