South Park Fans Are Loving The Classic Feel Of Season 26's Premiere

The boys in "South Park" have been caught up in elementary school for quite some time. One might think that after 26 years and several specials, they might have gotten further than the fourth grade, but then again, these children often have to deal with aliens, Santa, physical manifestations of imagination, licensing agreements, "Game of Thrones" style scheming, and lampooning whatever major cultural event is currently in the news. Suppose that is bound to affect getting schoolwork done, right?

Joking aside, "South Park" has currently entered Season 26, which is a fairly impressive milestone for an animated show. Since "South Park" has been on for so long, the show has gone through many different formats and directions. The very early episodes of "South Park" were often crude and highly creative, while some later episodes might aggressively lean into pop-culture critiques like the vaunted "Make Love, Not Warcraft" and anime-spoofing "Good Times with Weapons" episodes. Even more recently, "South Park" took a more serialized format, with plots running throughout entire seasons involving President Garrison (Trey Parker), PC Principal (also Parker), and Randy Marsh (still Parker). Now that Season 26 is off to a running start, many fans feel like this premiere episode channels some classic "South Park," but why exactly?

Season 26's premiere episode, titled "Cupid Ye," continues the Valentine's Day tradition of Eric Cartman (Parker) being visited by a small, cupid version of himself. The veracity of this iteration is often hard to place because in a previous episode involving "Cupid-Me," it is revealed that the character is just a hallucination, and Cartman himself is engaging in misplaced matchmaking. However, this brand new episode throws that assumption into question when Cupid-Me becomes "Cupid-Ye," and starts to spout off some incredibly racist and bigoted attitudes that make even the nefariously hateful Cartman reel. At one point, Cupid-Ye goes off the rails, and the shocker here is that other people begin to perceive the character, which causes a panic. Perhaps it is the absurdity or the randomness, but some fans have definitely enjoyed this premiere episode and claim that it channels some of the early spirit of "South Park."

On Twitter, @ramenretro1 wrote that they thought that this new "South Park" episode is funny and that it felt like classic "South Park," while the word "classic" was also used by @ZXMADARA05 and @onionIthink to describe the episode. Over on Reddit, u/Jackbo_Manhorse also felt the same way and wrote, "I don't know what it is, but this feels like a classic episode. It could be that's there's not going to be an overarching narrative this season, but it feels like South Park is back to its original form."

The above comments weren't the only ones that echoed the thought that this new episode had shades of classic "South Park." u/SpaceAfricanJesus said that they thought that this episode hit all of the positive notes of the show and that it felt like one of the original "South Park" parody style episodes. u/ju0rd was also a big fan and wrote, "Really funny episode felt like a classic South Park episode loved seeing Cartman antics again lol," while u/glenn1812 stated, "Good classic south park episode. Love when they let cartman run wild with his ideas. Always makes for story."

u/RedditRocks1229 listed a whole set of reasons as to why they feel like the premier episode of Season 26 feels like classic "South Park" and said that Cartman picking on Kyle and Stan acting all mopey were honest trademarks of the very earliest "South Park," and the only thing missing was Kenny being killed and Kyle saying that they have learned something today. The reoccurring thread that these comments seem to all hint at is that this episode of "South Park" feels classic because it is zany, involves lots of unnecessary hostility, doesn't have an apparent plot that will be carried throughout the season, and it doesn't overly burden itself with an overt message or in-depth cultural critique. In other words, some "South Park" fans definitely hope that this old-school direction will continue.