Morals in South Park

[Brown]

Here's a little piece of fluff from the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/28/arts/television/28SOUT.html?8hpib) (registration required) about "South Park":Certainly the show is inventive and cool looking. The voices, most done by the creators of "South Park," Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are also hilarious. (Cartman's pronunciation of "authority"— aw-THOR-eh-tah — is unaccountably perfect.) If only a type face could capture them. But the real strength of "South Park" is that it flatters freethinkers by mocking Christians and Jews, including Jesus himself (a resident), along with the stand-out holy figures Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna and Laotzu. (They form a clique called Super Best Friends.)

[Segnosaur]

Originally posted by Brown
it flatters freethinkers by mocking Christians and Jews, including Jesus himself (a resident), along with the stand-out holy figures Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna and Laotzu. (They form a clique called Super Best Friends.)

Wait a sec, aren't they forgetting the Super hero Sea-man in the Super Best Friends clique?

[Charlie Monoxide]

One of the more memorable "moralistic" episodes is where John Edwards is deemed to be the "Biggest Douche-bag of the Universe". The Southpark creators did a perfect job of explaining "cold reading" technique.

Southpark is great!

Charlie (I hope they do Sylvia Browne) Monoxide

[davidhorman]

I liked the one where a member of NAMBLA (the paedophile club, as opposed to the North American Marlon Brando Lookalike Association) tries to justify his philosophy with a long and rambling speech. Each point of which is countered by Stan/Kyle with:

"Dude! You **** young boys!"

David

[Ove]

Yep, they really say things like they are. Trouble is that it is too easy for people like John Edwards to dismiss it as being "only a perverse juvenile cartoon", but hopefully the young generation picks up a thing or two.

If it could teach young kids not allways to trust " aw-THOR-eh-tah " that would be a good thing.;)

[Hexxenhammer]

Originally posted by Ove
Yep, they really say things like they are. Trouble is that it is too easy for people like John Edwards to dismiss it as being "only a perverse juvenile cartoon", but hopefully the young generation picks up a thing or two.

If it could teach young kids not allways to trust " aw-THOR-eh-tah " that would be a good thing.;) This is why it's so subversive. Like the Simpsons, South Park is able to fly under the radar and corrupt young minds (like mine was by the Simpsons) into thinking for themselves.

Can anyone imagine a live action show that could get away with the stuff those two shows do?

[Nie Trink Wasser]

I dont think the simpsons even compares to south park...

south park is much funnier than fatta!s matt groening could hope to be.

[Segnosaur]

Originally posted by Charlie Monoxide
One of the more memorable "moralistic" episodes is where John Edwards is deemed to be the "Biggest Douche-bag of the Universe". The Southpark creators did a perfect job of explaining "cold reading" technique.


They also did a great job on their episode about 'natural healing' (when Kyle got sick) and the store run by the woman named Miss Information.

[Whyatt]

I also loved the one where they managed to slag off Catholics and Athiests (By implying that athiests literally talk s**t) to incredible success.

I'm man enough to laugh at myself.

And the one about the Mormons! Everyone sing along! "David Harris. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Sarah Harris. Smart"

[JesFine]

One of the devices they use to spell out their message is pretty clever. I have seen it used twice and it goes a little something like this:

In one episode Butters' mom tries to kill Butters, and she and her husband blame his disappearance on a "Puerto Rican" of "average Puerto Rican height". Later, the Ramseys, OJ Simpson, and Gary Condit vow to help them find the real killers. Eventually, Butters returns and the parents realize they need to come clean with their deception so they hold a press conference with the Ramseys, OJ, and Condit in attendance. The father then admits the deception and says something along the lines of "many of you are probably looking at me and saying" -- now the camera view shifts to Gary Condit "YOU LIAR, YOU ARE A LIAR" -- back to dad -- "seriously, I can tell looking out that you are saying to yoursel" -- cut to OJ -- "YOU MISERABLE LYING MURDERER! YOU ARE A LIAR AND A KILLER" -- back to dad -- "I mean, you might see me next week at the park and think" -- cut to Ramseys -- "CONFESS YOU LYING MURDERER"..

and so on... pretty clever way to make accusations without being liable for libel. (I assume that was the point of the device anyway). I don't think I've seen it anywhere else

Oh, the other one was when Jimmy takes steroids to win the special olympics and gives a similar speech with Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, and Bary Bonds in attendance.

Good show. Clever, funny, inventive, and fast. I don't know how they did this, but I can think of at least one episode that came out on a Wednesday and was based on events that happened on Tuesday (ok, maybe Sunday or Monday) in real life. Still that is incredibly quick, especially for an animated show, and, yes, even for an animated show as crudely animated as that one is.

[MoeFaux]

I can't remember seeing a South Park and not thinking, "Boy, they're just right about everything". Matt and Trey may be a couple of potheads, but they've got everything else right. South Park is smart and funny with real ideas and love.

[kookbreaker]

Originally posted by davidhorman
I liked the one where a member of NAMBLA (the paedophile club, as opposed to the North American Marlon Brando Lookalike Association) tries to justify his philosophy with a long and rambling speech. Each point of which is countered by Stan/Kyle with:

"Dude! You **** young boys!"

David

Not to nit-pick, but I believe Stan's line was "Dude, you have SEX with CHILDREN!"

The emphasis on those words showed how things weren't sinking in.