Each episode opens with a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer:^[13]

All characters and events in this show—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated.....poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone.^[14]

South Park was the first weekly program to be assigned the TV-MA rating,^[15] and is generally intended for adult audiences.^[16][17][18] The boys and most other child characters use strong profanity, with only the most taboo words being bleeped by censors during a broadcast.^[3] The use of such language serves as a means for Parker and Stone to display how they claim young boys really talk when they are alone.^[19][20]

South Park commonly makes use of carnivalesque and absurdist techniques,^[21] numerous running gags,^[22][23] violence,^[23][24] sexual content,^[25][26] offhand pop-cultural references, and satirical portrayal of celebrities.^[27] The early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented and featured more slapstick-style humor.^[28] While social satire had been used on the show occasionally earlier on, it became more prevalent as the series progressed, with the show retaining some of its focus on the boys' fondness of scatological humor in an attempt to remind adult viewers   Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire  "what it was like to be eight years old".^[4] Parker and Stone also began further developing other characters by giving them larger roles in certain storylines,^[4] and began writing plots as http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.wordpress.com  parables based around religion, politics, and numerous other topics.^[3] This provided the opportunity for the show to spoof both extreme sides of contentious issues,^[29] while lampooning both liberal and conservative points of view.^[3][11][30] Parker and Stone describe themselves as "equal opportunity offenders",^[10] whose main agenda is to "be funny" and "make people laugh",^[31][32] while stating that no particular topic or group of people be spared the expense of being subject to mockery and satire.^{[11][27][33][34][35]}