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Are The 'South Park' Creators Reactionaries? (huffingtonpost.com)

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[–]mujahid69 33ポイント34ポイント  (0子コメント)

A rare exception to Betteridge's law of headlines. I have to strongly disagree with the author's conceptions of both reaction and postmodernism. With regard to the former, reactionaries aren't simply anti-change (the author acknowledges this when they say that electing Trump would be a change), and they aren't specifically oriented against the left. Modern day reactionaries want to change lots of things - ethnic and religious pluralism, immigration policy, gender roles, any number of things. Winston Churchill was a reactionary and he was still against Hitler, to his right. They also claim that the creators can't be reactionaries because they don't like Trump. Lots of reactionaries don't like Trump. Ted Cruz? Lindsey Graham? Paul Wolfowitz? Dozens of other major Republican figures? So this clearly doesn't hold up.

With regard to postmodernism, I don't think the author properly distinguishes between the topic and the mindset of postmodern thought. The 'fuck everything' attitude they describe is of interest to postmodern thinkers, but it's not deconstruction and it's certainly not non-ideological. I think this is what grinds my gears the most here: the uncritical acceptance that if you rail against all explicit ideologies, you must not have one yourself. If you have any contact with other people, you have an ideology. That's a given. And it's all the more pernicious when you think it's just common sense.

[–]wordsmythe⚔--Social Justice Cleric--⚔ 14ポイント15ポイント  (3子コメント)

The hardest question for me with South Park is whether it started clever and got old, or if I just grew up enough to recognize it for what it always was.

[–]mrbaryonyx 9ポイント10ポイント  (1子コメント)

Somebody here posted a great article by moviebob on the subject, but it's probably just that it got old. There's a lot of evidence for this; the fact that it doesn't really have the same sense of humor or construction it used to, the fact that most of the episodes now seem critical of progressive movements led by younger people and seem to support the established status quo, and the fact that there is at least one episode actually titled "you're getting old" that fans have taken as the creator's admittance that their show has outlived its welcome.

It was always sort of transphobic and offensive, sure, but now it's devoted an entire season to criticizing people who would criticize it as transphobic and offensive as 'easily offended' which suggests it, as a show, is just sort of getting out of touch.

[–]BZenMojo 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

The last two seasons havent been making that argument. The finale last season defended Political Correctness and the premiere is atracking Trump and Gamergate by accusing any man who stays quiet whIle women are being harassed as being complicit in the harassment. I do find it funny that Movie Bob decided South Park jumped the shark the same season it turned on moderates and started criticizing white first world faux liberal sensitivity on a regular basis.

I mean, at a certain point you may not get the joke because you are the joke.

Remember: these critiques didn't exist two years ago. They are suddenly being inspired by a specific tack the show is taking. What Pisses off Bob NOW isnt what pissed you off five years ago. He was still laughing.

[–]ryannaughton1138 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Why not both?

[–]ryannaughton1138 15ポイント16ポイント  (6子コメント)

Bob Chipman did a better job of tackling this subject.

[–]Heatth 7ポイント8ポイント  (5子コメント)

Where? I would like to see it.

[–]KingWumpus 15ポイント16ポイント  (4子コメント)

2015: The Year South Park Finally Got Old

[–]blingyhawk 24ポイント25ポイント  (2子コメント)

Every South Park Ending Ever

[–]mrbaryonyx 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

I love how these were both made by the same guy

[–]MRAGoAway_⚔Social Justice Air Marshall⚔ 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

Amen to that. South Park is preachy as fuck, and it's 100x more annoying because it also pats itself on the back for how much it skewers everyone else's preaching.

I fucking hate SP.

[–]Heatth 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thanks =)

[–]sameshiteverydayhereIt's not just you, I just hate being social 24ポイント25ポイント  (6子コメント)

If by reactionaries you mean librocontrarian assholes, then yeah. But clearly we're playing Nth Dimensional Scrabble with definitions in this article.

How about a simpler one? "Is South Park Just Comfortable Bros Slapping Each Other On The Back While Playing Beer Pong?"

[–]Nukerjsr 3ポイント4ポイント  (5子コメント)

They have made fun libertarians and atheists.

[–]sameshiteverydayhereIt's not just you, I just hate being social 12ポイント13ポイント  (0子コメント)

When all you have is a Horseshoe Theory, everything looks like a nail I guess.

[–]Meshleth 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

That doesnt matter since Parker and Stone have made not overtly caring about any position into an art form.

[–]houseofleaves1066 0ポイント1ポイント  (2子コメント)

When have they made fun of libertarians?

[–]Nukerjsr -1ポイント0ポイント  (1子コメント)

When they called "Atlas Shrugged" the biggest piece of shit book ever written and it made someone who just discovered reading (Officer Barbrady) into not wanting to read ever again.

[–]houseofleaves1066 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Ha that's awesome, was that a relatively recent episode?

[–]MacReadys_Hat_ 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Teehee

[–]welsh_dragon_roar 9ポイント10ポイント  (3子コメント)

I've always taken it to be nihilistic, created by people who don't care either way; it's simply poking fun at anything imaginable. There are plenty of people who are 'depolarised' .. one minute the blue team thinks they're batting for them.. and then it's the red.. and so on and so forth. The spirit of satire is founded in the idea that everything is fair game for a cutting analysis.

[–]Ruefully 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

This is fine. It only becomes a problem when people I know IRL or on the interwebs come up to me and start using South Park episodes as parts of their arguments or tell me that South Park is right and X sucks.

[–]OneJobToRuleThemAllAnxiety-driven wheelprints 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

South Park never aspired to be right, it aspired to be assholeish. They are Walter, always have been, always will be.

[–]mrbaryonyx -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

While this is true, it doesn't mean the creators "aren't taking a side" as they claim to be, as even "not taking a side" is intrinsically taking the side with the status quo. And the creator's prejudices are often shown in what they focus on, and South Park has focused heavily on PC and social justice culture as of late. That doesn't make them wrong, obviously, and they can satirize those cultures, and even have good points. But focusing on it too much gives the impression that they're getting somewhat out of touch with younger, progressive movements and are basically becoming "the man".

[–]Nukerjsr 8ポイント9ポイント  (0子コメント)

Great write up.

There's a lot to critique on Parker/Stone's mindset when it comes to the show, but Coffin does really strong analysis about how South Park can be negative even if they do happen to be effective and funny. They are much more destructive and deconstructive of nature and sacred cows rather than creating an alternative.

I agree with the sense they aren't reactions because they don't focus on one section or side. They are against neoliberalisms heavily, but they've spent a lot of time making fun of conservatism, religion, and many other traditional American values. But saying it's anti-change where no one is ever truly right and we should make fun of all sacred cows is a fair assessment. Especially when some aspects of MRAs/Libertarians and SJW/Liberals opposites can be made fun of interchangeably. (Especially this year, christ)

I think we'll get a better understanding where they stand on certain political issues during this season for sure, especially if they plan another episode around the election. (As what they did with Obama/McCain) I'm hopefully optimistic, but I'm sure there will be funny episodes even amongst some groaners.

[–]Bloo_DriverLiterally Bloo 6ポイント7ポイント  (4子コメント)

Reactionaries? Probably not really.

Lazy? Fuck yes they've gotten lazy. "Here, let me strawman the fuck out of an issue and make fun of that strawman, now look at me, I'm a moderate and reasonable thinker commenting on it with a moral lesson!" That used to be the sort of thing they made fun of. The show just leans on tired, predictable jokes now, using "oh you're just too PC/uptight!" as a way to deflect any comment about how dumb it is.

[–]Satorui29 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

The video that the article in this link links to makes a pretty good argument that the 19th season was actually about the way neoliberal corporatism coopts social justice causes and uses them to make money without actually fixing society's problems. Which, if that's the case, may mean they aren't so much lazy so much as they are trying too hard to be cleaver and just wind up being a confusing political ink blot test instead.

[–]Bloo_DriverLiterally Bloo 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

It's a pretty generous interpretation, though, as the whole thing falls back to the baseline of "find something people care about, make fun of people caring about it". If it was some random single episode of a web series or something without the broader context of South Park's "I'm making fun of people who are preachy and totally not doing it in a preachy way nope!" habit, I might agree.

[–]BlutigeBaumwolleshameless TB apologist 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

Lazy? Fuck yes they've gotten lazy.

It has always been that way.