South Park: Genius or not?

Well, I didn't see the one Bill Maher referred to about black people this season, but I just saw the one they did about the homeless, their homage to Night of the Living Dead, but with homeless people instead of zombies. Clever. I guess it's better than Bumfights, anyway. Now I know that South Park is a great show, and it's cost effective, and that anyone who hates it is either Jewish or have no sense of humor (I'm a little of both myself), but there's still something lacking in their take on homeless people. Given the current national dialogue on satire, with the recent comments by Don Imus, and that satire is normally used to poke fun at the powerful, instead of the other way around, which seems to be South Park's bread and butter, shouldn't South Park be asked to apologize for something? Or get dropped by Comedy Central and stick to strictly web-based Flash animations? Maybe, except that they're so beholden to their usual comedic formulas that they're probably not deserving of such scrutiny. I mean, everyone already knows that on the show the kids are smart, and the adults are stupid, and all of course find themselves constricted by the specter of Political Correctness, so are they really bringing anything new to the table about the homeless? No. Any proceeds going to benefit the homeless? We'll just skip that, as the answer is most likely no. It's their homage to the campaign against Upton Sinclair but without the politics, although it should be pointed out that the episode occurred on Dubya's watch, and not Clinton's when the show was fresh and new and killing Kenny in each episode. And if you don't like it, then you suck ass. Also makes me think of Tracy Flick's mom in Election when she defines the relationship between the strong and the weak as being that the weak prey on the strong. As a blanket generality that may be true, but weak or strong we're all still stuck on this planet together, so how strong can the strong be if they all can't be by themselves on Planet Strong? Oh dear, I fear I've spent too much time on this already. I'm getting to the point in my life where I look for advocacy where I can. At least the South Park guys are trying, but still it would've been nice to see something like, say, a pharmaceutical company asking for a corporate bailout because they've got a whole warehouse of flu vaccines that aren't moving. Or perhaps a television affiliate trying to scrounge up the syndication fees to show Seinfeld reruns. Or maybe a low-level mobster ripping off some fund-raising college students. But you know how it is. It's hard enough for these guys already doing what they do. They arrive first thing in the morning before anyone else and leave the last at night, so who's got time to think of such things? And if you don't like that, or find this blog entry a little less than you'd'a hoped, then you probably suck ass.