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'The Book of Mormon': 'South Park' on Broadway?
Henry Louis Gates' "The Root" ^ | 8 April | Simpson

Posted on 04/08/2011 7:44:07 AM PDT by flowerplough

The creators of the animated series have brought their brand of faux irony to Broadway. They make fun of everyone -- but with this musical, are black people the ultimate butt of their jokes?

...The show is unlikely to be a fan favorite in the Mormon community. But if you're black and your skin is even a little thin, there's plenty in this show to rub you the wrong way, too. The Ugandans whom the missionaries encounter are plagued by poverty, AIDS and an evil warlord who forcibly subjects women to circumcision.

...

It's all played for can't-you-take-a-joke laughs. But how funny can it be that AIDS has ravaged Africa, that warlords oppress their fellow citizens or that women and children are subjected to forced clitoridectomies? Parker and Stone, who call themselves libertarians, have gotten away with this kind of cavalier attitude toward serious subjects for years because of their ability to sugarcoat it with faux irony. Which explains why even diehard liberals routinely turn a blind eye to their anti-gay jokes.

With The Book of Mormon, Parker and Stone are indulging in cultural colonialism of the most insidious kind. When one villager complains about having "maggots in my scrotum," the missionaries advise him to see a doctor. "I am the doctor," he replies. It gets a big laugh, so much so that the line is repeated over and over during the show. Peeking out from behind the joke, at least in part, is the belief that African doctors really are that dumb.

Sure, the head villager is seen as a wise man, and his daughter is the doe-eyed idealist who brings the sides together. But the show doesn't work unless the villagers are seen mainly as noble savages who need white people to show them the way to enlightenment. And in the end, their salvation comes from believing in the white missionaries who have been dropped into their midst. Even the warlord -- make what you will of the fact that the show's creators have named him General Butt-F---ing Naked -- is brought around.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: 2gay; gaycartoonists; homosexualagenda

1 posted on 04/08/2011 7:44:09 AM PDT by flowerplough
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To: flowerplough

‘The Book of Mormon’: ‘South Park’

Best. Episode. Ever.

dumbdumbdumbdumbdumb


2 posted on 04/08/2011 7:45:36 AM PDT by Grunthor (The man or woman who doesn't forgive has forgotten the price that Christ paid for them on the Cross.)
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To: flowerplough

general butt naked really was a warlord in the liberian civil war


3 posted on 04/08/2011 7:49:08 AM PDT by henry_reardon
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To: henry_reardon

They even made a movie about him this year:

http://www.generalbuttnakedmovie.com/


4 posted on 04/08/2011 7:55:26 AM PDT by Vendome ("Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it anyway")
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To: flowerplough
"EVERYONE HAS AIDS!"

My grandma and my dog 'ol blue
The pope has got it and so do you
C'mon everybody we got quilting to do
We gotta break down these baricades, everyone has
AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS
AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS
AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS
AIDS!

(The real target of political satire often escapes the self-proclaimed intellectual left.)

5 posted on 04/08/2011 8:09:49 AM PDT by Tex-Con-Man
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To: Grunthor
"...But how funny can it be that AIDS has ravaged Africa, that warlords oppress their fellow citizens or that women and children are subjected to forced clitoridectomies?..."

These are all problems that are enabled by liberal bleeding hearts, and also they're all problems that would be greatly decreased if the grownups were allowed to address them rather than emotional adolescents, e.g., liberals.

Thus, I approve of the South Park guys pointing out the hypocrisy of the left.

6 posted on 04/08/2011 8:15:08 AM PDT by I Buried My Guns (Novare Res!)
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To: flowerplough
The creators of the animated series have brought their brand of faux irony to Broadway.

Clueless leftists routinely drop words such as "faux" into their foolish rants in the mistaken belief that it makes them look worldly and erudite.

7 posted on 04/08/2011 9:21:48 AM PDT by Zeppo ("Happy Pony is on - and I'm NOT missing Happy Pony")
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To: flowerplough

Free speech means one thing. You will hear things you do not agree with. I think this program is in poor taste. So I will not watch it. But if the Mormons were to make a movie reversing the roles. You know replacing the main parts with perverted homosexuals. Would there be an outcry of racism or homophobia? It is funny how some people hide behind free speech. Until they hear something they do not like. They then demand there be limits on free speech.


8 posted on 04/08/2011 10:44:57 AM PDT by DMG2FUN
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To: flowerplough
I find that South Park is as inaccurate in there portail of Jesus as they are in there portrail of Mormons.

Ben

9 posted on 04/09/2011 7:36:37 AM PDT by K-Ben-K
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To: K-Ben-K

butt South Park prolably is accurate in there portail of us rurel conservatives, hayna? Or no?


10 posted on 04/09/2011 9:16:03 PM PDT by flowerplough (Thomas Sowell: Those who look only at Obama's deeds tend to become Obama's critics.)
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