By Jennifer Tress
21 December 2009

View the article, “Remembering 2000-2010… Through South Park“

If years from now, future generations wanted to understand American culture from 1997 through the present time, they merely need to view the Comedy Central series South Park.   Though not a genre unto itself, scholars and essayists have written academic pieces elaborating on this notion; but don’t worry…I’m not taking you down the highbrow path.  I’ll leave that for Brooklyn University’s “South Park & Political Correctness” class. However, if I were to package South Park’s 13 seasons into categories, I’d break it down to two:

Pre-9/11: The Arrogant Years. Remember the late 90’s?  The beginnings of major de-regulation left Americans flush with cash.  Graduating college seniors were scouted early and often by organizations, complete with massive signing bonuses.  Things were so good for us, South Park needed only to scratch the surface when holding up the cultural mirror, focusing on how Americans put forth and then manage themes that made us unique and wonderfully ridiculous: vast corporate expansions, alien abductions, mean kids, overprotective parents, assisted suicide, gay rights, religion, crushes, conservation, and sex education/ repression/ harassment.  We’d watch South Park on our new perfectly color-coordinated Crate & Barrel sofas, chuckle and think: it’s true; there IS a Starbucks on nearly every corner!

But in the Post-911 era, things got complicated. South Park ushered us through this transition with the episode: “Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants,” a tribute to the old Looney Tunes vignettes where Bugs Bunny (in this version, played by Cartman) dresses up as a woman to foil the villain.  It starts out with the kids – Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny – at the South Park bus stop dressed in gas masks.

Kyle asks: “Remember when life used to be simple and cool?”

“Not really,” Cartman responds.

Fear reigns, confusion prevails and extreme thoughts are shared.  Adults drool and mutter as they obsessively watch the news, and after a mix up of good-intentions gone badly, the kids wind up in Afghanistan working with their young counterparts to overturn the Taliban.  Mission complete and seemingly enlightened, they all meet up to say good-bye.

“Well, looks like bin Laden and the Taliban are finally out of power,” says one of the Afghan children to Stan and Kyle.

“Yep,” says another, “You don’t need us anymore.”

Stan replies: “You guys should know one thing: most people in American are good people, we just try to live day by day like you guys do.  Maybe if you took some time to see all the great things about our country, you’d see we’re not so different after all.”

Afghan child: “That’s fine.  But we still hate you.”

Stan: “Oh, well, I guess maybe someday…we can learn…to hate you, too.”

Afghan child: “Maybe…in time.”

Kyle: “I’m confused.”

And somehow, this was comforting.  We were still shocked, still processing, and still looking for some way to articulate our thoughts while feeling hopeful.  But mostly, we were confused.

And we’re feeling this way again.  While post-9/11 era episodes dug deeper and forced us to look more cynically at ourselves, we were soon able to respond by laughing luxuriously at how we were able to adapt to the new world order.  We may be destroying the planet, we thought, but we drive Hybrids, so that cancels it out, right?

Now, we find ourselves once more in the fear zone – this time over the economy.

And that’s what brings me to you, Young Money readers.  Nearly all the episodes focusing on money have the kids executing get rich quick schemes.   During the 12th season there is an episode titled: “Pandemic.”  The pandemic in question is not of the physiological disease variety; rather it has to do with the spread of Peruvian Pan Flute bands.  With the exception of Kenny, the boys hate this intrusion on their town.  The bands are everywhere: malls, street corners, outside their homes.

The boys decide to start their own band to compete.  Dressed in indigenous clothing and playing “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” the boys launch in South Park’s busy town center.

“How cultural!” passersby exclaim as they fork over $10 for the boys’ CD: “The Llama Brothers: Tapas and Moodscapes.”

The point is, we’ve all had those “Ah HA” moments – that instance where a thought pops into your head and you think, “what an awesome idea!”   I’m pretty sure I was the first person to ever think up a mechanism to browse and download individual songs. But while I was extremely busy clocking out of my job at 5:30 and sidling up to the bar at 5:35, Shawn Fanning was developing Napster in his dorm room.

In this economic downturn, I empathize with college students.  With limited hiring and job growth, where does one go to turn on your mind, make a living and develop beyond the structure of school?  But recently, I’ve started to wonder about the opportunities.  Without that traditional career path from college to immediate work, I am hopeful we will see an era of innovation.  One in which young twenty-something’s spend time playing with these Ah Ha moments, pooling resources and bringing fresh analysis, products and services to the market place.

Or maybe we’ll see an increase in volunteerism.  Nonprofits can benefit greatly from your talents.  Conceptualize, pitch and execute a program for free; you’ll be making an impact and it will build your resume and showcase your initiative and leadership skills.  And who knows…if successful, it could get funded and leveraged elsewhere as a model.

Whatever it is, just go out there and do it.  But if you make it big, don’t be surprised if we’re mocking your future South Park avatar from our now 15-year old sofas.

View the article, “Remembering 2000-2010… Through South Park“

Jennifer Tress is a freelance writer based in Arlington, VA.

Image courtesy of Comedy Central.