Going Down to South Park

Katie Bruncati, Staff Writer

South Park, a popular program on Comedy Central, has been airing for many years. With its cruel yet hilarious humor and very adult situations, it is known to entertain many teenagers and adults. But, with this in mind, this cartoon series receives plenty of complaints and stirs up controversy with each new episode it creates. Students at various schools have even been punished for wearing t-shirts relating to the show.

Even though this is understandable with South Park’s long list of offensive parodies involving racism, scientology, and transgender people, is it really worth it to complain and try to shield people from what they’re watching? This show has a rating of TV-14, so kids are permitted to watch it if they’re in their final year of middle school or if they’re already in high school. Also, this should not be an issue of the school’s; parents should be involved if there is an issue. Not all fourteen year-olds are quite mature enough to be watching such adult content, so the parents should definitely be taking a role in allowing them to watch certain shows and to steer away from others. They should definitely be taking control over their kid as a parent and step up to the plate.

On another note, what’s the point in complaining about this show’s parodies if it’s all made to be a joke? Sure, South Park is known to take things very far, but it’s still allowed to be shown on television. If the jokes are rubbing people the wrong way, they can just change the channel. There are just too many easy solutions around this, and there’s no point and trying to be serious with a show that is known to poke fun at everything that happens in the world. Just leave the people to enjoy what they watch.