Season Twenty

I began watching the show in 2016, and the first episode I watched was "Member Berries" when it aired live on TV in my motel room. Since then, I didn't skip a single episode. So here I'm gonna rate the seasons I watched live.

My 1st season: Season 20

I think that if it wasn't for the serialization of the show at that time, I would've never really gotten into the show in the first place. I found the first episode to be interesting, so I just kept going watching the show, and I found it fascinating, especially because it used humor to parody the elections and all that. Before watching "The Damned" I decided to learn more about the characters, and I was like, wow then how did Cartman become so defenseless when his devices got mauled? Then I figured, wow he might've matured or something but still gets scapegoated for his past actions which led him to being falsely framed as the infamous troll. I did not expect him to somehow get a girlfriend, but I admit it was a very good accessory to season 20. I think though that the season did rely on the election too much, because I was aware of the plot twist after "Fort Collins". However, I didn't find the ending to the season horrible, and I actually enjoyed it, I believe it's underrated and doesn't get enough credit. As I said, if it wasn't for the serialization, I would've probably never gotten into the show.

Rating: 19 out of 25

My 2nd season: Season 21

By then I knew the background of several characters and all, but it wasn't until mid-season that I decided to binge watch all the past 20-and-a-half seasons to see how far it's come. I was pretty amazed to be honest. To this day there's several remains of season 21, mostly from Phone Destroyer and Fractured but Whole (which I bought as soon as it came out), so it's evident that this may be one of the more iconic S.P. seasons. I personally enjoyed it too, except for the Cartman-Heidi arc, that one relationship - which really had potential mid-season 20 - went down the drain. On one hand, Cartman was more of his old nasty self. On the other hand, it wasn't funny that season, it was just cruel. At least he was pretty funny in the FBW game. Also, who knew this would be the last season of Randy being a fun and enjoyable character? This season brings nostalgia, even though I didn't really like the finale.

Rating: 18 out of 25

My 3rd season: Season 22

The first three episodes are a bit nostalgic since they're from the pre-Tegridy Farms era. After that, the season was a bit of a rollercoaster. We had Al Gore (whom I hated up until "Time to Get Cereal" when it was revealed he was right about MBP), we had ManBearPig causing havoc, and killing off one of the most iconic characters of the show (Satan), which was a bit depressing, especially since his death came a week after his SPPD card was released, we had Randy and his stupid farm (but I admit it helped poke fun at Amazon and Jeff Bezos, which was the sole upside of the arc), and we had the boys getting along very well, which was good. Overall though, I find the season bang average, but the finale was really good. Also, God knows where the hell Cartman's ex Heidi went ever since that season.

Rating: 13 out of 25

My 4th season: Season 23

Despite Randy turning into a complete asswipe that season, I really liked the episode "Band in China" but that was mostly because of Mickey Mouse, not Randy. Mickey really gave a representation of what Disney has become, and the fact that going as far as to sacrifice Winnie the Pooh (good thing he came back to haunt Randy) is something Disney would do if they want to continue production and gain money. My point here is, Randy really fell off. As for the kids, it was nice to see breakout characters like Strong Woman, Nichole and Scott Malkinson, who I think they deserve more screen time. Speaking of which, I really enjoyed "Basic Cable" and the introduction of Sophie. Also, I think that episode was Cartman's best performance since early season 20. Overall, I think this season marked the point of modernity. I would've enjoyed it more had it not been for Randy.

Rating: 15 out of 25

So those are my ratings, what do you guys think?

Okay hang on just a second. So I have been thinking about the episode Doubling Down lately and how Heidi mentions being vegan. Which obviously is fine and seems very in character to me. However......how long has Heidi been vegan? I originally figured forever, or at least practically forever but after watching a few of my favorite episodes I saw two things.

In the episode Assburgers you see Heidi enjoying a " Cartman Burger " ( I literally can't think too much about this, truly disgusting ). However knowing Cartman, I very much doubt that these burgers were vegetarian, let alone vegan. Moving on I decided to start rewatching season twenty and in season twenty we see Cartman and Heidi enjoying a meal at McDonalds ( innocent enough ) but Heidi is seen eating chicken nuggets? Before you bring up the vegan nuggets from McDonalds I would like to point out that season twenty was released in 2016 and all articles I can find regarding these vegan nuggets date 2019.

I know that in the long run this is not that important however I'm really really curious

(Doubles as a personal take on the past 6 years of SP)

First, a warning. One, this theory is largely only existent due to my own views on the current state of South Park, so this will be incredibly subjective. This entire lineup and analysis is formed purely from my own views. Additionally, this is NOT meant to be a promotion or discussion of any views of mine on real-world politics or Donald Trump. I only say these things because I believe Matt and Trey have expressed before that they really don’t like Trump.

So, let’s look at the state of things since 2015. Season 19 is known for being the first heavily political and serialized season. However, South Park kept a good amount of its classic tone. Oh, and Randy content but not obsessive Randy content.

Additionally, we saw two critical characterizations emerging: “Dark Butters” is one. While he had gotten less pure and sweet over the seasons prior, “Safe Space” was the last nail of abuse in the coffin for this boy. After having to neglect his physical and mental health horribly in order to save some man and women-children from reality online, he finally broke and attempted suicide. He survived, but he’s still very broken. This breaking was a major cause in his actions and bitterness since then. “PC Cartman” (known as “Nice Cartman” to most of you) is yet another, but even more subjective, character we saw. The Cartman we knew before this season was a very politically incorrect chonker. He then got the shit beat out of him by PC Principal, and found that the culture has its own perks that he can play with (he can simply avoid criticism and reality with the culture values, also shown heavily in “Safe Space”). Therefore, he became more “PC”. Not a truly better person (sorry, S20 Cartman lovers), just a new, more covert, and more socially accepted version of the entitled and ever-so-sickeningly-narcissistic shithead he was and is.

But the point here is that this was pre-Trump presidency in real life. The season was darker, more political, and more adult than what we’d seen before, but still good ol’ South Park in a way. It lacked a certain unfortunate pessimism I see in other modern seasons. I still loved it to bits.

Season 20. Season 20 was another serialized and political season that was still, potential-wise, very good. It would have been so interesting to see our new concepts and characterizations played out the way they were intended to. I personally think it could have been up there with 19, say things had gone just as planned. Too bad they mis-predicted. Trump in office screwed up the whole season and, according to this theory, the entire series up until now. I think my old Season 20 review sums other things up well.

Then, well, the rest. I think ever since the new real president, South Park has changed. I’m not referring to a decline in quality, however. The stories are still genius, it’s still funny, and my only complaint there is the particular topic and character focus. *cough*RANDY CAN SUCK MAH BALLS*cough*

I’m referring to a small, sad change in tone. It’s always been a dark cartoon, and its satire has always been on the cynical side, but this seemed too serious to enjoy. Byack in thyem dyays, the darkness was played for laughs and felt comfortably in-genuine. Season 21-current felt too wholeheartedly bitter and harsh for me to enjoy it the way I had other seasons. (Perhaps this could be perceived as reflected by Cartman’s not-so-laughably evil actions in Season 21.) Theoretically, Trump being president has negatively affected Matt and Trey so much, they can’t keep the series as lighthearted as it used to be, with direct Trump parody or not. (Of course, that can also be partially attributed to more political stuff in it in general, but I already addressed that.)

However, my theory says that will all change with the new dude in office. If I’m right and M&T’s feelings about Trump were negatively influencing South Park, then that’s gone. Optimism and hope may come back to them, so will creative juices.

WHAT MAY CHANGE WITH BIDEN IN OFFICE

The tone. See everything above. I’m not saying we’re gonna go back to Season 13 here, I’m just saying they might take a few steps back.

Uptick in characterization. One of the complaints with the series as of late has been that the characters haven’t been on their best or most consistent, much like a certain other cartoon the creators hate. I feel this will be something that improves too.

A bit less ripped from the headlines.

An overall return to Season 18-ish content.

WHAT MAY NOT CHANGE WITH BIDEN IN OFFICE

Adult focus, Randy, and T*****y. Yeah, unfortunately the Word of God about Randy indicates to me that we’re likely never fully getting our four boys back, at least not on an early season level. And it’s clear they’re trolling us with his retarded weed farm. When they’ve had their fun with it is not dependent on politics.

Hope my views and predictions made sense to anyone else. Tell me what you think below. And again, this is purely opinion and prediction.

Oh God, everyone needs to prepare for my longest, most heartfelt essay ever. And by long, I mean ranty. And by heartfelt, I mean angry and profane.

I wish you all luck, and please feel free to give you own views and analysis on this, and what you may agree or disagree on.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1--WYNtvZrQ7p9j6IFf7yyT2uuvMAk1PYrVJrlsEosDs/edit

"I'm starting to feel like life isn't gonna be so bad." -Heidi Turner

Hey everyone, today I'll be doing something a little different for this post.

As most of you know, Heidi and Cartman start a relationship in "The Damned", the third episode of Season Twenty. At this point, Heidi "quit Twitter" and Cartman's electronics were destroyed. The school was on the verge of a gender war, and Heidi shows Cartman life outside of social media. Near the end of the episode, she says "I'm starting to feel like life isn't gonna be so bad".

The normal viewer probably wouldn't think too much of this, but Heidi's had a pretty difficult time leading up to this. For starters, she was basically bullied off of Twitter. And since she's very conscious of her social status, it probably killed her to be bullied off of the one platform she could use to fit in. Sticking with this "fitting in" idea, while desiring to fit in with the other girls, she doesn't seem too comfortable with the idea of a gender war, teaming up with the most terrible student in the school to end it. If you read my theory a while ago, you'll know that I think Heidi was or still is an orphan, having switched families and relatives many times up to this episode, possibly making her feel like an outcast because (to my knowledge) nobody else in South Park is a foster child.

Now that she's started a relationship with Cartman, she believes that her life will be better. It is for a while, but everything goes wrong very quickly.

I was just watching a YouTube compilation of all the Member Berries scenes and I realized something: those annoying fruits could have been easily destroyed all along! Correct me if I’m wrong, but here’s the evidence:

1: Plain acid (among other things) couldn’t destroy them, leading me to

2: The Member Berries are destroyed by consuming them.

3: At a Member Berry addiction meeting, someone KILLED A BERRY IN HIS POCKET BY SIMPLY SQUISHING IT!

This means that the sweet, dangerous comfort food could have been simply crushed all along. I don’t know why Randy and Mr. Garrison didn’t realize this but hey, what can you expect from those two?

What do you think of my theory? Are there problems with it? Tell me below.

Hello. So I really enjoy the music in this Season 20 clip. Given how short it is and the fact that I can’t find the source f the music, I think this was a brief piece that Matt and Trey made just for this scene. I also really like the similar music they used for various Heidi scenes, such as the starting piano used before her montage in “Doubling Down”. The fact that they make this dramatic brief songs for these scenes (to me) shows that they were trying to make these scenes genuinely emotional, something I appreciate in a show like South Park.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiJ05e8DQ9o

I actually just watched Season 20, so allow me to state another opinion that will get me banned from the South Park community:

Season Twenty wasn’t too bad.

There, now before I get kicked out let me explain my views. As I’ve implied during other times, I often like it when South Park tells a story in a more dramatic, less trivial tone. The excitement is probably what makes me give this and Season 19 more credit than others. As @HeidiTurnerStan predicted, I actually found the first five episodes exceeding. After that, it was still fairly good, but still on the weaker side of South Park content. Then there are the two new characterizations we saw: Trolling Gerald and “Nice” Cartman. Like many, I really hate Gerald after this season. I probably won’t forgive his actions in the second half of the season ever. As for Cartman, there’s a reason I put “nice” in quotation marks. I don’t think I can give a fair opinion on Cartman this season because I saw nothing but narcissistic, cynical, and slightly controlling BS in him throughout the ten episodes. In short, I’d give the first half of the season a 8/10 and the second a 5/10.

Hey guys, today I bring a few questions.

What is Cupid Cartman/Me? Is Cupid Cartman a real being, or is Cartman so screwed in the head that he made Cupid Cartman up?

Cartman could be playing "mental gymnastics" with himself, especially in "Tweek x Craig", where "Cupid Me" goes out and does things that Cartman very well could have done. But as Kyle says, "people with a messed up ego can do these mental gymnastics to convince themselves they're awesome, when really, they're just douchebags!"

I believe that "Cupid Me" may be a part of Cartman's imagination because "Cupid Me" has been absent ever since "Tweek x Craig". I think that if "Cupid Me" was real and Cartman wanted to maintain his relationship with Heidi, Cupid Cartman probably could've helped out. But in Season 21, Cartman was so obsessed with keeping Heidi in his grasp, he didn't even try to get Cupid Cartman's help.

Maybe I'm just thinking too hard about this, but what are your thoughts? I'm interested in what you guys have to say about this.

Context: There was a time when I enjoyed attempting to copy various cartoon characters on paper. I really enjoyed the activity and found it much easier than creating original art. However, I became concerned that doing so would degrade my original art as I don’t exactly have my own art style. But I wanted to indulge again so here are two shots from Season 20’s Fort Collins! Enjoy and tell me whether this was enjoyable or productive at all!

Hey everybody!

As I've been re-watching Seasons 20 and 21, I've been feeling kind of down about Heidi and Cartman's relationship. It's a bummer to see all these terrible things happen to Heidi. I think that it ruined Season 21 for me. I can't stand the way Cartman treats her. As most of you know, the last time I felt this way, I ended up creating this account to talk it out with you guys. The same things that make us laugh could make us cry. This time I decided to write an analysis with my thoughts here and there to better explain to you guys why I felt the way I did. I hope to share it with you guys soon!

Wish me luck

Hey everyone!

Today I bring you a post about the future of my poll series and a brief overview of my thoughts on Seasons 20 and 21 that you will probably hear again in the near future.

I will probably finish this poll series around the end of November, maybe early December. I'll go all the way up to Season 23, and when Season 24 ends I'll make a similar poll series. It's kinda hard to believe that I started this series on July 3rd, 2020. Here I am now, 4 months later with 2,020 discussions posts at the time of writing. I didn't expect the SPA to become such a huge part of my life, but I'm glad it did. Honestly, I'm not sure what I'll do here once I'm done with this series of posts.

As I'm sure everyone here knows, I love Heidi Turner. Therefore, I love Season 20 and hate Season 21. I'll try to keep this short, I think Heidi and Cartman's relationship is the only redeeming quality of Season 20. I hate Season 21 because it's the opposite. If Cartman wasn't such a toxic chonker, I would have loved Season 21. It's heartbreaking to see my favorite character become broken beyond repair, especially after getting so invested in their relationship for a whole season. I don't know how I'll deal with it. Honestly, South Park is a huge part of my life. What happened in these seasons led to me joining and creating my very first post (and possibly one of the biggest discussions on here), "Where is Heidi?".

Anyways, I just wanted to let you know what's going on. If you have any suggestions for a post series, let me know! I hope you have an exquisite day.

Okay, I know I've ranted before about how much I disliked the politics in South Park. So it probably seems odd, even hypocritical for me to say that I actually didn't mind this season. Trust me, even I was surprised.

But I really didn't think it was half bad.

I think the reason was that I kind of disconnected myself from South Park in order to watch it. Basically, I didn't look at it as a season of South Park, but rather prepared myself for a long, serialized story instead, and it kind of worked. I liked the Member Berries plot. I liked the Skanhunt plot. And, dare I say it, I even liked President Garrison. (At least in the first half. I'll get to that later.)

I genuinely found myself invested in the story. I found myself excited to see the next episode. It really didn't have that bad of a story, if I'm being honest; my biggest problem was that most of the plot points weren't really resolved, (again, I'll get to that later,) but it was still really entertaining. It was a shockingly serious season, more so than I ever expected it to be. It took the characters seriously, which was something I guess I'd been craving for a while. I didn't think I ever wanted a serious South Park, but it was really satisfying, if just for this one season.

Maybe it was because I was kind of tired while I watched it, or maybe I was just in the right headspace for a story like this, but it was a nice balance of goofy and outrageous situations while having a genuinely riveting plot, and I liked it.

Now, despite this season heavily featuring the series' equivalent to Trump, it wasn't exclusively political. Rather, it weaved the political plot points into the main story, making them relevant to the story but not its main feature. That made it feel less like I was wasting my time being told things I already knew, as I complained about in season 8. It was all there for a reason.

And I found Mr. Garrison's characterization throughout the first two thirds of the season... really good, actually. If you didn't already know, he realizes early on that he has no idea how to make good on all the things he promised his followers, and tries to sabotage his own campaign, and obviously his followers and sponsors aren't happy about this. It all culminates into a really tense climax where Garrison tries to escape the government and the angry mob of supporters, eventually finding himself with Randy's Member Berry support group. And as it turns out, the Member Berries had quite the role in the success of Garrison's campaign. It all ends with Garrison telling the people of America not to vote for him in order to stop depending so much on nostalgia and days of all. (It makes sense in context, I swear.)

Problem is, Trump won the election. And the writers couldn't just ignore that. You may have heard that the biggest problem with season 20 is that Matt Stone and Trey Parker had not been expecting Trump to win, so it really messed with the way the season turned out. This was very obvious to me when I watched Oh, Jeez. They clearly had plans to end this conflict right here, with Hillary winning and Garrison free to return to teaching, but in real life, things don't always go to plan.

They actually had a pretty good set up to continue this story, with Garrison being drugged by the Member Berries and convinced that he wanted to be a good president, but it just... didn't go anywhere. It seemed like they tried to bring it up when Garrison had a moment where he was like, "I don't know what I'm doing here," but that too went nowhere. No mention of the Member Berries or Caitlyn Jenner who they seemed to be setting up to be a new villain, nothing. Which is sad because this whole Member Berries had a good amount of potential and could've allowed the writers to recover pretty seamlessly, but I guess it was just too little too late.

That's the big problem with season 20. There are like 5 main plot points, and really only two of them got resolved. They all just kind of fizzled out, put on the back burner in order to focus entirely on Heidi and Cartman and the Skankhunt plot.

Now, I didn't absolutely hate this because we got to focus a lot on the Broflovskis in the last few episodes, which I'm always down for. And really, these guys all got some amazing moments. Kyle was absolutely awesome, which was so refreshing to see after how much he got royally screwed in the last few seasons. (And now I'm terrified for season 21, because I've heard some not so great things.) Ike was also great, though he usually is. I won't lie, it felt like Gerald was acting pretty out of character, but I can forgive that since we haven't seen enough of him to form a solid idea of what he's like anyway. Regardless, he made a surprisingly good antihero-esque character to follow. I hated him for throwing Ike under the bus and insulting Kyle, and he clearly hadn't learned his lesson in the end, but a flawed character isn't necessarily a bad one. I already talked about Sheila in another discussion post, but basically, this season made me love her more as a person and dislike her more as a parent.

Randy was also not bad. He wasn't acting quite so goofy and dumb, actually figuring out the bad influence of the Member Berries before anyone else. If I remember correctly, there were no Randy moments this season that made me groan or roll my eyes, so... yeah, that's pretty good, I'd say.

Now, as for Heidi and Cartman... it's funny, I actually started the season just to see how their relationship fleshed out, but it ended up being one of my least favorite storylines. It just didn't really connect to the rest of the story, aside from the beginning when Skankhunt makes Heidi quit Twitter and leads the boys to destroy all of Cartman's electronics. I get that that's kind of the point, that being without the internet has caused them to become disconnected from everything that's going on, but that doesn't mean I liked it. And the relationship just felt so... artificial. Cartman is forcing himself to believe that Heidi is super smart and funny, and that bit just kind of got old if I'm being honest. Despite Heidi actually being genuinely really smart, he ends up doubting their relationship because she's not actually funny. He is unable to accept her because she isn't perfect. This is very in character for Cartman, but it also made me sad for Heidi, like she was just being egged on this whole time for nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Heidi enough in this season, but I had a lot higher expectations. She felt a bit generic and not as single-minded as I thought she would be. It felt like she was just kind of being dragged around by Cartman the whole time, barely protesting when he wants to go to Mars and leave both of their families behind. I really hope that season 21 does her more justice, because she seemed so likeable in White People Renovating Houses!

On a bit of a bummer note, though, this season really felt like one big episode. Much as I enjoyed it, it still felt like nothing really had an impact on anything in the big picture. Like Kyle and Ike's relationship with Gerald won't change, Garrison has just kind of accepted his place as President for no reason, and everything will return to status quo shortly. Sure, Heidi and Cartman are still together, but the writers have already set up their downfall by the end of season 20 (though honestly, in my opinion the relationship was doomed to fail from the beginning.) I haven't actually seen season 21 yet, so maybe I'll be proven wrong, but that's just what it felt like, like the writers are trying to convince me that everything's back to normal. Which kind of goes against the big moral point of the season.

Maybe I should be glad that South Park can return to normal, but it kind of makes me feel like all that investment I put into the season was for nothing. That's what I mean by the whole season was one big episode. A story that begins and is resolved within itself, and everything starts over for next time. But it's not as easy to just discard everything that happened in this season when it took itself so seriously.

It was fun while it lasted, though, and at the very least I enjoyed this dive into what South Park would be like if it were a serious, serialized show.

Feel free to call me crazy in the comments!

season 20 - ok, maybe not everyone, but can most of us agree that season 20 was probably the WORST season of south park? i mean, i thought the plot and storylines of each episode were AWFUL. it was kind of a disappointing season. everything with the danish, the election, gerald trolling was just... i don't know, i just didn't like it.

season 21 - season 21, on the other hand, wasn't actually that bad (although heidi and cartman were having a pretty bad time) but the season was pretty good, despite coming off from a horrible season before it. this season was kinda all over the place with storylines. my favorite episode from this season is sons a witches lol.

season 22 - eh, it's iffy. this is also the year i really started watching south park, so i would watch these episodes all after school. there were some great moments in the season, though, but it was also the start of tegridy farms... i do like the episodes "the scoots", "budda box" and "a boy and a priest" and i actually like the episode "tegridy farms", i just think they went too overboard with the plot.

season 23 - oh boy. it was pretty bad, honestly, but not as bad as season 20... but still pretty bad. an episode that really pissed me off was "season finale", which i REALLY thought things kinda focused off of randy and his stupid farm, and more of things going back to normal. but that never happened. ALTHOUGH, i did like a few episodes: "band in china" and "board girls", but the rest of the episodes were just boring and very predictable. i don't even know HOW they'll follow up season 24 from "christmas snow", but we shall wait and see.