6 ms·

God help us when South Park is helping us find our moral compass...

by redleggedfrog 7y ago

Gabriel_Martin 7y ago
You know, I think I learned something today...
faitswulff 7y ago
Hasn't satire always served as a biting reminder of where our truths should be?
wpasc 7y ago
I don't know that I agree with your sentiment. Irreverent comedians who have achieved significant success and not really accountable to anyone are perfectly positioned to "tell it like it is" and may be the best individuals to do so. I'm glad our society embraces and can cultivate such individuals especially in this time of cancel culture.
- davvolun 7y ago
  You had me until "cancel culture" Exactly how many irreverent comedians who achieved significant success and are not really accountable to anyone, telling it like it is, have been cancelled by the cancel culture? Cosby, TJ Miller, Louis CK, Jeffrey Tambor, James Franco, ...? A good list of people who did morally reprehensible things of varying degrees, from illegal to merely opening their employers to civil liability, and in my mind, they should be "cancelled." Maybe you can argue some of these, I don't think so. Azis Ansari? I don't know how tranchant his "speaking truth to power" has ever been, but he did a Netflix special this year, and I would need pretty compelling evidence to believe that's your smoking gun. I predict he'll be just fine in a few more years. Kevin Hart? Maybe. Again, not much of a politically-motivated comedian, but getting removed as Oscar (?) host was damaging. Nonetheless, it looks like he had 5 movies/specials in 2019 and has work scheduled for 2020. Besides the car crash, I think he'll be alright. Dan Harmon (like James Gunn) was a political hit job and didn't go anywhere. Am I missing anyone? Outside of e.g. #metoo, some people didn't like Dave Chappelle's recent Netflix special. I'm not a fan of him "punching down" at trans people myself, but, I don't think it's anything he hasn't said before. Nonetheless it was trending in the top five for most of last month, I think he is, and will continue to be, doing fine. I just don't see where people attribute all this power to "cancel culture." Chik-fil-A, Nike, ..., all doing just fine despite on-going boycotts from "cancel culture."
  - ousta 7y ago
    James Gunn had 10k pedophile friendly tweets. but yeah it is a political hit job sure.
  - briandear 7y ago
    Roseanne Barr. Had her ABC show cancelled over a tweet, yet ABC-owned ESPN hired Keith Olbermann. Multiple examples of someone posting vile stuff on a blog or twitter and being unscathed (Joy Reid is one quick example,) but Roseanne gets canceled because she happens to support Trump. Another example is Shane Gillis — cancelled because of something he said, not any specific action. Getting cancelled for sexually abusing people is one thing, getting cancelled because of “offensive” speech is the real problem. Roseanne and Gillis and Hart got cancelled for words. CK, Franken, Spacey — they were ousted for actions. That isn’t really part of cancel culture. Driving someone out of business because of vile and criminal actions is much different than firing a comedian because of a joke. If I were a comedian that make vile jokes about Obama and his daughters, I’d be cancelled. If I made vile jokes about Trump and his kids, I’d get a Netflix special.
    - fishtacos 7y ago
      Words don't exist in a vacuum. They have meanings that people interpret to varying degrees of importance. Dismissing what he did as just "something he said" as opposed to meaning or intent, is not cancellation - it's society's backlash toward intolerable racist speech.
      - lawnchair_larry 7y ago
        You might want to investigate the meaning and intent then. He was mocking dumb old white dudes. Everybody just saw the slur and lost their mind, totally missing this fact. It’s fine to not think that the joke landed, but it’s silly to be offended by it. And yes, it was literally cancelation.
    - dfxm12 7y ago
      Barr, Gillis and Hart were fired from one job because they alienated a large enough swath of their employers' customers and advertisers that they thought it would be bad for business. That's capitalism. Furthermore, they're all still working, so I don't see how cancelled is the right word here.
Mountain_Skies 7y ago
We live in a time where Dennis Rodman is an essential diplomatic asset for dealing with a nuclear nation state. We do indeed live in interesting times.
mattmanser 7y ago
South Park has been advocating an ideology, including many morals, from day one of the shows. It may be a mixed message, it may be contradictory, but a lot of SP comedy hinges on pointing out the absurdities in our societies. Comedy has always been a place you'd look if you want to see someone speak truth to power, for millennia too, and South Park has always done that.
- joelx 7y ago
  South Park is 100% right. We need to back them in their fight against a murderous totalitarian dictatorship holding millions of people in concentration camps. We might like the cheap goods coming from China, but remember they come from people who are forced to work at 7 days a week 14 hours a day for nearly no pay. Boycott the NBA and Blizzard and anyone else who won't start standing up for democracy.
  - IllogicalLogic 7y ago
    Being the weaker party in a negotiation is a new role for US, we'll get used to it...
    - jerf 7y ago
      Well, one of the developments of the last six months has been to put a lot of pinpricks in the idea that China is an inevitably rising world superpower that will inevitably supplant the US in the near future. I wouldn't say that's off the table entirely, but it's looking a lot more evitable.
      - IllogicalLogic 7y ago
        What we believe as American consumers and what is economically true are two different sometimes contradictory stories.
- pen2l 7y ago
  I happen to think it's a net negative. It had considerable part in setting back efforts to deal with climate change. They did a mea culpa, but still, I can't tell you how annoyed I was in college with the amount of people who would challenge the idea of climate change just because they watched a South Park episode.
lagadu 7y ago
That has been pretty much South Park's entire premise from day one: mocking the stupid shit we as societies do.
- chrisco255 7y ago
  My favorite thing about South Park is when it satires the over-corrective tendency of American society. When the adults get up in arms about a supposed crisis, inevitably making things worse in the process, and the kids are the only ones acting rationally.
dekhn 7y ago
uhhh.... I think they've done a better job of speaking truth to power than pretty much anybody and have shown they are quite comfortable making fun of themselves. Seems pretty moral...
tomc1985 7y ago
If that's how you really feel then I don't think you watch very much South Park. No other show has so consistently skewered culture, or preached at viewers, for so long as South Park

God help us when South Park is helping us find our moral compass...

Gabriel_Martin 7y ago

You know, I think I learned something today...

faitswulff 7y ago

Hasn't satire always served as a biting reminder of where our truths should be?

wpasc 7y ago

I don't know that I agree with your sentiment. Irreverent comedians who have achieved significant success and not really accountable to anyone are perfectly positioned to "tell it like it is" and may be the best individuals to do so. I'm glad our society embraces and can cultivate such individuals especially in this time of cancel culture.

davvolun 7y ago
You had me until "cancel culture" Exactly how many irreverent comedians who achieved significant success and are not really accountable to anyone, telling it like it is, have been cancelled by the cancel culture? Cosby, TJ Miller, Louis CK, Jeffrey Tambor, James Franco, ...? A good list of people who did morally reprehensible things of varying degrees, from illegal to merely opening their employers to civil liability, and in my mind, they should be "cancelled." Maybe you can argue some of these, I don't think so. Azis Ansari? I don't know how tranchant his "speaking truth to power" has ever been, but he did a Netflix special this year, and I would need pretty compelling evidence to believe that's your smoking gun. I predict he'll be just fine in a few more years. Kevin Hart? Maybe. Again, not much of a politically-motivated comedian, but getting removed as Oscar (?) host was damaging. Nonetheless, it looks like he had 5 movies/specials in 2019 and has work scheduled for 2020. Besides the car crash, I think he'll be alright. Dan Harmon (like James Gunn) was a political hit job and didn't go anywhere. Am I missing anyone? Outside of e.g. #metoo, some people didn't like Dave Chappelle's recent Netflix special. I'm not a fan of him "punching down" at trans people myself, but, I don't think it's anything he hasn't said before. Nonetheless it was trending in the top five for most of last month, I think he is, and will continue to be, doing fine. I just don't see where people attribute all this power to "cancel culture." Chik-fil-A, Nike, ..., all doing just fine despite on-going boycotts from "cancel culture."
- ousta 7y ago
  James Gunn had 10k pedophile friendly tweets. but yeah it is a political hit job sure.
- briandear 7y ago
  Roseanne Barr. Had her ABC show cancelled over a tweet, yet ABC-owned ESPN hired Keith Olbermann. Multiple examples of someone posting vile stuff on a blog or twitter and being unscathed (Joy Reid is one quick example,) but Roseanne gets canceled because she happens to support Trump. Another example is Shane Gillis — cancelled because of something he said, not any specific action. Getting cancelled for sexually abusing people is one thing, getting cancelled because of “offensive” speech is the real problem. Roseanne and Gillis and Hart got cancelled for words. CK, Franken, Spacey — they were ousted for actions. That isn’t really part of cancel culture. Driving someone out of business because of vile and criminal actions is much different than firing a comedian because of a joke. If I were a comedian that make vile jokes about Obama and his daughters, I’d be cancelled. If I made vile jokes about Trump and his kids, I’d get a Netflix special.
  - fishtacos 7y ago
    Words don't exist in a vacuum. They have meanings that people interpret to varying degrees of importance. Dismissing what he did as just "something he said" as opposed to meaning or intent, is not cancellation - it's society's backlash toward intolerable racist speech.
    - lawnchair_larry 7y ago
      You might want to investigate the meaning and intent then. He was mocking dumb old white dudes. Everybody just saw the slur and lost their mind, totally missing this fact. It’s fine to not think that the joke landed, but it’s silly to be offended by it. And yes, it was literally cancelation.
  - dfxm12 7y ago
    Barr, Gillis and Hart were fired from one job because they alienated a large enough swath of their employers' customers and advertisers that they thought it would be bad for business. That's capitalism. Furthermore, they're all still working, so I don't see how cancelled is the right word here.

Mountain_Skies 7y ago

We live in a time where Dennis Rodman is an essential diplomatic asset for dealing with a nuclear nation state. We do indeed live in interesting times.

mattmanser 7y ago

South Park has been advocating an ideology, including many morals, from day one of the shows. It may be a mixed message, it may be contradictory, but a lot of SP comedy hinges on pointing out the absurdities in our societies. Comedy has always been a place you'd look if you want to see someone speak truth to power, for millennia too, and South Park has always done that.

joelx 7y ago
South Park is 100% right. We need to back them in their fight against a murderous totalitarian dictatorship holding millions of people in concentration camps. We might like the cheap goods coming from China, but remember they come from people who are forced to work at 7 days a week 14 hours a day for nearly no pay. Boycott the NBA and Blizzard and anyone else who won't start standing up for democracy.
- IllogicalLogic 7y ago
  Being the weaker party in a negotiation is a new role for US, we'll get used to it...
  - jerf 7y ago
    Well, one of the developments of the last six months has been to put a lot of pinpricks in the idea that China is an inevitably rising world superpower that will inevitably supplant the US in the near future. I wouldn't say that's off the table entirely, but it's looking a lot more evitable.
    - IllogicalLogic 7y ago
      What we believe as American consumers and what is economically true are two different sometimes contradictory stories.
pen2l 7y ago
I happen to think it's a net negative. It had considerable part in setting back efforts to deal with climate change. They did a mea culpa, but still, I can't tell you how annoyed I was in college with the amount of people who would challenge the idea of climate change just because they watched a South Park episode.

lagadu 7y ago

That has been pretty much South Park's entire premise from day one: mocking the stupid shit we as societies do.

chrisco255 7y ago
My favorite thing about South Park is when it satires the over-corrective tendency of American society. When the adults get up in arms about a supposed crisis, inevitably making things worse in the process, and the kids are the only ones acting rationally.

dekhn 7y ago

uhhh.... I think they've done a better job of speaking truth to power than pretty much anybody and have shown they are quite comfortable making fun of themselves. Seems pretty moral...

tomc1985 7y ago

If that's how you really feel then I don't think you watch very much South Park. No other show has so consistently skewered culture, or preached at viewers, for so long as South Park