South Park

In 2013, TV Guide ranked South Park the tenth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time. The show follows the exploits of four boys, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick. The boys live in the fictional small town of South Park, located within the real-life South Park basin in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. Prominent settings on the show include the local elementary school, bus stop, various neighborhoods and the surrounding snowy landscape, actual Colorado landmarks, and the shops and businesses along the town's main street, all of which are based on the appearance of similar locations in Fairplay, Colorado. As one of the few long-running TV shows set in the Mountain West region that takes place outside the urban core of Denver, South Park frequently features the unique culture of the region, including cattle ranchers, Old West theme parks, snowy climates, mountaineering, Mormons, real-life Colorado locations such as Casa Bonita and Cave of the Winds, and many other regionally specific characteristics not frequently seen on national TV shows. Stan is portrayed as the everyman of the group, as the show's website describes him as an "average, American 4th grader". He was written out of the show's sixth season in 2002, re-appearing in the season finale. During the show's first 58 episodes, the boys were in the third grade. In the season four episode "4th Grade" , they entered the fourth grade, and have remained there ever since. Plots are often set in motion by events, ranging from the fairly typical to the supernatural and extraordinary, which frequently happen in the town. The boys are also frequently confused by the contradictory and hypocritical behavior of their parents and other adults, and often perceive them as having distorted views on morality and society. Each episode opens with a tongue-in-cheek all persons fictitious disclaimer: "All characters and events in this show—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional. Parker and Stone perceive this as the manner in which real-life small boys speak when they are alone. South Park commonly makes use of carnivalesque and absurdist techniques, numerous running gags,violence,sexual content, offhand pop-cultural references, and satirical portrayal of celebrities. Early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented and featured more slapstick-style humor. While social satire had been used on the show occasionally earlier on, it became more prevalent as the series progressed, with the show retaining some of its focus on the boys' fondness of scatological humor in an attempt to remind adult viewers "what it was like to be eight years old." Parker and Stone also began further developing other characters by giving them larger roles in certain storylines, and began writing plots as parables based on religion, politics, and numerous other topics.