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South Park is a pretty edgy show; it'll challenge you to laugh at something offensive. Have you ever found yourself laughing harder at something offensive than you would have expected? And then you're amazed they could actually make that funny?

One of the best ones for me was the very end of Here Comes the Neighborhood. Mr. Garrison spends the entire episode leading the townsfolk in their effort to kick all the new rich people (who all just happen to be black) out of town. They go through the whole KKK-style intimidation thing with everybody on either side somehow ignorant of the racism. When it finally works, Garrison is stoked at the prospect of becoming a millionaire from selling the abandoned houses. But when his hypocrisy is pointed out by Jimbo and Randy, he utters that immortal line, "Well yeah, but at least I got rid of all those damn ni..." and he's cut off by the closing credits. I felt bad at finding that joke so goddamn funny.

I first watched that when it aired in 2001 with my friend in college and we were just stunned by their balls and almost embarrassed at how much we laughed.

Another example was in Le Petit Tourette when Fatass drops a K-bomb in front of Kyle's mom when he's faking his Tourette's Syndrome. They'd used it before in Death Camp of Tolerance, but the context was way different. Here it was just Cartman shouting the most terrible anti-Semitic slur there is in his friend's mom's face. But I laughed at it.

I was also amazed at how hard I laughed during The Simpsons Already Did It when Cartman basically admits to letting some random guy trick him into giving him a blow job. Eric pretty much got raped and I laughed my ass off. I can't think of any other situation where I've laughed at the idea of a man convincing a little boy to suck him off.

So what South Park jokes have made you do a double take and realize you were laughing at something that was actually pretty terrible?

The whole "...are you positive?" runner in Tonsil Trouble.

Cousin Elvin getting concussed by Fatass in Merry Christmas Charlie Manson.

Randy being "really, really tired" in 'Wal-Mart'. "Here, have a sticker... it's... a turtle."

"Scissor me Timbers!" really can't believe i laughed at that.

I still laugh at Faith Hilling. Hell, there's probably a dozen things in the past season alone that i've posted about and said "I can't believe I laughed at that". I just can't think of them right now.


also, *partially unrelated*, but I continue to laugh at this:

When Cartman says that cousin Kyle should go to a Concentration camp.

When Randy blurred out the word 'n*gger' on national television.

All the bad ones

Nothing really. I don't laugh much at South Park =/
Butt Out's message is something that makes me a little sad I found it such an enjoyable episode.
I don't find any words offensive.
Some of the immature humor makes me a bit embarrassed to laugh at it?

"How do we kill a giant stone Lincoln?"
"Um... a giant stone John Wilkes Booth?"
(Really, a lot of things Moses says, because they gave his voice such gravity and then made some silly lines to go with it.)

The dead whale on the moon.

The evil Woodland Critters and everything terrible they say in their piping, cheerful little voices.

A lot of Kenny's bizarre and random deaths.

"He gonna burn the school down to tha gwound."


And this one isn't South Park, but I think it's applicable: There's a Robot Chicken sketch that has a bunch of doll people by a maternity ward cooing over the babies. This goes on for a while, until a nurse pops in to one of the babies and pulls its little blanket up over its face. All the cooing people freeze and stare with wide open mouths for a few silent beats before the static ends the sketch. I laughed so friggin hard at that. Then I felt like a bad person.

Wait, you are on this site, and don't laugh at South Park? What?

I laughed at it a lot when I first got into it but I don't find the newer episodes that funny anymore. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy it, I just don't like it for the humor usually. There are some episodes that are really, really funny though, mixed in with all the meh ones.

I find myself doing that a lot in South Park, especially about the one you mentioned about that guy raping Cartman. That just proves that South Park is a really funny show because they can take subjects that otherwise wouldn't be humorous and put them in a comedic light.

Those of us who have watched South Park for years, and have read interviews with Matt and Trey should know that they make fun of everything. That being said, turning on South Park, and not expecting to see something that might offend you, is like certain dumbasses I know who complain that certain horror movies are "too disturbing". Horror is suppost to be disturbing, so if they are disturbed, the film makers did their job..Anyway, I laughed at plenty of f*cked up jokes on South Park,but I don't see it the same way as if I laughed at something that really was a hateful racist joke..Or something on Family Guy, where much of the humor really is mean spirited and sexist. ..I know Trey and Matt are not mean people, infact that is why they make fun of everything.

There are other goals to horror other than disturbing the audience. The Giallo, Slasher, Monster movie and psychological horror all target different core emotions. Similarly there are lots of different types of comedy. South park could be funny without trying to offend people - but offending people is key to the type of comedy south park has evolved into. In it's early days, SP was more about absurdity but offensiveness is an important part of the show now. I'm pretty desensitized to it after 16 seasons so don't get offended by stuff.

The context of the show makes it OK to laugh at stuff we would NOT laugh at in other contexts. That's one cathartic thing about it i guess?

Of course the one with Randy getting cancer on purpose on his scrotum. to get doctors' permission to buy weeds. Then the story goes on all his friends getting it on purpose to smoke'em also and because Randy said chicks love'em.

When Martha Stuart queefs out all those pretty stars and whatnot. And shoves a turkey up herself. Normally I'd be like 'wtf? Gross!' but for some reason it humors me!

I know there are other things I just can't think of them now.

When they mocked Steve Erwin's death like literally the same week he had died, I started to laugh and stopped. That was pretty much the joke too, that it was "too soon", as I think Satan put it. It really was. Not cool, that one. I just pictured his little girl flipping through the channels and seeing her recently dead father being mocked. Are we free to do it? Sure. That's what freedom of speech is. But da... it's still pretty screwed up.