South Park Republican

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Stan, Cartman and Kyle of South Park

South Park Republican is a term that was circulated in a few articles and weblogs on the Internet circa 2001 and 2002, to describe what was claimed by the authors as a "new wave" of young adults and teenagers who hold political beliefs that are, in general, aligned with those that seem to underpin gags and storylines in the popular television cartoon. The phrase was coined in 2001 by commentator Andrew Sullivan, who identified himself as a South Park Republican after hearing that the show's creators had "outed" themselves as Republicans at an awards ceremony.

The term is meant to be more of a casual indication of beliefs than a strong partisan label. While South Park co-creator Matt Stone is a registered Republican, co-creator Trey Parker is actually a registered member of the Libertarian Party. Also, Parker and Stone declared All in the Family producer Norman Lear, who helped write a few episodes of South Park [1] and founded the liberal pressure group People for the American Way, as one of their heroes. As the show's co-creator, Matt Stone, sums it up: "I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals." [2] Such sentiments were reflected in their movie Team America: World Police.

In August 2006 Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Andrew Sullivan headlined a conference in Amsterdam hosted by the libertarian monthly magazine Reason. During an on-stage interview with Reason editors Nick Gillespie and Jesse Walker, Stone and Parker reaffirmed their discomfort with labels while acknowledging that their political views could be described most accurately as libertarian. John Tierney documented the declaration on the pages of the New York Times a few days later in a column called South Park Refugees. "South Park Libertarians," an edited version of the interview, appeared in the December 2006 issue of Reason.

1 Meaning of term
2 Usage
3 Creator's views
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Meaning of term

See also: Subject matter in South Park

South Park is a popular and controversial cartoon created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Though some conservatives have criticized the show for its overt sexual, scatological, and profane themes and humor, much of South Park's humor also comes in the form of political satire, with some of it mocking elements of the "liberal establishment" in American society. For example, left-wing American celebrities such as Rosie O'Donnell, Rob Reiner, George Clooney, Whoopi Goldberg, and Barbra Streisand have all been targets of the show's humor, and openly mocked for being self-righteous, smug, and sanctimonious in their political views. Ironically, these are the exact same things Parker and Stone have openly admitted to doing in South Park in an interview with Time Magazine. There was also an entire episode in 2006 criticizing Al Gore. Also, stereotypical left-wing supporters, such as hippies, environmentalists, animal rights activists, and anti-smoking groups, are ridiculed in many episodes. From the libertarian perspective South Park is likewise often critical of traditional establishments of authority, such as organized religion and the government, which are variously portrayed as corrupt, incompetent, or hypocritical. Many episodes also parody stereotypes of right-wing supporters, such as the trigger-happy rednecks, large corporations, the religious right, and gun owners. While the show often lampoons political correctness it is equally critical of racism and homophobia.

Much of the show's satire revolves around the antics of the show's four nine-year-old main characters, Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick, Eric Cartman, and Kyle Broflovski. The boys (with the exception of Cartman) are generally portrayed as intelligent, honest, and well-meaning, yet are routinely confronted with absurdities created by the adults in their life. South Park's teachers and parents routinely censor and shelter the boys from important issues concerning their lives. The boys in turn usually attempt to solve their problems on their own, with their independent, "outsider" views of adult situations being patronizingly derided as naïve and ignorant by leading authority figures. In the end however, the boys' views usually end up being right, and the conventional wisdom of adult authority figures is exposed as being based on flawed logic. The only exception to the absurdity of the adults is Chef, who most often offers common sense advice (frequently in the form of an inappropriately sexually explicit "love" song). Chef is the only adult in South Park who treats Stan and his friends as equals and with any kind of respect, however even Chef occasionally exhibits flaws.

Chef's trait of being respectful to children was changed after Isaac Hayes's resignation as the voice of Chef. He resigned over an episode--"Trapped in the Closet"-- which ridiculed Scientology, of which Hayes is a follower. Hayes claimed the show's "disrespect" toward religion had gone too far and said he could no longer be a part of it. While Stone and Parker granted his request to be released from his contract, they rejected Hayes' statement, saying that he was only upset when his own religious beliefs were satirized. In a subsequent episode, "The Return of Chef", Chef was "killed off" after the character joined a club of pedophiles ("The Super Adventure Club") and repeatedly solicited the boys for sex. The episode depicts the boys' discovery that yet another adult in their lives turned out to be a corrupt hypocrite. The storyline closely reflected statements by Parker and Stone denouncing Hayes' publicly declared reason for resignation as insincere since, as they pointed out, "[Hayes] always cashed our checks when [the show satirized other] religions."

In an episode ("Best Friends Forever") spoofing the Terri Schiavo controversy (using Kenny as the Schiavo figure), people on both sides of the battle were shown as acting mostly in their own interests rather than Kenny's (particularly Cartman, who stood for Michael Schiavo), while Kenny himself was shown as the key leader of a battle from Heaven against Satan. The creators' views apparently came down on the side of the "right to die" in the end. However, Kenny needed to stay dead to save all of Existence, and those keeping him alive were shown as unknowingly assisting Satan. Additionally, the demon Kevin (when needing the feeding tube to be reinserted into Kenny), says, "I will do what we always do. Use the Republicans." In the end, the meaning of the episode was that those who wanted Kenny to die were right but for the wrong reasons, and those that wanted to keep Kenny alive were wrong but for the right reasons. However, it is also to be noted that several episodes have in fact taken a side regarding a political issue, an example of this being an episode regarding censorship ("Cartoon Wars"), in which the overall message of the episode (aside from criticisms of Family Guy) was that, in their opinion, there should be minimal, if any, censorship of the media (in the words of Kyle; "Either everything is okay to show, or nothing is"). This episode regards censorship as a slippery slope in which editing content offensive to a certain ethnic group will eventually lead to other groups calling for censorship of even more content, effectively limiting freedom of speech.

[edit] Usage

The term "South Park Republican" has thus become popular among a handful of pundits to describe young Americans who interpret the show's values as being parallel to their cause. They see themselves as being more libertarian and far less puritanical than many other conservative groups (e.g., the religious right). Trey and Matt say they are extremely grateful for the 15 half-hours of airtime that Comedy Central annually affords them because it gives them a "bullhorn to yell at America." The phrase, "You know, I've learned something today..." is the trademark line, used in nearly every episode, to outline the South Park solution to the current moral crisis. South Park Republicans empathize with the characters' consideration of moral guidelines in their attempts to explain their surroundings and are extremely likely to support the "children's" decisions.

[edit] Creator's views

Trey Parker was asked about the term "South Park Republican" in an interview for his feature film Team America: World Police, and what he thought about it:[3]

Q: I don't know if you've heard about this, but there have been essays written about the concept of the "South Park Republican."

PARKER: Yeah, we have seen that. What we're sick of—and it's getting even worse—is: you either like Michael Moore or you wanna fuckin' go overseas and shoot Iraqis. There can't be a middle ground. Basically, if you think Michael Moore's full of shit, then you are a super-Christian right-wing whatever. And we're both just pretty middle-ground guys. We find just as many things to rip on on the left as we do on the right. People on the far left and the far right are the same exact person to us.

In another exchange from the same interview:

Q: You seem to feel free to roast everybody equally.

PARKER: Everybody needs a good roasting.

STONE: It's been pretty funny on both sides.

PARKER: And it comes from an honest belief we have, which is... George Bush doesn't know what's going on. Michael Moore does not know what's going on. And Alec Baldwin definitely does not know what's going on. Basically, this shit is gigantically complicated.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, they stated that the "South Park Republican" tag was a "dumb notion."[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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