I’ve never watched that show, and probably never will just because everyone on 
is always like 
LE SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA? EPIC WIN, LET’S POST OUR FAVORITE QUOTES! 
I’ve never watched that show, and probably never will just because everyone on is always like LE SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA? EPIC WIN, LET’S POST OUR FAVORITE QUOTES!
There is a tendancy amongst a surprisingly high amount of people to read “protagonist” as “good guy who should be emulated”. IASIP is a good and largely well written show (although it doesn’t pretend to be anything its not) BUT, since the main characters are shitty, shallow, selfish people who don’t repent or improve, le epic redditor edgelords can just have a laugh and feel vindicated. We’re meant to be laughing at the gang and sympathising with the bemused and disgusted people around them, whereas i think some people manage to miss the point completely, relating to the gang, and so instead end up viewing it as something like fucking south park.
iirc, the creators are not much fond of most of their fanbase.
This whole phenomenon has really been killing shows over the last decade. Even the big bang theory was passable before they turned the protagonists into good guys the audience is supposed to empathise with.
Contemporary writers should (but probably won’t, or at least won’t care either way because they get paid) realize that if they give a character cool quotable lines, lots of screen time, and present them with agency in the story, that they’re going to have consumers quoting them, admiring them, and in many cases even imitating them no matter the writer’s supposed intentions.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker are rich white aging libertarian chuds, but even they apparently didn’t originally intend Cartman to be some sort of role model or personality template for their fans, but here we are.