South Park As A Gated Community

[DaViller]

Let's review:

1) I open the article.
2) I see Bob bashing South Park for having the "nerve" to attack a liberal over his homophobic rants on social media.
3) I note that this is the same MovieBob who defends Family Guy as quality material, even though it tugs a blatantly liberal bias throughout all of its content.

Stay hypocritical, Bob.

Not that I'd expect you to understand hypocrisy, after all, you basically get a free pass on this site by virtue of being their incarnation of the "anti-Yahtzee", effectively functioning as the overly-pro-Nintendo Yin to Yahtzee's overly-anti-Nintendo Yang.

So it's cool for Family Guy to tastelessly attack conservatives with insults that go so far as to place McCain campaign buttons on Nazis (yes, really), but when South Park takes jabs at a liberal, WOH NOW, that's just a bridge too far!

Erm i don't think yahtzee is anti-nintendo rather then anti-everyone and theyr mums.

Didn't realy like the article overall. Southparks overall tone hasn't changed that much as far as i can see. I also never considered them as this cultural force described in the article. More like 2 reasonable moderate guys making a show trolling self righteouss assholes on all sides.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I mean, there was an episode where Quagmire goes off on Brian, and pretty much the entire audience is applauding this. Somehow, though, this is supposed to make Quagmire a dick, and the show goes on without the slightest bit of self-awareness as displayed in that single scene. Its like it was written by a critic of the show rather than any of the show's writers themselves, and then the writers fall back into old habits like nothing happened. Its almost like they don't care that they're hypocrites.

The first time I heard about that scene (this was after I had stopped watching), it was from some people who thought Quagmire was actually meant to be a mouthpiece for the audience, and cheered that the writers were finally taking the piss out of Brian. And to their credit, the following episode (which I did watch out of curiosity) was basically Brian being force-fed humble pie in a variety of exciting flavors. But the fact that it's been taken both ways just goes to show how impossible it is to make any sort of coherent point when you populate your show entirely with unlikable assholes.

 

[Callate]

My friends religiously watched South Park for a couple of years back in college, but that was during the beginning of it's run. (Yeah... we're old.) We're the ones who gave a hoot and a cheer when we first heard the jingle at the end of the first episode, recognizing it as "The sky is blue, and all the leaves are green..." from Cannibal the Musical.

And then, well, most of us all but stopped watching television.

I've watched a couple of episodes of SP here and there, but I wasn't even aware of the sabbatical; that may say something about my level of stake on this particular issue.

I do remember hearing about the argument with Isaac Hayes that blew up during the Tom Cruise episode, and thinking at the time that while Parker and Stone had a point that the show had been making fun of people for a long time and it was peculiar for Hayes to start getting outraged about it now, they also reacted by treating someone who had been with the show from the beginning, someone who had a non-trivial part in establishing its success, like absolute shit.

"Chef was a robotic child molester all along!" ...Yeah, guys, that's hilarious. What is this, the Mafia? You walk away, you can expect a bullet to the back of the head?

So, noting the lack of stake and relatively narrow vantage point, it still sounds like MB's criticism is pretty accurate. Which is kind of a shame- it would be nice if someone with the kind of platform of Parker and Stone actually tried to use it for good, rather than patting people on the back for sneering apathy.

 

[KissingSunlight]

The analogy in the beginning of the blog is intentionally wrong to provide undue sympathy to one side. A South Park stand-in would slap the parent of the crying baby for not doing anything to console the baby.

I have no respect for people who are locked in on one political position. It shows intellectual laziness. No one political ideology is the correct answer to every problem that faces society. People who just advocates only one particular political position all the time are just engaging in tribalism. Instead of honestly discussing the issue.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

South Park isn't complicated. There are only two rules.

1. Make fun of everything.
2. Nothing is too sacred to show.

 

[chadachada123]

The analogy in the beginning of the blog is intentionally wrong to provide undue sympathy to one side. A South Park stand-in would slap the parent of the crying baby for not doing anything to console the baby.

I had the same thought.

Making strawmen does far more harm than good to your (Bob's) argument to anyone that isn't already completely blindly agreeing with your argument.

 

[Dante dynamite]

Did Bob really write a whole article saying Matt Stone and Trey Parker need to check their privilege because South Park attacks liberals as well as conservatives. Bob thinks that they don't care about an agenda because they have cis white straight male privilege. What the hell is this tumblr?
Why is the Liberal agenda the baby? So its only okay for people to make fun and disagree with the conservative agenda like family guy and Simpsons blatantly associating the republican party with evil. But when someone attacks the agenda that you follow its not okay its because of privilege.

 

[themilo504]

it always came across to me that south park was saying to calm down not telling people to not care, Also just because south park says that both sides have issues doesn?t mean it still can?t pick a side.

 

[Yoshi4102]

Kind of reminds me when South Park was forced to edit out a picture of Mohammad. Clearly this is just as offensive.

Bob, I am disappoint

 

[bug_of_war]

Eh, I guess you're right. Yeah I hate to admit it, but yeah you're kind of right. Personally, I think Trey and Matt let the praise they've always gotten go to their heads. They aren't, and never were actually very insightful about politics. Any B-list pundit could out do them. The difference, however, was that no one expected B-grade political commentary to be coming from a cartoon! Oh wait, well, no one expected B-grade political commentary reflecting things that happened last week to be coming from a cartoon! So that was the hook.

What SP was truly good at was trolling with people. Yeah that's what Trey and Matt always really were; ornery little pranksters. THAT is what was always actually appealing about the commentary. And personally, I think that the last run of 7 episodes was the best run in the series history, and it's looking like this season will be pretty good as well. It seems like they're finally giving the commentary less of a focus.

The thing is though, South Park was never, and has never been very political (in the sense of taking a side). Trey and Matt rarely ever take a side, and when they do they often mock the side they have taken anyway. A majority of what they do is to make a humorous show that reflects society, and yeah it can and does come off as trolling. But you know what? That's what most of society looks like, at least it is in my opinion. Because humans aren't robots we all have differing opinions, and the comedy comes from those whom have nearly identical opinions yet fights blood tooth and nail to show that they're not similar in anyway.

I'm not saying their comedy is always spectacular, it's sometimes very hit and miss, but that's the beauty of it. Nothing is sacred, everything is a target, unlike Family Guy and Simpsons where in which there are things that both would refuse to attack. Add to the fact that each episode is made a week before it airs means that they're flexible enough to keep up with the situations occurring in the world.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Eh, to be frank I prefer it when South Park mocks social issues rather then political ones (like the recent episode on violence in video games). They tend to be alot cleverer for whatever reason, and also are worked better in the plot then the political ones which either center around Randy or have the kids suddenly care about politics for whatever reason.

But if they are going to center around political issues, I'd rather they be witty about it then take the "everybody sucks and we shouldn't care" libertarian point of view.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

What's ironic about this article is that it actually reiterates why we need "South Park" in the first place.

The entire problem of political polarization in America exists so heavily because many people are so entrenched in their "side" that they can't even comprehend why anyone would think differently than them. A show that takes both sides and points out the stupidity in not only their beliefs and the zeal with which they defend them, but in their "this is my team and my team is always right!" mentality is a breath of fresh air in a time when Left and Right would fight over what color the sky is if it came down to it.

Pointing out that stupidity and close-mindedness exists on both sides of the political spectrum is hardly "not caring", and is, in my opinion, far braver and tougher to do than cracking yet another "LOLZ Faux Newz is so dumb!!1!" joke, because you risk alienating so much of your audience by not having an easily identifiable party you "belong" to (Libertarianism, which is a tiny minority notwithstanding). I like "The Daily Show", but Jon Stewart, a renowned liberal comedian, sitting in front of a liberal audience and cracking jokes about conservatives is about as brave as disciplining an angry 3 year old.

 

[Sylocat]

snip

Exactly. But Bob doesn't see things that way. He only thinks people should be mocked if they don't agree with him politically, even if the people he sides with are wrong. Bob is just a cynical, narcissistic, hypocrite.

I love how you created an account just so you can insult Bob, yet don't want your actual account to get warnings. Be a man and take the warnings instead of hiding behind a false account.

Actually, James's actual account got permabanned long ago... he even got IP banned, but he's so determined to harass Bob that he just keeps getting new IP addresses and starts again.

 

[TheDrunkNinja]

Some rather interesting points you've brought to the table there, Bob.

I suppose I just prefer that when my viewing entertainment decides to get topical, they are at least aware on some level that the perspective they boast just might be in the wrong. That they at least express some semblance of humility by admitting that they are human and therefore are not always right in their opinion.

This is why I'll always prefer South Park over Family guy, even if the latter gets a laugh out of me now and then.

Incidentally, it's also why I often prefer other internet shows to yours...

 

[ninjaRiv]

... I'm pretty sure Matt and Trey just like making fun of stuff. They make fun of pretty much everyone and everyone needs to be made fun of. This article seems poorly thought out and badly written. Bob is, by no means, a bad writer and this has been a very disappointing read... There's spelling and grammar mistakes, too. Was this just rushed out with no thought put into any aspect of it? It really seems that way.

EDIT: Lot of Family Guy vs South Park here for some reason... Personally, I always thought South Park is far more respectful to the people they mock.