IMO South Park just holds up a mirror to society (in probably 90% of their episodes, anyway). People who are comfortable / powerful in society won’t like looking at the ugliness in that mirror. People who understand how fucked up everything is will appreciate the value of the mirror.

I think a smaller amount of their material is just them griping about various pet peeves, which is fine. They are human and very creative, so of course some of those types of things will come out in their work, too.

And some of it is just to be funny, pure absurdist jokes and gags. In the sense of “the universe doesn’t care” types of things. Those land hard for me, but some people don’t find that kind of thing funny. The people who don’t find it funny aren’t wrong, they just have different tastes in humor.

I remind myself that an internet rando means absolutely nothing to me. Like the figurative “dirt on your shoulder” that you just brush off. It really helps to take a break from all things social media (and social media adjacent) on the internet for a while, too. Get interested in something else (tv show, hobby, book, music, whatever) for a while.

Very much so. I think it’s the very long hangover from the “Protestant Work Ethic” which was always just a moralistic way for bosses to punch down on their worker-slaves. Things like “quiet quitting” and so on are a response to that, but you’re right that it has permeated every aspect of American culture. It’s a broad and deep problem.