The Big Picture: Out of the Park

Drake666

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Sep 13, 2010
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WhiteFangofWar said:
Not everything sucks, but critical thinking is important.

BLAME CANADA!
I think that's the only coherent message that show ever had :)
 

Drake666

Senior Member
Sep 13, 2010
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Generic Gamer said:
Just going to throw this out there; when I hear people quoting some stupid adult cartoon for easy referencing to back up their ideas, the show is Family Guy and the people are Liberals.

Are you sure you're not just pissed off at South Park quoting because it contradicts a lot of your own ideas?

Though I'll give those idiots this; when it was laid down on the table exactly how despicable Brian is, most of them shut up.
You know that you don't even have to laid it down yourself ? The show make a case to do it itself with Quagmire being straight to the point with Brian and telling him why he don't like him.
 

rembrandtqeinstein

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Sep 4, 2009
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The mormonism/scientology difference isn't inconsistent at all.

People who promote scientology tend to act like dicks, people who promote mormonism are really nice to everyone and the kind of dudes you want as neighbors. And it doesn't matter if mormonism is batshit crazy if the practitioners have good families and help their community are generally good people.

South park is fairly consistent. They mock celebrities because they deserve it, they mock philosophies/points of view that give people an excuse to hate or hurt or look down on other people. In that sense they are libertarian because their targets tend to be people who claim "authority" or "leadership" for whatever reason.

And the only time they came close to promoting authoritarianism in imposing a single point of view is the nambla episode where they even mocked themselves. The "lesson learned" is usually a synthesis or understanding of the opposing points of view. The contrast with nambla was that some points of view, in this case sex with children, are so disagreeable that there is no discussion possible.
 

Xersues

DRM-free or give me death!
Dec 11, 2009
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I've often thought that anyone that takes satire and uses that to base their opinions was pretty moronic.

When I hear a John Stewart argument (He makes fun of things, he's funny) regurgitated, I want to punch them. You don't have an opinion, you have a soundbite and that alone does not make you intelligent.

These satires are food for thought and share an opinion that many will find enjoyable. But they aren't made to dictate your entire opinion. You just can't be that much of a sheep (regardless of where it came from) by regurgitating others soundbites and be taken seriously.
 

idodo35

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Jun 3, 2010
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*risking sounding dumb*
so THATS the scouts accent!!! he is from boston!!! finaly mistery solved...

also why did you have to adress the sound issue? that leaves 0% for anione comenting about the actual episode!!! seriously you must have seen this coming!
 

razer17

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Feb 3, 2009
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I always thought that South Park was more of a left wing show. Not that I'd ever take life lessons from it. The occasional episode will have some sort of message, usually deliver by Kyle saying "Today, I learned ....", but I certainly wouldn't use it as a reference point of morality. I mean, seriously, this is a TV show with a talking Towel who just loves to get high.
 

SonOfVoorhees

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Aug 3, 2011
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Some of the South Park episodes can make you think in a different way about a certain subject. I dont take everything they say as gospel, only those points of view that make sense to me. I dont know anyone that quotes South Park as a reason for believing a certain thing.
 

LordLundar

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Apr 6, 2004
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Personally, I don't care for South Park. And before anyone asks, it's my own personal preference and no, you do not need to know my justification or anything else pertaining to my opinion of it so don't ask.

Now that that's out of the picture, anyone, and I mean ANYONE who tries to argue with me that it promotes some sort of sociopolitical ideal I simply turn around and say "Do you know why they made it that way? Do you? They did it for S**** AND GIGGLES!" That's basically the bulk of it. They rib on a target because they find it a funny and/or easy target. In the entirety of the show, there is nothing on there that was not made fun of for any other reason than saying "why not?"
 

Prof. Monkeypox

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Mar 17, 2010
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The Scout? I never thought of Bob as the Scout- and not just because the difference in, uh, body structure.

The scout has a higher-pitched lilt and a fast-talking affect. I don't get those from Bob. So, yeah, low rent JFK it is.
 

drisky

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Mar 16, 2009
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I have to say one of the most damaging episodes I felt was the one about the word "fag", and how words change meaning over time and people should not be indirectly offended when it is not directed at them. The problem with that is that it is still used as a homophobic slur, is always used in a very negative context, and people have every right it be offended even if direct offense wasn't intended. And that episode is a direct contradiction to the "****** guy" episode when the lesson was when you have no idea about the negative emotions that come up when the word is said, you have no right to dictate how others should feel. I'm just using that as another example.
 
Aug 1, 2010
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While I absolutely agree with Bob that NO ONE should look to the entire show for messages and meaning, some of the episodes can give some pretty interesting meanings.

The F-Word, Cartoon Wars and the like have some very interesting things to say.

In addition, some of the things that happen OUTSIDE the show have much more meaning than the episodes themselves. Case in point being the whole Mohammed/201 thing. It was a total breakdown of free speech in the face of threats.

Great Big Picture as usual!

Captcha: NORD land. DAMN YOU SKYRIM!!!
 
Aug 1, 2010
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drisky said:
I have to say one of the most damaging episodes I felt was the one about the word "fag", and how words change meaning over time and people should not be indirectly offended when it is not directed at them. The problem with that is that it is still used as a homophobic slur, is always used in a very negative context, and people have every right it be offended even if direct offense wasn't intended. And that episode is a direct contradiction to the "****** guy" episode when the lesson was when you have no idea about the negative emotions that come up when the word is said, you have no right to dictate how others should feel. I'm just using that as another example.
And yet, there is living proof that words can radically change. If you said someone was "Queer" 100 years ago, it had NOTHING to do with being homosexual, it meant they were interesting.

Same with Gay. Happy!

Plus, words lose their power over time. For instance, if someone said "Poppycock" in the wrong decade, it was the worst thing you could ever do! But now "Fuck" and "Shit" are part of many peoples daily speech. Censoring and forcing people to never say things only gains those word power and makes them MORE offensive.

Yes, The F-Word episode may not have had the perfect message, but it's a start. I agree that if something like fag is said with harmful intention to a person who would be offended, it is bad. But intention is important.

If we completely disregard intention in words and allow reception to govern them completely, words lose meaning and I could say your use of the word "The" is offensive to me.

I will accept that the other episode is ABSOLUTELY contradictory though.

Sorry for the longness, just had to get that out.