They're just getting it now?

So the New York Times -- post-Jayson Blair, and still stodgy, I might add -- recently realized that South Park isn't just about talking poo and Kenny getting killed all the damn time -- it's got *gasp* morals!

"They have a more specific problem: American hypocrisy, the combination of greed and sanctimony that lets religion and would-be spirituality provide cover for rapacity," writes Virginia Heffernan in her article. "Where the 'Peanuts' children were sad, the kids in 'South Park' are furious and vengeful."

They're realizing this now? If you watched more than the Mr. Hanky episodes (which I can't stomach), you'd realize that's what Trey Parker and Matt Stone were making all along -- not just this season, but in the past. Hell, they even said that in a 2000 Playboy interview:

"When we say that our thing is trying to take a fucked-up story and make it normal, that's the main way of doing it," Parker said in 2000. "In general, our boys, perverted little fuckers that they are, are good boys. Except for Cartman, they all do the right thing. And they are constantly telling adults what's right. Again, it goes back to the Ren and Stimpy thing. Yeah, you can be over-the-top and vulgar, but it's just noise unless you have something to ground it with. And I try to ground it with this sense of sweetness. You know, those boys are better people than I am."

Wow. I knew that the New York Times was supposed to be the beacon of sober adulthood, but that article's just proof that they're out of step majorly. If that article was published in, say, 1997-98, then it would be groundbreaking. Now it's like your dad going, "I'm hip! I get that crazy, wacky vibe!"