How South Park Perfectly Grew With An Audience
I don’t know if anyone noticed, but it’s Randy.
From Foulmouthed Kids To Immature Adults
South Park started as a show about how kids really talk and slowly turned into a show about young adults dealing with a more complicated world. The first season typically 1–15 was mostly focused on the main characters, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartmen. The interesting thing about this focused they rarely had the kids intake drugs and alcohol. Almost all the drinking and drug use was done by the adults. especially Stans dad, Randy. Which is weirdly responsible for the creators of South Park. And this is where South Park almost seamlessly transferred the focus of the show to Randy. Where even Randy is the main open in the newest season and is almost the sole focus of the two specials they came out with. How and why did they do this? instead of having the kids grow up, they did something more real. Turn the focus on the parents in a blink of an eye, like how real life happens.
The graph above shows when Randy became more of a staple in the show. Right when the core audience started to become parents and adults themselves. Almost in a blink of an eye, the focus of the show seamlessly moved towards an adult. Randy started to become more of a featured character starting around season 14 with Medical Fried Chicken, where Randy gives himself testicular cancer to get his medical card for cannabis. From that moment Randy would play more and more pivotal roles in South Park. As a form of older Millenials high-jinx.
As the kids played more of a moral compass. Everything from the pure selfishness of Cartman, to the empathic Kyle. The kids seem to play a wide range of human emotions more than the adults. Looking at the world as a whole and voicing each option in their own viewpoint.
The Mirror For Millenials
The creators of South Park have always said in interviews that the show is supposed to show how kids really talk. Which is and will always be true. But now it’s turned into how we grow up. Randy, Gerald, Sharon, and the other adults of South Park fall into arrested development forms of lifestyle. From Randy's love of cannabis to Geralds Skankhunt42 story. This is true for the generation they raised. From trolling which is just another form of schoolyard bullying to the cannabis industry which is a legalized form from meeting in parking lots. If South Park keeps making shows with the same two creators then we will get a good mirror for what Millenials are thinking, doing, and want to do on a level that is beyond understanding. Randy is especially.
The takeaway is in order to grow with an audience you have to respect them like you would a fellow friend.
