‘South Park,’ Teachers and Kids

Re “Due South of Funny for Kids,” May 3.

Howard Karlitz, like most critics, is missing the point. The show is not an attack on what he calls “the collective spirit of childhood innocence”--it is aimed entirely at adults and is an attack-by-parody precisely on those adults (court jesters were always trusted with delivering the most difficult messages), ultimately in defense of childhood innocence.

The show airs 10 p.m., midnight and 1 a.m. No school-age children should be up at such hours; if they are, blame their parents, not the show. Further, the show’s producers allow tie-in clothing to be marketed only in adult sizes and styles--nothing for children.

Each show targets some facet of adult life that richly deserves to be questioned, such as sport hunting with assault weapons. Those are hot-button topics for adults, and the show’s writing is a miracle of tightrope walking in its handling of them.

Each adult in the show is concerned with one thing: himself or herself. The children, who stick together through thick and thin, are drawn wide-eyed because they don’t suspect the selfishness of adult life and are always amazed at adult (mis)behavior.

“South Park” is aimed principally at young adults in their 20s who have been children recently enough to remember the pain and who are on the verge of bringing new children into the world. Can we learn from our parents’ and teachers’ mistakes?

STEPHEN EBERHART, Reseda

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I am a parent and agree with Karlitz’s concerns about the animated show “South Park.” It is vulgar, portrays almost all of it’s characters in a dysfunctional light and is inappropriate for young children. Unlike Karlitz, I think the show is funny.

I loved animation as a kid and love it as an adult. The current variety of animated films and TV programs is a welcome relief to the recent decades of mindless, non-entertaining, badly animated programs. There is an inherent appeal in cartoons that makes them child-friendly, but does that mean they must now and forevermore cater to children? I don’t think so.

If there is a problem with “South Park,” it is with the wrong-headed parents who let their small children watch it, not with the creators or the people who broadcast it.

CHRIS BAILEY, Valencia

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Karlitz says the show is harmful because it demeans teachers and educators. This is a cartoon, sir, not a documentary. It no more belittles teachers than “The Simpsons’ ” Homer represents nuclear power plant workers. Just like “Heckle and Jeckle,” “Bugs Bunny,” “The Simpsons” and “Beavis and Butt-head,” ’South Park’ is an animated show with a certain edge that adults love too.

As a responsible parent, my children have not seen “South Park” because it is on after their bedtime. But they did see their afternoon cartoons interrupted to show someone blowing [his] brains out. You tell me what is most offensive.

As an educator, Karlitz should be praising the TV media for all its glorious diversity. For those of us who find things offensive on the tube, there is something that’s been around since the invention of the TV: the off switch.

JENNIFER VALLY, Van Nuys