TV: South Park

[Archangel]

Goddamn that episode was not subtle at all. Feels a little late for South Park to be jumping on the Glenn Beck hate train, but it was perfect in every way.

I loved what they did with the Smurfs thing.

Couldn't really get into this episode because of that. All the Glenn Beck info i get comes from Jon Stewart.

[XanBcoo]

Environmentalism = Population Control
Social Justice = Marxism
Just one of thousands of instances of calling Obama a fascist
Chalkboard shenanigans

You could lose yourself for days in all the ridiculous bullshit he says.

And of course, he's just asking "questions". He's not saying Obama is Hitler. Or is he?

It's just a question...

Edit: If you watch The Daily Show, then you've probably already seen Jon's impression of him. If not, it's brilliant.

[LaZie]

I loved how they ended the latest South Park episode with Cartman crying and running out of the classroom.

Edit: Managed to snag a mp3 version of the clip with Eric Cartman singing Poker Face and set it as my ringtone. Its awesome

[Archangel]

Edit: If you watch The Daily Show, then you've probably already seen Jon's impression of him. If not, it's brilliant.

Oh God... indeed it is xD

[Ryllharu]

Goddamn that episode was not subtle at all. Feels a little late for South Park to be jumping on the Glenn Beck hate train, but it was perfect in every way.

This episode sort of felt really out of date (very uncharacteristic for south park) given most of the furor about the parody site questioning Glenn Beck raping and murdering a young girl in 1990 died down after the WIPO ruled in their favor and let them keep the site up.

I enjoyed their take on it, but it sort of felt like I had somehow already seen the episode since I was following the website story on a couple tech sites.

[XanBcoo]

I enjoyed their take on it, but it sort of felt like I had somehow already seen the episode since I was following the website story on a couple tech sites.

Yeah, the jokes felt familiar to me only because Beck is so easy to parody. Everyone's had a crack at it by now.

I think that if they had brought in the "raping a young girl in 1990" aspect, it would have turned into an outright rant against him. I think I prefer what they did in this episode to what they did in the whaling episode against whoever that guy was.

I also loved where the Smurfs thing eventually lead. I was wondering what the point of that was until the reveal, which was great.

[Archangel]

That last episode felt more disgusting than anything else

The whole subplot about minorities wasn't very funny either, i'm pretty disappointed with them this week

[Penner]

Waaat, i thought it was awesome

[Lucifus]

I thought it was a great episode. Ridiculously offensive. Haha

[Raven]

I found it particularly funny because the same thing has happened to me... I've gone back to fun places of my childhood only to find things have changed in the same manner. I just don't have the hatred and fear Cartman does.
Anyway, South Park is good for bringing things to your mind that you always knew, but tried not to think about so it made it ok. Like people urinating in public pools.

[masamuneehs]

I found it particularly funny because the same thing has happened to me... I've gone back to fun places of my childhood only to find things have changed in the same manner.

funny, as i can actually think of this happening to me too, but in two exactly opposite ways. i will admit, the fun parks and arcades i used to frequent as a kid are packed with Latinos and blacks, but, on the other hand, it is completely unnerving for me to go to bowling alleys, athletic fields, and old parks where I threw my first firecracker at a Cinco de Mayo festival, and find that the places are clogged with "member's only" bowling leagues, signs for Reserved Use for ---- School Sports, and actually blockaded by police who will turn you away unless you pay the entrance fee for the Irish Pride Day (pay, to get in to a free park).

i loved the last episode of this season. i particularly enjoyed the throwaway characters of Pi Pi and the Fire Marshal. Cartman's song was really very funny, and i got a lot of laughs out of the interaction between Kyle and Stan/Butters/Jimmy.

weak use of Kenny in an episode though. the constant "can't see his face" thing felt like an episode of Home Improvement, and it feels like this time they really struggled to make something funny out of their "Kenny dies once a season" trend. (for an excellent take of this, watch "The List"). at least give him some real lines.

i also suppose i should take this time to say that i really appreciate what Comedy Central is doing with free, online content. The websites for the Daily show and the Colbert Report I can understand, since, as Stewart himself once said "there is no back end", but the fact that a major DVD seller like South Park has every episode online, for free, many uncensored, AND that they quickly upload the most recent episode and keep it there for a week (then put it to sleep for a month, then bring it back) is a very, very fan-centered action.

[XanBcoo]

Spooky, I had the same conversation about washing hands before/after peeing about 2 weeks ago with a friend of mine. Butters was totally right. If I use a public restroom, I'm washing my hands before I handle my junk.

I thought it was a decent episode. I thought all the fat hispanic people wearing t-shirts in the pool was really funny for some reason. I also liked how the water park had lots of world-famous sites. You can't have a disaster movie without seeing the Eiffel Tower destroyed.

Watching Kyle chug a bottle of warm pee made me gag.

[Assassin]

Season 14 aired tonite....awesoem as awlays. gotta love bummers

[XanBcoo]

Man, tonight's episode was lots of stupid mixed in with only a few good parts.

Ripping on Sarah Jessica Parker and the Morgan Freeman thing was good, but all the puking plus the message of the entire episode was not funny and just plain retarded.

[Ryllharu]

The puking was pretty funny the first time, but they really overused it.

I thought that the message was good, but poorly delivered. There are a lot of books, films, and other media that people look way too deeply into. It hit home for me because we do it here with anime from time to time.

[XanBcoo]

The idea that there is no meaning in art outside of an author's intent is intellectually limiting and juvenile. The kids are usually the mouthpieces for Matt and Trey, and if I was meant to agree with them that people finding meaning or parallels in something "simple" then I completely disagree. Perhaps I'm wrong in that interpretation of the message, but that's the vibe I got.

I myself brought up an interpretation last season that I didn't see anyone else mention. The whole Cartman/Mays/Chipotle thing. Who knows if that's what Matt and Trey intended for me to see. Does it make it any less valid or worthy of discussion if it's not? Of course it doesn't.

That sort of arrogant argument is made hypocritical by the fact that Matt and Trey themselves layer most of their episodes in social commentary. But I guess I must have been reading too deeply because IT'S JUST POOP JOKES RIGHT?

Edit: Having said that, you could argue that the episode was specifically mocking people who over-analyze every episode of South Park itself (even the "simple" ones dedicated to shock humor), but that lies within the message that analysis of art is a bad thing, which is one I find to be incredibly lazy and stupid.

[Ryllharu]

Edit: Having said that, you could argue that the episode was specifically mocking people who over-analyze every episode of South Park itself (even the "simple" ones dedicated to shock humor)

This is what I was getting at. I tried to emphasize with the bold-face, but in retrospect, I should have gone way overboard to make that point with formatting.

Yes, the goal of the boys was to be as vulgar as possible for vulgarity sake. But the point the episode was trying to make is the severe over-analysis of a creative work is wrong. Like the fanboys and fangirl who claim you can read Gendo Ikari's lips in End of Evangelion during the scene where no voice was recorded. People weren't interpreting the work through their own eyes and finding deeper meaning in it, they were forcing a viewpoint into the work and using the work as a support of that viewpoint. This was emphasized by two people in bookstores always finding the exact opposite "deeper meaning" in the exact same scene.

[XanBcoo]

This is what I was getting at. I tried to emphasize with the bold-face, but in retrospect, I should have gone way overboard to make that point with formatting.

lol. That's the Matt and Trey way. All having to be blatant with the point you're trying to make.

I dunno man, I understand that you're talking about extreme or "severe" over-analysis, but in the end it's very subjective upper limit and comes back to the idea that unless your conclusion is what the author intended, it is invalid. And that's just incorrect, or at least it should be considered so. Certainly some connections aren't as strong or supported as well by the text, but that doesn't make them any less valid or worthwhile.

Yeah, the boys were upset that people were misinterpreting their book and seeing things that "weren't there", but only out of frustration that everyone wasn't seeing what they wanted them to see. Yeah, the liberals and conservatives each saw a different and completely opposite message in Scrotie McBoogerballs, but what makes that wrong? People obviously come to a work of art with preconceptions and ideals that inevitably are made present in their interpretation of the work. I'll watch it again keeping in mind what you said about forcing a viewpoint, but my point still stands.

Even if you take Scrotie McBoogerballs the book as a metaphor for South Park the show it's still silly to say that it's devoid of meaning because of the author's intent. Especially since this episode wasn't fully devoid of meaning.

For the record, as much irony I see in discussing such a "simple" episode at length, I do legitimately find fault in what they were trying to say.

[Ryllharu]

I'm not a fan of the "anything goes" interpretation of art, because it isn't a position that allows for any discussion. It becomes an, "Everyone is a Right," environment.

Take this example:

An artist sets out to show off his/her skills by drawing a perfect circle on an otherwise blank canvas. Could someone look at it and interpret it as the expression of, "The socio-economic effects on bakeries in 1968 Luxembourg as the result of the conflicts in Eastern Afghanistan during the Great Game period"? Certainly they could, but that doesn't make it correct, or even appropriate. Is the perfectly drawn circle even art? It was created as an expression of skill rather than artistic intent.


There is nothing wrong with brining in external influences and experiences of the audience to interpret a creative work in a different light that the creator's intention. It is another entirely for an audience member to imprint their own unrelated and overly specific talking point.

The boys wrote the book to be as vulgar as possible and only that, dissatisfied by the statements made about Catcher in the Rye. Mark David Chapman reportedly likened himself as the main character and set out on a crusade to kill "phonies." The nameless kid similarly impressed his own opinions on Butters' work and killed the Kardashians. People added in meaning where there wasn't any.

Overall, I think this episode was very successful. It got this discussion started, which is precisely what can't be done when, "everyone is right," about their particular interpretation.

[Assassin]

I happen to agree that people sometimes look too deeply and try to find meaning where there is none....ofcourse thats not to say that any form of art can't be analyzed or contain a deeper meaning, but in my experience when someone writes a book or makes a movie, or creates a piece of music, its generally meant to be taken at face value.

Looking for hidden meaning in everything is retarted, particularly when you start guessing what the author was trying to portray.....case in point, every book thats ever given to highschoolers to read (and since the ep starts with catcher in the rye, i think its safe to say that written media was the intended target of humor more then anything else). Looking back to my school days, every english teach would assign a book and then ask you to write about how the author was using this and that as a metaphor, or as the innocence of youth or all that stuff....when in reality thats just you're guess. Maybe the author just wanted to tell an interesting story.

Anyways, thats my 2 cents on all this. I loved the episode and found it funny, even if the puking was a little over board.