Fat Albert was never like this

At the restaurant where I had lunch with my co-workers today, there was a TV playing Bill Cosby's animated show for kids, Little Bill. The sound was off so I couldn't really tell what was going on, but I was struck by how the show, in its visual style and cast of characters, is extremely similar to South Park. I think it was the image of the long yellow schoolbus pulling up in front of a generic school building -- the comparisons in my head began to click. It didn't take long before I was amusing myself with my own filthy dialogue for Cosby's band of innocents. I'm afraid my lunchtime companions weren't as amused.

Speaking of South Park, that show just becomes more daring -- and better written -- with each episode that passes. Apparently the viewership of the half-hour animated series has dropped from its initial four million to 2.6 million, but it's still Comedy Central's highest-rated show. What does it say that, of U.S. television's three most controversial and topical -- not to mention funniest -- shows (South Park, The Simpsons, and The Daily Show), two of them are animated? Guess we 'Mericans just love our cartoons.