predcon: I dunno, once they started the "Fourth Grade" titles, and replaced Kenny for a while.... I guess I just prefer it when South Park was more "Monty Python with a loose plot", and less "Scathing social commentary". Once you start getting preachy, no matter
how you wrap it up, you start detracting from funny, and starkly. M*A*S*H* taught us that.
You know Parker and Stone did BASEketball because they'd expected the show to be cancelled by then? They didn't expect to be doing twice the work.
I dunno scathing social commentary done right can actually be much funnier ... unless it becomes preachy I agree, but good writers can avoid that and the nice thing is that society always seems to provide fresh material. :)
However, Scrubs did go downhill - not because of social commentary but because it became the soap they were often mocking. I'd say the first few season were great, but after that - except for a few new bright lights, like Mahoney, it was very uneven. I found that JD got a little annoying. Personality quirks that I used to find amusing got tiresome and grating. Cox and Jordan however were always funny.