But people like to be told their opinions are mainstream, and a show like this does that.
People think South Park is mainstream?
Even if that is the perception, which I question, what difference does it make? They are expressing their own opinions.
I guess you can take such criticism too far, such that any rich celebrity cannot hawk a given viewpoint without someone digging around in their private life and finances and then, when they find the dirt on them, immediately yell “Hypocrite!” I guess Bono has no credibility unless he decides to sell all his worldly possessions and live with the homeless in some backstreet Dublin alley.
They do make fun of everyone and everything. That’s rather the problem I think. Everyone is bad in their world view and every idea is stupid. After a while it just becomes name-calling and isn’t very enjoyable.
It’s patently obvious that the creators of South Park are conservative and loathe liberals and liberalism, and that’s OK. As long as I got the Daily Show, Parker and Stone can go fish.
I’m pretty left-leaning and I think they’re great. They’re inby and talented even when I don’t necessarily agree with some of their views. Besides, if you listen to Stan and Kyle, I think you get their true views more often than not.
I used to think Sonny Bono was annoying, too, but it’s been 9 years. Can’t we let him stay dead, already?
What?
Like I said in the other thread, I don’t think Matt and Trey hate Bono. Stan says he “has a great band” and “does great things.” But while I like Bono, he’s got a sanctimonious side that’s ripe for parody, especially if your specialty is already parodying self-important celebs. Even the Simpsons made fun of Bono.
Warning: Long Rant Below
The South Park creators, especially, Trey Parker have become increasingly obnoxious and self important asswipes ever since the series began and seemingly way more bitter and petty than multimillionaires reasonably have a right to be. I used to enjoy the show, even the crudity, and I admit I still watch it upon occasion (not regularly) and it still has moments of brilliance (the Scientology/closet episode, Chef’s burning bridge departure, etc.), but it’s gotten progressively more mean-spirited, crude-for-crude’s sake, and to me just unfunny snarky/snipey over the years.
To me it jumped the shark the highest in the episode when Mr. Garrison became Mrs. Garrison. I’m not transgendered and I don’t even know any transgendered people personally in the face-to-face world, so it wasn’t that it offended me specifically, nor was it the fact they made the trannie an unlikable character- I didn’t have a problem with Silence of the Lambs doing that (mainly because Buffalo Bill, they made very clear, was not a true transsexual) and I couldn’t stand the title character in Transamerica; I don’t even have a problem with the procedure being played for laughs -Rebecca Romign’s amnesiac post-op transsexual playing with her boobs and smiling is one of the best moments on Ugly Betty. It was instead the vitriol and misinformation from a show whose writers clearly think of themselves, in spite of all the fart jokes, as better informed and more intelligent in world view than the average bear.
I would have had no problem if the episode had shown Garrison, who’s been a nutcase since the first episode, being denied gender reassignment surgery and either doing it himself or hiring a body-piercing guy/Third World clinic/Sam’s Club/whatever to do it. What bothered me is that they instead had him go to an actual gender reassignment specialist in Colorado (i.e. they used the name and location of an actual and very well respected surgeon in the field) and incorporated actual film of a reassignment related surgery into the procedure. It was an implicit indication that “THIS IS WHAT GENDER REASSIGNMENT REALLY IS” (much as they did with the banner in Scientology) when nothing but the [ahem] footage is remotely related to the actual procedure.
The whole episode seemed to be predicated on the premise that transsexuals are just confused gay guys who casually enter into such decisions but really change nothing but their external appearance and that crudely. Though they use the name of an actual doctor and actual film (I repeat because this is what wrecked the episode for me), no mention is made of the fact that for gender identity surgical correction to ever be performed the candidate has to be screened (many if not most candidates are turned down), undergo years of pre-operative counseling, live their life as a member of the opposite sex, and irrefutable evidence shows that to many transsexuals it is far more than are far more than self-loathing gay guys but people who have always identified with and are often physiologically predisposed to the opposite gender from what’s on their birth certificate; it’s corrective, not cosmetic.
So why does this bother me when it’s just a stupid TV program and not meant to be a serious statement? Well, in the first place it is very seriously satirical: South Park at its best is actually brilliant satire of political issues and fanaticism, so it’s reasonable to think the episode mentioned is espousing their viewpoint. It also bothers me because it’s a TV program that’s especially popular with kids and adults who are not easily offended and identify as slightly outside the norm, a demographic most likely to be accepting of transgendered people. To the transgendered community, acceptance is a major problem- many are rejected by their own families, they’re the victims of hate crimes and ENORMOUS misunderstanding, and this program attacks them and perpetuates the whole “they’re nothing but drag queens who’ve had a gross operation that’s as ridiculous as a Jew who wants to be a dolphin"- again, Garrison wasn’t operated on by a hack but comedically mutilated by a doctor based on an actual person who is extremely well respected.
Reading the Rolling Stone article about the pair they come across even more as out-of-control trustafarian frat-boys (which I’m not saying they are- they earned their fortunes). This “funny” story from one of their employees farts volumes about them:
I’m all about an informal workplace, but the first time they did that with me they’d be in “agonizin’ pain”. The same article mentions them putting their penis/balls on the face of sleeping friends and staff members and taking pictures (the real life inspiration for the Butter/Cartman episode) and dropping their pants and spreading their cheeks and shoving their assholes in people’s faces. While admittedly these are probably the only ways they’ll ever be able to have somebody point at them and say “What a dick!”, this is sexual harassment and just unacceptable to do to anybody who’s employed by you; they should be beaten into unconsciousness and sued into penury for it. (Can you imagine the hooplah that would result if it was learned that the star/owner of a network sitcom was doing this?)
Anyway, they seem like two meanspirited self-important assholes who turn petty snark into whole episodes of their show and resent anybody else’s success and accolades, and it’s increasingly becoming a standard part of the show. (Prime example: *The Family Guy * episodes- what the fuck was that about? You hate the show because… it has constant asides? What? Don’t watch it then- you’ve made your millions, let Seth McFarlane do likewise.) I don’t watch every episode, but at least half the ones I’ve seen lately have moved from funny to mean and arrogant.
Matt & Trey just like to remind everyone, and particularly big personality some ones, that their shit still stinks. Fine by me.
ETA: Just because they appear to hate you doesn’t mean they actually hate you.
Well put, levdrakon. To quote Stan in “Timmy 2000”, "Just because we laugh at something doesn’t mean we don’t care about it. "
But they didn’t really parody his sanctimonious side much. They seemed to be going after him for always wanting to be #1. I didn’t realize he had a reputation for that. 
He did get off pretty lightly for South Park. Some of the Bono bits were the only funny bits in this episode. I was laughing at his rock star dancing & posing. The rest pretty much sucked.
Um, that he’s a pompous, self-important attention whore with a messiah complex? Who does he think he is, Sting?
The longer South Park is on, the more likely they are to hit on a given person’s hot button issue, and suddenly they are offensive or cause people to write multi-page missives.
They’re libertarian, if anything. I’m clearly an ideological liberal from all those online political tests I’ve taken, and I love South Park.