Posted on 04/29/2005 10:47:43 AM PDT by Choose Ye This Day
That is the title of a new book by Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal magazine and a member of the Manhattan Institute think tank. I assume most have watched an episode of "South Park," but for the benefit of those readers who happen to be my parents, let me explain. A crudely drawn cartoon coupled with even cruder language, "South Park" is one of Comedy Central's hottest shows, in which each week four small-town Colorado grade-school boys find themselves in some outlandish adventure, often featuring one or more of the eccentric townspeople (the town itself is South Park) and a profane, if not hysterical, resolution.
The show, naturally, is a lightning rod for cultural conservatives, appalled by the vulgar and crass humor of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the show's creators. And certainly conservative figures, not to mention traditional values, are the targets of Parker and Stone's biting satire. This is no surprise: Conservative values and figures have been fodder for comics for decades, from Lenny Bruce to Whoopi Goldberg. But what makes "South Park" remarkable is its equally scathing indictments of liberal celebrities and ideas. Surprisingly, the show itself actually tends to communicate a variety of Republican positions: Past targets of its wrath include hate-crime legislation, extreme environmentalism, and the anti-Wal-Mart/anti-capitalist crowd (one episode has the boys understand the true cause of Wal-Mart's success by looking in the mirror, while an ephemeral, white-clad angelic figure explains that human desire and cheap prices account for the chain's fortune).
Or consider the episode where Mr. Garrison, the boys' teacher, undergoes a sex-change operation, mistakenly thinks he is pregnant, and then heads to Planned Parenthood to obtain an abortion - all in the name of proving he is a real woman. Upon discovering that his sex change doesn't allow him to become pregnant, and thus he cannot have an abortion, Mr. Garrison is despondent: "You mean I'll never know what it feels like to have a baby growing inside me and then scramble its brains and vacuum it out?"
By and large, the show is driven by its libertarian, anti-establishment streak, but Stone and Parker are also populists, contemptuous of the elitism radiating from Hollywood's finest. Which is why the duo is unafraid to mock them ruthlessly, as the show's villains generally hail from the entertainment world (Barbra Streisand, fittingly, appears as a Godzilla-like creature).
Parker expands on this theme in an interview in Hollywood, Interrupted: "People in the entertainment industry are by and large whore-chasing, drug-addict f***-ups," he said. "But they still believe they're better than the guy in Wyoming who really loves his wife, and takes care of his kids, and is a good, outstanding, wholesome person. Hollywood views regular people as children, and they think they're the smart ones who need to tell the idiots out there how to be."
What conservative couldn't like that?
The term "South Park Conservative," of course, doesn't apply to Parker and Stone, who quite obviously are not conservatives (another quote of theirs is, "We hate Republicans, but we really f***ing hate Democrats.") Broadly defined, this demographic is generally young (think 18-30-something), believes in limited government across the board (hence, their aversion to the cultural conservative agenda), and perhaps most tellingly, is tired of receiving instruction from the PC police. Think of the prototype for this group: Kid Rock, who disgusts most parents and feminists with his theatrical concerts, replete with leather-clad strippers writhing on stage but supports the war in Iraq and lowering the tax rates.
What has happened is that the anti-establishment zeitgeist of the 1960s has now been absorbed into the mainstream. Political correctness, be it blind obeisance to saving the rain forest or boycotting Wal-Mart, has become a monolithic beast unto itself, thus making it ripe for satire. For our parents, it was once radical to espouse these ideals, but after a generation, they have lost their revolutionary zeal. I believe this is why "South Park" strikes such a chord with the young demographic, who grew up in the shade of the PC umbrella, and who view the show, with its wildly subversive humor, as a way of rebelling against such groupthink.
Plus, is there anything funnier than seeing Barbra Streisand getting her comeuppance from Robert Smith of the Cure?
"People in the entertainment industry are by and large whore-chasing, drug-addict f***-ups. But they still believe they're better than the guy in Wyoming who really loves his wife, and takes care of his kids, and is a good, outstanding, wholesome person. Hollywood views regular people as children, and they think they're the smart ones who need to tell the idiots out there how to be."
A PING for your South Park pinglist.
I want on the South Park Republican ping list, please!!!!
You need to Ping EveningStar.
Very Interesting!!!:)
Put me on your South Park list.
I sometimes feel that way as well, especially when the Republicans act spineless and spend like Democrats.
Excellent article.
In the very-left wing University of Iowa's newspaper!
Will wonders never cease?
Thanks. I like how you chose Jimmy as your avatar. I had a similar experience as Jimmy did at a similar age, although no car chases were involved.
"Thank you, Nut Gobbler..."
Last week's episode is still cracking me up. Jimmy could have been looking for Mary Kay Letoureau.
You know Mary Kay, too? Or did you meet Nut Gobbler?
Yes and yes, although the names were Kelly and Kathy.
I'm still laughing from the "hippies" episode a few weeks back. As a conservative trapped a hocked loogie away from Boulder, it was priceless!
The South park conservative's view of life and death???
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive, well preserved body but rather to skid in to the grave sideways, chocolate in one hand, margarita in the the other, cigar sticking out of you mouth, body thoroughly worn out, screaming at the top of your lungs, "WOO HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
The white man has set off a diabolical spiral on the entire planet to torment people... My brothers: The white man is worse than all the other animals with his savagery. His job is to torment people..."
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