One major trend that South Park’s early seasons focused on aliens, zombies, and other paranormal phenomena, from season 4 onward, the anarchic animated series began to focus on current events.
This changed the tone of South Park so much that co-creator Trey Parker later itted he wished he could erase the show’s first three seasons from existence. However, more recent South Park changes have been more divisive. Since around season 14, Randy Marsh has been one of the show’s main characters, and, from seasons 22—25, he became central to South Park’s longest serialized arc ever, the Tegridy Farms storyline. This development proved problematic for South Park, which works best when the show is viewing the world through the eyes of its young heroes Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman. As such, South Park season 26 must change this approach and bring back the show’s original childish outlook.
South Park Season 25 Forgot Its Lead Characters (Twice)
While numerous South Park season 25 episodes did focus on the misadventures of the show’s young protagonists, 2 of the season's 6 episodes centered around Randy Marsh, and almost every outing featured a subplot that focused on Stan’s father. The weakest outing, South Park season 25, episode 6 “Credigree Weed St. Patrick's Day Special,” saw Randy rail against cultural appropriation for much of its runtime, barely integrating Kenny, Kyle, Cartman, and Stan into the plot at all. While South Park’s most recent feature-length special, The Streaming Wars, promised to undo Randy’s character shift, this was not the only issue with season 25’s storylines that failed to focus on the South Park boys.
Why Butters’ First Season 25 Solo Story Worked
As if to prove that South Park could pull off a funny, original satirical story without the involvement of Cartman, Stan, Kenny, and Kyle, South Park season 25, episode 4 “Back to the Cold War” was arguably the season’s strongest effort. This outing focused on Butters’ doomed attempts to impress at a dressage contest, with South Park using the townspeople’s jingoistic nationalism to parody war hawks and Cold War nostalgia. While South Park’s quartet of central characters played an even smaller role in this episode than they did in “Credigree Weed St. Patrick's Day Special,” South Park's Ukraine/Russia satire still worked by sticking to the show’s central principle.
According to the show’s creators, South Park was originally intended to capture the world from the view of immature 8-year-olds. Thus, the show’s raucous satire and gross-out humor were ways for South Park to contrast the innocence of childhood with the absurdity and cruelty of contemporary politics, culture, and society. “Back to the Cold War” pulls this off via the ordeal that Butters goes through. Butters can’t understand why his parents and all of his hometown’s residents are obsessed with beating his Russian opponent and ends up disgusted by the whole mess instead of cheering alongside them. Thus, even a storyline that technically didn’t include the show’s lead characters, “Back to the Cold War” let South Park season 25 successfully embody a child’s view of a mature subject.
Why South Park Needs Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman
South Park season 26 needs to prioritize this approach, and Butters can’t always be the show’s main character. To effectively mock real-life politics, South Park needs to return to viewing events through the perspectives of Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny rather than Randy Marsh. Hearing Randy Marsh rail against cultural appropriation discourse in “Credigree Weed St. Patrick's Day Special” wasn’t particularly interesting, inventive, or original as the middle-aged character recounted the same tired talking points that have already been espoused by countless middle-aged comics in the last decade. In contrast, South Park season 26 dropping the Tegridy Farms plot and focusing on the boys again could bring back the show’s best qualities.
What makes South Park stand out in a crowded marketplace of adult animated comedies is the show’s young heroes. While Big Mouth also features kid protagonists, that show doesn’t have the same timely satirical approach as South Park, whose quick turnaround time lets the show comment on events as they unfold. As such, South Park season 26 must make the most of this unique quality by foregrounding Kyle, Kenny, Butters, Stan, and Cartman instead of becoming just another animated comedy about a middle-aged man’s grievances with the modern world.