Chalk it up to cultural literacy

[omorka]

DM and memeslayer dropped by to show us the South Park movie (thus the use of this icon; it does not denote, as it normally does, pissed-off-itude). I'm still mostly displeased with the content, but I have to agree with DM - the form was spot-on brilliant. (The Bernstein parody/pastiche sequence, in particular, was truly impressive.)

Beforehand, got to show off my 1337 Tarot skillz again. DM kibitzed, which I wish he wouldn't do, although he did say one thing that caught something I otherwise would have missed.

This having people scattered to the four winds, or at least the two blue ends of the country, has got to be fixed somehow.

--

Things to do:

1) Learn to tesser.

2) Learn to kythe.

3) Reread L'Engle.

4) Grade.


Not necessarily in that order.

Comments

[phoenixstarfire.livejournal.com]

If you grokked L'Engle, you wouldn't need to bother with the rest. ;)

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

That's what I am thinking, and I wish I could do the same.

I have too many friends and acquaintances in too far-flung locations.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Don't we all...

[krystiegoddess.livejournal.com]

I agree . . . . . . . if you need help on the tesser perfection, let me know - it is pretty high up on my list of things to do as well.

harumph - too many people, too many miles.

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

When you say that you were displeased with the content, did you mean the message or the frame of vulgarity that surrounded it?

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Mostly the relentless misogyny (come on, you've been to Movit Night before; you know what my primary complaint with most movies is!). Although the vulgarity didn't help much, I'll admit.

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

Ah, I should have guessed. :-p

Although I must admit I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

The whole busybody mom/silent dad motif. As if censorship didn't come primarily from males-in-power. The whole movie (and AFAICT pretty much the entire body of work of the creative pair) casts mothers as the villains of the piece. (When a mother is portaryed unfavorably next to Satan . . .)

Although I did enjoy Stan's encounter with a goddess-motif in the forest, I'll admit. ;)

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

It's actually Kyle's mom in particular that leads the charge, and being(forgive me) a big fat overbearing bitch is her established role in the series. The other mothers tag along with her, and the fathers are all busy being drafted. They do get a much larger role in the rest of the series. I suspect that one major motivation for the mostly female movement was to allow for Mothers Against Canada, which acts as a parody of MADD. But it should be noted that in the Blame Canada sequence, the fathers are taking an active role.

Also, portraying Satan as more sympathetic than humans is hardly new. :-p

Aside from that nitpick, I think you're right, but you're missing the larger picture. Parker and Stone's standard technique is to make everyone involved in the situation they're parodying look like a complete fool. This is more visible in things like Team America and the Iraq War SP episode, but it's definitely there in the SP movie.

Or, if you prefer a socio-historical viewpoint, consider this. At the time it was made(1999), "censorship" in the media was a major issue(specifically, one of the most pressing issues for its target audience). In the wake of Columbine there were several movements to either ban or restrict entertainment. One angry parent even filed a lawsuit against the video game industry as a whole. For years, Senator Joe Lieberman had sought to restrict the access of minors to violent video games, despite no convincing evidence that they have any lasting effect on children. Parents in general panicked like a herd of sheep whenever a new "threat" was aired on the nightly news. This mentality needed and deserved every shred of the intellectual beating it got in South Park. I suspect mothers in particular were chosen because inattentive fathers bring up entirely different connotations(deadbeat dads, another major issue of the time[1]) which would have distracted from the message, but in any case they were just as much responsible for what went on as fathers were.

That's assuming Parker and Stone thought that far into it, of course. They might have just started writing lines at random until a movie came out.



[1] Or at least, the media chose to focus on it then.