Somewhat counter intuitively, some of the most popular and watched shows in comedy today are cartoons. The pioneer in the genre of cartoons not solely for children was The Simpsons, which for those less socially aware, started in 1989. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening essentially created a new genre with the show, a genre of cartoons that are largely targeted at teens and adults. Two more pioneers in the quickly growing genre are former University of Colorado collegians Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The duo, both from Colorado originally, are the creators of the hit TV show South Park. South Park has been often criticized by politically correct groups and citizens who feel the humor of the show often dips into the crude and vulgar, sometimes going into disgusting topics of treatment of toenail fungus and Long Island pinpoint laser toenail treatment and other times going into things even more difficult to discuss. However, the humor of the show is almost never senseless and lurking not far beneath the absurdity is generally a stinging satire, creating a show that is as smart as it is funny. The beauty of the show is that as the show’s creators are both registered as Libertarians when it comes to politics, both Democrats and Republicans are picked on in equal measure. Specifically, one episode lampooning former Vice President Al Gore stuck out as being both topical and hilarious.
In the episode, in a thinly veiled criticism on the former Vice President’s beliefs about global warming, Al Gore showed up to South Park to warn the residents about something that he called Man bear pig. Man bear pig, said Gore, is a vile beast that is half man, half bear and half pig. After drawing skepticism from the South Park crowd about the existence of Man bear pig, Mr. Gore attempts to get local children Cartman, Kyle, Kenny and Stan to help him track down and destroy Man bear pig. Reacting to their parent’s unaccepting attitudes at them hanging around Al Gore so much the kids respond that they don’t really like him, but just feel bad because they think he has no friends.
Al Gore takes the kids to a cave where he believes Man bear pig is and tries to get them to find and get rid of the creature that he vehemently claims exists. While trying to throw a stick of dynamite when he claims he sees the beast, Gore causes some of the mountain around the cave to collapse and accidentally traps the kids inside with no help in sight.
Everybody waits around outside and rescue missions are organized to try and get the kids out of the cave. In the cave, in a sub plot, evil and treacherous Cartman discovers treasure that he thinks is real and ingests it to try and keep it away from his friends. As they escape from the mountain, Cartman’s stomach is so stuffed full of treasure that he can hardly swim and has to rely on the others to get him out. After the kids escape, Al Gore claims he single handedly defeated Man bear pig and saved the day.
To finish the episode, Cartman finds a way to get the treasure out of his body and is crushed when he finds out that it is not real and is instead something that was set up by the workers at the mountain as a photo opportunity.
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