But did you see the one about the fart-sniffing hybrid owners?
I stayed up late last night to watch the second episode of South Park's "Cartoon Wars." I wasn't even expecting that much after the first episode turned out to be so decidedly unfunny. Still, it managed to disappoint (but not as much as that first episode -- that blew). Now, I think making fun of Family Guy is great and all, but the Muhammad thing was really annoying. I did and still do feel that the response to the Danish cartoons was ridiculous and shameful, but just because the violent reaction to the cartoons was wrong doesn't mean that it's also wrong to get offended by them.
I doubt Parker and Stone really even feel that strongly about the defending their first ammendment rights. It just seemed like they were trying to be edgy and controversial. The second episode barely even dealt with the Muhammad thing anyway. Instead, it had Bart Simpson. Their self-deprecating remarks about being all preachy and up their own asses seemed tacked on too. Nope, there was no saving it. I'm hoping this wasn't the episode that jumped the shark, but they really seemed to be reaching.
That bit about the manatees was pretty good, though.
I doubt Parker and Stone really even feel that strongly about the defending their first ammendment rights. It just seemed like they were trying to be edgy and controversial. The second episode barely even dealt with the Muhammad thing anyway. Instead, it had Bart Simpson. Their self-deprecating remarks about being all preachy and up their own asses seemed tacked on too. Nope, there was no saving it. I'm hoping this wasn't the episode that jumped the shark, but they really seemed to be reaching.
That bit about the manatees was pretty good, though.
posted by Skim at Monday, April 17, 2006
3 Comments:
I disagree. The criticism of Family Guy with the terrorist jokes was a good start. But then they made fun of their own criticism with Cartman's extreme response to his humor being compared to Family Guy. And followed that with an even more mean-spirited Family Guy attack. That kind of multi-level, self-referential humor does it for me. Or maybe I’m just disagreeing with you because I hate you. Who the hell knows?
I was going to end with a joke about the phrase “jump the shark” jumping the shark, but I’m sure someone somewhere beat me to it.
Did I miss something? Did Family Guy actually make terrorist jokes? The episode would have been more successful if they had focused solely on Family Guy, but they tried to drive a point about freedom of speech in such a gimmicky way that I think even they were embarrassed by it, which is why they included the "up their own asses" line.
I agree that we should change the "jump the shark" phrase. I only learned of it a couple of months ago, and, already, I'm a little tired of it. How about, "It was the episode that fucked the gimpy monkey"? You know, from Friends.
I don't think you missed anything, I think I explained myself poorly. My bad.
I have wondered before whether the South Park are embarassed by some of their "messages"; as far as I can remember, they're pretty uniformly lame. I think its more likely they think "I can't believe they let us put that on TV" and then giggle for a few hours. And then go swimming in all their millions of dollars.
I'm all for "fucked the gimpy monkey". I'm not sure what episode that refers to, but I've never said "fuck the gimpy monkey" and I'd really like to start.
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