No Longer “As Crappy as Possible”?: Cult Sensibilities and the High-Definition Revisioning and “Unbleeping” of Early Seasons of South Park

This article will consider the recent ‘remastered’ editions of the first twelve seasons of the Comedy Central animated series South Park (1997-), and the impact that this may have upon the meanings associated with the original episodes. The show is now produced in a high-definition format, and most circulating versions of new instalments present any swearing ‘unbleeped’. These choices were not present from the very beginning of the series, however, and retrospectively applying them to past works serves to complicate the linear production history of the show. South Park has been quite vocal in its criticism of the revisionist practices of directors such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas (most notably in the episode ‘Free Hat’, airdate 07/10/2002). As such, this decision to submit to an apparently similar process raises questions about South Park’s ‘cult’ status, and the previous tendency to celebrate its (self-professed) ‘crappy’ aesthetics. The show’s remarkable longevity offers a valuable case study into the complexities and contradictions of preserving television history, while also attempting to maximize a text’s profitability and ‘afterlife’ in the online streaming marketplace.