South Park: Classic or Dud?

Whiney, that's a good explanation. Thanks.

Butters as a freedom fighter/folk hero for Mexican immigrants named "Mantequilla" was pretty funny, esp when I finally remembered what "Mantequilla" meant

i think they're pretty unapologetically anti-pc wrt comedy/their show

matt stone:

"Political correctness" — I feel like that's becoming a catch-all term for just shit that you don't like. I don't think I probably agree with Donald Trump, but we did a whole bit about political correctness last year. We've been interested in that debate for a long time. But not everything is political correctness gone mad. Sometimes you just shouldn't say something. And there's a huge difference between what can be said in a cartoon or through the mouths of fiction, and what somebody who's going for elected office should say. Those are two different standards of political correctness. But I do think there's a legitimate ... comedians, especially, that's probably where we identify and have the most sympathy with anti-p.c. forces, is within comedy. Not talking to people or trying to get elected. That's a different standard. There's shit that you shouldn't say running for president that Cartman should totally be allowed to say within a satirical cartoon. When I see a politician or a Donald Trump say "political correctness," I'm like, "That's not the same shit that we're talking about in the writers' room. There's satire over here in cartoons, and you're standing onstage in a suit and you want me to vote for you." Different standard, you know?

Did you not read the fourth and fifth sentences of that?

Anyway, I talked about this a little when I interviewed Smigel since he wasn't pleased that this clip was embraced by leftys on some "look how stupid Trump supporters are"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MubunsD-7g

And this video was embraced by rightys on some "look at how pathetic liberals kids are"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j556MWGVVqI

The humor in the last clip is ultimately apolitical — and Triumph himself is the Archie Bunker/Cartman button-pushing asshole character here. But so many people REALLY WANT TO BELIEVE he's "sticking it" to the SJWs. Like, the internet machine of "JOHN OLIVER/SAMANTHA BEE EVISCERATES [conservative talking point]" doesn't allow for the nuance that Triumph and South Park have, where they can see the absurdity and humor in some of our changing society, but aren't actually dismissing it outright.

I watched this summary a while ago and it made the season look a lot more interesting to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG7y8J0DXhU

I still don't want to go back and watch it but I might go for this new one.

Did you not read the fourth and fifth sentences of that?

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, September 13, 2016 12:04 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, but i also read the part where he says "But I do think there's a legitimate ... comedians, especially, that's probably where we identify and have the most sympathy with anti-p.c. forces, is within comedy", im not claiming that they're anti-pc extremists or alt-right, but broadly you can characterize them as being anti-pc.

didn't smigel say trump has always been personally cordial to him?

xpost, Sure, but there was enough in the show to lead me to believe that the season itself wasn't totally anti-PC

And, yeah, he said Trump was a professional

I will post the interview, I am happy with it: http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/triumph-the-insult-comic-dog-how-to-poop-on-trump-politics-w436126

Also, the Triumph talks to young voters bit is one of the most hilarious things I've seen all year if you haven't seen it

Did you not read the fourth and fifth sentences of that?

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, September 13, 2016 12:04 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, but i also read the part where he says "But I do think there's a legitimate ... comedians, especially, that's probably where we identify and have the most sympathy with anti-p.c. forces, is within comedy", im not claiming that they're anti-pc extremists or alt-right, but broadly you can characterize them as being anti-pc.

― ælərdaɪs (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, September 13, 2016 3:10 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He is anti-pc specifically within the realm of comedy. Not exactly broad?

how strange that Matt Stone would have a totally self-interested/self-absorbed take on the subject, who'dathunkit

xp. broad characterization is an English language idiom meaning an inexact, though mainly accurate, labeling of something.

the world is changing — and possibly changing into something that has actually no place for outdated "edgy" or "punching down" humor like City Wok guy or w/e.

clearly the world isn't changing into that because we are being inundated commercials for the 20th season of this very profitable show. you kind of do have to play Trump-style pretend to imagine otherwise.

remember the good old days when City Wok guy was totally hilarious and not disgustingly racist? me neither.

I mean, I do think City Wok guy would have been received a lot differently if he came out in the thinkpiece era instead of 2002.

christ these dudes are so fucking boring

The Simpsons thread has some interesting discussion about this sort of thing, the strange disconnect between everything in Springfield staying the same and the fact that they keep adding modern references that fundamentally change the characters (i.e. Homer going from a baby boomer to a millennial). SP revels in this kind of thing and doesn't really care about any continuity whatsoever which IMO is why the show is still pretty good, it's all Poochie/Frank Grimes episodes to some degree

I've had great times with South Park but the last several times I watched the show I feel like the episodes drag and they milk jokes for way too long and a lot of the scenes fall flat. If it was 15 minutes long I think it'd be a superior show.

I'm not sure the topical route was the best thing for them. A lot of the best episodes are just good little stories. I know it's difficult and "Simpsons did it!" but they've got a lot more freedom to mix things up and make major changes than Simpsons does. I know Cartman is kind of a useful character to represent a lot of shitty people but I'd like it if they got rid of him. They could change the characters they focus on more and get new ones.

going almost 100% topical definitely helped the show keep alive though. I mean this show has had so many "jump the shark" moments that I'm not sure what else they could do.

they are big star trek fans, right? why not have them do nothing but star trek fan fiction for the remainder of the series?

Episode was all over the place tonight. South Park is better when they focus on one issue, this one tried to tie together all the big events of the past few months/past year without telling a 22 minute story.

Also, besides a few Cartman moments it was short on the lols.

yeah kinda meh

member berries were funny though. wish the whole episode was about that. could really care less about the psychology of internet trolls.

I dig how they finally figured out that they could do more ludicrous stories featuring Randy as they aged into him.

so are they out of ideas and now just pandering 100% to redditors, what is going on?

I guess that's an interpretation?

i thought people take social media too seriously was the theme of last season. they are doing this joke again? lazy.

i liked last night's episode. the boston scene was pretty great. i do worry that they're falling a bit too far down the rabbit hole of internet opinions but then again if ever there was a year to do it...

Only saw the first ep of the season so far. Disappointed that they're pretending this election (via their universe's version of it) is just like any other election. But that's just me.

yeah the "both candidates are awful" trope seems awfully lazy considering that every yahoo comment makes the same point over + over again

Haven't seen the episode yet but, eh, that's their thing. Every politician is equally awful, if for different and basically pointless reasons. Douche v Turd, etc. It's just that the pathetic media narrative at this specific time has synced up with their general viewpoint in that regard, is all.

Like they're having fun portraying the cartoony ridiculousness of Trump in their cartoonish way, and it's perfectly fine that they choose to portray Hillary as the typical "turd", but then they step back and make fun of people who have strong opinions about either because "every four years people get all riled up" about the "typical" turd vs. douche. But that just seems to be in direct contrast to the absurdity of Trump that they clearly recognize as being significant and quite distinct from the typical douches of past elections. I don't know.

To the extent that they have a coherent message, it often gets a little scrambled when its run through their 'every side of every issue is equally ridiculous' filter.

Having Garrison/Trump acknowledge that he's out of his depth and trying to sabotage his own campaign seems to indicate they know their usual election shtick doesn't really apply this time

South Park taught me that issues only have two sides, and they're both equally terrible for some reason. It's the philosophy I live by because I huffed spay paint in middle school.

Right but then at the same time they make fun of Randy as the embodiment of the silly people who "don't get" how other people can possibly vote for a douche over a turd. Stan asks why every 4 years people get so upset about the choice between a douche and a turd, and Randy's only response is "WELL... because... this is AMERICA?" to underline that Randy is the dumb person here just getting wrapped up in the same ol' same ol'

xp

If this show provides no other social benefit, I hope it has at least occasionally forced people to consider that the beliefs they hold might actually be stupid.

I would say that "giant douche vs turd sandwich" isn't exactly a WRONG characterization of this election, it's just not the MOST ACCURATE.

No not wrong, but not the typical giant douche vs. turd sandwiches we're used to every election cycle.

the whole point of the douche/turd dichotomy is to reinforce the view that it *doesnt matter* who is President. which is an absolutely indefensible/flabbergasting thing to think after stuff like the Dubya years

I don't think that's what they were going for but I can see why people would take it that way.

that's how i took it

I don't enjoy the show much at all but it does seem like they were strongly favouring Hillary

Absolutely.

Curious about how they'll handle the Tr*mp win.

By rewriting the entire ep from the sound of it.

http://www.avclub.com/article/south-park-was-forced-re-write-tonights-episode-af-245669

The current season of South Park has been openly political, putting a reluctant Mr. Garrison in the place of America’s new President-Elect. But descriptions for tonight’s episode previously referred to it as “The Very First Gentleman,” with a promo showing Bill Clinton preparing to visit South Park Elementary. Those have now been pulled, and tonight’s episode—now titled “Oh, Jeez”—carries this promo instead

this season's pretty good

i liked how mr. garrison's rallies were like stand up comedy sets

there are lot of interesting ideas that had promise but have either lost steam and deflated or were completely given up. Cartman being woke sort of just gradually stops happening. the Memberberries kept hinting at some far more interesting plot than the ham-fisted commentary (them all lined up in the white house). the internet troll subplot was kinda cool but apparently that's over now and the resolution left no change in the world so it was pointless outside of some more ham-fisted commentary ("Pushing buttons is good for humanity", etc).

not that the show isn't still funny from time to time but at the start of the season it felt like they may be sacrificing humor for the serialization: even if it wasn't funny, it was going to be interesting to see where it goes. now even that is wearing thin. not only is the humor low, the serialization is aimless and not interesting.

the serialization is really hurting this show. they need to get back on that flavor of the week thing.

Did you notice the title of the finale?

This season went completely off the rails, but in a pretty interesting way. They needed time to prepare for the Trump era and they had none.