Posted on 04/17/2005 9:30:15 AM PDT by USMC Veteran
Edited on 04/17/2005 12:25:20 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
For decades, with few exceptions, a liberal sensibility dominated American humor. From Lenny Bruce to Norman Lear's "All in Family" to "Will & Grace," the laughs came at the expense of fuddy-duddy conservatives and bourgeois conventions. But over the last few years, a new kind of cutting-edge humor has emerged whose primary target is the Left. It's a sign of how much ground liberalism has lost in our cultural life.
The No. 1 example is South Park, Comedy Central's hit adult cartoon series chronicling the misadventures of four potty-mouthed fourth-graders named Cartman, Kenny, Kyle, and Stan. Now in its ninth season, South Park, with nearly 3 million viewers per episode (one recent half hour garnered 4.4 million), is Comedy Central's highest-rated program, credited by many with putting the network on the map.
Some conservatives have blasted South Park for its mind-boggling vulgarity, even calling it a "threat to our youth." But those critics don't get it. As the show's co-creator Matt Stone sums it up, "I hate conservatives, but I really (expletive) hate liberals." Stone acknowledges that he and his fellow 30-something Coloradoan colleague Trey Parker are "more right-wing than most people in Hollywood" -- though, he cautions, that's the case partly because Hollywood types are so out there on the Left.
South Park has a sharp anti-PC edge. One episode mocks multicultural sentimentality about the supposed wisdom of native cultures. Kyle contracts a potentially fatal kidney disorder, and his naïve parents try to cure it with "natural" Native American methods, with disastrous results. Stan tries to get his friend sent to a hospital, but runs into fierce resistance.
Kyle's mom reassures him: "Everything is going to be fine, Stan; we're bringing in Kyle tomorrow to see the Native Americans personally."
Stan responds: "Isn't it possible that these Indians don't know what they're talking about?"
Stan's mom interjects: "You watch your mouth, Stanley. The Native Americans were raped of their land and resources by white people like us."
To which Stan has a perfectly logical rejoinder: "And that has something to do with their medicines because ... ?"
South Park regularly mocks left-wing celebrities who feel entitled to tell everyone how the world should run. In the episode "Butt Out," actor, producer, and celebrity activist Rob Reiner blows into town on an anti-smoking crusade, and tries to draft the boys in a sleazy plan to frame the local tobacco company for selling cigarettes to minors. In a classic sequence, set in a downscale local bar, Parker and Stone perfectly capture the Olympian arrogance of liberal elites. Reiner begins to sniff the air violently, detecting a faint whiff of cigarette smoke wafting through the bar. He detects the source: a man wearing a "Buds" cap, quietly enjoying a beer and a smoke. "Would you mind putting that death stick out," Reiner hollers.
The man, surprised, responds: "But, uh, this is a bar." Reiner: "Isn't smoking illegal in bars here?" "Not in Colorado," the bartender tells him. "Oh my God! What kind of backward hick state is this," Reiner explodes. The smoker tries to reason with him: "Listen man, I work 14 hours a day at the sawmill. I just got off work and I need to relax." But Reiner will have none of it: "Well, when I relax I just go to my vacation house in Hawaii!"
The Buds man gets angry: "I ain't got a vacation house in Hawaii!" "Your vacation house in Mexico, then, wherever it is," snorts Reiner. The boys eventually put a stop to the "tubby fascist," saving smoking in South Park.
In a 2004 interview, Parker and Stone expanded on just how much they loathed meddling celebrities. "People in the entertainment industry are by and large (tramp)-chasing drug-addicted (expleted)," Parker noted. "But they still believe they're better than the guy in Wyoming who really loves his wife and takes care of his kids and is a good, outstanding, wholesome person. Hollywood views regular people as children, and they think they're the smart ones who need to tell the idiots out there how to be." (This contempt for Hollywood activist lefties was also on display in Parker and Stone's hilarious puppet movie "Team America: World Police.")
Hollywood, in its knee-jerk leftism, has also long looked down on the business world; indeed, one study from the 1990s showed businessmen committing almost half of all murders and vice crimes on the tube. On occasion, South Park gleefully bucks the anti-business trend. In one entry, a "Harbucks" coffee chain arrives in South Park. Town residents resist it at first, but everyone eventually admits its coffee is better than anything else on offer in town. "Harbucks Coffee started off as a small, little business" Stan tells a town meeting, "But because it made such great coffee, and because they ran their business so well, they managed to grow until they became the corporate powerhouse it is today. And that is why we should all let Harbucks stay." It's worth noting that Matt Stone's father is a semiretired economics professor.
South Park has also satirized the 1960s counterculture; abortion-on-demand (Cartman's mother seeks to have him aborted -- even though he's 8); sex-ed in school; hate-crime legislation; and many other liberal shibboleths.
Conservatives sometimes find themselves skewered too -- phony patriots and Mel Gibson have been among those slashed. But the deepest thrust of South Park's politics is pretty clear.
Parker and Stone have made their show not only the most obscenity-laced but -- paradoxically -- also the most hostile to liberalism in television history.
I hate hippies, especially college know it all hippies.
They are growing in the ranks and they are a hell of alot more hostile to liberals then most of us are.
"...they are a hell of alot more hostile to liberals then most of us are."
That's because they've suffered at their hands for a generation now. Many of those children who escaped abortion have been subject to the mind numbing efforts of the leftist/socialist/communists running the teachers unions, etc. for 30 years. They are going to be like gulag survivors, or at least hopefully, MOST of them will be.
I hope I live long enough to see my grandchildren, it will be interesting to see what happens in this country as "the roe effect" continues.
I'd like to read this in total, but my eyes hurt. Save and format for later.
That many S.P. fans firmly call themselves liberals tells you how clueless your left-wing punk really is. If they can't figure out that they are actually conservatives - judging from their love of S.P. - then I'm not sure if we really want them to switch their declared affiliations over to our side.
I read it, but somehow you posted it 1 1/2 times in an unbearably small font.
In cartman's case that might be a goo thing, My favorite episodes are the Christmas ones, esp red sleigh down.
Nice. I am definitely getting senile. As I was reading this there were a number of times that I had the strong sensation that I had read this exact paragraph just before. Need more "vitamins", obviously.
Well, you can see the roots of the "south park republicans".
They are growing in the ranks and they are a hell of alot more hostile to liberals then most of us are.
These are the next Generation of Conservatives.
They grew up drowning in P.C. crap and are more sick of it than this generation.
When the Liberals realize they cant control this next generation...they will Take extream measures and grab power in even more Illegal and crooked ways.
The next election will be even worse than the Last.
They are growing in the ranks and they are a hell of alot more hostile to liberals then most of us are.
I am far from being politically correct. I take my shots at liberals and conservatives as well. Stupidity knows no bounds.
Last week, I changed my party affiliation from Republican to Independent. I campaingned for Congressman Norman Lent (R-NY) and Senator Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY) in the late 70's and early 80's. Today's political parties are too intertwined to tell the difference. I feel the party has left me, not that I have left the party. If that makes me a 'South Park Republican', then so be it.
Ping!
Our YR Chapter went to the opening and it was full of people that thought it was going to be a Bash America flick. They had no idea what was instore for them!
I think we were some of the few that were rolling the entire movie :)
Yes. Check, please.
Sorry, I cut and pasted. I must have hit an extra button somewhere. Maybe the moderator can edit the mistake.
Products of the Nassau County RINO machine, although not nearly as bad as Ralph "Mario Cuomo is my best friend" Marino and Tom "I'll make your son building inspector" Gulotta. Its no wonder Lawn Guyland is now run by the Democrats.
The only thing THIS South Park Republican hates more than Hippies are NEW YORK REPUBLICANS. A bunch of property tax raising, union supporting, gun grabbing, organized crime coddling scumbags.
BTW: I had my issues with Norm Lent, but he was FAR SUPERIOR to that left-side of the Bell Curve, left-wing shanty b-tch Carolyn McCarthy. I HATE that woman.
They're hippies, not people!!!!
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