South Park is the most important show on television. There's probably about 3 other people out there who agree with such a statement, but hear me out.

Sure, the show is an edgy, often foul and awfully offensive cartoon that feeds on a pretty steady diet of college humor and ignorant flatulence jokes. But that's only the surface of the show. At it's core, it's probably the most socially conscious and politically aware display of entertainment ever. It's not exactly educational, but it is far more intelligent and sophisticated in it's underlying meaning than it lets off to be. Seriously.

Most viewers probably don't even spend a moment thinking about the show beyond it's twisted humor, but I spent all last night philosophizing on Comedy Central's long-running hit show after watching the concluding episode of their recent "Imagination Trilogy."

In this 3-part episode, a secret portal to the world's collective "imagination" (called Imagination Land) is secretly housed in The Pentagon, and all hell breaks loose after a terror attack on Imagination Land unleashes all the bad guys of Imagination Land (including Freddy Kreuger, storm troopers, Jason, The Predator, Darth Maul, The Alien, The Minotaur, Wario, The Headless Horseman, etc) onto the "good guys" part of Imagination Land (which includes Optimus Prime, Jesus, Morpheus, Santa Clause, Popeye, Luke Skywalker, The Flash, a monster from Where The Wild Things Are, a Ninja Turtle, and so on). Perhaps not so ironically, it's one of the most imaginative things I've seen in a while. Meanwhile they poke fun at the government for having no imagination (see episode 2).

And there's goofy sideplots, and lots of ridiculousness themes, but if you look past that to Kyle's touching speech to Pentagon officials planning to nuke the imagination portal towards the conclusion, you'll see the heart of the show. He convinces them that "Imagination Land is, in fact, real" and thus, they can't just simply nuke it to stop monsters from coming out of the portal. He actually makes a convincing point that imaginary characters from popular culture are probably more real than everyday people, because they have helped define people and the world, even if they aren't "real" in essence.

And it turns into a religious waxing of intellectual where the characters question their beliefs and existence, while this little imaginative kid from Colorado explains that real or not, characters from Jesus Christ to Optimus Prime have shaped the world more than government officials could ever dream to. And we've looked to these mythical (or cartoony) figures for advice, for guidance, for light, for entertainment, for ourselves.

Yeah, sure, it's a silly cartoon that most parents would find disgustingly awful, but what else recently has so clearly defined that it doesn't matter who or what you believe in, but that wielding a strong imagination is the only weapon you'll ever truly need. Saying (or warring over) what you believe in is more 'right' than someone else is the most ignorant thing you can do. Whether it be in politics, religion, or a conversation on Star Wars. South Park unveils how stupid people look when they take things far too seriously and that sometimes, all we really need is to laugh at something stupid and disgusting to remind us we're really not that different.

But I don't mean to ram the idea that this show is the smartest show ever down your throat. That'd be defeating my point. I'm just saying it makes me laugh, and it makes me think about the world.