15 pieces of pop culture that may have been influenced by South Park

NEW YORK, NY – MAY 18: Eric Andre attends Turner Upfront 2016 arrivals at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on May 18, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Turner)

The Eric Andre Show

The Eric Andre Show is perhaps one of the most confrontationally absurd shows airing currently. As a way to parody low-budget public access programming and lampoon the late night genre, Andre sets out to make his guests so uncomfortable that he forces a reaction out of them. His sidekick, Hannibal Buress, is often the straight man for the bits, and has the impossible job of keeping a straight face.

Many of his celebrity guests aren’t as in on the joke as they should be, and his antagonistic interviewing style has gotten him in a lot of trouble with his famous pals. In addition to aggravating celebrities, he conducts insane “man on the street” interviews, producing deranged chaos on the set. Some celebrities play along, while others have been known to get upset and storm out. Andre rarely breaks character, reminding audiences of Andy Kaufman’s style of comedy.

While Andre takes the Kaufman style of delivery, it’s also easy to see South Park style in his comedic approach in that he doesn’t relent. Even when faced with outrage from the subjects of his jokes, he doubles down, making the scene exponentially more uncomfortable for the guests.

Airing on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, Andre’s brand of humor wasn’t something a lot of people had seen before South Park. Combative comedy wasn’t a mainstream commodity, (and we’re not really counting Tom Green as mainstream here) and without South Park to desensitize us to rude humor, Andre might not have had that same niche to carve out.

Best of: Jack Black (season 4, episode 10) and Lauren Conrad (season 3, episode 2)