In its 14th season, ‘South Park’ still sharp

Our generation is privileged to have grown up with “South Park.” From Cartman getting an anal probe to President Barack Obama and John McCain stealing from the Smithsonian, “South Park” has provided us with poop and vomit-filled satire for over a decade now.

In last week’s episode, the boys were assigned to read notorious banned book “Catcher in the Rye.” When they find nothing offensive or vulgar enough for their standards, they decide to write a book of their own. Things escalate quickly, as they so often do in South Park, Colo., and the book is an instant hit, despite inducing uncontrollable vomiting in all who read it.

Fans of the book, entitled “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs,” cite the deep and complex metaphor and meaning in the novel. The boys, intending no deep meaning in their work, are outraged and work to get their own book banned.

Matt Parker and Trey Stone have done a great job over the past 13 years of taking aim at all that is sacred in our culture. Religion, politics, entertainment and now literature have all found themselves between the creative duo’s crosshairs. The true strength of Parker and Stone is their ability to tackle all of these issues without taking themselves too seriously.

This week’s episode is particularly interesting in that it satirizes those who would search for deeper meaning in creative works. Within the context of the show, it pokes fun of the pseudo-intellectuals who promote the idea of deeper meaning in books that border on being offensive for their own sake.

In American literature, many novelists have personally pushed the bounds of literature to the point that begs the question of whether or not these books are offensive simply for the sake of being offensive. J.D. Salinger, Charles Bukowski, Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk and even Tucker Max have written books considered masterpieces by some and filth by others.

Allow me this disclaimer: I am not writing this to question the talent, quality, or validity of these authors or their works. I’m simply using them as a reference point.

Does the search for deeper meaning in novels cloud the artist’s original intent? What if it all is just deliberate smut and we’ve all been operating under the assumption that there is some deeper meaning? At what point does filth become art, and art become filth?

All this searching for meaning within one above average (not great) episode of “South Park” brings us to the point that Parker and Stone were making. In the microcosm of the episode, everyone who read the boys’ book searched for deeper meaning that simply wasn’t there.

On the macro level, perhaps the viewing community have begun to search for too much meaning in “South Park.” Maybe it is just a collection of penis and fart jokes mashed up with timely pop-culture references and obscenities.

Perhaps Parker and Stone are selling themselves short. They are, after all, two of the premier satirists on cable television. Seasoned “South Park” viewers have questioned in recent years whether Matt and Trey were losing their edge. If this episode is any indication, there are still plenty of people to take aim at and plenty of vomit left to go around.