Post by Poizuun on Mar 5, 2009 19:42:34 GMT -5
You no get the first paragraph because it's fail.
For thirteen years Trey Parker and Matt Stone have left no stone unturned when seeking material for their animated series South Park. For thirteen years there have also been questions, debates, and bans on and about the cartoon children’s adventures and themes. The creators’ most common jabs are at religion, more specifically, Catholics and their belief system. Catholics, who follow the bible and its teachings, have tried to make Parker and Stone more sensitive to the very people they’re using for comedic entertainment and pull the episodes they find offensive and not be re-aired. The South Park creators have continues to make their episodes while network Comedy Central and corporate parent Viacom can only watch and try to keep control over the comedic duo. However, one occasion in particular shows how Stone and Parker still hold the reins.
In an extremely controversial episode in which an image of Muhammed was to be shown, Comedy Central pulled the scene; replacing it with a black screen reading “Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Muhammed on their network.” In retort, Parker and Stone, in the final scene of the episode, show former president George W. Bush and Jesus defecating on themselves and the American flag. The obvious question to the public being: Why is this allowed while an image of a religious figure is not? Trey Parker and Matt Stone are fighting for freedom of speech, while the subjects they use in their quest are doing just the opposite by asking for episodes to be pulled from the list of reruns and even to not be allowed on the DVD releases.
Many viewers are torn between what is humorous and what is crossing the line, especially when religion is concerned. In an interview with Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine, Stone states “I think we’ve always had religion in the show because it’s just funny… We’ve done stuff that’s really anti-religion in some ways. But it’s such an easy joke to go ‘Look how stupid that is,’ and then stop right there. …from the very beginning we always thought it was funny just to flip it on its ear and show how screwed up it is, but also how great it is. People couldn’t tell if we were kidding.” According to Stone, it is the audience’s interpretations of the episodes that creates drama and issues. All he and Parker are trying to do is show us both sides of each argument with their own spin on it. Later in the interview, Parker explains what South Park and other pieces of their work are “saying that there is a middle ground, that most of us actually live in this middle ground, and that all you extremists are the ones who have the microphones because you’re the most interesting to listen to, but actually this group isn’t evil, that group isn’t evil, and there’s something to be worked out here.” By taking offense where offense is thought to be made, others are creating the problems rather than the ones that thought of it in the first place.
One of the main antagonists of South Park, undoubtedly, is William Donahue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. If there is an episode of South Park where Catholic or Christian beliefs are represented, Donahue has something to say about it. Parker and Stone, however, depicted Donahue in one of their episodes in which Donahue overthrew Pope Benedict and sentenced Jesus to death. In an article written by Abe Silk in Spring of 2003, he defends South Park against being biased against religion, saying “…as sacrilegious as South Park can be, it is something else to accuse the show of being anti-religious. Although eccentric faiths like Scientology are called into question, the central tenets of mainstream Christianity and Judaism remain unchallenged.” Though it may not seem like it, Parker and Stone know their boundaries of offending their audience and will not put the fact that one believes in what they do up for mockery, only to poke fun at the way people have interpreted the religion in the present day. In two separate episodes entitled Red Hot Catholic Love and Go God Go, the creators even show that atheists have rather strange tendencies and interpretations at what life should be like.
Donahue, however, does not seem satisfied by the seemingly even distribution of mockery between religions. Rather than see the underlying message of their image at the end of the episode Cartoon Wars Part II of Jesus and Bush defecating on the flag, he instead told The New York Post on April 14, 2006, “Like little whores, they'll sit there and grab the bucks. They'll sit there and they'll whine and they'll take their shot at Jesus. That's their stock in trade.” Donahue has no emotional connections to the creators of South Park, and it’s apparent that he does not have even a decent amount of like for them, in almost every interview where he is asked his opinion on their portrayal of Catholicism or Parker and Stone themselves, the word “bigot” is almost always present.
For thirteen years Trey Parker and Matt Stone have left no stone unturned when seeking material for their animated series South Park. For thirteen years there have also been questions, debates, and bans on and about the cartoon children’s adventures and themes. The creators’ most common jabs are at religion, more specifically, Catholics and their belief system. Catholics, who follow the bible and its teachings, have tried to make Parker and Stone more sensitive to the very people they’re using for comedic entertainment and pull the episodes they find offensive and not be re-aired. The South Park creators have continues to make their episodes while network Comedy Central and corporate parent Viacom can only watch and try to keep control over the comedic duo. However, one occasion in particular shows how Stone and Parker still hold the reins.
In an extremely controversial episode in which an image of Muhammed was to be shown, Comedy Central pulled the scene; replacing it with a black screen reading “Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Muhammed on their network.” In retort, Parker and Stone, in the final scene of the episode, show former president George W. Bush and Jesus defecating on themselves and the American flag. The obvious question to the public being: Why is this allowed while an image of a religious figure is not? Trey Parker and Matt Stone are fighting for freedom of speech, while the subjects they use in their quest are doing just the opposite by asking for episodes to be pulled from the list of reruns and even to not be allowed on the DVD releases.
Many viewers are torn between what is humorous and what is crossing the line, especially when religion is concerned. In an interview with Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine, Stone states “I think we’ve always had religion in the show because it’s just funny… We’ve done stuff that’s really anti-religion in some ways. But it’s such an easy joke to go ‘Look how stupid that is,’ and then stop right there. …from the very beginning we always thought it was funny just to flip it on its ear and show how screwed up it is, but also how great it is. People couldn’t tell if we were kidding.” According to Stone, it is the audience’s interpretations of the episodes that creates drama and issues. All he and Parker are trying to do is show us both sides of each argument with their own spin on it. Later in the interview, Parker explains what South Park and other pieces of their work are “saying that there is a middle ground, that most of us actually live in this middle ground, and that all you extremists are the ones who have the microphones because you’re the most interesting to listen to, but actually this group isn’t evil, that group isn’t evil, and there’s something to be worked out here.” By taking offense where offense is thought to be made, others are creating the problems rather than the ones that thought of it in the first place.
One of the main antagonists of South Park, undoubtedly, is William Donahue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. If there is an episode of South Park where Catholic or Christian beliefs are represented, Donahue has something to say about it. Parker and Stone, however, depicted Donahue in one of their episodes in which Donahue overthrew Pope Benedict and sentenced Jesus to death. In an article written by Abe Silk in Spring of 2003, he defends South Park against being biased against religion, saying “…as sacrilegious as South Park can be, it is something else to accuse the show of being anti-religious. Although eccentric faiths like Scientology are called into question, the central tenets of mainstream Christianity and Judaism remain unchallenged.” Though it may not seem like it, Parker and Stone know their boundaries of offending their audience and will not put the fact that one believes in what they do up for mockery, only to poke fun at the way people have interpreted the religion in the present day. In two separate episodes entitled Red Hot Catholic Love and Go God Go, the creators even show that atheists have rather strange tendencies and interpretations at what life should be like.
Donahue, however, does not seem satisfied by the seemingly even distribution of mockery between religions. Rather than see the underlying message of their image at the end of the episode Cartoon Wars Part II of Jesus and Bush defecating on the flag, he instead told The New York Post on April 14, 2006, “Like little whores, they'll sit there and grab the bucks. They'll sit there and they'll whine and they'll take their shot at Jesus. That's their stock in trade.” Donahue has no emotional connections to the creators of South Park, and it’s apparent that he does not have even a decent amount of like for them, in almost every interview where he is asked his opinion on their portrayal of Catholicism or Parker and Stone themselves, the word “bigot” is almost always present.
We have a cbox again and we're opening the place up as a closed, members only rp