South Park

[swanflake]

Where I finally drew the line and decided that I couldn't stand them was the episode they did where Cartman threw a rock at the rich black kid and was charged with a hate crime. At the end of the episode they had the rich black kid's father deliver the soapbox monologue about how hate crime legislation is wrong. Then a week or two later they did the episode about gays in the Boy Scouts, and that episode concluded with Big Gay Al delivering the final soapbox monologue about it's perfectly fine for the Boy Scouts to keep out the gays. The way they had characters representing the groups whose equality was in question deliver those final conclusions didn't sit right with me. It'd seemed highly tactical to me, and finally made me think that Trey and Matt were about more than just even keel, equal-opportunity mockery, but that they too are deep into preaching their own self-serving political ideologies. Except that they can disguise it in their little cartoon and act like they're not doing it, so then they can get away with making fun of all the celebrities who are upfront about their political interests and not be called hypocritical for it.

Didn't one of them do an interview for "Rolling Stone" magazine where he said that as long as he has cable TV and internet that the rest of the world can go fuck themselves?

Though I did side with them the time that Sean Penn got all pissed off at them.

[Deleted]

deaconblue said:

I see it completely differently. They make of everyone and everything, nothing is sacred. When they make fun of you, thats when you know you've made it. You don't think the Bono thing is funny, but I bet many of you thought that Tom Cruise in the clset episode was quite amusing.

I understand the concept of satire. I'm a fan of satire. However, a lot of their episodes follow this basic premise: Person X cares passionately about a particular cause/issue/religion/hobby. The kids make fun of this person's passion. Person X is humiliated and one of the kids makes a statement about how caring a little bit about something is okay but caring too much (that is, more than the kids feel comfortable with) is wrong. Honestly, it's impossible to figure just what Stone and Parker do care about but the overarching theme seems to be "caring is stupid and apathy is cool". Yay.

[abbynormal]

So apparently, Britney Spears has a couple of friends in Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Thoughts?

[Deleted]

Certainly wasn't what I was expecting. But I can't say I disagreed with the points they made.

[Deleted]

What the hell was that? Have they just given up comedy completely? I understand why they might not want to make fun of Britney-everyone is doing it, so they feel like they have to do they opposite. I guess she would be too easy a target, but they didn't even criticize her in the slightest! "Oh, my boys! My boys are here?" (paraphrased) Yeah right! She couldn't be bothered to show up to court for custody hearings!

I also don't like the trend of their lame "twist" endings without any funny. First there was the "Bono is a piece of shit" story and now this. I can't wait for their hilarious take on the coming elections.


I miss South Park being funny.

[kostgard]

Yeah, they made good points, but they completely painted Britters as a totally innocent victim, which she was not.

Now, if they had painted her as completely out of her head, and that's why she would seek out the attention from the paps and why she didn't show up in court, that would make sense. I completely agree that the paps take things too far and photos of celebs are examined and torn apart to a ridiculous extent, but you can't forget that Britters and others like her encouraged and courted this kind of attention. They helped create those monsters.

[krafteasymac]

Yeah I was not impressed by this episode. Rubbed me the wrong way and felt a little too self-righteous.

It's obvious that Britney's got some serious mental problems, but she also willingly thrusts herself into the public eye, even going so far as to call the paparazzi to let them know where she's going to be. She even dated one of them! Not to mention she spends most nights staying at hotels, rather than retreating to the privacy of her mansion. She asks for the attention, she thrives on it. And for that, I won't pity her. I'm pretty surprised that Matt and Trey cut her such a break.

[RabbitEars]

I'm pretty surprised that Matt and Trey cut her such a break.

So was I. The whole episode ticked me off. The concept was painfully wrong. Sometimes they shoot and they miss. I'll forgive them the next time I see "Casa Bonita," though.

[Deleted]

Casa Bonita is my favorite episode!

[Deleted]

Gee, I wonder what Matt & Trey thought about the writer's strike. The last episode was so subtle, I just can't tell! [/sarcasm]