My, my, what you have to do these days to come up with a winning college course.

Brian Dunphy teaches a TV/radio course called “South Park and Political Correctness” at CUNY’s Brooklyn College. Its ”potty-mouthed inspiration,” notes the New York Post, is the Comedy Central cartoon South Park.

What exactly inspired Dunphy to focus on the cartoon? Here are some of his quotes:

“It has the pulse of America more than anything else.”
“It’s proof that you can learn from the most unlikely places.”
“Sometimes you watch and you think, ‘This is ridiculous.’ But by the end, without the audience even realizing it, they’re making a point.”
“I think the best way to reach students is to make them laugh. Once they are paying attention, the discussion is very lively.”

Is there any reason students have to make a pass through South Park to encounter what Dunphy describes as “important messages” on “very relevant topics,” such as religion? Any reason they could not just skip the antics and go straight to the most likely places — say, the work of Aquinas or Maimonides?

Sure, everybody likes a good laugh, but one shouldn’t have to go this far south to get college students’ attention.