Last night, the boys from Colorado (who moved to Hollywood for reasons that are still vague to me) tried to confront the one really stupid aspect of this show -- their use of 'fag' and 'gay' as a derogative term. Well, they tried to pretend they only use 'fag' and not gay.... They even brought out Big Gay Al and Mr. Slave protesting against 'fags,' who they made out to be bikers with Harley's... are they trying to get their asses kicked? I can only hope the Hell's Angel's weren't watching, because these are some of societies most important comedians.
They actually confront issues, and think for themselves in ways that others are afraid to touch because they might lose their audience ( i REFER TO such traitors as steve martin, who went from writing for a political show the gov. shut down, to avoiding politics his entire career -- with the exception of trying to slam me -- which is interesting, since i know he is a sell-out first and foremost, and now i realize he is also someone who slams a writer who cannot even defend himself except here in this blog--I ever meet him, I will not say one damn word -- I will simply kick his cowardly ass from here to the fucking moon; his kind stopped the revolution of the sixties... if there was a real leftist purge, he would be swinging in the wind... sorry to keep going on about this guy, but he is such a fucking douche bag... k. Griffin, an honest political voice, who of course came up in Chicago, said he was such a douche bag that she thought he acted like someone who was trying to act like a douche bag. I know I am never going to have any effect on this dude's career while he is alive, but I assure you... the written word lasts a hell of a lot longer than a slap-stick comedian).
Now, mark and trey have to try to protect their legacy, so they are probably not going to change this stand... but it would be an incredible stroke of genius if they just came out and apologized for this lapse, and promised not to do it again. The kids who they pretend define 'fag' differently ... well, I don't think anyone is buying this except their staff.
Come on, you two, admit your mistake and move on... rationalizing your behavior like this is adding to the suicide rate of young gays... not to mention, stopping them from getting the important messages in this show. Standing by some kind of free-speech issue, or the artists use of a word having only contextual meaning, or however you rationalize this... takes away from your brilliance. Why have this shitty mark on your legacy?
Again, I expect nothing from this opinion. I know you guys read me, though.... so that is just something to think about....
Again, I expect nothing from this opinion. I know you guys read me, though.... so that is just something to think about....
Hey, any thoughts on whether or not Butter's defense of the biker lifestyle near the end of the episode is an excerpt from Hunter S T's Hells Angels? Seems possible...
ReplyDeleteSays Butters; "You fellas never got what these people are really about: Freedom! Rebellion against the system! A living image of independence! Solid, defiant, and supremely cool, the biker is an all-American icon of resilient individuality and freedom."
Anyway scroll to the bottom of 'my' url, there's a paragraph discussing southpark's use of fag.
Hunter Changed his tune a bit after they kicked his ass for not giving them proceeds from their books. I hate to praise or come out against people like the Hell's Angels. I have a pretty much live and let live belief on certain things. The Hell's Angel's I met were nice, stoner guys and gals who liked to party and play cards. The Outlaws I met had good weed. What can I say? That doesn't mean I agree with what they do at all. I do find them a hell of a lot less dangerous than Exxon.
ReplyDeletewent to your site, wondering why you were kind of using my name... and lo and behold, it is one page set up just to deal with this issue. Who are you? I am betting South Park folk. Anyways, you make a couple good points by pointing out Butters pro biker speech, and the early episode where they blanked out the use of fag by everyone except the recently outed Mr. Garrison.
ReplyDeleteNaw man let me elucidate:
ReplyDeleteI am totally unaffiliated, I just watched the episode in question, and wondered 'what would Hunter have made of this biker-bashing?' Then I saw Butters defend the bikers in the speech quoted above, which I thought sounded like it *could* have been an excerpt from Hell's Angels (HST's book, which I haven't read).
SO I did a quick search to see if anyone could confirm this guess. Having searched for 5 seconds, it seemed like this blog would possibly provide an answer.
THEN when looking for the Butters quote I found the S-P transcripts site, and happened to notice the paragraph relevant to yr blog, so provided the link for your interest.
But I now doubt that Butters' quote was from HST.
I'll try to form and post an opinion relevant to yr post shortly.
Well I just don't see that they need to apologise; it's their show & what they do well is play around with popular conceptions of right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteYou say Parker&Stone pretend that the characters define fag differently, but I think they're just pointing out that it isn't always used as an insult against gay people, it's often used as an unspecific insult (in real life as well as SP).
I can't really second-guess their motives, but I think rather than trying rationalize their use of terms, it's more an issue of people taking offense for the....I've lost it, I give up.
But relax a little, paranoia ain't worth it!
Both of you make good arguments. Admittedly, I was writing from my gut without doing enough research on this topic. Both of you make good points and informed me, and added to my knowledge. In fact, I love having people add to my knowledge in ways that avoid personal insult. I truly love south park, and that they even confront this issues makes them unique. So... and by the way, I am sure that Butter's diatribe was probably meant to show the other side of the issue, but contextually he was still kind of shown to be a 'fag.' Southpark is such a complex show, and Matt and Trey are such sophisticated artists that knowing exactly what they mean is often obscured.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I wrote this is because Matt and Trey have been big promoters of my work in the past, and all I ever say is great things about them... so when I am having a negative reaction, I wanted to make clear to them. Writers learn little from meaningless likes and whys... So thanks again... Nice to know the astute nature of South Park's fans.