South Park themes
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South Park frequently tackles controversial political issues, racism, gay rights, the environment, disability, censorship, and religion. The show typically lampoons extremist views on issues and points out hypocrisy or illogical proofs of a belief. South Park is politically incorrect in its humor, treating no subject as taboo and no individual person immune from criticism. The short production time on episodes allow Stone and Parker to address current events with great timeliness.
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[edit] Political perspective
Parker and Stone are apparently critical of political correctness and satirize it by contrasting the child and adult's public personae. Whenever a sensitive issue is explored or a crisis occurs, it is expected that all the adults in South Park will overreact, whilst the children will act calm and collected about it while finding a way to deal with the absurdity that ensues. Examples of this can be seen in episodes such as Child Abduction Is Not Funny, Smug Alert! and Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow. Stan or Kyle would typically take on the voice of reason during the resolution of a political dispute, for example, in the episodes Goobacks and Douche and Turd.
The show's attitude toward personal responsibility is similar to that of libertarians. In Ike's Wee Wee, Chef, tired of constantly having to act as a surrogate parent, cries out, "Dammit, children! Why do I always have to be the one to explain all this stuff to you? Ask your parents for once!", an attitude that reflects the leftist perspective that schools and government should take an active role in parenting[citation needed]. The show also rejects hard right attitudes, such as the idea that homosexuality can be cured. Trey Parker has implied that he has libertarian leanings, but has never formally declared political affiliation.[1] Overall, the show takes a politically independent, centrist view, as exemplified by the episode Goobacks, which addresses the issue of illegal immigrants in the U.S. taking jobs from Americans. A news anchor on the show takes on the voice of the show's main point "On my Right is Pissed Off White Trash Redneck Conservative, and on my left is Aging Hippie Liberal Douche." The redneck is portrayed as intolerant, ignorant, angry, and myopic, and the hippie is depicted as pushy, arrogant, condescending, and unrealistic in his expectations.
The term "South Park Republican" was coined after Parker and Stone claimed to be Republicans while receiving an award from the liberal advocacy group, People For the American Way (PFAW) in 2001. At the same time they declared TV producer Norman Lear, the founder of PFAW, to be one of their heroes, and Lear subsequently worked on South Park. More recently, a small movement has sprung up of youngish, South Park Conservatives who hold many ideas that the show has. In an interview in the March 13, 2006 Time magazine, the two stated that the only reason people might peg them for conservatives is that they are willing to mock anti-smoking laws and hippies. They also stated that the show could just as easily be pegged as a show supporting liberal ideologies. The interview ended with Parker quipping, "We still believe that all people are born bad and are made good by society, rather than the opposite", and Stone adding, "Actually, I think that's where we're conservative". In an interview with Rolling Stone, they stated that the "South Park Republican" tag was a "dumb notion."[2]
[edit] Treatment of political figures
Elected officials are frequently ridiculed on the show as hypocrites, attention mongers, and liars. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Al Gore have appeared repeatedly. Gore was depicted in Manbearpig as wearing a cape and pretending to have the ability to fly. At one point Stan remarks, "I kinda feel sorry for him, I don't think he has any friends."
Politically-active celebrities such as Rob Reiner, Rosie O'Donnell, and Bono have been ridiculed on the series. The show has repeatedly mocked the notion that celebrity bestows authority over political matters. The episode Trapper Keeper, which aired a week after the 2000 presidential election, used a school election to poke fun at Florida's inability to certify a winner and Al Gore's contesting of the results, as well as the celebrity activists that rose to aid his cause. Rosie O'Donnell came to the defense of the loser, attempting to overturn the election. [3]
[edit] GLBT
[edit] Homosexuality
Early on, South Park depicted that homosexuality is natural, most notably in "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride," in which Stan's homosexual dog, Sparky, helps the children realize that homosexuality is not something that can be changed through force of will. In "Follow That Egg!", gay marriage is supported by deconstructing the idea that homosexuals are incapable of being loving, supportive parents. While most treatments of homosexuality on the show address gay men, lesbians have been represented sympathetically, as in "D-Yikes!".
The show has gone to great pains to differentiate between homosexuality and perversion. In "Cripple Fight", the creators take the position that the Boy Scouts of America should not have been forced to allow homosexuals to be Scoutmasters, a view, while at the same time mocking the Boy Scouts for trying to exclude homosexuals from the organization, as there is no scientific correlation between homosexuality and pedophilia. While homosexuality has been treated as normal by the show, the sexual perversion of pedophiles was heavily criticized in "Cartman Joins NAMBLA." This criticism of organizations that endorse pedophilia as a morally acceptable habit was done in such a way that it comically mocked the usual libertarian stance of the show.
South Park has not refrained from mocking individual people who happen to be homosexual and also ridiculous, specifically in the character of Mr./Mrs. Garrison. In The Death Camp of Tolerance, Chef refers to Mr. Garrison as a "sick queer" and is punished, despite the fact that this statement is true, drawing a difference between the idea that queerness creates mental illness and the idea that a person can be a queer who happens to be demented.
[edit] Transsexuals
"Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" touches upon transsexual sex-reassignment surgery, and the ethics of radical plastic surgery. Mr. Garrison is reassigned because he feels he is a woman trapped in a man's body. Kyle and his father, wishing to become something they are physically not, have surgery to become tall and black and a dolphin, respectively. The show concludes with Mrs. Garrison comfortable with her new gender and Kyle and his father realizing that mutilating their bodies was a selfish and inappropriate choice that showed they did not accept who they truly were. Three seasons later, in "Eek, A Penis!", Mrs Garrison is unhappy with her decision and manages to get a sex change back to being a man.
[edit] Child abuse and neglect
Child abuse and child neglect are recurring thematic elements in South Park. For example, emotional, verbal, and physical abuse is usually inflicted upon Butters in episodes in which he appears. Cartman is shown several times as a target of actual or attempted sexual abuse, such as when he unknowingly gets involved with NAMBLA. There is other evidence where he has been sexually abused in the episode "Simpsons Already Did It" where after getting semen ("sea-men") from a sperm bank, he is filling up a fish tank for his "sea people" and tells his friends that he got the rest of the semen from a guy in an alley who told him to close his eyes and suck it out of a hose. This scene is partially censored on some local networks. In the episode "Fun with Veal" Cartman cries "No, uncle Jesse! No!" while sleeping, but this is most likely a reference to a popular character on either Full House or The Dukes of Hazzard. Matt Stone and Trey Parker are very good friends with John Stamos, the actor that played Uncle Jesse on Full House, further supporting this being a reference to the character on the former show. The episode "Fat Butt and Pancake Head" depicts a sexual encounter between Ben Affleck and Cartman. The ongoing controversy concerning the sexual abuse of altar boys by Catholic Priests is dealt with in "Red Hot Catholic Love", and also referenced by the various depictions of Catholic Priests with naked young boys on leashes in "Hell on Earth 2006".
The treatment of this theme ranges from realistic to cartoonish. For example, the character Butters Stotch clearly has some psychological issues as a result of the treatment he suffers at the hands of his parents; he is incontinent (in "AWESOM-O", Cartman has to put a suppository in his rectum), has low self-esteem, wrings his hands, and has (very unsuccessfully) attempted to bring mayhem to the world as his recurring evil alter ego Professor Chaos in a few episodes (although, strangely, Butters is also an unfailingly optimistic character and is one of the few genuinely nice people in the whole town, which often makes him a constant target for ridicule and abuse). However, his parents' emotional manipulation of him is shown as extreme. Aside from constantly grounding him for the littlest reasons, they try to sell Butters to Paris Hilton in the episode "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset", in "Butters' Very Own Episode" his mother tries to kill him when she goes temporarily insane after learning of her husband's gay bathhouse proclivities, and in "Jared Has Aides" he gets physically beaten up by his parents because of something Cartman had done (Cartman pretending to be Butters insults Butter's parents on the phone), who sat himself just outside their door in a chair with popcorn and soda, enjoying Butters suffering. Butters also reveals that he has received anilingus from his uncle when detectives are questioning the children whether Chef has molested them in "The Return of Chef".
While Cartman and Butters have more overt personal experiences with their families, to the point of farce at times, Kenny, Stan and Kyle have also been shown to be neglected on a more subtle level.
Kenny comes from a poor family and, as a result, he and his siblings are shown to be malnourished due to his family's poverty. His father is an unemployed, barely functioning drunk who, while not abusive towards Kenny, is usually shown verbally arguing with his wife or being berated by her.
Stan suffers from a subtler type of neglect. His father, Randy Marsh, often goes to extremes as the result of whatever instigating incident or conflict is seen in a given episode. In one episode, after he and Sharon separate, he ends up at a party for much younger people at Cartman's clubhouses. [4] In another, he decides, when told that alcoholism is a disease that he has no control over, that he should abandon all responsibility with the substance because it's not his fault. [5] Stan usually takes Randy's, and the entire adult population's stupidity as a given, he expresses dark cynicism about the chances of the town's parents, especially his own, dealing with any issue effectively, but unlike his friends, he is rarely surprised by it. In one episode, when Randy asks Stan whether he thought that he (Randy) did something stupid, Stan sincerely replies "No, not any stupider than some of the other things you've done", completely unaware that what he said was an insult. Often getting swept up in whatever is happening, Randy often puts common sense second—sending Stan out into the world alone to avoid abducting him, forcing the family to convert to atheism or Mormonism, leading the pack on global warming hysteria, etc. [6][7][8][9] Stan's 12-year-old older sister Shelley regularly physically and verbally abuses Stan and considers him to be subhuman. His relationship with his mom is less strained and Sharon seems typical, despite rare outbursts between herself and Randy, though in one episode admits that she considers Stan's happiness secondary to her own. [10] She and Randy are completely blind to Shelley's abuse of Stan. Randy and Sharon (mostly Randy) are generally portrayed as being among the stupidest people in South Park, and Stan's bitter lack of respect or trust in adults, even high authorities and celebrities, can be attributed to his perception of his parents.
Kyle suffers at the hand of Cartman's continual anti-Semitic slurs. Kyle's mother is over-protecting, attempting to censor the world that her son and the rest of the children experience, but in the process bulldozing Kyle—often dismissing his opinions, thoughts and feelings, and destroying his reputation and general wellbeing. Her belief in her own moral compass and hatred of the toilet humor of Terrance and Phillip has led her, in the episode "Death", to lead South Park residents to New York to commit mass suicide to force "Cartoon Central" to cancel the animated Terrance and Phillip show. In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, she convinces the American government to start a war with Canada over the Terrance and Phillip movie, Asses of Fire. Her influence on Kyle is evident in Kyle's inability to talk back to his parents, his unwillingness to get into trouble, and his tendency to be high-strung. He is much more respectful of adults than his friends, and his built-in fear of his mother is one of the only things that attracts ridicule from Stan, whose opinion of his parents is very much the opposite of Kyle's, and finds Kyle's fear incomprehensible. Although Kyle disagrees with many of his mothers actions, he is very defensive of her, especially when Cartman repeatedly calls Sheila "a big fat stupid bitch".
Other occurrences of child abuse are in the episodes "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy" which tells the tale of a sexually consumed relationship between kindergartner Ike Broflovski and his teacher Ms. Stephenson, and "The Return of Chef" in which the Super Adventure Club ventures around the world to have sex with the native boys, and brainwash Chef into wanting to molest children. Other minor occurrences are in "Erection Day", when Jimmy Vulmer's parents hire a professional to help him with his problem of having spontaneous erections, who instead asks Jimmy if he wants to "take off our shirts and kiss". In "Cripple Fight" a homosexual is fired from being a Boy Scout leader for fear of him molesting the children, and is later replaced by someone revealed to be an actual child molester who had taken naked pictures of all the boys. In "Tsst", Cartman's mother learns from the Dog Whisperer how to deal with her rampantly egocentric son by means of psychological abuse.
[edit] Religion
Multiple episodes have tackled the shaky logical foundations of cults, religious leaders who exploit worshipers for money, and the problems that have occurred with following some religions too literally. Perhaps most indicative of what the writers perceive to be a blasé notion towards over-fervent worship, the show's depiction of God in physical form is a strange hybrid of many animals. Further deepening the satire is God's claim to be a Buddhist. The show suggested at one point, in a joking matter, that heaven is full of Mormons who spend eternity cheerfully singing songs and making craft projects (explicitly stating that this is because that is the one "correct" religion). The South Park movie indicated that Heaven, or at least Kenny's vision of it, was filled with beautiful naked women. In the episode "All About Mormons" the show implies that Mormonism is a complete hoax made up by Joseph Smith Jr., while at the same time saying that this is irrelevant if Mormons are happier for following that faith. Other episodes discuss anti-Semitism and Jewish jokes. The family of Jewish character Kyle exhibits common Jewish stereotypes, with his strict demanding mother a liberal activist and his father a lawyer dressed in Modern Orthodox Jewish garb.
In addition Jesus has been shown multiple times, living in South Park and hosting a public access call-in talk show (Jesus and Pals). In one episode he fights Satan in a boxing match and is depicted as being hopelessly outclassed. [11] (Within the world of South Park, Jesus died in 2002, saving Santa Claus from Iraqis; Santa said that, from now on, Christmas should be a celebration of Jesus. [12] Jesus has since returned, however, only to be killed by Kyle Broflovski at Jesus' request and to resurrect again. [13] In a third season episode, "Jewbilee", at a Jew Scouts camp, Moses appears in the form of the Master Control Program from Tron and tells the assembled children in an ominous voice, "I desire... macaroni pictures". He also appears this way in "Super Best Friends" and with VCR capabilities. More recently, in the episode "Imaginationland Episode II", Jesus is controversially portrayed as a member of "The Council of Nine", which consists of the nine wisest imaginary characters of all time. Zeus, of Greek mythology fame, and the Hindu god Rama are also members of the council, thus implying that the three religious figures are imaginary.
The criticism of anti-religion is also apparent in South Park. In "All About Mormons" Stan ridicules the Mormons for believing a story that offers no proof. However, at the very end, a Mormon named Gary whom Stan had been hanging out with for most of the episode delivers his side of the story:
- Gary: "Okay, so maybe us Mormons do believe in stories that make no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up. But I have a great life and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don't care if he made it up, because I follow what the church teaches now, such as love my family, be nice, and help people; and even though a lot of people in this town may think that's stupid, I still choose to believe it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls." (Gary walks off, leaving Stan and his friends stunned)
- Cartman: (after a pause) "Damn, that kid is cool, huh?" This came after Cartman had spent the entire episode making fun of the Mormon boy and his apparent new friendship with Stan.
South Park often hints that its creators believe religious people may be illogical and that atheists can be overly arrogant. In "Red Hot Catholic Love", Stone and Parker depict the recently converted atheist townsfolk as literally spewing crap from their mouths, coughing out actual feces as they discuss their dislike for religion and how exposure to religion could harm their kids (Cartman had recently found a way to eat by shoving food up the rectum and defecating out the mouth).
Similarly non-religious cults of personality which cross over into a religious-like structure are caricatured, such as the episode where a cult of "Blaintologists" (named for charismatic illusionist David Blaine) forms, and progresses to ritualistic mass cult suicide unless they obtain their tax-exempt status. According to the show's creators, it is a reference to Scientology.[14]
The show has come under fire from conservative religious groups for its portrayal of Satan, who appears occasionally. After his first appearance, Satan's depiction changed to that of a generally nice, easygoing guy, though plagued by codependency. He hosts luaus in Hell, and is also presented as a homosexual, shown in committed relationships with some of Hell's denizens, including a now-defunct one with Saddam Hussein, who was abusive and dominant in the relationship, leading to the relationship's demise. Satan's follow-up relationship with sensitive '90s guy Chris ended when he realized (after visiting Heaven and asking advice from God) that Chris is "a pussy" to whom he was not sexually attracted. "Hell on Earth 2006" featured Satan throwing a Halloween party that everyone wants to be a part of and many of the Catholic clergy have little boys wearing nothing but leashes.[15]
In the tenth season episode "Go God Go", Ms. Garrison begins to date famous biologist Richard Dawkins after he convinces her that there is no God. They make a plan to convert the whole world to atheism, and eventually do. This is shown when Cartman freezes himself because he "can't wait for Nintendo Wii" and is awoken 500 years in the future where the whole world is atheistic. Ironically, this all-atheist world is home to several warring atheist factions in a dispute over what name to use for their organization, satirizing the belief of many atheists that the world would be more peaceful if religion was done away with.
In the episode criticizing Scientology ("Trapped in the Closet"), South Park is adamant in assuring viewers of the factual content in their description of its beliefs by flashing the phrase "THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE". Similarly, it asserted the accuracy of its descriptions of Mormon beliefs in "All About Mormons" (though, in fact, the episode contained several inaccuracies). In the episode "Go God Go", South Park represents some Catholics as opposing evolution, by showing a Catholic father removing his daughter from school in protest.
[edit] Environment
South Park has produced several episodes critical of the environmentalism movement.
In the 1999 episode "Rainforest Schmainforest" an environmental activist, voiced by Jennifer Aniston, makes a harrowing trip to the rain forest of Costa Rica with the children, an experience that leads her to conclude that the rain forest "sucks ass", which may be directed as a criticism of the lack of in-depth knowledge some activists have about the causes they support, and the way in which they appear to "jump on a bandwagon".
The 2001 episode "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" is about the South Park Earth Day "Brainwashing Festival" where a group of conservationists staging Earth Day in South Park try to brainwash the crowd into caring about the environment, claiming "nothing is more important than saving the earth from Republicans". They eventually start mutilating Kenny as punishment for the boys not keeping their promise of Terrance and Philip appearing at the festival.
The 2005 episode "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" mocks the connections between recent hurricanes and global warming. The title and several plot elements are a play on the film The Day After Tomorrow.
The 2006 episode "Smug Alert!" mocked the self-satisfaction and "smugness" of some who drive hybrid vehicles (which causes a suffocating form of pollution called "smug" instead of "smog") and featured George Clooney's Academy award acceptance speech as a major contributor to the dangers of "smug". The importance of hybrid cars and the underlying good that they do for the environment is highlighted at the end of the episode, indicating that it is the self-righteousness of some who drive them that is being satirized rather than the cars. Another 2006 episode, "ManBearPig" mocked Al Gore's outspokenness about the danger of global warming, ending with Al Gore going on to "...make a movie... a movie starring me!..." in what is presumably a jab at the film An Inconvenient Truth. In the episode Lice Capades, several allusions are made to global warming when the head lice are concerned about the impact they are having on their environments (the children's heads).
[edit] Racial stereotypes
South Park often makes use of racial stereotyes for the sake of humor and satire. The show criticizes the notion of racial essentialism, or the idea that belonging to a specific ethnic group bestows inherent characteristics. In "Cherokee Hair Tampons," the politically correct idea that Native Americans possess inherent, mystical medical knowledge superior to that of medical science is heavily criticized as a racist stereotype.
One of the show's longest running bits is Cartman's rampant, over-the-top antisemitism. Numerous episodes, such as "The Passion of the Jew," Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow," and "Jewbilee" address this specifically, although Cartman's bigotry toward Jews is a constant character trait.
With the exception of "Krazy Kripples," which focused specifically on inner city black gangs, all people of African descent on the show, including Chef's parents, Token, and numerous black celebrities in the episodes "Here Comes the Neighborhood" and "Douche and Turd" are shown as affluent and well-spoken.
Black-white racial politics allowed Parker and Stone to criticize the idea that all crimes committed on a person of a different race from the perpetrator must naturally be a hate crime. In "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000", Cartman was declared a racist when he described Token as "...the black kid that goes to our school." Cartman, who had assaulted Token, was accused of a hate crime, when in fact Cartman's misdeed was inspired by loathing of Token personally, not because of his ethnicity.
Latinos who speak perfectly good English, yet revert to a Hispanic accent for the sake of appealing to other Latinos are occasionally satirized. Ignorant assumptions about the English-language limitation of Latinos on the part of native speakers of English are also mocked. In "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", Cartman's impression of Jennifer Lopez involved the heavily overpronounced key words "tacos and burritos". Latino reporters on the show speak perfect English, sounding exactly the same as reporters of other ethnicities, until they pronounce their names with heavy Hispanic accents, mocking the tendency of real-life television reporters to do this.
Occasionally, the show touches on the idea that stereotypes are often based on reality, represented by a fictional stereotype when Kyle actually does appear to carry a bag of "Jew Gold" around his neck in "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow." The town's lone Asian, Tuong Lu Kim, is based on a real life City Wok owner that Parker and Stone used to call just to hear his accent for the sake of modeling it.
In the episode Christian Rock Hard, Cartman starts a Christian rock band in order to win a bet against Kyle, and, in doing so, requests the help of Token. Cartman tells Token that he will play the bass guitar, and, though Token has no prior experience playing it, he does so perfectly in the episode.
[edit] Protected groups
The show exhibits equal-opportunity treatment of groups traditionally immune from criticism or mockery, such as those with disabilities, minorities, and women.
South Park follows a Deconstructionist view of taboo racist language. "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson," inspired by the Michael Richards Laugh Factory incident. Another influence may be the New York City Council resolution, which symbolically banned the word nigger.[16] The episode featured the word "nigger" 42 times and pointed out the hypocrisy focusing on racist language instead of racism itself.
This issue was also tackled in "Chef Goes Nanners," when the children of South Park failed to see what was offensive about the town's flag, which depicted four white people hanging a black man. The children, who only saw the image as four people committing an act of violence on another person, they couldn't see the racist element of the image because they only saw it as just five people, regardless of colors (Colored skins on the people who are on the flag).
Those with disabilities are represented through Timmy and Jimmy. The wheelchair-bound Timmy was originally opposed by Comedy Central, as they feared bad publicity from having a handicapped child on the show. Parker and Stone argued, however, that Timmy being treated like a normal kid would be a good moral statement. Two episodes later, they made an entire episode revolving around Timmy, entitled "Timmy 2000" in which he becomes the lead singer of a popular rock band. Later, another student, Jimmy Vulmer, was added to the cast to represent those with physical handicaps. Jimmy, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, is portrayed as one of the most popular, well-liked students at South Park Elementary. Both students are treated as equals, playing and bantering with the other kids at school. The only time the other students decide to "stay out of it" is when Jimmy and Timmy fail to understand that the Crips are not a society for the handicapped in "Krazy Kripples."
[edit] Censorship
Censorship is arguably the most persistent and clear theme in the series, as multiple episodes have drawn (negative) attention over the years to its impact. The first episode to do so was “Death” from season one, wherein Kyle’s mother begins a protest group whose goal is to have Terrance and Phillip (who were first conceived of for this show and who seem to be caricatures of Parker and Stone) taken off the air. The group is portrayed in obviously negative terms, as they eventually resort to committing mass suicide as a means of protesting the TV show. The protesters depicted in the show are caricatures of the early protesters against South Park itself. This episode was the last of the original six episodes originally ordered by Comedy Central [17], and Matt Stone has gone on record as saying that he and Trey were quite surprised to see the show picked up for further episodes afterwards: "Really, we never thought it would get past that first six." In this scenario, "Death" would have been the very last South Park episode ever aired.
The second instance in which censorship was criticized on South Park was in the feature film “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut,” which again featured Kyle’s mother and a group of parents resorting to extreme measures to stop Terrance and Phillip, this time actually beginning a war with Canada over the show. It is stated at two points in the movie - first by Wendy, and later by Stan - that the injustice of the war is about censorship, i.e., “this is about freedom of speech! About censorship!” Kyle’s mother also says at one point, in a particularly satirical moment in a crucial scene: “Men, when you're out there in the battlefield [...] and people are dying all around you, just remember what the MPAA says: ‘Horrific, deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty words.’ That is what this war is all about!” In fact, the title of the movie itself refers to censorship, as it states that the movie (unlike the show) is “uncut,” and highlights this as a positive characteristic. The movie flaunted this lack of censorship by including a huge number of swear words, perhaps most notably in the songs "Kyle's Mom's A Bitch" and "Uncle Fucka." Stone later commented that, "We were angry. I really felt it was our suicide note. We felt like, they're going to cancel the show after this movie comes out, but we're going to fucking do it our way. It'll be a big middle finger to Hollywood, and then everyone will hate us and we'll go back to Colorado [...] we're going down, fuck it." [18]
In the two-part episode, “Cartoon Wars”, which aired in season ten, the controversy surrounding censorship of images of the Islamic prophet Muhammad was addressed, and the message given was that Muhammad should be allowed to be shown. Parker and Stone themselves wanted to show Muhammad in the episode (having already shown him once before, in the episode “Super Best Friends” five years before the controversy), but were turned down, to their consternation. At the climactic moment of the episode, Kyle gives the following speech: “Pulling an episode because someone is offended starts a chain reaction. You'll have to pull more and more episodes until the show goes off the air completely. It's what happened to “Laverne & Shirley” [...] Sir, just think about what you're doing to free speech! [...] Do the right thing here. [...] If you censor out Muhammad, then soon you'll have to censor out more. [...] If you don't show Mohammad, then you’ve made a distinction between what is okay to poke fun at, and what isn't. Either it's all okay, or none of it is. [...] Do the right thing. Show Mohammad. Do. The right. Thing.” Recently, Catholic groups (for “Bloody Mary”) and Scientologists (for “Trapped in the Closet”) had protested against and/or boycotted the show; additionally, Comedy Central’s ban of images of Muhammad from the network may well have made Parker and Stone fear, as reiterated in Kyle’s speech, that the censorship would lead to even more censorship, in a kind of slippery slope. Parker and Stone may well have feared that South Park itself would be canceled, due to the recent upsurge of the amount of protest against the show (much as they feared protests would stop the show in its first season, around the time "Death" aired). As is noted elsewhere, they wrote the story arc to protest Comedy Central's censorship of Muhammad, and included elements of their own struggles with the network in the episode.
Given the above examples, it might be thought that Parker and Stone return to the theme of censorship whenever they feel that the show is threatened (as after the controversies for Trapped in the Closet and Bloody Mary) or is about to end (as after Death and SP:BLU), indicating the strength of their feelings on the topic. That the theme has been used in so many episodes (including a two-part episode devoted almost solely to it) and in the movie, indicates this as well.
Additionally, censorship (and people’s exaggerated response to a lack of it) is mocked in the episode "It Hits the Fan", wherein the word shit is said uncensored 162 times in a blatant dig at the censorship the show is normally subjected to. Subsequently, the episode With Apologies to Jesse Jackson did something similar on a smaller scale, saying the word nigger unbleeped a total of 42 times. Near the end of the episode, the word “nigger-guy” (invented for the episode) is banned in South Park, not for any reasons that could be perceived of as reasonable but because the white senators fear that the term may soon be applied to all of them. A reporter standing near the courthouse comments, "For the first time in American history, a word has been officially banned from use. [...] Tom, it appears that the nigger-guy epidemic is ov - Oh dammit I said it, didn’t I?", at which point he is arrested and taken away by the police.
[edit] References
- ^ Trey Parker - Libertarian
- ^ Still Sick, Still Wrong: 10 Years of "South Park" : Rolling Stone
- ^ "Trapper Keeper". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2000-11-15. No. 13, season 4.
- ^ "Clubhouses". Trey Parker and Nancy Pimental (writers). South Park. Comedy Central. 1998-08-21. No. 12, season 2.
- ^ "Bloody Mary". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2005-12-07. No. 14, season 9.
- ^ "Child Abduction Is Not Funny". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2002-06-24. No. 11, season 6.
- ^ "Red Hot Catholic Love". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2002-06-03. No. 11, season 6.
- ^ "All About Mormons". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2003-11-19. No. 12, season 7.
- ^ "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2005-10-19. No. 8, season 9.
- ^ "Clubhouses". Trey Parker and Nancy Pimental (writers). South Park. Comedy Central. 1998-08-21. No. 12, season 2.
- ^ "Damien (South Park episode)". Trey Parker and Matt Stone (writers). South Park. Comedy Central. 1998-02-04. No. 8, season 1.
- ^ "Red Sleigh Down". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2002-12-11. No. 17, season 6.
- ^ "Fantastic Easter Special". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2007-04-04. No. 5, season 11.
- ^ "Super Best Friends". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2001-06-04. No. 4, season 5.
- ^ "Probably". Trey Parker (writer and director). South Park. Comedy Central. 2000-06-26. No. 11, season 4.
- ^ N.Y. city council backs n-word 'ban' - Race & ethnicity - MSNBC.com
- ^ IGN: South Park: Matt and Trey Speak Out, Part 1
- ^ [ shpadoinkle ] Trey Parker
[edit] See also
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