Conversation

Hmm. I’ve been thinking Sputh Park is the only show that managed to maintain orientation through the Great Weirding, with only some minor rough episodes. But they did have one major gear shift: I think Randy took over from Cartman as lead character.
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Randy turned into the lead character with City Part of Town, S19E3, September 2015. Possibly my favorite episode in recent years. Cartman kinda had an apotheosis moment with S18E9-E10, in the Cartman Brah arc where he becomes a YouTube star commenting on the show.
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The Great Weirding on South Park is marked by 6 clear evolutions 1. Randy elevated, Cartman trancended 2. Principal Victoria —> PC Principal 3. South Park gentrifying 4. Garrison morphed to Trump and *sidelined* 5. Season arcs >> episode arcs 6. Climate skepticism 180
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I initially didn’t like Garrison as Trump, but with the sidelining, it now seems like a brilliant move. It would have been bad if he’d remained a foreground character. It also kinda finessed the show’s flirtations with transphobia elegantly since that was the old character arc.
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1. Let go inner asshole child, embrace inner asshole adult 2. Fight woke with ironic overcompliance 3. Lean into and own globalist coastal elitism 4. Go around the culture war, not through 5. Play the longer game 6. Do a 180 on one major belief
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