As it is with anything South Park and the love that people feel for it is based on how successful the show is and how fresh it can be kept throughout its run. Joey Paur of GeekTyrant has announced that the show has currently been approved for three more seasons and as a result we’ll be seeing a lot more of the South Park gang as time goes on. But contending with The Simpsons isn’t exactly an easy sell since not only have The Simpsons been around for longer but they also appeal to a wider array of people than South Park despite how long both shows have been going on. Saying that one is better than the other is a matter of opinion and as we’ve seen, opinions tend to swing freely when it comes to fans and many will always claim that theirs is the best while the other is simply inferior for reasons that aren’t always easily given.
A neutral stance on this issue is something that Will Ashton of CinemaBlend will fully understand since trying to pick one or the other is easier when taken case by case rather than by overall numbers. There are those that have been watching The Simpsons for so long that the characters feel like a part of their family or inner circle, and while the same can be said of South Park since it came about in 1997 and is over two decades old, there are still more individuals that can say they relate to The Simpsons since the show has a little more heart to it as well as the comedy that so many people want to see. Too often it would seem that any heart and life lessons put into South Park are a bit patronizing and not all that sincere. Some might want to disagree with this but the whole premise of the show has, for a long time, been that the four friends who started it are foul-mouthed little buggers that do things their way no matter what their parents say and are bound and determined to be as obnoxious as possible. The same could be said about many characters on The Simpsons, but the propensity for ethics is far greater on this show than in South Park.
The arguments can run long and thick with this subject since a lot of people can remember cluing in to South Park when they were a lot younger and much more impressionable and didn’t think that there was anything wrong with the off-color jokes and humor that went way beyond the norm. In truth I’ll admit to watching South Park for a while simply because it was something entertaining and new, but the moment that it kept getting crazier and more out of control it seemed as though it was flying off the rails in a big way and had no intention of coming back. This was a big part of what some people loved and still love about the show, its unpredictability and capability of shocking people into wondering just what they’re watching. Many tend to stick around just to see what will come next and which celebrity is going to be roasted on screen since Parker and Stone tend to do this without mercy at times and make it quite obvious what each celebrity is meant to look like while on the show in terms of character. One might think that this wouldn’t be entirely legal but despite the hate and criticism they’ve received for it in the past they’ve continued their work without bothering to change it all that much.
The Simpsons have featured many a celebrity as well but have at the very least been able to garner the support and use of the celebrity’s voice in order to make it a little more authentic, thereby pleasing the viewers and going so far as to make it seem a little more professional. Darren Franich from Entertainment Weekly makes a good point in stating that the budgets between the shows has, in the past, been quite telling since The Simpsons has almost always been able to put up the funds for experienced and well-known actors while South Park has been kind of a cut-rate animated show that doesn’t have a lot of range when it comes to movement and tends to be extremely simplified. And yet, people have responded to it and they’ve decided to like it for so long that changing it up at this point wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
The whole idea of South Park overtaking The Simpsons is one that a lot of people would scoff at and some would likely raise an eyebrow at. In the best of circumstances, for South Park, it could happen eventually. But despite the fact that the show has already been in a few uphill struggles, it’s trying to climb a mountain at this point and has a long way yet to reach the peak.
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