I was watching South Park tonight, and even with my sense of humor it was appalling. To wit:
Mr. Garrison becomes Mrs. Garrison and goes to have an abortion. Yes, I know he can’t conceive, but the imagery (scramble it up and he’ll queef it out) is appalling.
Kyle becomes a black man so he can play basketball.
Kyle’s dad becomes a dolphin (trans-species) and pitches a fit because they don’t have any dolphin-accessible facilities for him.
South Park used to be funny. Now it’s just shocking for the sake of being shocking. I know that all I have to do is change the channel, and I think I will in the future.
Does anyone else think that they’re going just a bit too far, or is it just me? Maybe I’m just missing the point anymore. I think the point is that they’re taking stuff to the logical extreme, but Jesus, can’t there be even a little bit of restraint? Between tonight and Critter Christmas I’m feeling a bit creeped out.
It’s still funny. Therefore I must conclude that it is just you, you are missing the point, and no there can’t be any restraint when they take things to their natural conclusion. My guess: you’re not liking the satire.
I’m with BrainGlutton. They haven’t coined the superlative that encapsules the perfect awesomeness that is “South Park Critter Christmas.”
What they’re doing is called satire and its not goundbreaking as much as it is very funny.
Of course the Satirist in Chief will always be Jonathon Swift, who in the early 1700’s wrote A Modest Proposal which suggested that the Irish solve their little famine problem by eating their own young.
Just to put this in a little context. The south park guys are just hammering away at subject matter that is screaming to be made fun of and they’re doing it quite well.
I hate to break it to you, but South Park has ALWAYS been crap. Strip away the lame Howard Sternish shocks and you have a trite little morality play that would make William Bennett puke.
I think I’ve seen a little of it every year since the first on the urging of friends. “Dude, you have to watch South Park! It’s awesome! It’s way over the line and it’s hysterical! It’s even better than last year!” (Small trick.) So like an idiot I’ll endure a little bit and then I hate myself. No jokes, no brains, no fun. I think I’ve seen one episode that I didn’t feel measurably stupider for watching, and even at that, I’ve no desire to see it again.
It’s not insightful. It’s not cutting edge. It’s not even funny. It’s just garbage. Stoner and Parker can suck my cock.
Nope, it was always shocking for the sake of being shocking. Not that it wasn’t also funny at times (“If Chewbacca is a Wookie, you must aquit!” and the “What would Bryan Boytono Do” song) but I think a large measure of their humor was predicated strictly on saying things that you just weren’t supposed to say. Lenny Bruce did the same thing years ago (and George Carlin succeeded him), but in a way that was insightful rather than merely appalling.
That being said, I can’t say that I find “South Park” particularly offensive. It’s largely too stupid to get worked up over, a quality that was taken to an extreme with “Team America”. It isn’t (for the most part) satire or parody; just a continued stream of marginally offensive blather intended to hit some kind of nerve once in a while in hopes of igniting some simulcrum of laughter.
Would it? Then may someone strap down that sanctimonious, hypocritical bastard and force him to watch every episode! With eyelid-clamps, like in A Clockwork Orange!
I’m only pissed because I happened to be eating when they showed that clip of the sex change.
As far as the show itself? It’s either hit or miss with me. Sometimes they have me pissing my pants from laughing so hard and other times it’s… well… meh…
I agree completely with Stranger, except regarding the spelling of “simulacrum.”
IMHO, “South Park” has always been more about shock value than about genuine satire. I kept trying to love “South Park,” and finally I gave up. Sure, if you dig deep enough, you’ll find some goodies. But eccch, what a load of crap you have to dig through.
That got to me, too. You tune in this cartoon show expecting that any grossness, however out-there, will be mediated through the cartoonists’ admittedly crude and basic drawing skills – and then, every once in a while, they hit you with these live-action clips, and – :eek: ! Goatse is mild compared to this!
I never read NL, it was before my time. I imagine it was better than this swill. But I’ll whole-heartedly endorse forcing Bill Bennett to sit through every stomach-churning episode of South Park. May his head implode.
Yeah. What satire they have is weak and easy. I really tend to hate the openly satirical bits anyway, as mostly they betray an embarrassing sort of adolescent rebellion against whatever they see as commonly-held beliefs rather than the insight underlying true social commentary. They take potshots at easy targets (Steroid-using baseball players. Michael Jackson. O.J. Simpson. Paris Hilton. :: yawn : or else they try to address social or political themes and reveal that they simply don’t understand the issues at question.
When they abandon all that, though, they can be really funny. It seems that maybe they’ve been doing more topical humor as the years go by, which damages the show. But the episodes that focus on the characters themselves are still really funny.
Okay, I love South Park, but its okay if others don’t, so that’s not why I’m posting in this.
I just want to say that Matt’s last name is not Stoner…it’s Stone. Unless you guys were spelling it that way deliberately, in which case nevermind then.
