I think what you’re saying is that the plots of South Park make a social commentary, satire basically, whereas the plots of Family guy are just funny without trying to make a point.
And I agree with that, although I suppose some of the FG one-liners and short gags are good old satire. Like the guys on FG looking at an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog and trying to find the black guy, who was way off in the background and dressed like the “Where’s Waldo” guy. 
Apple Pie or Blueberry?
It’s a matter of taste.
I like SouthPark. I only smile occasionally at something Stewie says on Family Guy. Am I a superior television watcher? No. Is SP better because I love the show? No.
Will anyone’s arguement change anyone’s mind here? No.
The only thing I can add here is that, now having seen Cartoon Wars (I hadn’t seen it yet yesterday), the episode was perfectly self-explanatory.
Most notably, did you notice how the ‘parody’ of FG on SP wasn’t a parody at all, but merely an example of it? The bits they did could have been lifted absolutely verbatim from Family Guy. IOW they made fun of how stupid and lame it is merely by, well, just showing how stupid and lame it is! Without any satire or mocking or enhancement what-so-ever! That’s all there is to it. If you didn’t see that, well, then there really is nothing else to say. Enjoy The Family Guy…
I also appreciated Cartman playing the role of Parker & Stone. I’ve read interviews with them and they’ve said exactly what he did. Everywhere they go people keep mentioning FG and SP in the same breath and it drives them nuts. It (quite obviously) drives me nuts and I’m just a viewer!
Not like that they don’t. Everyone gets made fun of eventually, but some groups get absolutely savaged. There’s a difference between off-color humor and hate speech. “Mr. Garrison’s Shiny New Vagina” was hate speech.
The message of the episode was “transsexuals are self-hating faggots who mutilate themselves and think that they’re women. They aren’t, and shouldn’t be treated as such.” What part of that isn’t ignorant? What part of that is parody?
Parker and Stone think they’re polticially astute, but they aren’t. Talented comedy writers, but utter morons. Some groups, like Jon Edwards or Scientology, have few redeeming values and pretty much have it coming. Others don’t.
MacFarlane isn’t as funny as Parker and Stone, but he knows his role is fart jokes and Transformers references. That makes him less annoying.
Look I hate PETA, but look at the episodes that slammed PETA, they were savaged by South Park, why is that different than the Mr. Garrison episode?
You seem to be saying that PETA & Scientology & Jon Edwards & the Catholic church deserve to be slammed but when they do the same to Transvestites its wrong? That is really silly, isn’t it? I guess you are correct, you shouldn’t be watching South Park. I helped fight to end whaling, they made people like me out to look like crazed idiots. I don’t dwell on it and I still enjoy the show.
Jim
You’ve made the point well, but transsexuals aren’t people with a set of ideas the way animal rights activists are. That’s too big a difference for me to overlook. The parodies of Scientology were about their stupid beliefs, not the people; they were very emphatic about having pity rather than scorn for Isaac Hayes a few weeks ago. They were able to do what they did with the transsexuals because those people are so ill understood and have little advocacy. Even South Park wouldn’t have attacked gays, blacks or other minority groups in that manner.
Because hating PETA is hating a political organization. Hating transgendered people is hating a group of people because of who they are. It’s a big difference.
All I’m saying is that if you’re going to have some commentary on transgendered people, then you should actually have an infomed opinion. Not just a rant.
Say what? Do you think that when Mr. Garrison was obviously gay that Parker and Stone were engaging in hate speech against gay people? The message of the episode, as pertains to Mr. Garrison is that Mr. Garrison is one totally fucked up individual. He was fucked up as a homosexual, and he’s fucked up as a transsexual. He did the surgery, it seems, as the same reason he ‘came out’, because he wants attention (he probably isn’t really gay or transsexual… just needing to be the center of attention).
Did we watch the same episode? Marley23, I’ll ask the same question. Maybe I need to re-watch it, I didn’t get all that from the episode. I got out of it something close to what ISiddiqui got out of it. It wasn’t a particularly funny episode, but I think showing PETA nuts as into bestiality rates a little lower on the scale of offending.
Jim {I really dislike being put in a position to defend PETA even a little}
What about Kyle turning into a tall black basketball player? it wasn’t just mr garrison bashing, it was transsexuals. The point of the episode wasnt “mr garrison is fucked up” it was “getting an operation doesnt change who you are, and you are a self hating fag trying to be a woman”.
Or maybe, “Mr. Garrison is a self-hating faggot who mutilates himself and thinks he is a woman.”
If the episode wasn’t an attack on transgenderism (is that a word?) itself, then why did Kyle and his dad also mutilate themselves in a misguided attempt to make themselves into something they aren’t? Why did they use a real doctor specializing in sex-change operations’ name for their strawman doctor pushing people into operations? Where’s the equivalent of Big Gay Al, a comically stereotypical but positive example of the group?
Perhaps “hate speech” was too strong. How about “ignorant and bigotted”?
That’s what I wanted to say. You should have stopped your post at the first sentence so that I could have pointed out that while FG isn’t wholly satirical, it does have plenty of satirical gags and one-liners - just like our beloved Simpsons and Futurama. Then I was going to use, as an example, the line where Peter said, “The South? Isn’t that where all the black people are lazy, and all the white people are lazy, but they all hate the black people for being lazy?”.
So how about the continuity of keeping Ms. Garrison around and her not changing back at the end of the epsiode you are berating. Maybe they aren’t so “ignorant and bigotted” and just subjected sex-change operations to the same abuse they treat almost everything. I’m sorry you were offended by it, but if you let something like South Park offend you, imagine if you ran into real hate.
Jim
That was real hate. It’s perpetuating stereotypes about a poorly understood and persecuted minority group, and is actively harmful to them. It’s not violence, and it’s not institutional discrimination, so it counts for less, but it’s hate.
When people are bigots I call them on it. They can’t call it humor and hide behind it.
Ok, we did see the same episode and obviously I am ignorant to the travails of the those people who opt for sex-change operations. I just can’t see it as bigotry.
Why can’t the Catholic league then make the same claim, they’re a group that has suffered from bigotry for years. Can’t Mormons complain the same way. I think your claiming a special right to claim bigotry for one group is insensitive to the all the other groups that South Park goes after.
Jim {I am not Catholic or Mormon for the Record, in fact I am an Agnostic who dislikes organized religions}
I admit I’m combining the part of the episode I saw with the volume I’ve read about it on the 'Dope (and a few other places). Unless I’m wrong that transgendered people were compared to people who want to be black or dolphins, I’m sticking by that assessment.
They have insulted so many people. I don’t think sex-changers were singled out or special.
Jim
I disagree. And further, being assholes to multiple groups isn’t really a defense. Maybe they have been just as mean and ignorant regarding Catholics. I can’t say, I haven’t seen every episode. If so, then they were wrong then, too.
(And calling them “sex-changers” isn’t helping your cause any)
Well what is the proper term? I thought not all transgendered and transsexuals had underwent a sex change operation. Did I use a term that is wrong, because I used simply for proper clarification and as far as I know I coined it on the spot. Please don’t tell me I am somehow being insensitive for the use of a new term sex-changers. What is the preferred term?
Jim