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South Park is an American, Emmy Award-winning[1] animated television comedy series about four fourth-grade school boys who live in the small town of South Park, Colorado. The series was created and is written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and has been distributed and aired by Comedy Central since 1997. It is mostly known for its handling of current events and its pop-culture parody. Since its premiere on August 13, 1997, 158 episodes have been created and animated over eleven seasons. One more season is planned, with an option for renewal at the end of Season 12. In recent years, each season has been aired in two halves, in Spring and in Autumn. The eleventh season began airing on March 7, 2007.
Origins
In 1995, FOX executive Brian Graden, after seeing the film, commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film to send to friends as a video Christmas card. Titled Jesus vs. Santa, it resembled the style of the later series more closely, and featured a martial arts duel and subsequent truce between Jesus and Santa Claus over the true meaning of Christmas. This video was later featured in the episode "A Very Crappy Christmas" in which Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny and Mr. Hankey "save" Christmas for the town. The video was popular and was widely shared, both by duplication and over the Internet. This led to talks to create a series, first with FOX, then with Comedy Central, where the series premiered on August 13, 1997. During the first four seasons of South Park, a clip of the short can be seen in the opening sequence within a billboard and an old television. HistorySouth Park's early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented, and featured more Pythonesque humor than later episodes. Although satire had been used on the show occasionally in its early and middle years, it became more evident around the eighth season. Episodes have parodied Michael Jackson (in "The Jeffersons"), "Paris Hilton" ("Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset"), The Passion of the Christ (in "The Passion of the Jew"), and American immigration policy ("Goobacks"). The pilot episode("Cartman Gets an Anal Probe") required three months to produce using construction paper and traditional cut-out animation techniques. However the version that aired was different than the original version. Current episodes duplicate the original, amateurish look using modern computer animation tools — first PowerAnimator and then Maya, which Parker and Stone described as "building a sandcastle with a bulldozer". This allows for a shorter production schedule, enabling the creators to respond quickly to current events. The December 17, 2003 episode "It's Christmas in Canada" depicts the capture of Saddam Hussein a mere three days after the actual event, even referancing the "spider hole" in which he was found. In this instance -- as with the Elián González episode ("Quintuplets 2000") -- the creators changed the production of an episode at the last minute to focus on the new world event.
On September 9 2005, Comedy Central committed to three more seasons of South Park, so the show will run until at least 2008. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct, and edit every episode of the show, bringing the series total to 181 episodes by the end of its twelfth season. [2] Edited versions of South Park episodes, with the TV-14 rating, began broadcasting in syndication on September 19 2005 on various local channels around the U.S. CharactersMatt Stone and Trey Parker voice most of the male characters, while April Stewart and Mona Marshall (formerly Mary Kay Bergman and Eliza Schneider) voice most of the female characters. Adrien Beard (Token Black), Vernon Chatman (Towelie), Jennifer Howell (Bebe Stevens), and John Hansen (Mr. Slave) also provide voices. Main charactersImage:Southpark ep107 1.jpg The boys dressed for Halloween (left to right: Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh and Kenny McCormick) in the episode Pink Eye. Prior to season four, the main characters of the show were four third grade students (often called "the boys" when as a group for easier reference). Often the "straight man" of the group. Generally good-natured and clear-thinking, a bit over-sensitive at times, Stan usually tries to come up with logical solutions to their outrageous situations. Designed as the alter-ego for co-creator Trey Parker, Stan often attempts to summarize the message or moral of the episode, though sometimes without success. His best friend is Kyle and their relationship is central to several episodes, such as when he saves Kyle's life in Cherokee Hair Tampons, Cartmanland and Super Best Friends. Easy-going, Jewish (but not particularly religious), skeptical and intelligent. He hates Cartman because of his constant ridiculing of his faith. Kyle is effectively the alter-ego of co-creator Matt Stone. Along with Stan, Kyle often provides a reasonable perspective on the crazy behavior of the adult world around them. Kyle is often depicted as the most moral member of the four. Eric is an overweight little boy who seems to hate almost everything. He is often the catalyst for the plot. Cartman commonly acts against the other boys. Cartman frequently insults Kyle for being Jewish and Kenny for being poor. His pretentious attitude often causes conflict with the other boys. At times, he proves himself a remarkably capable businessman and leader. Cartman sometimes serves as a mouthpiece for some of Parker and Stone's more extreme social commentary (three times he has dressed as Adolf Hitler). He loathes hippies above all else (Die Hippie, Die depicted his career as a 'hippie exterminator' ). Cartman is often referred to as a "fatass" by his friends, especially Kyle. In the earlier episodes, Cartman would respond by saying, "I'm not fat! I'm big-boned!", "Don't call me fat, god damn it!", or, during the Christmas episodes, "I'm not fat, I'm festively plump." Cartman's erratic and devisive behavior is perhaps explained by his unorthodox upbringing: he lacks a father-figure, and his mother (Lianne Cartman) is an intersexual and an acknowledged "crack whore". She was once pictured on the cover of Crack Whore Magazine, and has appeared in German "scheiße videos" with the boys' school counselor Mr. Macky. Lianna spoils her only child with gifts and food, always conceding into his many irrational demands; she is only person with whom Eric shares a mutually-affectionate and loving relationship. Kenny comes from a poverty-stricken family and is the most cosmopolitan of the four boys, who often turn to him when encountering an unfamiliar sexual term. The parka hood closed around his face renders his speech nearly uncomprehensible, but all of his lines are real dialog and Stan, Kyle and Cartman can understand him. In some episodes Kenny's dialog accompanied by subtitles. Two of his lines in The Jeffersons and the phrase "Goodbye, you guys" from the [[South Park movie are not muffled because his hood is removed. During the first five seasons Kenny played the eternal victim, routinely killed in a plethora of shockingly grotesque ways each episode only to inexplicably reappear in the next. The show's oldest gimmick (a carryover from the initial cardboard concept video) was Stan's cry of "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" in response to his death, with Kyle replying, "You bastards!" whenever Kenny is killed. This is sometimes parodied, being applied to other characters (such as Chef in "The Return of Chef") or by a variation on the theme. At the end of the fifth season, Kenny died and remained dead for the following few episodes, ultimatly returning . Parker and Stone explained this was due to their feeling creatively boxed-in by the requirement to kill Kenny in each episode. In Season 6, he was replaced by Butters, and later Tweek as the boys' "fourth friend". He did appear in one episode when his soul became trapped in Cartman's body after he had drank Kenny's ashes (believing them to be chocolate milk mix); Kenny returned permanently in the seventh season and his deaths have since been much more rare. Butters appeared in early episodes, but only became a regular character upon Kenny's departure in season 6. He has since been used almost as regularly as the main 4 boys. Butters is nervous, naive, easily manipulated, and repressed — while at the same time remains surprizingly optimistic and occasionally insightful. He is often punished by his overbearing parents, and sometimes exploited by his peers. Epitomizing the tragedy of his character, his birthday is September 11. While Kenny was semi-permanently dead in season six the three main boys tried to introduce Butters as their replacement fourth friend, but his perceived "lameness" caused them to eventually reject him. A spurned Butters adopted the alter ego of "Professor Chaos", who wears a Dr. Doom-inspired costume and employs a sidekick called "General Disarray" (Dougie, a first-grader). As Professor Chaos, Butters attempts to destroy the world, but his kindness and his ineptitude doom his efforts. His character is based on animation director Eric Stough. Other charactersFamily membersSouth Park has a number of different families, who are a recurring theme of many episodes. There are six main families, who are distinguished from the rest of the townsfolk: the Marshes, the Broflovskis, the Tweeks, the Cartmans, the McCormicks, and the Stotches. School staffSouth Park Elementary is a main location in the show. The boys' teacher, Mr. Garrison, is the most frequently-seen member of the staff. He had a sex change in the episode "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina", and he now goes by Mrs. Garrison. The boys' school counsellor is Mr. Mackey. The school's principal is Principal Victoria. Several past characters who worked at the school were killed off, including Ms. Choksondik and Ms. Crabtree. The school's cafeteria, Chef, was also killed off, though he was brought back as a Darth Vader-like being at the end of that episode. The episode was intended to parody the fact that the real life voice of Chef, Isaac Hayes, left the show due to one episode in which his religion, Scientology, was mocked. StudentsMost characters are the children at South Park due to the fact that the main characters are children. They range in ages from kindergarteners to 6th Graders. Occasional charactersThe occasional characters have appeared in about three episodes each. They range from Big Gay Al to Towelie, a talking towel who enjoys smoking marijuana. There are also many religious characters who are occasional characters such as Jesus and Satan Minor charactersMinor characters have appeared in at least two episodes. Minor characters range from God to the temporary substitute teacher from the fourth season, Mr. Wyland. One-off charactersOne-off characters are featured characters who have appeared in only one episode. They include such characters as Mr. Jefferson and most of Cartman's family members (other than his mother). EpisodesAnimation styleOne of the most notable features of the South Park animation style is that the characters tend to move their limbs as little as possible, except when they need to do actions other than walking. Construction paper cut-outs were used in the original pilot animation and in the first episode made for Comedy Central. Subsequent episodes have been produced by computer animation that provides the same look, although the appearance of the characters and scenes has become less crude over time largely in order to enhance the comedic effect. Special effects such as prepackaged explosions have replaced cardboard-style fires, and light shading has been used to highlight "sappy" or movie-like moments and Eric Cartman's propensity for striking dramatic poses. Some episodes also contain sections of live action as well, such as Tweek vs. Craig, Cat Orgy and Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina CorelDRAW is used to create the characters, which are animated using Maya, or in early episodes, PowerAnimator. The style of animation used for South Park was inspired by the paper cut-out cartoons made by Terry Gilliam for Monty Python's Flying Circus, of which Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been lifelong fans.[3] For perspective, the average episode of The Simpsons takes six to eight months to create[citation needed], while episodes of South Park are usually completed in six days (although some, such as AWESOM-O or Woodland Critter Christmas have taken only three or four).[4] This enables the show to keep up with current events, such as the capture of Saddam Hussein. MusicImage:409 fingerbanglive.gif The boys sing as Fingerbang
The show's opening theme song is an original musical score performed by the band Primus. The song has been remixed three times in the course of the series (as of the second half of season ten), and certain lines have been altered (see below). In season 10 the title music is the song "Whamola" by Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, from the album Purple Onion. Les Claypool is the singer and bassist in both Primus and Frog Brigade. Kenny's lines in the song, like the rest of his speech in the show, are muffled by his parka hood, which covers his entire face except for his eyes. However, Kenny's lines have been revealed by South Park Studios. In seasons 1-2, he says "I love girls with big fat titties, I love girls with deep vaginas," in seasons 3-5, he says "I have got a 10-inch penis, use your mouth if you want to clean it."[5] From season 7 to the first half of season 10, Kenny says "Some day I'll be old enough to stick my dick in Britney's butt."[6] The current lines are not known at this time. The general unintelligibility of Kenny's lines has helped them avoid being censored by television networks on a number of occasions, although the gist can usually be understood. It is sometimes easy to comprehend the lines, given the context in which they are delivered. The syndicated versions of the show usually do censor Kenny's vulgar lines. Popular songs such as "Kyle's Mom is a Stupid Bitch" originated on the show, but the creators' musical abilities were not frequently used until the release of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The film's soundtrack (co-written and produced by Grammy-winning composer-lyricist Marc Shaiman) featured songs like "Blame Canada" (nominated for an Oscar; see below), "I'm Super," "La Resistance Medley," "Hell Isn't Good," "Mountain Town," "Uncle Fucka," "Up There," and "What Would Brian Boitano Do?." Several of the songs from the movie are satires of tunes from Disney cartoons. For instance, "Mountain Town" is highly similar to the song "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast. "Up There" is a take-off of two different Disney songs, "Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. "La Resistance Medley" spoofs both "One Day More" from the stage musical Les Miserables and "Tonight" from West Side Story. Parker and Stone have, on occasion, performed these songs (and others) under the band name DVDA. In the show, Eric Cartman will often burst into song to convey a false altruism or optimism that belies his baser motivations. In Red Sleigh Down, he sings Poo-Choo Train, an unnervingly cheery Christmas carol, in an obvious attempt to convince Mr. Hankey and Santa Claus that he is worthy of Christmas presents. In "I'm A Little Bit Country" Cartman sings Paula Cole's anti-war song "I Don't Want to Wait" while beating someone to death (Cartman also sings the song as an homage to his Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper in the episode Trapper Keeper). In "The Death of Eric Cartman", Cartman sings "Make It Right" with Butters in a weak attempt to reconcile his sins. In "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods", Cartman sings the Donna Summer song "She Works Hard For The Money" during an audition for Cheesy Poofs. In the episode "Simpsons Already Did It", Cartman sings about how the Sea People will "take me away from this damn planet full of hippies." In the episode "Ginger Kids", he sings a song about tolerance once he realizes he's not one of the "Gingers" and that he just convinced every Ginger in town to exterminate non-Ginger people. Cartman also uses the song "Heat of the Moment" in episode 513 ("Kenny Dies") to convince the U.S. Senate to approve stem cell research. Lastly, there is Cartman's mental quirk that forces him to finish singing Styx's Come Sail Away whenever someone sings a few bars of the song. As soon as he learns this, Kyle, who has a strong and explicit hatred for Cartman, takes advantage of this and forces Cartman to finish the song so many times that Cartman becomes literally unintelligible. Don't forget episode 409, FIngerbang, where the boys made their boy band,"Fingerbang".(Cartman,Stan,Kyle and Kenny) Girl, You Like To Fingerbang And It's Alright!". Cartman was also the lead singer for Faith+1, a Christian band he formed with Butters and Token in the episode "Christian Rock Hard", singing several "Christian" songs by taking sexually suggestive love songs and substituting erotic words such as "baby" and "darling" with "Jesus." In "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", Cartman's hand puppet (who pronounces her name as "Hennifer Lopez" and is revealed at the end to be a con man named Mitch Connor) recorded a hit single entitled "Taco Flavored Kisses", inciting the wrath of the real Jennifer Lopez. Additional musical contributions to the show come from the band Primus, which performed the original opening and ending themes for the show, and formerly from Isaac Hayes, who voiced Chef's singing of usually-sexual songs to explain certain adult themes to the boys. The Chef song Chocolate Salty Balls was released as a single in the UK in 1998 to support the Chef Aid album and became a number one hit.[citation needed] Many episodes also feature highly melodramatic musical scores to comically exaggerate the emotional content of the scene. For example, melancholy music plays in the background when Timmy sends away his beloved pet turkey, Gobbles, in the episode "Helen Keller! The Musical". ControversyThe show has faced numerous controversies and what many people find to be taboo subject matter, since its inception, from its use of vulgarity to its satire of subjects such as religion and cults (such as Scientology), sexuality, and global warming. Stone and Parker are self-described "equal opportunity offenders" and episodes often lampoon all sides of a contentious issue, rather than taking a concrete position. Public protestsThe show's provocative material quickly drew protest from various spokesmen, who deemed the program offensive, and South Park merchandise (especially T-shirts) were banned from a number of public schools, day care centers, and other public places. This occurrence is similar in a manner to the prohibition of Bart Simpson T-shirts in the early 1990s, after The Simpsons was accused of contributing to juvenile delinquency. Also, in the South Park movie, Bigger, Longer and Uncut, children who wore Terrence and Phillip t-shirts were told to go home. More recently, the program has received some publicity over their use of the deceased Steve Irwin in an episode where he shows up at Satan's Halloween party. Typically this issue rated a few short paragraphs in mainstream newspapers.[7]. VulgarityIn the episode "It Hits the Fan", South Park broke the swearing record by using the word shit a total of 162 times uncensored. The 22-minute episode averages one 'shit' every eight seconds, and there was a counter throughout the episode displaying the number of times it was said. A song by Mr. Garrison that consisted of, 'Hey, there, shitty shitty fag fag, shitty shitty fag fag, how do you do?' (sung to the tune of the title song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), repeated for two verses, provides an example of how 'shit' was so abundantly used. This was meant as a satire of an episode of Chicago Hope, in which one of the main characters said the phrase "Shit happens!" without being censored. An additional gag in this episode allowed homosexual or bisexual characters to use the word "fag" freely, while heterosexual characters were bleeped when attempting to use the same word (this episode suggested explicitly that Stan's uncle Jimbo was actually gay or bisexual, as he was able to say "fag" without being bleeped, unless this was just a joke). Also, in the episode entitled "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", the word nigger was used throughout the entire episode for a total of 42 times. ScientologyIn November 2005, South Park satirized the Church of Scientology and its celebrity followers, including actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta in the top-rated episode, "Trapped in the Closet". R&B star R. Kelly is also featured in the episode, in a nod to his 12-part "hip-hopera" called "Trapped in the Closet." In Trapped in the Closet, Scientology leaders hail Stan as a reluctant savior while Cruise locks himself in Stan's closet and will not come out, due to Stan's not praising his acting. During the episode, numerous characters requested that he "came out of the closet". "Coming out of the closet" is widely used as a term for homosexuals revealing their orientation; Tom Cruise and John Travolta have both been rumored to be gay. Dubbed 'Closetgate' by the Los Angeles Times, the controversy continued as Comedy Central pulled the episode from a scheduled repeat on March 15, 2006 at the last minute (although it has since been repeated several times). It is alleged that Tom Cruise threatened Paramount with withdrawal from promotion of his latest film Mission: Impossible III if the episode was re-broadcast (both Paramount and Comedy Central are owned by Viacom). Though Paramount and Cruise's representatives deny the allegation, The Independent reports that "no one believes a word of it". In typical satirical form, Parker and Stone issued the following statement, with several mocking references to Scientology: "So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!" [8] The Los Angeles Times reported that, "For Stone and Parker, Closetgate will be the gift that keeps on giving" because there are likely endless story lines that can follow, considering South Park's consistent satirizing of Scientology. This episode was also recently nominated for an Emmy,[9][10] and is included on South Park's 10th Anniversary DVD, called "South Park The Hits: Volume 1". This episode is also included on the DVD Recorder, called "A Collection of Funny Episodes." As a parodic response to The Church of Scientology's litigiousness, the final lines of the episode feature Stan taunting the church to sue him, and the ensuing credits read only "John Smith" or "Jane Smith". South Park has also indirectly parodied Scientology in the episodes "Super Best Friends" and "The Return of Chef," which never mention Scientology by name but which are obviously meant to poke fun at it. "Super Best Friends" mocks the fictional cult "Blaintologists" for charging money to believers, for wanting tax-exempt status and for making normal people think they're not happy, all of which have been attributed to Scientology, and themes which all come up again in Trapped In The Closet. Additionally, in both episodes, Stan and Kyle's friendship is tested. In Super Best Friends," Kyle becomes a full-fledged Blaintologist and eventually tells Stan, who wants to leave the cult, that if Stan cannot support his beliefs, they are no longer best friends. Ironically, it is Stan who is taken in by Scientology in Trapped in the Closet, and when Kyle tells him that he is worried about him, Stan responds by saying the same words Kyle said to him in the previous episode. This theme, losing friends due to membership in a cult, reappears in "The Return of Chef" as well, when Chef eventually "seemed to turn his back" on the kids in order to stay with the "Super Adventure Club" (and ends up being grotesquely killed because of this decision). Kyle, giving Chef's eulogy at the end of the episode, tells all present that they should not blame Chef for what he did, but blame "that fruity little club." South Park also parodied Scientology in a short from 2000 (which thus predates all other parodies) that also poked fun at Russell Crowe and the movie Gladiator. The creators have said that at the time they made the episode (in 2005), they'd been wanting to do an episode on Scientology for awhile. Judging by the short, it seems likely then that they'd been wanting to do so for at least 5 years. Isaac HayesIsaac Hayes, who played Chef, the longstanding confidant of the boys on the show, quit unexpectedly days before the spoof on Scientology was to re-air. A Scientologist himself, his reasons for leaving were intolerance, stating, "There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins...Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored." However, some have suggested that Hayes may have been pressured into quitting by leaders within his faith, since less than a week before quitting he had stated in an interview on the Opie and Anthony radio show that he was fine with the Scientology episode, that Matt and Trey were "equal opportunity offenders", and that "people who cannot take a joke need to take themselves less seriously". In response to Hayes' departure, Stone commented "He has no problem - and he's cashed plenty of checks - with our show making fun of Christians." Parker and Stone evidently decided to kill off Chef's character instead of revoice, and used South Park's 10th season premiere, "The Return of Chef", as a chance to lambast Scientology again. At the end of the episode, Kyle gives a heartfelt eulogy and mentions that he'll always remember Chef as he was, and that they shouldn't be mad at him; they should be mad at "the fruity little club that scrambled his brains." This episode was played at the DVD Recorder with "A Collection of Funny Episodes." Arguably, the first time the show satirized Scientology was in the short "The Gauntlet", which aired during the 2000 MTV Movie Awards. Though the short was primarily a Gladiator parody, with the characters fighting Russell Crowe in the Roman Colosseum, it included "John Travolta and the Church of Scientology" arriving in a spaceship to defeat Crowe and attempt to recruit the boys into Scientology. Travolta, along with his fellow Scientologists, was depicted as he appeared in the infamous Battlefield Earth.[11] CatholicismImage:914thepope.JPG The pope depicted in Bloody Mary In December 2005, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights protested the season finale episode, "Bloody Mary", for its depiction of a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding from her rectum. The group claimed a victory when Comedy Central voluntarily canceled a scheduled airing of the episode which coincided with the Christian holiday season. In early 2006, Comedy Central denied that they were bowing to that group's request to pull the episode from future repeats and DVD releases.[12] In New Zealand, C4 pushed the airing date for the episode forward after much publicity from Catholic bishops who urged a boycott of the station and its advertisers. The protest backfired as viewer numbers increased by 600% during the episode. The episode was later referred to the Broadcasting Standards Authority where they ruled, "The material in the cartoon was of such a farcical, absurd and unrealistic nature that it did not breach standards of good taste and decency in the context in which it was offered".[13][14] It has since been rebroadcast on Comedy Central. SBS in Australia has "deferred" the episode[15] possibly due to their recent problems with the "Trapped in the Closet" episode. The episode has aired in Australia on the Pay TV channel, The Comedy Channel. In February 2006 in the Philippines, authorities threatened to ban the showing of South Park on television as it offends the sensibilities of the predominantly Roman Catholic country. South Park is still shown in the Philippines with 1-hour double episodes, though doing so has become a politicized issue, and its future in the Philippines is unknown. In 2001, South Park was shown on public television between 9pm-10pm slot at the now closed Channel V Philippines (formerly Citynet UHF Channel 27 handled by GMA Network). Because most of the programs in the Philippines are highly viewed in primetime slots, it is rated as PG (Parental Guidance) with all of profanity and such, censored. On August 2, 2006, Comedy Central reran the episode at 10:00 PM EST. It was also reran on March 28, 2007 at 9:30 PM EST. IslamMost recently South Park has indirectly attacked the rising censorship in its April 2006 two-part episode, "Cartoon Wars Part I" and "Cartoon Wars Part II". The creators challenged Comedy Central by ending Part I with the disclaimer that the second part of the two-parter episode, will only be shown if Comedy Central does not "puss out". The following episode, "Cartoon Wars Part II", that aired April 12, 2006, replaced the scene of Muhammad on Family Guy with a title card stating that Comedy Central had refused to show a depiction of Muhammad on their network. With the episode, the South Park boys make an impassioned, anti-censorship plea to a network exec named Doug, a reference to Comedy Central president Doug Herzog. This comes months after the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in Denmark, in which an editorial cartoon depicted Muhammad also in a satirical way. However, he can in fact be seen in the season 10 opening credits from the episode "Smug Alert!" onwards and was featured in the "Super Best Friends" episode, which aired on July 4, 2001, though at the time there was no pre-existing controversy. It has come out via AP television writer David Bauder that Comedy Central did in fact, citing safety concerns, opt to censor the image of Muhammad, a situation that was satirized in "Cartoon Wars Part II". Furthermore, while the channel refused to broadcast an image of Muhammad, Comedy Central opted not to censor images of Christ, the president and the American flag being defecated upon. Stone and Parker's choice has drawn fire from frequent South Park critic William A. Donohue of the anti-defamation group Catholic League. Donohue has called on Parker and Stone to resign out of principle, and was quoted as saying, "The ultimate hypocrite is not Comedy Central — that's their decision not to show the image of Muhammad or not — it's Parker and Stone".[16] It should be noted though, that Stone and Parker made the choice to mock Christ to illustrate the hypocrisy in censoring the mockery of one religion and not another, echoing their similar stance on Scientology. Additionally, the images were shown in the context of an Islamic leader's humorously anti-climactic response to the portrayal of Muhammad (and were thus not very graphic). The humor of this situation came from the fact that this was labeled as "al-Qaeda's reaction," which was expected to be violence. Judaism and MormonismIn addition to the above examples, South Park has repeatedly satirized both Judaism and Mormonism (the latter principally through an episode explicitly titled "All About Mormons"). Neither community has had representatives publicly speak out about the satire. Recurring themesPolitical issuesStone and Parker spend a great amount of time on current events and issues of the day. Although many critics find the show's commentary politically incorrect, the stance that the show takes reflects the beliefs of the creators. Both creators have at one time or another described themselves as libertarians. Politically-active celebrities have been ridiculed on the series, as well as liberal and conservative ideas, stereotypes and actions. Bill Clinton was ridiculed on the show, appearing twice, as was George W. Bush who appears or is thematically referenced eight times. (He was shown as a tool of Satan in one episode, and in the 9/11 conspiracy episode of 2006 he is portrayed as the mastermind behind a conspiracy within the 9/11 conspiracies, he also appears in "A Ladder to Heaven", where he says what really happened with Saddam Hussein after his death). Liberals are portrayed as being snobby intellectuals, arrogant hippies or anxious yuppies, and conservatives as bible thumpers, angry rednecks and greedy businessmen, hence the characters "Aging Hippie Liberal Douche" or "stoner" and "Pissed Off White Trash Redneck Conservative" or "racist". Both sides are portrayed as imposing their views on others and generally having a malignant influence. The episode that aired the week following the 2000 presidential election used a school election to poke fun at Florida's inability to certify a winner and Al Gore's contesting of the results. The episode included an angry Rosie O'Donnell coming to the defense of the loser and finally getting gruesomely killed, in another example of how the show is highly critical of celebrity activism. The term "South Park Republican" was coined after Parker and Stone claimed to be Republicans whilst receiving an award from the liberal advocacy group, People For the American Way (PFAW) in 2001. At the same time they declared TV producer Norman Lear, the founder of PFAW, to be one of their heroes, and Lear subsequently worked on South Park. More recently, a small movement has sprung up of youngish, South Park Conservatives who hold ideas from extreme ends of the political spectrum. In an interview in the March 13,2006 Time magazine, the two stated that the only reason people might peg them for conservatives is that they are willing to mock anti-smoking laws and hippies. They also stated that the show could just as easily be pegged as a show supporting liberal ideologies. The interview ended with Parker quipping, "We still believe that all people are born bad and are made good by society, rather than the opposite", and Stone adding, "Actually, I think that's where we're conservative". In an interview with Rolling Stone, they stated that the "South Park Republican" tag was a "dumb notion."[8] Parker and Stone are apparently critical of political correctness and satirize it by contrasting the child and adult's public personae. Whenever a sensitive issue is explored or a crisis occurs, it is expected that all the adults in South Park will overreact, whilst the children will act calm and collected about it. Examples of this can be seen in episodes such as Child Abduction Is Not Funny, Smug Alert! and Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow. Gay rightsThe show has supported gay rights through satirizing the opposing side with the normal over-the-top South Park style. In the episode "Follow That Egg!", gay marriage is deemed "too offensive" to people with religious values who suggest that it should be re-designated as something else. (Ironically, the person responsible for igniting the debate about gay marriage in this episode is Mrs. Garrison, a post-op transsexual). At the end of the episode however, gays are shown as capable of raising children, and gay marriage is made legal in South Park. In "Cripple Fight", the creators take the position that the Boy Scouts of America should not have been forced to allow homosexuals to be Scoutmasters, while at the same time mocking the Boy Scouts for trying to exclude homosexuals from the organization. They use the example of a married heterosexual child abuser to suggest sexuality is unrelated to child abuse. Furthermore, in an earlier episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", homophobia is portrayed sarcastically when Mr. Garrison says to Stan when he asks what a homosexual is, "Gay people, well, gay people are EVIL, evil right down to their cold black hearts which pump not blood like yours or mine, but rather a thick, vomitous oil that oozes through their rotten veins and clots in their pea-sized brains which becomes the cause of their Nazi-esque patterns of violent behavior. Do you understand?" The episode also features Stan Marsh stating that it is okay to be gay, and was nominated for an award by GLAAD. At this point in the series, Mr. Garrison hadn't yet come to terms with his sexuality. Transsexual rights"Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina" touches upon transsexual sex-reassignment surgery, and plastic surgery ethics on a whole (Kyle and his father become a tall black boy and a dolphin respectively). Mr. Garrison gets reassigned because he still cannot come to grips with being gay, so figures he must be a woman trapped in a man's body, therefore making it perfectly normal to like men. He subsequently becomes extremely homophobic much like the earlier years of the show. Upon discovering he cannot menstruate or get pregnant, he concludes that he is "just a guy with a mutilated penis" and wishes to switch back. In the end of the episode, everyone is back to normal except for him, his testicles having been destroyed when Kyle, unknowingly, jumps and upon landing causes his testicles (which are used to support Kyle's knees) to explode. Child abuse and neglectChild sexual abuse and child neglect are recurring thematic elements in South Park. For example, emotional, verbal, and physical abuse is usually inflicted upon Butters in episodes in which he appears. Cartman is shown several times as a target of actual or attempted sexual abuse, such as when he unknowingly gets involved with NAMBLA. There is other evidence where he has been sexually abused in the episode "Simpsons Already Did It" where after getting semen ("sea-men") from a sperm bank, he is filling up a fish tank for his "sea people" and tells his friends that he got the rest of the semen from a guy in an alley who told him to close his eyes and suck it out of a hose. This scene is partially censore | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
