Everything I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned From South Park

Over the past 11 years or so, I have been taught many things, by many different people; teachers, parents, society as a whole, but the only things I really ever needed to know, I could have learned just from watching Trey Parker and Matt Stone's brain child, South Park. Now, I'm sure you've all heard of the show, and many of you may even watch it on a regular basis, but how many of you actually realize how much you have learned from watching it? In honor of its eleventh season, which just started to air a couple of weeks ago, let's sit back and take a gander at just a few of the things that Eric Cartman, Kenny McCormick, Kyle Broflovski, and Stan Marsh have taught us from a little mountain town in Colorado.

Corporate America may not be as bad as we all thought. Many people believe that they are only out to service themselves and make a buck. It turns out, though, that people may be slightly off-base on their feelings of hate towards corporate America; as pointed out in an episode where a new, big, corporate coffeehouse, Harbuck's, plans on moving into South Park and drive local Tweek's Coffee right out of business. As the town mobs up to defend Tweek, they realize exactly how bad his coffee really tastes compared to Harbuck's. The moral: Big companies got where they are for a reason - their products are usually quality products.

Corporate America can be bad. This may sound contradictory to the last lesson, but some cases just need to be taken one by one. Take the case of the super-mega-conglomerate shopping center where everything is dirt cheap. I am, of course, talking about Wall-Mart, the huge supercenter store that was opening in little old South Park. The town that was originally happy and proud to have their very own Wall-Mart quickly realized that it may not be the best thing since sliced bread for them as every store in town closes and the townspeople are forced to work at the new store and live in poverty. Until, that is, Kyle and Stan find a way to destroy the goliath that has ruined their town. The moral: Just because a store has the cheapest prices, doesn't always mean it is the best value.