South Park: Classic or Dud?

"We need a scientist, an engineer, and a black person to sacrifce when things go wrong." (According to my wife, most of this episode was an extended harshing on "The Core". She also agreed that the episode was weak.)

I started off thinking South Park sucked, thinking that the shtick was just shock humor. But, now I realize it's a great show and always watch it when I discover it's on.

the only bad thing is that for the second straight week, trey parker and company have written themselves into a hole that they can't really resolve. Do they really expect to be sued over this episode?

Fuck these guys; they're the Dennis Miller of tv toons.

thats exactly what it is, and its no reason to overlook this show, which is often very funny and insightful. ive always hated the idea that its just a step or two below O'Reilly or Limbaugh, that just seems like a ridiculous talking point in and of itself.

Still, the ending(and watch the credits) is cute.

Tonight's was probably the only one this season worth watching, and yeah, it was more or less a rehash of the much better Mormon episode. Still, not bad at all.

Talking point? Whose talking point? Hippies Anti-Defamation League?

" Anderson argues that Comedy Central's cartoon series, South Park, embodies the "fiercely anti-liberal comedic spirit" of the "new media" from Kaus to Coulter. The cartoon, he writes, reflects a "post-liberal counterculture" that is "particularly appealing to the young, however much it might offend older conservatives." "

And you think this is bullshit? I don't. I think it's basically accurate (though grouping them with Ann Coulter is bullshit). They're fundamentally big-hearted, I guess, but they're also part of the Transgressive Cryptoreactionary Fratboy meme. (The asshole who ran fuckedcompany.com was another example, btw.)

but yeah, these guys are libertarian types.

On the other hand, I think the Suck.com folks in particular weren't nec. so much libertarians as just straight hipster contrarian asshole/nihilist-types. Remember that they were active during the Clinton years, so they had to go against that. Snarky for no particular reason, other than just being so. Wonkette never changed her tone, even after Suck went down. The Pose is all that matters, etc.

which is precisely what south park isn't. you can't create a character like butters and be this.

this is gonna be the team america thread all over again isn't it?

We can avoid that. What if we were to discuss the political implications of Butters, instead?

Say, have they used Pip since Butters appeared? (aside from their Charles Dickens/Monty Python ep?) I'm trying to think of another character they both torture and celebrate so much as Butters. Pip they just tortured.

It's such an extrodinary show which will be seen in the future as a key satirical work, more so than the Simpsons, I believe.

you're also really getting at something. To me, Butters has always been a statement that reads something like: "Even if the world is post-modern, not all of it's inhabitants are"

1) wanted the whales nuked, or
2) were completely oblivious to how subsequent events had changed the way other people would view that bumper sticker.

Look, Sean Penn may be kind of an asshat, but no way is Stone & Parker's obvious, disproportionate focus on the asshattery of the Sean Penns of the world "apolitical" in 2005.

The internet is rotting my brain.

I had forgotten about the whole "Butters' dad is closeted and his mom tried to kill him" ep.

also, i hadn't heard about the bit when Comedy Central didn't want Butters to be abused on screen anymore, or the not-running the "Jared Has Aides" ep.

"Oh Geez he's started with the gun again!"

"And I'ma cap this bitch unless Tom Cruise and John Travolta come out the closet..."

though it isn't quite such a critique, let's not forget that officer barbrady swore off reading b/c he thought that atlas shrugged was a worthless piece of shit.

then again, that could just be sectarian bickering :-)

Tom Cruise kills South Park episode

By Lester Haines
Published Thursday 19th January 2006 12:01 GMT

UK TV viewers will not get to see an episode of South Park which shows Nicole Kidman and fellow Scientologist John Travolta attempting to coax a fictional Tom Cruise character out of a closet, with Kidman saying: "Don't you think this has gone on long enough? It's time for you to come out of the closet. You're not fooling anyone."

Naturally, the robustly heterosexual Top Gun star took exception to this when Trapped in the Closet aired in the US. The episode also showed Stan - believed by the Cruise character to be the reincarnation of Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard - having a pop at Cruise's acting abilities, and Cruise reportedly waved the legal big stick at Paramount and threatened to sue if the offending programme was ever shown again.

An insider said: "Tom is famously very litigious and will go to great lengths to protect his reputation. Tom was said not to like the episode and Paramount just didn't dare risk showing it again. It's a shame that UK audiences will never see it because it's very funny." ®