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 ...
Gotta love liberals. Crucifixes in urine, not obscene. Television that mocks liberal pieties--obscene!
>>>NYSlime is trying to invent a trend where none exists.
Yup. It is called propaganda.
LOL!
You might expect that a spoof of a small-town propane salesman and his beer-drinking buddies would attract mostly urban intellectuals, with their highly developed sense of irony.
The most telling line in the article.
Said another way: "Most Democrats would expect that the redneck buffoons out there wouldn't appreciate such a highly developed sense of irony, especially as it regards their own miserable, uneducated lives."
Matt Bai knows his audience. But he doesn't know us...
In this bozo author's dream!! Hank is soooooo 'pubbie' - it's not worthy of debate or discussion.
Hank Hill a Democrat?
That is just so wrong!
With Boomhower on one side and Dale "Guns don't kill people. That's the Governmnet's job!" Gribble on the other?
Hanks would probably call John Kerry "A sissyfied Twig Boy!"
Jack.
Love that Hank!
"Don't play lawyer-ball, son"
"You can give me the stink eye all you want, but it's not gonna change anything"
"What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?"
[Noticing Bobby with a dress]
"There better be a naked cheerleader under your bed"
Hank: So, are you Chinese or Japanese?
Kahn: I lived in Arizona for the past 20 years. I'm originally from Laos.
[pause]
Hank: So, are you Chinese or Japanese?
[Dale to Hank because of Hank's insistence to use worms for fishing bait]
"Hank, you're living back in the days of black and white TVs and a democratically elected Congress"
KOTH is a great show, insightful and fair. It pokes fun at the silly aspects of Middle America (the "black helicopter" conspiracy theorists, the big hair, the "Megalo marts"), while upholding the substantive goods aspects--faith, family, hard work. The show teases and validates at the same time. It plays with stereotypes and deviates away from them, as the Hills are hardly the frothing at the mouth hate mongering theocrats that the Left believes most Heartlanders are.
Hank Hill was on the verge of voting for Bush in one episode, only to have his faith shaken by of all things, Bush's handshake (we don't learn who he finally votes for). The Left is repeatedly skewed, in a way that trumps South Park's attacks on the Left, mostly because KOTH is so straightforward and realistic. The very first episode attacked the weasel bureacrat lusting to break up families, and avante garde artists are regularly portrayed as the irrelevant whiners that they are: "If you look at the painting this way, you see George Washington, but if you look at it THIS way, you see HITLER! Washington, HITLER! Washington, HITLER!" And who could forget: "Well in the 40s, with FDR and Truman, I was on the wellfare. And then in the 60s, you know JFK and LBJ, I was on the wellfare. And then in the 70s, Carter? I was on the wellfare."
One of the best episodes in recent years was the one where the hippies ruin the Hills camping trip by trashing the camp site, and the hippies decide to start "sharing" everyone's goods--which actually became STEALING. You couldn't find a better indictment of socialism in a dry economics textbook by some stuffed shirt Robert Novak type. The hippies leave the park in disgust after the Hills have the free park services cancelled, and one of the hippies gets in the back of the van and snarls at the Hills, "Rumsfeld!"
KOTH isn't a conservative show, it's simply a fair and honest one that dares to poke fun at leftwing assumptions in a way that the Mainstream media and the rest of Hollywood wouldn't touch.
Hank Hill is a Republican. Anybody who watches the show knows that.
I think he quit voting after he shake GW's hand and hated his hand shake.
Hint: He's a fellow Texan.
Dale's occupation as an exterminator is supposedly a reference to Tom Delay...take your pick whether that's a good or bad thing, since Dale is a bit of a loon.
Hank is clearly a Republican, but he's hung out with Willie Nelson, so there may be a slight RINO streak.
Boomhauer strikes me as a staunch Libertarian.
Bill is in the Army, which would indicate conservatism, but he's easily swayed. Swing voter there.
I wouldn't be surprised if Peggy is a closet Democrat, being a schoolteacher and all.
Luanne is too airheaded to ever have a political thought one way or another.
I can see Bobby going through a Left-Wing rebellious stage in his twenties before settling down in the 'burbs himself and coming around to his dad's worldview.
I know way too much about King of the Hill.
Gribble doesn't vote.
Bill's in the Army; they vote Republica, though he did date Ann Richards.
Boomhauher loves Camaros. Definite Republican. He hates "Euro-trash" beer.
My only criticism of KOTH is that there's often not enough plot to fill an entire half hour block of time. I think it would actually be better fit as a 5-10 minute part of a variety-type show, if that genre still existed.
I remember when Peggy asked Hank if the Supreme Court was ruined when the first woman was appointed. His reply "Yes and that woman was Earl Warren!" NYtimes right as usual!!
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.
How about Dautrieve? Just the character for a pathetic loser party.
That article isn't worth the propane it would take to burn it.
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