>season 1 of show has cheap, stilted animation
>show gets popular and later seasons have more budget
>later seasons have technically better animation and visuals
>show loses its original appeal
What is this phenomenon called?

getting older

>>149197621 (OP)
>What is this phenomenon called?
"The HD Era of Television"
Seriously name one show from the SD 4:3 era that didn't take a total visual hit when shows became 16:9 HD. Visual fidelity has completely killed the look of so many things.

>point of the aesthetic is to appear like a stop motion cartoon made out of cardboard
>get money
>immediately forget this and make every new character "realistic" looking, backgrounds with useless "realistic" detail as if this isn't the show that started with alien anal probes
I have this severe lack of respect for Trey and Matt as creators. No real vision.

In season 4/5 they occasionally made something like an aircraft or an animal hyper realistic the joke being its funny something looks so real in such a shitty looking cartoon. That bit became more and more frequent until it stopped being a bit and the whole show just looked like that.

>>149197717
Nah, the joke was about how the Star Wars special editions added tons of CGI into the old stuff.

>>149197737
Yeah but they purposefully drew the machines hyper accurate to the movie as opposed to something like Mecha Streisand which is in their normal shitty style.

>>149197621 (OP)
It’s a phenomenon called “Shut the fuck up and keep your South Park has fallen off bitching outta here”

>>149197807
Its not just South Park, it happens to lots of shows. Home Movies and ATHF come to mind

>>149197807
Yeah. Why can't people be positive about this show?

>>149197621 (OP)
I wouldn’t say it’s always a bad thing. No one’s claiming The Simpsons’ first season had the best animation. I know that’s not an example of looking “cheap and stilted” but it was still supposed to be more ergonomic than most TV animation in 1989-1990. My point is everyone’s favorite animation moments from that show come from around season 4-6, and if it had ended in the 90s, it wouldn’t be the worst example of this phenomenon.