South Park - Funny as hell or too far?

[Ayrahb]

Originally Posted by Super-Rye

It's absolutely true. It's all funny until someone makes fun of something you believe in. Some people need to learn to make fun of themselves, South Park has been doing it for years. (as well as many other things.)

In my opinion, South Park writers are more prone to insulting certain religious beliefs/groups than others.

I am not a (Catholic)christian nor have I ever been one, but I stopped watching South Park after the statue of Virgin Mary was depicted bleeding out of her anus. To top it all, the Pope arrives at the scene and finds that she is actually bleeding out of her vagina. He declares: "A chick bleeding out her vagina is no miracle. Chicks bleed out their vaginas all the time."

Actually, this would make a neat game: we try to defend spiritual beliefs (or lack of same) different from our own.

[AC]

For those that missed it:

Mrs. Garrison explains evolution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR2gYYnGrTc&eurl=

[Looger]

when i first saw the christopher reeve stem cell episode, with the wheelchair-wielding actor breaking aborted fetuses in half and sucking out their stem cells, i thought, 'ooh theyre going to get some letters...'

these guys LOVE to push the edge and the 'princess the dog' situation still cracks me up. whenever big hollywood or whatever tries to buy them, they spit it back in their faces. great!

the music video in their southpark movie was added after they were told to trim down the profanity, they pulled a 'mel brooks' on their distributors. genius.

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by AnthonyCook

For those that missed it:

Mrs. Garrison explains evolution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR2gYYnGrTc&eurl=

hahah ...

yeah... I was laughing pretty damn hard at that one.

[Hemi-Cuda]

i just watched the latest episode and nearly died laughing. it probably helps that it was a hockey episode, but it ranks as one of my all time favorites. the "he's gonna die faster than Steve Irwin in a stingray tank" line almost made me choke on my food, and the final game was priceless

i also loved how they responded to the whole Steve Irwin controversy by taking it even further. just goes to show that if someone is really offended by South Park, they should just ignore it completely

[Hack&Lube]

South Park is the most intelligent and daring show on television.

The last episode "Stanley's Cup" was awesome.

[Clarkey]

This show is too fawkin stupid to debate about. I like lowbrow lowest common denominator comedy but this show is just geigh (gay). You have to be a tool to watch it.

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

This show is too fawkin stupid to debate about. I like lowbrow lowest common denominator comedy but this show is just geigh (gay). You have to be a tool to watch it.

And what, exactly, makes it so "geigh" and "fawkin stupid" ?

[AC]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

This show is too fawkin stupid to debate about. I like lowbrow lowest common denominator comedy but this show is just geigh (gay). You have to be a tool to watch it.

Personally, I don't think anyone who criticizes another person's tastes has a solid grip on reality.

If you dont like this show, good for you, but to insinuate that people who DO like the show are 'tools', is a joke. Grow up.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Well, I guess I'm in the "Funny as hell" category, though ambivalently. The truth is, that sometimes I'm offended--but I'm laughing until I cry anyway. The way I see it, the key question is always "is it funny?" The episode with the hybrid cars and liberal environmentalists smelling their own flatulence bugged me a little--since I'm a liberal and an environmentalist. But I can't deny that it was funny as hell.

My favourite episode is still the Michael Jackson episode. All I have to do is look at my wife and say "No, Blanket, that's IG-norant!" and she'll start laughing.

[Hack&Lube]

The Detroit fans are now complaining after Stan's peewee team subs in for the Avalanche and the show depicts the Red Wings as a bunch of bullies who overcelebrate winning against weaker teams


CLASSIC!

[SpitFire40]

As stupid as South Park is, it's equally brilliant... if that makes any sense.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by SpitFire40

As stupid as South Park is, it's equally brilliant... if that makes any sense.

Actually, I think that pretty much sums it up!

[Nuje]

George Carlin once said something along the lines of:
I like to take everything right to the edge. We know where the line is in society. I like to take you there, and then cross it, and hope people cross it with me. Then we find another line and do it again.

South Park...it's like that, but without the line. I think it's great.

[CaptainCrunch]

Its a given that south park is certainly not for everyone, but I do find it brilliant because they take some pretty brilliant social commentary and toss it over the unseen line of good taste.

I think that the creators are fairly intelligent and media saavy because they're just begging for negative backlash.

The show to me is at times far beyond the line of bad taste, but if you can get past that bad taste, push aside the nuggets of poop and fart humor, and plunge below the line of obvious attempts at teenage humor there's some pretty sophisticated humor and biting societal critisms in this show.

The episode that was mentioned before about them killing off chef was gross and disgusted, and compared scientology to child molesters so that Chef's death was somewhat justified. But Stan's eulogy was sad and touching and smart.

The episode where the church had a world wide meeting about covering up thier child molestation scandals was disturbing and insulting, but the underlying message that there were more problems with all organized religions was pretty clever.

The Indian Casino episode started out as something that seemed quite racist and stereotypical, but in the end the message was that there is racism from all sides of the equation. Smart.

I must be somewhat ######ed though because I also enjoyed Baseketball, and team america World Police.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

CC--I agree with what you said above--and if you get too worried about offending people, satire becomes impossible. South Park isn't for kids, and it's not straight up comedy: it's satire. If you look at 18th-century satirical plays and poems, you might be surprised at how "offensive" they are. Gulliver's Travels is notoriously filthy--Alexander Pope had his mind constantly in the gutter. There are plenty of other examples.


I don't even AGREE with the satire, most of the time. I often find the politics of South Park episodes trite and offensive--and I suspect that the creators are far more conservative than I am. They also frequently savage people that I kind of like, such as Al Gore, or Hillary Clinton. By rights, I SHOULD be outraged and offended.

But--in the end, South Park is damn funny--and for me, that makes it watchable, even if part of me thinks I should be offended.

[flip]

Originally Posted by habernac

as I said in the other thread, I'll never watch the show again after the very tasteless satire of Steve Irwin's death. He never did anything to hurt anyone.

wow. sounds like something isaac hays would say. (the guy who played chef). he had no problem with the show making fun of everything on the planet in a very offensive way sometimes but as soon as they make fun of something you care about they've gone too far. in hays case it was those bat##### crazy scientologists. in your case it was a guy who dangled his baby as bait in front of a crocodile and died doing something he loved.

when they do one that makes fun of canadians will be the day i stop watching!

[SaskaBushFire]

There is no such thing as to far in the topic of South Park. I love the fact they test the boundaries, they tell all the nay sayers to STFU and keep rolling out hilarious show after hilarious show.

But one thing is for sure, the last 3 or 4 seasons have blown the previous ones out of the water. They really stepped it up in recent years, came away from to many fart jokes and tackled real issues relevant to the world. I love it all.

[CrusaderPi]

Originally Posted by flip

...words...

when they do one that makes fun of canadians will be the day i stop watching!

Ike's circumcision and the movie?

[getbak]

Originally Posted by flip

when they do one that makes fun of canadians will be the day i stop watching!

So, you stopped watching it a long time ago, huh?