"Something??"
Posted on 06/25/2005 8:43:16 PM PDT by neverdem
If you watch a lot of cable news, by now you've probably heard someone refer to a bloc of voters known as '' 'South Park' conservatives.'' The term comes from the title of a new book by Brian C. Anderson, a conservative pundit who adapted it from the writer Andrew Sullivan, and it refers to the notion that Comedy Central's obscene spoof of life in small-town America, with its hilarious skewering of liberal snobbery, is somehow the perfect crucible for understanding a new breed of brash and irreverent Republican voters. In truth, aside from its title, Anderson's book has very little to say about ''South Park'' itself; it's really just a retread of the argument that the mainstream media is losing its grip on world domination, marketed rather cynically to appeal to the same red-state radio hosts and book clubs that make so many right-wing polemics best sellers.
If politicians and pundits are really so desperate to understand the values of conservative America without leaving their living rooms, then they should start setting the TiVo to record another animated sitcom, which Anderson mentions only in passing and which, despite its general policy of eschewing politics, somehow continues to offer the most subtle and complex portrayal of small-town voters on television: ''King of the Hill,'' on Fox. North Carolina's two-term Democratic governor, Mike Easley, is so obsessed with the show that he instructs his pollster to separate the state's voters into those who watch ''King of the Hill'' and those who don't so he can find out whether his arguments on social and economic issues are making sense to the sitcom's fans.
For those who have somehow missed ''King of the Hill'' during its nine-year run, here's a lightning-quick primer: It revolves around a classic American everyman, the earnest Hank...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The way I would read the trends is for there to be KOTH Republicans and Southpark Republicans. KOTH Republicans are traditional, flag-waving, pro-military types. Southpark Republicans are young, rebellious, anti-establishment, anti-authoritarians who find the high pious hypocrisy of the demrats disgusting and infuriating, as it does all of us.
Counter-intuitively, a lot of these are probably boots on the ground in Iraq because they see that projecting American military power rather than kissing tail and talking and talking and talking is the only way to defeat those who would destroy us.
Dale: Oh man! What kind of lefty hootenanny is this?!
I think it was that same episode where Hank Hill got the hippies to leave when he told them he was going to teach them to be self-sufficient.
It really focuses in on Texas. We are so unique in the stereotypes people have about us, and most of them are true, but the reality is so much deeper, and richer, and varied than anyone would ever imagine. So maybe he uses the classic Texas Stereotypes as a way of attacking stereotypes in general. In some ways it is the the education of Hank Hill. But in others it's Hank educating us. And that's where we are today. Learning that so much of what was new and shiny is crap, and that what was classic remains.
wow, I never saw that one.
I'm more of a Bugs Bunny Libertarian.
COTTON: "Sorry I'm late -- I had to stop by the wax museum again and give the finger to FDR."
DALE: "You just be careful. Computers have already beaten the Communists at chess. Next thing you know, they'll be beating humans."
PEGGY: "I am going to scare my students, exactly the way President Reagan scared hundreds of millions of Russians with his Star Wars death beam."
HANK: "God, I miss voting for that man."
"Something??"
I think I should move to Texas
" A conservative that can't laugh at himself is about as useless as every other human of that stripe.
KOTH is a hilarious and entertaining show. If reconstructed to your specs it would have you and about three others for an audience."
You are functionally illiterate. I praised the show, in an early post, *because* it takes potshots at everyone. "My specs for the show"?!? Your response is completely disjointed from the two posts I have made, and it's as if you're responding to a different post. My point is that if it is making fun of conservatives--and you agree it is, so that we can all laugh at ourselves--than how can it be a positive appraisal of Middle America? It pokes fun, at times derides both Middle Americans and Anti-Middle Americans, but in the end also upholds family values--which of course was one of the first sentences of my first post. Functionally illiterate.
US national politics right now are organized around region and religion. The Reagan Democrats of the South have largely become Republicans. Those in the Northeast and Great Lakes have split between the parties with the balance at least slightly in favor of the Democrats.
The generation with strong ties to the Depression-era Democrat party is passing. In the South and Southwest it's replaced more or less by Bush Republicans. In the Northeast and on the Pacific Coast the cultural conservatism of the older generation is often lacking in the younger generation. Either they are both economically and culturally liberal, or they're conservative on pocketbook and patriotic issues and conflicted on "culture war" issues.
"How do you remember these lines? I've seen KOTH a few times when traveling, and I've always liked it, but I'd forgotten hilarious lines like those."
I lead a boring and empty life. Plus my vague recollection of a line is enhanced by a google search engine!
"And is it so hard to say that KOTH also takes *shots* at Middle America, and can be viewed as much as a parody of the Hills and Boomhauer and Bill (especially Bill) and Grandpa? Others in previous posts suggested that Bill was probably a conservative. Why would any conservative want to brag that he shared the same values as Bill Dauertrive?!?...Bill's a loser and in the military to boot. Isn't Bill the fulfillment of the "Maher-Sullivan" criticism of the modern military--that it's formed of the dead enders of our society with limited skills and education? The most devout regular character on the show is Luanne--the one you actually see praying regularly and refering to the Bible--and she's dumber than a pile of bricks. The consistent gun owner, the one who attends an NRA-esque gun club, is a freaking nut, and is the post-OKC bombing media stereotype of the right wing conspiracy theorist (keeping in mind the show started in early 97 and thus was in production around the time of the Atlanta Olympics bombing). So you have the military, the religious Christian, and the gun enthusiast, all parodied and mocked on a consistent basis. A conservative who can't see this, can't see he's being laughed at instead of laughed with....KOTH does not take conservative values (at least conservative *political* values) and attempt to validate them week to week. It prods conservative values as well as leftwing values. That probably makes it a "moderate" show, as you snarkingly and snearingly refer to, keeping in mind it's a fictional *cartoon* and not a politician or a political party."
...scares the HELL out me and also is what disappoints me the most about the forum's participants!
Just FO - please!
This is too funny. If Hank Hill is a dem then I don't know what. LOL
It's one of my favorite shows. I didn't see it mentioned but Luanne is voiced by Brittany Murphy who has been very supportive of our troops around the world.
What always cracks me up is the # of lib guest stars. They have had James Carville, Melissa Ethridge, Anne Richards, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, Will Ferrall,etc. All big ol' lefties. I can give James Carville a pass cause that was the first season, but clearly these people don't watch the show ever and don't even read the whole script.
Melissa Ethridge was in the episode where the hippies invaded the state park. Bobby and Hank convince the ranger to shut off services and tell the hippies they can show them how to purify water to drink, find food, dig a latrine, and say, "Who's ready to WORK!" and in the next scene all the hippies are fleeing the park. LOL
Bill: Yeah, we are going to follw The Phish around and live in a parking lot.
Great line!!!
There is absolutely, positively, NO WAY IN HELL that Hank Hill is a DIMOCRAT. If he's a Democrat then I'm a 6'5" gay transvestite named RuPaul.
I think it's pretty obvious that he did indeed vote for Dubya. Like most of us, he had his concerns about the man (in this case for a handshake) but there was no way a Texan was gonna vote for a Northeastern liberal weenie like Kerry.
Peggy's probably a Pubbie too I'd think.
True enough...but that alone doesn't make him a Democrat.
When Hank was driving through Hope, Arkansas, he passed a sign that read, "Birthplace of Bill Clinton".
Hank looked nervously at the sign, then locked his doors.
Obviously, not a fan of Clinton, ergo - no Liberalism.
Man, the left-wing MSM is desperate for relevancy!
That movie is totally hilarious...
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