South Park gone too far? No, not even close. The last week’s episode was incredibly hilarious! Still love the show, still think it is one of the funniest things on TV.
Heading towards GD…
Sorry, but those of you who say South Park is mostly just shock humor, you are absolutely, positively 100% wrong. SP, especially after the first season or two, is consistently one of the best, most whitty, incisive, anti-political correctness, brutally honest pieces of satire ever.
To use this last episode as an example, they made several things brutally clear:
[ul][li]A sex change does NOT really make you a woman, but a disfigured man that sort of looks like one (it doesn’t change your genetics)[/li][li]That this whole ‘transgendered individuals rights’ thing is complete politically correct bullshit[/li][li]That pro-choice or pro-life, getting an abortion can mean ‘scrambling its brains’ because that’s what is physically done during one method[/li][li]Like it or not the stereotype of blacks being good at basketball and jewish people not is statistacally about 99% true[/li][/ul]
The problem is you guys can’t see the forest for the trees. That is, your level of shock value is low (or rather, not high enough for SP). Once the show goes beyond it there’s a switch in your brain that just closes and refuses to accept anything else.
I know shock for shock’s sake, and South Park is miles above that.
I thought the election episode last fall was very well done.
Insisting that people vote when they don’t care one way or the other is not a good idea. If they choose randomly, the final tallies won’t be an accurate reflection of what the people want. Amid all the bleating about “Vote or Die!” and “But this election is so important!”, P&S were the only people to make that point.
Hijack.
I thought Jews dominated basketball before Blacks were allowed to play?
I mainly agree with you here, except that they didn’t make several things brutally clear, they made several of their opinions brutally clear.
And, with regards to your point #1, I actually thought it was the most flawed part of the episode (and since it was kind of the point, it detracted a lot, IMO). I think few if any people actually expect to have functioning reproductive systems after a sex change operation. I get their point, that they think that people think a surgery will ‘make’ them a woman (or man). But that goes to show the second fatal flaw.
There’s (and I hope someone who knows more about this than I comes in here, 'cause all I know I learned from the Dope) some compelling research that indicates that a lot of folks have some genetic/psysiological disposition towards a gender they weren’t born with. Surgery doesn’t ‘make’ a man into a woman, it gives a person a better way to mesh physically and socially with the gender she is. Kyle didn’t really have some true inner compelling and driving desire to be black. He wanted to play basketball.
And Airman Doors describes exactly the reason I don’t watch South Park. Although in an ideal world, I wouldn’t have read that episode description either. And I agree about the satire; I’ve seen the show be funny (and Team America had some really funny moments too), but the guys are too crude to really send anything up and make a point, it’s more like burlesque done by angry kids. I guess it’s just the time we live in that just being really really gross and cursing a lot makes you an anti-PC hero who tells it like it is.
Hail Ants, you’ve confused two things: being smart and agreeing with you. Parker and Stone agreed with you about something, which is not the same as making some kind of brilliant, trenchant analysis of society. Because I’m pretty sure they aren’t capable of that. And PS, it’s still bigoted even if South Park says it isn’t.
I don’t remember Bennett ever railing against gambling — do you?
My, my…another Church of SubGenius reference from you in a thread dealing with whether something is funny or offensive…and a link to the first one, too! It is my opinion as a “righteous and ordained OVERMAN/UBERWOMAN {entitled to} all privileges granted a holy person, {entrusted} to perform all dutied of the SubGenius Ministry including: seermonizings, harangues, invocations, exorcisms, marriages, baptismals, sacrifices, seances, hypnosis, levitations, the casting out of False Prophets, the SacraMentality of the Eucharist, healings, miracles, insane phenomena, prphesying, alien contact, BrainWatchings, smitings, deflowerings, indoctrinations and the acceptance of donations” that you should cease and desist any further references to the Church and refrain from the use of Church jargon until you actually “get” the message Bob brought us.
Here’s a little hint: SubGenius initially deprograms you of a lot of silly ideas are unavoidable in modern America. THAT is the deeper meaning of “fuck 'em if hey can’t take a joke.” Ideally, SubGenius then deprograms you of itself, so that you don’t walk around arrogantly spouting Church catchphrases and giving the impression to all and sundry that you are one of those arrogant, dateless dweebs who lives in his parents’ basement and bases his self-image on something like The Church of SubGenius.
South Park has had its funny moments, I’d say. Mostly in the first couple seasons.
I believe the reason why South Park sometimes makes me laugh and sometimes makes me angry is that the writers are Middle Americans. Now, I am not trying to be insulting, but the impression I get from watching both shows like South Park, and the complete other end of the political spectrum comic strip Mallard Fillmore is the following:
“I know perfectly well that people who disagree with me have a good point, but…
Ew! Men who want to be women! that’s disgusting.” combined with a little: “At the end of the day, I want to sit down and watch brain numbing tv. I am angry that I see social issue discussed everywhere, and I am disgusted by the fact that they are produced by people on the coast, not people who share my viewpoints.”
They understand intellectually that these are not men who want to be women, but women born into the wrong bodies, but that doesn’t stop them from being disgusted by the idea. Then again, I could simply be misreading the situation, and am completely off my rocker.
Please define the term “Middle Americans”.
Just about anyone not living on a coast.
How would living on a coast be relevant?
Because if you are not on a coast, (or border to another counrty) You are in the middle of America, thus the term, “middle American.” A nicer term might be “from the Heartland”
Coming from anyone else… I’d accuse the OP of being a spoilsport and boring… but being Airman got me thinking a bit more and not accusing.
I agree that the shock value versus comic value of South Park isn't good. I like shock... but I also like intelligent humor... even if its slapstick. Still I guess they are fighting politically correct more than they are providing good humor. I think its important to screw over politically correct.
After reading some of the answers I might say that something in that episode probably ticked you off personally. Maybe you have someone in wheel chairs in your family ? Maybe your strong anti-abortion ? Its easy to laugh at stuff that isn’t relevant to us… but maybe something in that episode was de facto offensive to you ?
I love South Park! I think one thing I really like about it is that nobody is safe. They’ve poked fun at just about everyone and everything.
No, I am asking what does the fact that Parker and Stone are not from the coasts (actually, they do live on the coast) have to do with anything? I.E., is there some attitude about transsexuals that people from Georgia, Maine, Oregon, and Alabama share, which is diametrically opposed to what people from Colorado monolithically believe? Come clean.
When it first started, I thought, “oh, be a good sport—they make fun of everyone,” and the Futurama episode where Bender got a sex change was hilarious.
But this wasn’t hilarious. It just got meaner and meaner, with no understanding of the science behind the subject, comparing transgendered people to someone who thinks he’s a dolphin. Outright calling us “freaks” and “surgically mutilated men.” But, “Oh, well, it’s better’n bein’ a fag!”
I’m sorry, I can’t be a good sport, when I think of the millions who watch that show and have never met a transsexual—or worse yet, the transgendered kids who watch that show and are already at the end of their rope. If I had seen that when I was 12 or 13, after a day of being beat up at school and called a fag, and thought about my future, I probably would have swallowed every pill in the house (which, in our house, was pretty much aspirin and Maalox).
I’m not writing any letters to Comedy Central or South Park, or calling for a boycott—it’s their right to say whatever hateful shit they want. But I’m certainly never watching the show again, and my Cartman wind-up figure went into the trash.
See, this is why I don’t post much anymore—I come here for diversion and amusement, and I just wind up upsetting myself even more.
Come clean? What do you mean? I am saying what I think, not being disingenuous. I believe there is an attitude, not specifically about transexuality, but about many social issue, that says television should entertain us, and if it doesn’t, than it is bad. Anyone who disagree with how things are is full of shit. Sure, so our leader might be full of shit, but so are those who opposse them. See the episode where both religous people, and atheists put food up their asses, and shat out their mouths. As I recall, it ended on a worst note for the atheists than the religous establishment.
Re: my term middle American, it is a handy term. That is not to say the attitude is prevelant everywhere, just generalized over many states.
I found another example of the attitude I am talking about.
South Park
It’s only funny if it is not on the “wrong” side of what is important to you.
That is what I am understanding from some of the posts here.
I have watched South Park from the beginning, and to me it hasn’t changed much.
They poke fun at everyone and everything. They are sick bastards, and that is why I find them hysterical. But they are also often insightful, if you can get beyond the toilet humor.
They have been on the “wrong” side of what I find important. And I don’t care! It still makes me laugh, and I am willing to be offended every once in awhile to get in my chuckles for the day.
MHO, FWIW