I've never really been a fan of Southpark because of its tiring ironic stance that ultimately seemed to value only large corporations, white people, and masculinity with that snide assumption that it was beyond criticism because all of that was presented as ironic. Happily pronouncing oneself "politically incorrect" is a trigger phrase for me - it just shows that the speaker really, really wants to make racist, homophobic, etc. jokes and thinks, counterintuitively, that s/he can get out of being labeled as such because s/he acknowledges that prejudice. Or that s/he just really doesn't get it.

This show, while at least having a few jokes that weren't awful, seems to really be lacking in the originality department. Gays and lesbians don't get along? The lesbian couple asking the gay couple for sperm? Referring to a cat as "pussy"? Haven't we seen all of this before, in The Broken Hearts Club, Queer as Folk, Will & Grace...?

Sigh.

I can appreciate queer media and artistic endeavors, I'm just waiting for the more gaystream ones to work in queer cultural signifiers in a way that's not so heavy-handed and repetitive. I just feel like: "I get it, there are a bunch of slang words for genitalia and brand names for lube can be used in conversation. Now have the characters actually do something funny." Of course, that would require one to be able to identify with them in some way, even if that identification is indirect. But that's not going to happen as long as we're told that we should identify with a certain monolithic narrative of gay culture instead of seeing representations that simply try to be honest and rounded, portraying the of the cultures of some queer people and seeing where the pieces fall for everyone else.

You can watch a couple more clips from the show on their website here, but that one above was by far the best.