Death (South Park) - Themes

Themes

During the first few weeks of South Park's run, Parker and Stone received criticism from some commentators and media outlets that the series was little more than flatulence jokes and primitive animation, and thus must be a simple show to produce. "Death" was written in response to that criticism. The episode introduced Terrance and Philip, a comedy duo with a popular cartoon series within the South Park universe, whose show is literally nothing but a series of flatulence jokes, with even cruder animation than South Park itself.

The episode's script parodied parents who voiced strong opposition to South Park, portraying them as so invested in fighting the television program that they fail to pay attention to what is actually going on in their children's lives. This is illustrated in the episode when Stan calls his mother seeking help because Death is chasing him, only for his mother to ignore him because she is too busy protesting the Terrance and Philip show. This is also demonstrated by the line Kyle says, "I think that parents only get so offended by television because they rely on it as a babysitter and the sole educator of their kids."

"Death" warns against such misplaced values and condemns the practice of censorship, as well as demonstrating there can be value in a show often dismissed as juvenile and immature, like South Park or Terrance and Phillip. The episode also takes the position that parents who blame their children's behavior entirely on television are evading true responsibility for problems that likely have roots elsewhere. The plot of "Death" heavily influenced the screenplay Parker and Stone wrote for their 1999 film, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The plot and theme of both scripts revolves heavily around the parents of South Park protesting Terrance and Philip due to the perceived negative influence it has over their children. Parker said, "After about the first year of South Park, Paramount already wanted to make a South Park movie, and we sort of thought this episode would make the best model just because we liked the sort of pointing at ourselves kind of thing."

"Death" also touches upon the issue of euthanasia, and whether it is morally or ethically wrong to commit suicide. The episode's script indicates it is wrong for someone wishing to kill oneself to place the burden of that decision on a loved one: in this case, Grandpa Marvin demanding that Stan kill him, without considering how traumatizing an experience it would be for Stan. This is most strongly illustrated at the end of the episode, in which the ghost of Marvin's grandfather (who had Marvin kill him long ago) tells Marvin he must not force Stan to commit such a traumatizing act. Although the ghost tells Grandpa Marvin he must die of "natural causes", Marvin nevertheless continues seeking ways to kill himself, but without involving other people. Parker said this reflects his opinion that, "Basically, it is OK to kill yourself, but you shouldn't ask someone else to do it and put someone else through the trip."