Sure, the show’s experienced some creative creakiness over the past couple seasons but it’s never been about a 100%, spot-on kill rate. The key ingredient is to aim for the highest level of outrageous concept and spray the offensive material in a complete 3-dimensional, 360-degree direction, letting the chips fall where they may. When it works, there are far fewer funnier moments on TV. When it doesn’t, hey, what the hell, it’s just a cartoon. The South Park formula has been attempted by others but never satisfactorily replicated. (Yes, that is a direct reference to Seth MacFarlane.)
The nebulous politics at the core of South Park -- jumbled Randian libertarianism? Non-neoconservative, traditional Republicans? -- creates the scattershot approach where everything and anything is assailed. It is also why the show ultimately fails as true satire. To achieve that one needs absolute focus and brains. While South Park’s creators possess much of the latter, they regularly fall down on the former. When they do combine the two, as they did in their season 9 attack on Scientology in Trapped in the Closet, the show is nothing less than brilliant. Fortunately, it happens regularly enough on South Park to secure a place for it in the Best Of list.
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