South Park is going after the Passion!!!

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[ChicagoHebrew]

South Park afficionados, they are going after the Passion tonight! Crazy funny stuff.

[Sam Cree]

They have been very harsh on Judaism.
So much so that I have heard members of a temple discussing boycotts, petitions, etc. of Southpark.

They offend pretty much anyone they feel like, regardless of who it may be. Mostly it strikes me funny when they flip off various golden calves.

[commish]

Did we watch the same episode as everybody else? LOL

[Welsh Rabbit]

Slap! I'm Rick James, bitch!

[Sam Cree]

golden calves = sacred cows

[Thoro]

They really pushed Cartman's anti-semitism. Before I felt that it was just something a stupid eight year old used to rip on his friend Kyle, but after tonight's episode, it seems less innocent.

Some of the Mel antics were funny, particularly the road warrior bit, but it seemed a bit nasty overall. To parody effectively there has to be a tinge of truth to it, and as much as they tried to say that Mel is an unspiritual nutjob, the more I couldn't find any humor in it.

The end message seemed to be a "You should focus on the teachings of Jesus, not his death." I love South Park, but I expected something a bit smarter out of this episode. The preceding episodes this season were much better, although they didn't try to tackle this type of topic.

[krb]

SLAP!

[Tuco Ramirez]

I haven't watched those shows yet.

The Simpsons get high marks from Christian groups, even though Homer is hardly religious. Some groups are impressed that religion even has a role in the show, and while they portray the reverend in an unfavorable light in some episodes, the most religious character (Ned) is portrayed very favorably. Also, how many TV families today have three children with married parents?

[antiRepublicrat]

They do not like Mel at all.

They just make fun of everyone. But they really don't like Barbara Streisand.

[Tuco Ramirez]

What episode was harsh on Judaism (on the scale of showing the Vatican taking instructions from a giant spider)?

The swipes at Judaism are made by the obviously maladjusted Cartman.

[Oztrich Boy]

They obviously think they are superior to God's Word, but they will find out they are not. Perhaps they missed the account in the Old Testament where the children mocked Elijah, the prophet, calling him "Gray beard." God sent two she-bears out of the woods to tear the children limb from limb.

That sound like something you'd see on South Park

There's a solution. Matt and Tery should just animate the Bible, and no complaints from anyone.

[per loin]

Or Sally Struthers, who ate the whole pile of things.

[cincinnati65]

I don't think so. I agree with you. They poked fun at the 1% that went over the top "blaming Jews" and the 1% that got their panties in a bunch over it being "Anti-Semitic", and ended on a positive note. Cartman typified the Gibson-worshippers. The synagogue represented the "Anti Semitic" crowd. The only thing I felt went too far was the Gibson bashing. Beyond that, I thought it was a perfect satire of the over-reactions to the movie.

With that noted, I personally admire Gibson for his stand in making the film. I think it's an important work of art that will make many people re-think their lives. However, in the end, it is a movie, and Gibson's just a man.

[antiRepublicrat]

And you weren't freaked out when Cartman dressed as Hitler and led a mob in goose-stepping while chanting German?

Take it like this: You might get a few idiot freaks to see the anti-semitism in it, and the masses might believe their hype for a while (NYT anyone?), but the masses abandon the freaks once they realize that they are, well, freaks.

[NutCrackerBoy]

They offend pretty much anyone they feel like, regardless of who it may be.

That's as satire should be. The show serves the function of much art: showing us something about ourselves. This episode showed some interesting and true things about some people's reactions, but I don't think they got The Passion right.

[antiRepublicrat]

Cartman has done that before.

"Juden ist verboten, Goddammit!"

[ConservativeGadfly]

Disagree with you there. The most important lesson of Jesus' life was, in fact, his death. The ultimate leap of faith in this scientific, secular world, is to believe that the Son of God gave his life willingly so that all of those who believe in Him will have everlasting life. If you can't believe that one ultimate premise -- that He died for all of our sins, then the rest is nothing more than a morality tale expanding upon the Golden Rule.

Too bad the South Park folks didn't get that and just believe that the miracles that Jesus performed in his lifetime outweigh the miracle of his death/sacrifice and resurrection.

[joebren]

I'm not going to be a South Park apologist. For the record, I love the show.. but come on!
-Obviously they don't like Mel.
-They had a point about sticking to the teachings of Jesus, not the way he died.

I thought I read somewhere that earlier on, like Season 4, Trey and Matt converted to Catholicism.. Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where the dentist tries to get full joke immunity!

[Sam Cree]

They've had a few entire episodes dedicated to the "Jew Scouts," special boy scout troops for Jews only that were very satirical of Jewish culture.

I thought they were hilarious, but friends of mine were seriesly ticked over them.

I don't have cable, so I don't get to see it too much.

[ottothedog]

I think they are libertarian types who are fairly hostile to religion. Normally they kind of redeem themselves better towards the end.

I think they have really been struggling to be humorous. They even had to dress Cartmann up as Hitler again. Much less humorous this time.

One of my favorites, when they were still funny, was the Elian Gonzales one. They had Klinton dressed as Reno dressed as the Easter Bunny.

[Qwinn]

See, the part of your analysis that I think is wrong is that I saw -no- criticism of the "1% that got their panties in a bunch over it being "Anti-Semitic".

They don't say a word until Kyle totally misinterprets the movie into thinking he should apologize. Only then do they get upset, and even then their leader tries to calm them down until they see Cartman leading the goosestepping Christians down the street.

So how exactly did you see that the cries of "anti-Semitism" got an equal roasting? I didn't see that at all. If anything, they were portrayed as ABSOLUTELY, authentically having every right in the world to be pissed off, including the Christians saying "Yeah, maybe you SHOULD apologize for killing Jesus".

No, it was utterly one-sided.

Qwinn