South Park busts on Al Gore. Guess what the big laugh line is?

[Junkdrawer]

Al Gore keeps saying "You must believe me. I'm serial"...

And I thought that last week's "Oprah's vagina with a gun" was as low as they could go.

Boys, grab a clue and take a sabbatical. You really, really need one.

[Beelzebud]

1. I've been a South Park fan since day 1, but this new season SUCKS.

They are getting full of themselves, BIG TIME.

They need to replace the "Cloony Smug" from that episode a couple weeks ago with "Trey and Matt Smug"

I do admit the Chef episode had me in stitches, but they rushed that together to fit what was going on in reality, and didn't take time to insert their increasingly idiotic political nonsense into it.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

4. Oh, come on

You like it when they rag on the things you rag on, but you don't like it when they rag on the things you like.

I say they're fair and balanced in ways that we all should hope for. I think they're doing a great job.

[Beelzebud]

6. It would be different if it was funny! They have always bashed dems.

But it was funny. They just aren't coming up with good material lately.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. Ever write professionally - for TV, or a publisher, or

a national magazine, or anything like that?

No?

Yeah, well, I have, and everyone's a critic. It's so much easier than working.

Sorry, but they got a Peabody, and I find that so appropriate. Don't forget - they're not a cartoon or a comedy show - they're a news show, in the same vein as The Daily Show.

Everyone's a critic. It's so easy.

[Beelzebud]

14. LOL Touchy touchy! Do you work for them or something?

I don't like this season! BFD.

Your life will go on. My life will go on

And the creator's of South Park's lives will go on.

And when they start being funny to me again, I'll say so. Just because they won a Peabody does not mean they aren't capable of having a crappy writing period. I've always liked them up until this season, but the past 3 episodes have sucked.

Pretty fuckin high standard you have there about someone stating an opinion about a TV show...

[OldLeftieLawyer]

25. They're not a comedy show,

and that's why you're disappointed.

You're missing all the subtext and metaphor that is skillfully obscured by the vulgarity, which I happen to enjoy.

No, I don't work for them. I'm a novelist now. The days of TV and movie writing are behind me now.

[Beelzebud]

37. I understand the metaphors and commentary just fine.

I just don't think this season has been up to par with past seasons.

No reason for you to insinuate I'm some kind of dummy because i don't like this damn season...

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Beelzebud]

44. Oh ok, so I'm dumb because I don't think this season has been

as good as their previous seasons?

I think you don't take criticism very well, and are projecting on me.

It's South Park. They have been on the air for 10 years. Do you honestly stand by the notion that because they have won a Peabody means that they are above haveing an off-year?

Get off your high horse. You don't have to be a writer to be able to state your opinion on something.

[Name removed]

46. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

51. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dorian Gray]

47. ......

:eyes:

[Arugula Latte]

62. I don't get it.

Isn't Beelzebud entitled to his opinion that something isn't funny? :shrug: Just asking.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

63. Sure, of course, just like you are, just like I am

And that's called an exchange.

When the phrase "high horse" is used, though, civility has ended, and so has the exchange.

That's why "Ignore" was invented.

[Jigarotta]

17. a news show?

comparable to TDS? LOL!

mmm, OKAYEE DOKIE!!!! YOU MUST BE THE AUTHORATAH! on that.

[Beelzebud]

21. Yeah that's a pretty HUGE stretch...

Yeah they have always contained social commentary, but it's isn't "news" in any way shape or form.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Reciprocity]

34. Humm

I think they have spent to much time with their heads up their asses, getting high from smelling their farts all day.

[Dorian Gray]

48. :eyes:

:eyes:

[fishnfla]

49. I have skipped all the insight and subtexts

and found it to be a TV show, a cartoon.

Its not a news show, sorry

[Jigarotta]

64. I suppose I insulted you or something.

to explain that sarcastic dismissive classist reply of yours. I didn't get a Peabody and prolly make a lot less money that the two fellsas, so I should stfu, I suppose?

All was meant was:

If I am surfing the channels and end up on the SP show, I would not imagine ever thinking: 'Oh, good, a news program.'. I find that hilarious, sorry if you don't.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

68. Yeah lots of credibility lost with THAT statement. Hell no one ever

watched South Park expecting to LAUGH!

[bedpanartist]

22. bravo sir, bravo

as one who has made a living in the creative biz in many different positions - editor to entertainer - I wholeheartedly praise your astute and oh so real observations.

We're a nation of critics, not of doers. Those who do are attacked. And if you're any good, you're REALLY attacked.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

28. Not only that,

I'm not a "sir," but I do appreciate the sentiment.

The old joke is that any monkey with a pencil immediately turns into either a critic or an editor. Here, they have keyboards and anonymity, and, presumably, not as much body hair (one can only hope).

Yeah, the sluggards who like to watch are the most vehement when their obvious shortcomings - of all sorts, no doubt - are revealed.

It's funny, they're harmless, and they'll go look for something else to entertain themselves when South Park fails them yet again and again, as it most surely must. Then, they'll wonder why they never did squat with their lives. Creatively, that is.

We're the lucky ones, my friend. With all the angst involved, we're the luckiest ones.

Thanks.

[bedpanartist]

39. ever perform live?

I have, about 500 times. Everyone thinks they can do it, but few can. I trained with the best performers of the all growing up, Appalachian preachers.

I have a good friend a bit more famous than I, Chuch Cleaver (ass ponys, wussy), who was peforming at a music festival and someone threw a dead fish at him.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

43. How about being a litigator

for almost thirty years?

Do courtrooms count as stages?

You bet they do.

No one ever threw anything at me except money. I was lucky.

[bedpanartist]

66. sure does

although when you're in front of a crowd of drunks, you are putting yourself at the alter of mercy if you attempt to obfuscate for one second. You get big rewards for that in the courtroom. ;-)

[alcibiades_mystery]

54. Because criticism isn't an action?

Kinda like saying a counterpuncher isn't a boxer, seems to me?

[progressivebydesign]

57. South Park a "news" show? ummm.. yah.. n/t

[Name removed]

58. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Up2Late]

38. Hey, I agree with you completely, I too have see every episode...

...in most cases, several times each, and I thought this was one of their best seasons.

If there was a below par season, it was season 2, when they were still figuring out what direction to take the show.

I think a lot of the folks here are just pissed off that they dared to point out how lame and washed up Al Gore is as a future Presidential candidate. :toast:

[OldLeftieLawyer]

53. BINGO!

It's the classic case of being able to dish it out, but not take it.

Kudos, pal............

[Up2Late]

11. OMG, This season is one of the best!

I missed the first part of tonight's show, who's "Man-Bear-Pig?"

[dysfunctional press]

35. I have to disagree STRONGLY

i've seen them all, and this is definitely the weakest season they've had- the chef show was the only halfway decent one.

[Warpy]

19. I loved their first couple of seasons

when it was all fresh and new. After that they seemed to get into a juvenile contest to see who they could offend more.

I think I watched them once when I was in Florida and I think I didn't finish that show. Bleh.

[dysfunctional press]

36. yep.

this was the last new show of this season, i believe.

this season just plain sucked.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

2. The show is great

They're perfectly parodying Al Gore at his stuffiest. And making some pretty good social points, as well.

"Serial" is only one step away from "SERIES," and I just regard it as a kind of sideways hommage to our friends at freeperville.

It's brilliant.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

61. I happen to love South Park even when it feels like nails on a chalkboard

which it did last night. Frankly, I agree with you and I hope that through the grapevine, My President Gore will get the hint and lighten-up, which I have seen him do.

South Park refuses to hold up anyone on a pedestal and to Parker and Stone, nothing is sacred, and to me that is honest and refreshing in a world full of pretext.

PS...I am happy too that they stopped killing Kenny!

[Strawman]

3. their equal opportunity offending is past being stale

I don't care if they satire liberals, so long as it's funny. It's just not any more. It's formulaic. "We ripped on Muslim and Xtian fundies last week, ok this week it's a Democrat." Lame

[GoneOffShore]

5. South Park

The nadir of "humor".

Beavis and Butthead were funnier.

[onehandle]

7. For Years, The Simpsons has been making fun of its viewers...

...because they ran out of ideas over a decade ago. They can get away with it. South Park can't.

The shark has been jumped. Cancel it.

[Orrex]

8. If I ever laugh at a South Park joke, kill me

Unfunniest show I've ever seen, and that includes the Piscopo years of SNL. I "get" the jokes, if such they can be called, so it's not as though the highbrow satire is escaping me...

[file83]

40. For a show like South Park that depends on 'shock' - demise is

always preceded by an avalanche of absurdity. Case in point.

[LittleClarkie]

9. At least it wasn't about him inventing the internet

again.

I get sick of that one.

[bullwinkle428]

30. Freepers still spout that specific load of crap - I just heard it this

morning from one of the local "morning zoo" DJs...

[LittleClarkie]

31. Yep. If only we could send them to Daily Howler or something

to be debriefed.

[AlCzervik]

12. i think my favorite episode of all time was Stupid slutty girls lampooning

Paris Hilton. I don't watch every week, i did see last weeks and i probably should have skipped it.

[Ksec]

13. Give and take

I can take a joke and this doesnt hurt me at all.

[rusty charly]

15. i don't really watch it

unless i read somewhere about some episode- like the chef thing

but: have they ever really gone after the chimperor? cheney? rummy? delay? lott? coulter? o'reilly?

[CatholicEdHead]

18. The few times they have shown * were in positions of respect

While they bashed Clinton while he was still in office (e.g. Civil War Reenactment episode among others), they have shown respect for Bush each time they have shown him. (Crab People/meterosexual episode and Family Guy Episode 1)

[AlCzervik]

20. i don't think they've ever gone after him, not a once that i can remember

i remember several Suddam Hussain being the devils lover episodes but not a one going after any conservatives.

[Beelzebud]

23. They did do the series That's My Bush. Lasted one season.

It slammed W pretty hard.

[AlCzervik]

24. that i remember but then after it got canceled timothy Bottoms

actually made a pro-bush movie, said he changed his mind--"9/11 changed everything" wanker.

[JohnKleeb]

27. I read it was canceled not because of that but because

it was too expensive to make.

[negativenihil]

45. What about the Giant Douche/Turd Sandwich episode?

That basically ripped on both bush and kerry before the 2004 election. *shrug*

[BlueStater]

16. I didn't see it

I can take a joke but they do seem to spend a lot more time attacking liberals than conservatives.

There is a group of corrupt, incompetent liars in the White House now who have gotten thouands of people killed and they feel the need to take a swipe at Gore, a man who has been out of the national spotlight for 5 years now and isn't harming anyone? Huh?

[Julius Civitatus]

29. They jumped the shark -- this was very uncalled for

I officially declare that South Park has jumped the shark.

With a Bush administration in the shit, with scandals popping up everywhere, the Republican leadership indicted or waiting trial, the Iraq adventure turned into a mess, and the neocons itching to bomb Iran... what politician do these punk-ass bitches Parker & Stone trash today?
Well, Al Gore. And, again, it wasn't even funny.

Of course, with all the shit that's going on, they had the bad taste to go back all the way to 2000 and bring back a Democrat to savagely ridicule and trash. How very brave.

[Chimichurri]

50. Exactly. I love SP but they give him and Cheney and the rest

a total pass where they didn't extend Clinton the same courtesy. Of all people to go after, they pick Gore.

[Mike Niendorff]

32. South Park is just one big publicity stunt.

Turns out, being shocking isn't really the same as being funny.


MDN

[file83]

41. 'shock' and 'awe, shucks that sucks'....

...is kind of how people are feeling about that show. After a while, the shock becomes impossible because shock depends on unpredictability - which South Park no longer has.

[BlakeB]

33. Well...

Never much cared for South Park.

[debbierlus]

52. South Park SUCKS!

As a FORMER fan, I have seen enough episodes to legitimately comment.

And, after a few years of noticing that they ALWAYS bash liberals for the stupidest things and NEVER bash neo-cons for the most serious things, I quit watching it.

If it was an equal opportunity bashing, I wouldn't mind.

But, they are so anti-liberal it is sick.

The fun and humor of the first couple of seasons is completely gone. They ruined it. The characters got mean. The commentary is vicious and biased (and usually cliche).

Screw Matt & Trent.

[gratuitous]

56. Riffing from the previous post a la Joe Queenan

It's addressed (really) to the hold-outs, and I think you know who you are, who feel that South Park is as good as it ever was or that last night's episode was another tour de force from the Masters:

South Park sucks. There. It's been said. It's out there.

Admit it: South Park sucks. Just admit it, and you'll feel better.

Yes, South Park won a Peabody. Which is as good a measure of selling out as any I can think of. But that’s not really the point, although I don’t think Matt and Trey should actually buy tuxedos in anticipation of winning any more Peabodys for this season’s body of work.

The easy shots have already been taken against them for their treatment of Isaac Hayes (not that Stone and Parker didn’t deserve them). But the whistle’s been blown on that play, and I don’t want to be guilty of piling on.

No, South Park sucks because it isn’t very funny. Oh, last night’s episode had its moments, to be sure. Cartman’s face-off with his sleeping nemesis Kyle, gloating over his secret treasure, when Kyle suddenly wakes up was a terrific moment. But such moments were overwhelmed by the total lameness of the episode in its entirety. Let’s review:

The boys are trapped in a mine cave-in. Certainly with a couple of recent cave-ins in mining country, this might be a good opportunity to riff on lax safety standards in mines, or the media frenzy that accompanies such a disaster. It’s been a running joke at South Park how the public suddenly focuses on an ongoing problem, and typically overreacts when they finally notice an appalling situation. Then the public goes blithely on its way having imposed a solution that was worse than the original problem.

Instead, Parker and Stone use the set-up to riff on . . . Al Gore?! Al fucking Gore? A man who hasn’t been in public life for nearly six years, Al Gore?! What in the fuck? Well wait, you think, perhaps there’s something yet to be gleaned from the story of Al Gore. But no, Parker and Stone go over the same, tired ground: Al Gore takes credit for things he hasn’t really done. But instead of using that as a springboard for some critique of commentators and conventional wisdom (after all, Gore was mercilessly savaged for years for warning about global climate change – remember Ozone Man? – and now his views are conventional wisdom), Parker and Stone go . . . another way.

Al Gore is portrayed as a vaguely gay caricature, lisping, misspeaking, and impotently stamping his little feet over some made-up ridiculous threat. Again, an opportunity (reminiscent of the Scuzzlebutt episode?) where something outlandish sounding turns out to be true? No, Parker and Stone make Gore a mere prop, going for the cheap laugh and the hammy insult. No nuance, no subtlety, just ham-handedness. It sucks.

Meanwhile the boys are trying to tunnel their way out when the Al Gore character floods the mine to drown his bete noire. The last we see of the boys in the cave is Cartman, weighted down by the ersatz treasure he ate, sinking with Kyle (or Stan, who cares?) beneath the water. The next time we see them, they’re breaking through the cave-in debris, with no explanation how Cartman and Kyle-or-Stan avoided drowning. Al Gore, inexplicably given the podium to eulogize the presumed dead boys, interrupts his speech (and the gratuitous carping from the rescuers) rushes over to proclaim how he saved them.

Pointless. Puerile. Gibberish. In a target-rich environment of Republican corruption and malfeasance, Parker and Stone spend an episode picking on . . . Al fucking Gore.

Admit it, it sucked. Admit it and you’ll feel better.

[NYCGirl]

59. BTW, Joe Queenan is intensely brilliant.

South Park, ehh....not so much.

Edited to add: I did not see the episode in question.

[Junkdrawer]

60. Great Post...

:thumbsup:

[Beelzebud]

65. Great post. I was told above that I am unintelligent because I don't

grasp SP's metaphors and social commentary.

I do. It's just that this season, their metaphors and commentary are not up to par with their previous efforts.

[calmblueocean]

67. If this were Slashdot, I'd give you +1, Insightful.

Maybe next episode will be about Dukakis! I can hardly wait!

[patcox2]

55. Thats Hugh! Serially!

They must have been reading DU.