9/11 conspiracy theories are a pet peeve of mine for some reason. I was hoping they’d stomp on them the way they stomped on Scientology and John Edward. Instead they pulled their punches with that surreal plot involving Bush, 9-11 truth.org, and the Hardly Boys.
And, the Hardly boys, what was that? It didn’t even seem like gay bashing, more like two little kids fascinated with their own erections. Dumb.
Unlike most of you I didn’t even think the bits with Mackie were funny, so this was a real bottom of the barrel ep for me.
Was anyone else thinking that somehow Cartman had set up the whole thing to prove that his theory was correct, and they just forgot to have a “reveal” for that before the episode ended? Somehow I kept thinking that was what was gonna happen, and it would have been such a much better episode if it had.
Well this cover always struck me as having a bizarre, creepy pedophiliac subtext to it. This was one of a whole bunch of Hardy Boys books my family had when I was a youth, but I never read this one because of the cover.
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As for the SP episode, it seemed like they were really grasping for something gross to build an episode around. After ten years of anal probes, Mr. Hanky, aborted fetuses and Scott Tenorman, a turd in the urinal didn’t seem all that over the top. The WTC conspiracy theories are certainly deserving of a SP lampooning, but it just came across as flat.
Maybe they were riffing on the HARD in HARDy Boys?
Wikipedia has already been updated with this gem from the Hardy Boys entry:
The Hardy Boys were portrayed in the South Park episode Mystery of the Urinal Deuce as the Hardly Boys, a grinning pair of mentally retarded homosexual partners who gained ‘clues’ (which they talk about as if they are erections such as, “I’ve got such a raging clue right now.” etc.) to solving mysteries in the presence of other men.
I watched it again last night, specifically to catch the conversation that Kyle and Stan had with the 911truth.org guy. I think the comments earlier in the thread missed the mark on the whole theory thing.
Kyle said that the Theory of Evolution has holes in it, but that doesn’t make it any less true. What he’s saying is, I think, that just because every single question of Evolution cannot be answered right now, that doesn’t make the Theory invalid. Just as because we don’t have answers for every question raised by the 9-11 attack, doesn’t mean that the only explanation can therefore be a government conspiracy. Maybe I’m stating what’s obvious, but I got the impression from earlier on in this thread that this point was lost.
I agree. The point of the statement wasn’t a point of ignorance about what theory is, or even evolution. It was simply a statement that just because there’s unanswered questions, it doesn’t mean the conclusion is invalid. Bottom line is, they had to make a reference that the general audience would understand. Sure, they probably have a higher percentage of intellectuals watching than a lot of other popular shows, but they also have a lot of morons watching that don’t understand what “theory” means but are still well aware of “the missing link”.
Further, while I didn’t find this to be a particularly funny episode (other than the juvenile, but amusing, potty jokes by Mr. Mackey), I still enjoyed the episode. Just as they were obvious and obnoxious in making fun of the conspiracy theorists, they were subtle and clever in making fun of the opposing point of view.
Second viewing proved slightly more enjoyable. “Mud Monkey”, the guy getting the back of his head blown off, the stereotypical chase down the alley ended by a locked fence (in all the alleys I’ve ever seen, I’ve never seen a gate in the middle of one- where did this idea originate?), and the colostomy joke were pretty good.
Are you referring to the Hardy Boy characters themselves? The Hardy Boys have been around for decades (and still are), the stars of juvenile detective novels published by Simon and Schuster under the psudonym “Franklin W. Dixon.” If you’re referring to the David Cassidy thing, I think the gag is more that two boys who spend a lot of time with each other are probably gay…or gay-seeming.
No, I know the Hardly Boys were very popular (I even watched the TV show), I meant if there was one obscure episode where something was said or done to seem homoerotic, then that particular obscure thing would be an odd choice for a parody. But after several watchings, I now think it is just a play on them being two dudes, or the HARD in HARDy Boys, but I think it is actuall pretty funny now (clue goo) and really dig "Mr. Valenzuela makes 6.00 an hour at best!
I fell in love with him from his show Probe that was on for a tragically short run in the late '80s. Just looked at his Wiki page and discovered that he went to the same high school my mom did! So I IM’ed my mom and it turns out he was a year behind her, and they were in Astronomy Club together. She said he was a skinny geeky kid in high school.
IMO, one of the worst episodes ever. Absent Mr. Mackey’s many euphamisms for poop, the episode had absolutely no redeeming qualities, and some really stupid things too. Hardly Boys went absolutely nowhere and contributed absolutely nothing to the episode.
P&S do much better when they stick to extremely recent events.