SOUTH PARK VERSUS SPRINGFIELD-A CARTOON THAT BOLDY GOES WHERE NO CARTOON HAS GONE BEFORE

A cartoon has arrived which has removed "The Simpsons" from it's throne of cartoon supremicey. That Cartoon is South Park and it is the newest craze to hit both the U.S.A. and the U.K. The cartoon follows the lives of four eight year old boys: Kenny,Cartman, Stan and Kyle. .The show is set in a small mountain town called, surprisingly,South Park. There are many other characters there such as Chef-The sex crazed advisor to the boys, Jesus-Who has his own T.V show on cable called "Jesus and Pals" and Mr.Garrison-The boy's gay teacher with a stupid little puppet called Mr.Hat. The cartoon comedy uses a mixture af slapstick humour and a lot of swearing to entertain how ever is watching it. There are also a number of strange story lines for the episodes. One such is example is the episode where Barbara Streisand transforms into a mettalic dragon and goes on a rampage through the town. The creators of the show are Matt Stone and Trey Parker who originally created the show by using paper cut-outs! Although it is now done on computer, the animation still resembles that of paper which is just one aspect of the show which gives it it's originality. The first time the show was aired in the States on Comedy Central the ratings were the channel's all time highest. One of the nice things about this program is that on every episode there is something to spot. For example, in nearly every episode there are cows and there is always an alien appearing which was first seen on the shows pilot episode "Cartman Gets An Anal Probe". The boys favourite show on T.V is "Terrence and Phillip" and the basic storyline to it is something like:
<Terrence>*Fart Noise*
<Phillip>Ha Ha,You Farted
<Both>Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
South Park is as popular on the internet as it is on the television. Comedy Central has let fans use copyrighted material on their websites. Some of the larger websites get over 25,000 hits everyday and some specialise in completely original fan-art. Surprisingly, Comedy Central's very own website is the source of the majority of the copyright material. This Is vey unlike most companys which protect their copyrighted programs intensly. A recent example of this is "Fox" who have recently been going through "King Of The Hill" websites and threatening them with legal action for using copyrighted material. This all shows what an impact that South Park has made; so much so that the copyright holders have allowed fans of the show to celebrate it. There are almost one thousand South Park web-sites on the internet today with that number increasing every day. With only about one hundred sites dedicated to "The Simpsons" it all shows how popular South Park Is.
South Park is the cartoon equivelant of "The Fast Show" as it has a lot of different characters-each one with his/her own catchphrase of thing which they do every episode. Some examples of this are Kenny Dyeing, Chef singing a love song and Stan calling Cartman fat. If you would like to listen to an example of a Chef's song please Click Here.
The shows creators have signed a contract which will keep new shows coming into the new millenium at least. This will mean that if you haven't seen it yet there is still plenty of time to do so. Although at the moment South Park can only be seen on Sky it is coming to Channel 4 on the 14th Of July so Make sure not to miss it.A large part of this programme is based around violence and other adult related humour so it is probably best to keep away any young children from this show. If you are any age of about 15 or over I am sure that this will be on your must see list after only a few episodes. If you like "The Simpsons" but want something a little more funny, contriversial and more adult oriented then South Park is definatly the right way to go. I truely did enjoy watching this show and I highlt reccomend it to anyone who just wants do see an extremly funny cartoon.
BY CHRIS MEARS (Cjam)