Could DU members assist here by pointing out episodes where South Park make fun of predominant (R) figures the way they do to liberal figures? As I grow less tolerant of their liberal bashing, I find myself trying to find their reported balance. Some members here defend the show as balanced. Ok, please show me how. IMO South Park consistently and routinely satirizes and lambasts the liberal movement in America. I've used some sources, mainly Wikipedia, to cite my position. I've left out a great deal.
For example a recent episode featuring Bush responding to reporters in a live forum made him look better than I've EVER seen him perform IRL. After I watched that segment, I thought to myself, DAMN I wish the President was actually that competent and forthcoming with information. Note the phrase "South Park Conservative" and "South Park Republican" coined by Andrew Sullivan in 2001.
Here is some of my evidence:
Team America: World Police - right wing to the extreme, kills Michael Moore and other liberals, no citations needed here.
Matt Stone quote "I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals" from
http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_4_were_not_losing.html Trey Parker is a registered Libertarian, with some apparently (R) leanings.
Many conservatives have attacked South Park for its exuberant vulgarity, calling it “twisted,” “vile trash,” a “threat to our youth.” Such denunciations are misguided. Conservative critics should pay closer attention to what South Park so irreverently jeers at and mocks. As the show’s co-creator, 32-year-old Matt Stone, sums it up: “I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals.”
"I'm a Little Bit Country" purports to strike a balance between left and right. In fact the message is that it is ok to go to war as long as you allow people to protest (which can't in fact stop the war). They also say balance is saying we don't want war, but in reality the country really does want war and needs conservatives to be tough and kick ass because the pansy liberals can't or won't. That's their interpretation of balance.
From "Goobacks" pretty daming episode about intolerance of immigrants, where immigrant labor in the U.S. is identified as a problem. The moral shows that if you work together you can make the world a better place, and they do, then decide that all those liberal values and goals are extremely "gay" and they would rather have sex with men (also implied negative).
CNN covers the protest at the time border, in which many men have gotten into the pile. Randy speaks for the rest of the unemployed men on their position. The hippie speaks against it. As the mic is turned in Stan's direction, Stan, disturbed with this protest, sees that it's wrong to call the immigrants "goobacks" because "they're no different from us." He suggests that the people of the present should try to make the future better so the immigrants won't need to come. The men in the pile realize that Stan's right.
The present-day people start to plant trees, recycle, give to the poor, use less polluting energy, and in general clean up, all to an environmental song. The immigrants fade, and the work continues. Stan stops and realizes that "this is gay." Kyle agrees that "this is really gay." Cartman states that it's gayer than when the men were in the pile having sex. Stan apologizes and says, "Everyone back in the pile." The men rush back to the pile.
From "Proper Condom Use" the message conveyed is that schools and the education system should not teach sex education. This should be the exclusive domain of parents, the (R) position.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_Condom_Use"Fun With Veal" moral states that being a vegetarian and refusing to eat meat turns you into "a giant pussy". Secondary moral is that the poor veal farmer trying to earn an honest living is put out of business by liberal activism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_with_VealFrom the rainforests episode "Rainforest Schmainforest"
Doo doo doo doo doo. Doo doo doo wa.
There’s a place called the rain forest that truly sucks ass.
Let’s knock it all down and get rid of it fast.
You say “save the rain forest” but what do you know?
You’ve never been there before.
Getting Gay with Kids is here
To tell you things you might not like to hear.
You only fight these causes ‘cause caring sells.
All you activists can go fuck yourselves.
During the 2000 Florida recount, South Park took a pro-(R) posiiton.
South Park regularly mocks left-wing celebrities who feel entitled to pontificate on how the nation should be run. In one of the most brutal parodies, made in just several days during the 2000 Florida recount fiasco, loudmouth Rosie O’Donnell sweeps into town to weigh in on a kindergarten election dispute involving her nephew. The boys’ teacher dresses her down: “People like you preach tolerance and open-mindedness all the time, but when it comes to middle America, you think we’re all evil and stupid country yokels who need your political enlightenment. Just because you’re on TV doesn’t mean you know crap about the government.”
Hippies and counter-culter (they are pro big-business).
South Park has satirized the sixties counterculture (Cartman has feverish nightmares about hippies, who “want to save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad”); anti-big-business zealots (a “Harbucks” coffee chain opens in South Park, to initial resistance but eventual acclaim as everyone—including the local coffee house’s owners—admits its bean beats anything previously on offer in the town); sex ed in school (featuring “the Sexual Harassment Panda,” an outrageous classroom mascot); pro-choice extremists (Cartman’s mother decides she wants to abort him, despite the fact that he’s eight years old, relying on the “it’s my body” argument); hate-crime legislation, anti-discrimination lawsuits, gay scout leaders, and much more. Conservatives do not escape the show’s satirical sword—gun-toting rednecks and phony patriots have been among those slashed. But there should be no mistaking the deepest thrust of South Park’s politics.
This season, they aired Smug Alert, which ridicules the counter-culture left that wants to promote clean air and hybrid vehicles. They torch George Clooney, who speaks out on liberal issues, for good measure.
A cloud of smug in South Park develops and begins to combine with the cloud of smug from San Francisco. In a series of scenes parodying the film The Perfect Storm, McFriendly then reveals that a cloud from George Clooney's Oscar acceptance speech — claiming that Hollywood was ahead of the curve on social issues — will soon drift into the center of the "super cell", combining to create the "perfect storm of self-satisfaction". San Francisco and South Park will be completely destroyed. Stan must help the town to eliminate hybrid cars; Cartman — desperate to get Kyle back so he can resume hating him — plans a daring mission to infiltrate San Francisco, capital of the hippie movement, and find and rescue his foe.
The episode "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" that parodied the view of global warming that green activists and the media hold as being alarmist and too over the top.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Days_Before_the_Day_After_Tomorrow
Racism and anti-semitism are featured in a number of episodes by Cartman's character. See Christian Rock Hard for racism, and anti-semitism in virtually every episode.
The "Death Camp of Tolerance" is a parody of concentration camps and in part Schindlers List, somewhat disguised anti-semitism.
In another liberal bashing election episode which I cannot recall, they make fun of Puffy Combs who threatens kids to "Vote or Die" mocking the liberal / MTV get out the vote drive.
After the invasion of Iraq, they did bits on Saddam that showed Saddam was in fact hiding WMDs (in heaven) and that Bush and the U.S. were right in the end about their conclusions leading to war.
Janet Reno (Clinton appointee) is portrayed horrendously in all episodes she appears in. One being "Quintuplets 2000".
Clinton - torched
Gore - torched
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