It should come as no surprise that South Park, a show with its own “Controversies” section on Wikipedia (an example: “Action for Children’s Television founder Peggy Charren claimed that the show’s use of language and racial slurs represents the depravity of Western civilization, and that it is dangerous to the democracy”), would be considered offensive by some. If you want to picture these “some” as Helen Lovejoy, I’m sure creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who coined the term “Simpsons did it,” wouldn’t mind.
But according to a new study, it’s not just Baby Boomer church-going folks who are offended by Cartman’s antics. Senior Living spoke to “1,000 people from various generations,” with “participants ranged in age from 18 to 89,” to discover the most offensive TV show of all-time. With 30.7 percent, South Park easily came in first, followed by Family Guy (10.5), Jerry Springer (7.1), All In the Family (6.4), and Married… with Children (2.7). The long-running Comedy Central animated series also fared well in the “most offensive TV character/personality” poll, with Cartman’s 18.7 percent topping Archie Bunker’s 14.5 percent (other notable finalists: Roseanne Barr in fourth place, Donald Trump in sixth, and Bart and Homer Simpson in 12th and 13th; Beavis finished in 14th, but partner-in-frog baseball Butthead was nowhere to be found).
Here are the findings.
The study also found that Baby Boomers are most triggered by sexual violence, while Generation Z doesn’t appreciate poor representation (token character or a lack of diversity). You can find the complete project here. In other news, last week’s South Park was about school shootings, and this week’s episode tackles the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.
