Satire TV | Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era | Books - NYU Press | NYU Press Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era Media Studies Authors Jonathan Gray is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Television Entertainment, Television Studies (with Amanda D. Lotz), Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts, and Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality. All books by Jonathan Gray Jeffrey P. Jones is Associate Professor of Communication & Theatre Arts at Old Dominion University. He is the author of Entertaining Politics: New Political Television and Civic Culture and co-editor of The Essential HBO Reader. All books by Jeffrey P. Jones Ethan Thompson is Associate Professor at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. He is the author of Parody and Taste in Postwar American Television Culture, and co-editor of Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era. All books by Ethan Thompson Satirical TV has become mandatory viewing for citizens wishing to make sense of the bizarre contemporary state of political life.

Shifts in industry economics and audience tastes have re-made television comedy, once considered a wasteland of escapist humor, into what is arguably the most popular source of political critique. From fake news and pundit shows to animated sitcoms and mash-up videos, satire has become an important avenue for processing politics in informative and entertaining ways, and satire TV is now its own thriving, viable television genre. Satire TV examines what happens when comedy becomes political, and politics become funny. A series of original essays focus on a range of programs, from The Daily Show to South Park, Da Ali G Show to The Colbert Report, The Boondocks to Saturday Night Live, Lil’ Bush to Chappelle’s Show, along with Internet D.I.Y. satire and essays on British and Canadian satire. They all offer insights into what today’s class of satire tells us about the current state of politics, of television, of citizenship, all the while suggesting what satire adds to the political realm that news and documentaries cannot. Reviews “This smart and savvy crew has noticed something creeping up on us, something with bite. Now we have to take satire TV seriously; it turns out to be the bearer of the democratic spirit for the post-broadcast age.

In this field-shaping book, some of the brightest talents in TV studies show us how the marginal has become the model for a much-needed media make-over. See what happens when entertainment bares its teeth.” —John Hartley, author of Television Truths “It has been said that if you have to explain a joke, it’s not funny. This wonderful collection proves that nothing could be farther from the truth. Satire TV takes the study of comedy in new directions, expanding beyond earlier work done on classical Hollywood cinema and the sitcom. In politically trying times, the contributors to this volume reveal through analysis of programs such as South Park, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, laughter is not the best medicine—it is the surgeon’s scalpel.” —Heather Hendershot, editor of Nickelodeon Nation: The History, Politics and Economics of America’s Only TV Channel for Kids “These sharp, compelling essays respond to the current state of American politics, which is characterized by politicians abandoning shame, news media trivializing political news, and commentators screaming at one another. . . . Many young Americans consider satirical television news their primary source of news, and this volume helps one understand why. Stewart, Colbert, et al. take news seriously.

They may be the only ones left on television who do. . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice “The authors of Satire TV make no bones about it: Satire is a gateway drug that does more good for democracy than harm....This book offers historical depth and theoretically sophisticated approaches to satire TV’s contemporary breadth.” —Journal of Communication Inquiry “. . . the book has succeeded. It made me think outside the points made by the various essayists. It made me think about how I now consume the news.” —410Media.com Satire TV represents a valuable investigation into the somplex relationships among mediated politics, televisual comedy, media reception, and democratic participation.

With academic studies of comedy still representing a somewhat small (but ever-growing) facet of the media studies canon, Gray, Jones, and Thompson's anthology represents a worthy primer on the broad functions of satirical media, a timely investigation of a contemporary televisual phenomenon, and an argument for further examination of the political dimensions of television comedy." —Evan Elkins, Scope Cinema Journal "Satire TV presents twelve well written essays, rife with deep analysis of the value of satire television and its functions toward breaking down elitist discourse and creating oppotunities for pubilc content." —James Maritato, Journal of the American Forensic Association eBooks New York University Press is proud to make many of our titles available in eBook editions. Below is the list of vendors that carry our titles in electronic format. Each vendor has its own pricing and delivery policies. Please follow the links below for more information. South Park, satire and us – by Matt Stone | Technology | The Guardian The Observer South Park, satire and us – by Matt Stone Matt Stone and his creative partner Trey Parker have spent years perfecting The Stick of Truth – the video game version of their hit adult cartoon.

In an interview, Stone talks about moral choices, comic timing and censorship Friday 7 March 2014 02.06 EST First published on Friday 7 March 2014 02.06 EST Share on Messenger Close With his creative partner Trey Parker, Matt Stone created both the enduringly popular adult cartoon series South Park and the smash-hit musical The Book of Mormon . Pairing boyish, gross-out comedy with biting parody, they are two of the darkest satirists in US media. Working with video-game developer Obsidian Entertainment, Stone has spent the last few years both writing and overseeing South Park: The Stick of Truth , a game that's far from the usual throwaway licensed cash-in. Instead it's an interactive extension of the South Park universe, with the same shocking and irresistible sense of humour. Here he talks about comedy's ever-expanding boundaries and the challenges of writing for interactive rather than passive comedy. Most licensed video games are farmed out and there is precious little involvement from the people who created the brand. Why did you and Trey involve yourself so closely with the South Park video game? We did do some cheap licensed games when the show first came out 15 years ago.

I think they were on the N64 [Nintendo console] and they stank. We didn't like them. That's why we haven't done one since. We like video games and it's one of those things that matters to us. Doing a big show there are a lot of licensed products that you have to live with that aren't your favourites, like T-shirts and stuff; that's the deal with the devil. But when it's a real thing like a video game, it's different. It was the disappointment with the older ones that made us think, OK, if we ever do it again, we have to do it right, or at least intend to do it right, and when the PS3 and Xbox 360 came out we started talking about it. We could finally do the graphics in a way where it looked like you were in the show. Why do you think people are more discerning about games now than they used to be? It was a real learning process doing this, because when you put South Park on TV, it's basically free. You're watching commercials, but you turn it on and there it is. For a video game it's very different.

People are spending $60 – or, in the future, when it's in the bargain bin, more like $10 – but for most people it's a big purchase that you might forgo something else to afford. And even apart from money, it's also a time investment. I don't start a video game until like three people have told me it's amazing, because I don't want to get three hours into a game and have it stink. I think the way people consume video games and how expensive they are makes it a different contract with the audience. It was the same with Book of Mormon - people are coming to the theatre, they're driving there, they're dressing up sometimes. It's a lot of money – it has to be on a different level because people consume it differently. An image from South Park: The Stick of Truth, an interactive extension of the South Park universe. When South Park first hit TV there was a huge moral panic around the show - 17 years later, how has the American public's conservatism changed? Are there things you could make jokes about then that you can't now? No, it's all the other way. It's crazily more permissive than when we started.

The standards were much, much higher when we started out. You go back and watch the first season of South Park and it's pretty slow and not the best written and junky-looking, but it would almost play on Nickelodeon at this point. There are dirty words but, conceptually, we couldn't have covered the material that we do now. And yet, in the first year, that's when we were getting all the calls from the network and we had to fight for it, and that's when we were on the cover of magazines that said: "Don't let your children watch". It's hilarious, people would probably show it to younger kids now. I think things have loosened up and, generally, I think that's pretty good. It's a lot of the reason why television has become so dominant right now. Part of it is proliferation of channels and being able to do more shit on American TV. Look where the Breaking Bads of the world go now. That would not have been a mass-marketed thing back in the 90s. In Europe and Australia, some scenes in the video game have been censored. I was told that Australia has different standards.

They have their own ratings system, as does Europe, so I was told that we had to submit it for ratings and they come back and tell you this will pass, this won't. Ultimately, the full version of the game is in North America, so at least that version is out there, but anywhere it's censored [in the other version], we just put in little black cards explaining what has happened. It's not that big a deal. It doesn't change things that much, but we weren't going to change the game downwards somewhere and just not tell anybody. You'll see how ridiculous that is. How do you feel about that? It does feel like a double standard, a little bit. We weren't willing to change the content, but also it doesn't ruin the game – it's like 40 seconds' worth of the whole game. As long as we could make a joke out of the fact that they made us cut this, that was fine. On TV only one episode of South Park has been censored. Would you have had to censor the scenes in the game for TV? Do you think that people feel differently about the same content when it's in a game? There is an interactiveness that makes it different.

In movies and television you can do stuff that's morally grey very easily, because you get to show consequences, you get to show reward, but in a video game there's a reason why everything is a Nazi, zombie, or alien - these are pretty clear moral choices. There are things that make people more uncomfortable in an interactive world, definitely. But that said, what we had in the game, we could have shown that on TV pretty easily, especially now. Have the challenges of writing Stick of Truth given you an insight into why games traditionally haven't been very good at comedy? A lot of comedy is timing and it's hard to control comic timing in an open world where you're not in control of when the joke happens. It's not really a writer's medium, because you can't write and mould and change on the fly like you can in a live show. Timing is one of those things that's pretty crucial to comedy and pretty hard for video games. Do you think that American comedy has become more permissive during the 17 years that South Park has been on air? There were always the Richard Pryors and the Monty Pythons and Eddie Murphys . People have done raw comedy for a long time.

That kind of comedy always existed, but it is easier to find on TV and in our living rooms now. But then, so is pornography. Maybe it's a technology thing as much as anything, but I do think American TV has opened up hugely to a lot that it wouldn't have been tackled a decade ago or two decades ago. The big great shows that everyone loves now are more adult-orientated – they're more free with language, and it's just great. The Stick of Truth was released on 7 March for Playstation 3, PC and Xbox 360 "South Park" Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb trailers and videos full cast and crew trivia official sites memorable quotes Overview 889 out of 1028 people found the following review useful: Sadly Misunderstood from Canada 10 December 2004 South Park is one of the most misunderstood, and also the most intelligent shows on television. South Park is a satirical look on most anything from Western society - politics, the media, today's youth, celebrities, violence in our society, and much much more. However, instead of presenting these issues as they are, they alternately project them through the exploits of four young boys in South Park, Colorado.

Unfortunately, many people take the show solely at face value, refusing to see the intelligence in it - South Park is admittedly filled with racist and sexist jokes, along with other offensive material. The problem lies within the fact that most people don't seem to understand the concept of satire and self parody. I admit that I, myself, was one of these people - for years I refused to watch that "garbage," until finally a friend forced me to actually watch a whole episode, and I realized that the show was actually making a point. So, if you haven't done so, go - watch an episode. You'll feel smarter when you're done. Was the above review useful to you? 423 out of 561 people found the following review useful: Wake up! South Park rules! from Ardmore, PA 14 August 2000 I don't know why this show is getting such negative reviews. A lot of people (adults mainly) keep assuming South Park is nothing more than wall to wall curse words and gross out jokes. Far from it. Sure, they swear and there is an occasional gross out jokes, but the show is also filled with quality and classic humor. The plots are genius.

So what if it's offensive. Big deal! For some reason, people assume that cartoons are just for little babies, and some people appear to have difficulty accepting the fact that times have changed and animation is not just for kids anymore. Face it, we are living in an age of shows like South Park. Can't deal with it? Then that's just too bad. Was the above review useful to you? 374 out of 476 people found the following review useful: Comedy Central's marquee series. The very best political, pop culture and current event satire on television. from 9 January 2005 Network: Comedy Central; Genre: Animated Comedy, Satire, Parody; Content Rating: TV-MA (for dark comic content and graphic language, sexual content, violence & animated gore); Available: DVD; Classification: Modern Classic (Star range expanded: 1 - 5); Season Reviewed: 10+ seasons Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflowfski, Eric Cartman and (sometimes) the ill-fated Kenny McCormick are 8-year-old boys growing up amid an adult world in the backward, frozen-over mountain town of South Park, Colorado.

Their adventures, that make up creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's animated comedy "South Park", include fending off everything from supernatural demons to the biggest names in the Hollywood intelligentsia. "South Park" is several things. It's rude, crude, shocking, smart, decidedly adult, completely original, and it is indulgent in the whims and imaginations of it's creators. It's also the very best political, pop culture and current event satire on television. The show started as something of a fad - the new vulgar, don't-let-the-kids-watch show on the block. But as real world events changed, "Park" evolved along with them. Standing as the kings on top of a soap box they constructed out of swearing kids, talking poo, homosexual hand puppets and hermaphroditic parents; Parker and Stone where blessed with the freedom of a hit series, hip status and a network that gave them the freedom to do whatever they want. As the show aged, they matured in their storytelling abilities and the show went from shock value fad to a barbed satire of American culture. "Park" is brought to life with oddly beautiful, vibrantly colored 2-dimensional cut-and-paste animation.

The episodes are masterfully constructed. The writing a witty showcase of Parker and Stone's love for pop culture parody, graphic violence, pornography and a bold willingness to take on the hot button issues of the week. It is a free-for-all virtuoso where nothing and nobody is safe, every establishment media position gets flipped on it's head and every politically correct sacred cow gets eviscerated. Now that's comedy - if you can stomach a barrage of extreme scatological humor with your social satire. The vomit jokes and fat jokes on "Park" aren't there for the sake of it, but have substance behind them. And nobody does them better. Eric Cartman, Mr. Garrison and more recently Randy Marsh (stepping up as a reliably hilarious scene-stealer) are classic characters, but Parker and Stone have gone further and developed an entire town of colorful caricatures. They aren't made to be as endearing as those in "The Simpsons", but aren't supposed to be. The characters aren't just vacuous idiots, and the laughs of the show come from a very socially conscious place. Straight men Stan and Kyle are the show's most underdeveloped.

They serve mostly as a mouthpiece for Parker and Stone's conservative libertarian philosophy, often literally giving a speech to a crowd in the show's finale. There is not a single other place on TV where you can see environmentalists, the anti-smoking lobby, illegal immigrants, trial lawyers, news media hysteria, elitist Hollywood liberals, abortion, sex ed in schools and every celebrity from Mel Gibson to Paris Hilton all get ripped to shreds. The show pulls it off because it has a unique ability to deconstruct and reconstruct current events better than anyone else (notably Comedy Central's overrated "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"), giving them a hilarious or supernatural explanation without moralizing getting in the way of the laughs. They take their own messages to such loony extremes it's impossible to take seriously.The cherry on top is the seemingly endless quality of the original songs provided by the creator's cover band, DVDA. With a skeleton crew that writes, directs, animates, voices and scores the show, this is independent television in it's purest form.

This means it often labors on Parker and Stone's geeky indulgences - episodes center around a full-length "Star Wars" parody, the class gerbil making it's way up a human bowel or Timmy, a handicapped student who can only say his name. Occasionally, their shock value execution creates a gagging reaction that obscures an otherwise brilliant point ("Fat Camp"). But I'd rather have a show that challenges me than one shackled to clichés and network mandates. When "South Park" goes for the shocking ending, you better believe it actually will shock. Still, "South Park" is almost impossible to recommend in a casual sense. The show is truly an acquired taste, but one I have to come to support whole-heartedly through the years despite (and because) I have absolutely no idea what to expect when sitting down for a new episode. How rare is that? Where so many other shows cower in the corner, begging for our approval "South Park" is constantly taking risks and re-inventing itself. We've got terrific stunt episodes, episodes built around one joke or building to a single knock-out punch line. They use the smash-cut ending better than anyone ("There Goes the Neighborhood").

Sometimes the experiments are to it's own detriment and the episode is a 22 minute bore, but even then it's almost unheard of to find a show in it's 10th season that is still water cooler television. "South Park" grabs us by the collar, shakes us around and dares even it's biggest fans to come back next week for more. The show is a monument of creative freedom with a wicked imagination, a true (and hilariously funny) sense of comic timing, and an insightful, socially conscious ear that smartly reflects a point of view starving for attention in mainstream television. It is a hugely entertaining, fiercely visceral, fire-breathing, red-blooded American satire made by, for (and most appreciated by) the most jaded and discriminating TV viewers. We just don't have shows like this on TV today. Anywhere. * * * * * / 5 from South Korea 21 February 2005 Both cartoons and sci-fi have long been the only place where thought-provoking social commentary can take place, unmolested by censorship, and both are all too frequently dismissed because of their least important characteristics.

South Park is an intelligent, humorous and thought-provoking show that is often ignored or decried by people who judge it only by the very things it deliberately throws in their face, such as profanity, simple animation, and graphic violence, because the creators know that people like this are easily offended by these things, and will always miss the point. The simplicity of the animation, for example, has been criticised by people who miss the point that it's deliberately meant to be simple, in the face of those high-budget major studio cartoons that are more concerned with using cgi and selling toys than having anything to say. Nope, this isn't a show for those who don't appreciate irony. The episodes tackle a wide range of issues, from 9/11 to violence on television to celebrity obsession to religion, through the use of comedy, which is usually the best way to handle such matters. The main characters are four children who are basically mouthpieces for their creator's opinions, expressing views that would sound arrogant coming from adults. Stan represents the liberal viewpoint, as does his friend Kyle, who as a practising Jew, allows opportunity for religious comment. Is the show anti-religious? No, but fundamentalists like to think it is.

It has the essential message of 'believe what you like, but leave me alone'. And of course there's Eric Cartman, the ignorant foul-mouthed selfish redneck, and funny as hell. Sometimes I think he's there to remind us not to take anyone like him seriously. That and to provide a lot of the show's humour. Easily my favourite character. Other characters on the show usually represent majority/opposing views as the plot requires. Like any long-running show, some episodes are better than others, not all have something to say, and not all are funny. But creators Stone and Parker 'retool' the show periodically with new characters, and try to keep up with current events, and I enjoyed the latest series (8th) for these very reasons. I've watched since the beginning, but they're making an effort not to let South Park go stale. No doubt South Park will continue to be derided by those who think the most important social problem today is swearing, yet have probably never sat down to watch an episode. And beside them will be the offended parent brigade who still haven't learned that not all cartoons are for children.

But the rest of us will still be here to enjoy it, hopefully exchanging righteous indignation for a few laughs and maybe a thought or two about the world we live in. If you've never seen South Park, don't listen to the hype. Watch it and decide for yourself. Hopefully you'll be glad you did. Was the above review useful to you? 205 out of 294 people found the following review useful: The Princes of Animation Comedy from Los Angeles, CA 10 November 2003 I remember when these four little boys were nothing but private greeting card art. Now look at them! In all seriousness, I love this show. This is the funniest adult cartoon there is, and thank GOODNESS Comedy Central took this series and allowed the creators to do "almost" anything. If there was an alternate universe for "Peanuts", you've hit it in "South Park". There are very few (if none) episodes I didn't like. We all have our favorites, and my number one is still "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe". I laughed until I cried on that one.

The next one that is very close to that is last years (2002) Christmas Special when Jesus was "packing" to rescue Santa out of Iraq after he was shot down. This was one of those episodes where I DARE you not to laugh and enjoy it. The supporting cast about South Park is also stellular. The lives (and minds) that intertwine with Stan, Cartman, Kenny and Kyle are just hilarious. Chef, Mr. Garrison. Kyles Mom and Dad, Cartman's Mother, Butters, Timmy!, Sherrif Bar Brady, Principal Victoria, Wendy, BeBe, and..Big Gay Al..etc....etc..you name it, they are just too much. Wonderful and ground-breaking (even though the animation isn't state of the art) nothing is out of bounds for these guys...South Park is an instant classic and a great time to be had by all. Was the above review useful to you? 150 out of 225 people found the following review useful: Extremely offensive, and beneath it lies huge laughs... from Pine Valley, California 24 October 2003 Matt and Trey need to be commended for this series.

It takes shots at EVERYTHING, and it does it in really questionable taste. But that's why I love it. Because, beneath the crude language and vulgar humor, South Park contains one of most biting satires in existence. This show is hilarious, constantly taking current events, such as Stem Cell Research, or fads, like the infamous Poke'mon craze, and spinning their own view on them. Thank you, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Thank you. BOTTOM LINE: One show I try to never miss on Wednesdays. This series gives me something to look for. Was the above review useful to you? 146 out of 231 people found the following review useful: I Laughed Till' I Cried from Orlando, USA 20 May 2003 This is the show about the four foul mouthed little kids in Colorado. Well, three now, with different kids rotating in and out to fill the spot that Kenny left. Matt Stone and Trey Parker are comedic geniuses. I think that people who simply brush this off as uninspired pandering to foul mouthed kids like the ones in this show aren't looking deep enough.

There is actually a lot of intelligent social commentary here - it's just masked under anything they could possibly offend someone with. Was the above review useful to you? 49 out of 52 people found the following review useful: Good, rude and relevant satire: when naughty humor and smart minds come together, great things will happen from wherever good films play 14 October 2016 Now in its 20th season, South Park still dissects the most ridiculous behaviour in our society with merciless precision, and nobody comes away clean. And it's funny how people still react the same way to the show as they did 20 years ago: The self-proclaimed flag bearers for our nation's moral standards still can't see anything in the show beyond its naughty language and (perceived) vulgarity (and while half of them are genuinely offended by the show for those reasons, the other half secretly loves the show precisely for its naughty language and overall vulgarity and toilet humor).

The ones who make fun of the self-proclaimed flag bearers still believe only they are smart enough to see anything beyond the obvious naughty language and overall vulgarity in it (and while most of them pretend to only love the show for its satirical elements, the majority of them actually love it because of its naughty language and overall vulgarity and toilet humor). And then there's the third group of people who get the satire but just flat out admit that it's effing hilarious seeing Gerald getting peed in the face by his loving wife Sheila or when the boys protest the girls' protest by proudly taking their tiny wieners out while raising a fist. If anything comes close to good satire and ruthless comedy in the vein of Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' today, it's South Park. Blind followers of any movement beware: Matt and Trey have it in for all of us, nobody is safe. God help us all if they ever decide to retire, society would be all the worse for it. Come to think of it: Let's start a petition for a co-presidency in the U.S. so they both can run for president and save the country - and the world - from either the giant douche or the turd sandwich.

(Damn, that last comment makes me a follower too). Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: Favorite Low-Budget and B-Movies: Was the above review useful to you? 108 out of 195 people found the following review useful: One of the funniest television shows on TV from United States 19 February 2000 South Park is a great cartoon, even with it's occasional pitfalls every season. It combines satire, music and comedy to create a terrific masterpiece of an animated show. Trey Parker and Matt Stone bring the weekly antics of a inbred mountain town in a way that has never been done before and it is drop dead funny. Sometimes it seems like the seasons get better, sometimes they seem to get worse for some. But episodes like "Chinpokomon", "The Passion of the Jew", "Tolerance Camp", and "Clubhouse" are classics. And most episodes get funnier every single time I see it and thanks to Comedy Central giving Parker and Stone full control for language, nothing is out of bounds. Was the above review useful to you? 20 out of 35 people found the following review useful: Southpark teaches us to laugh at ourselves.

from Liverpool, England 20 February 2010 I read in complete disbelief the comments that called the show racist, homophobic, anti-religious and even one that said it promoted animal cruelty. LOL! There isn't a single race, religion, political group, sexuality, gender, nationality, celebrity etc etc that it doesn't make fun of. The show even pops fun at itself in some episodes, signalling to the world that they themselves are open to ridicule. If you think the show has a nasty message about a certain group then your just not getting it and i'm glad you have ceased watching and have moved on to more brain numbing programmes that don't cause you to think (might I recommend 'Friends'). Was the above review useful to you?

Page 1 of 38: On TV: Social satire keeps 'South Park' fans coming back for a gasp, and a laugh - seattlepi.com On TV: Social satire keeps 'South Park' fans coming back for a gasp, and a laugh By MELANIE MCFARLAND, P-I TELEVISION CRITIC Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, October 1, 2006 Having witnessed 10 years' worth of Stan Marsh , Eric Cartman , Kenny McCormick and Kyle Broflovski's decidedly blue grade-school antics, people familiar with "South Park" tend to fall into two camps. The first cherishes the series' mordant, hilariously rude brand of social satire. The second would call it the prime example of our culture merrily skipping down the road to hell. Since it premiered in August 1997, "South Park" has in its loftier moments lampooned a multitude of passing national obsessions, from Elian Gonzalez to Terri Schiavo (this time with Kenny in a persistent vegetative state) and Nipplegate (tacked on as a coda to an episode called "Good Tunes With Weapons").

On the other hand, it also made a jolly piece of feces into a popular holiday character. Along the way, Tom Cruise got trapped in Stan's closet. Kyle wrestled with his faith. Cartman, the stupid, "me first" fat kid, got back at an enemy by grinding up his parents and feeding them to him in a vat of chili. And Kenny died. A lot. And to think it all started with a crudely animated short of Santa Claus fighting Jesus. Wednesday at 10 p.m., Comedy Central 's animated hit kicks off the second half of a 10th season that began with the grisly murder of Isaac Hayes ' beloved Chef -- payback for the Scientology scuffle. Among the phenomena to be targeted: "World of Warcraft." Sounds relatively tame, but don't be so sure. With its audience averaging 3.5 million viewers for each Wednesday night premiere and 1.2 million viewers per repeat, "South Park" is Comedy Central's highest-rated series. Before it came on, the channel was cable's equivalent of Butters -- cute, but not terribly popular.

A deal is in place to keep "South Park" on the air through 2008, or 12 seasons. Matt Stone (who does the voices of Kyle, Kenny, Butters and others) prefers not to think that far ahead. "We've already done, what, 150?" he said. "I can't imagine getting past the next 30 shows." In a recent phone conversation, Stone admitted that when he and Trey Parker (who voices Stan and Cartman) started it all 10 years ago, they were surprised it got picked up beyond its initial six-episode order. P-I: Is it true those first "South Park" episodes tested poorly? Stone: "Oh, it did really bad with women ... but, also, 'The Spirit of Christmas' kept getting more popular. There was this incredible buzz that you couldn't deny if you were a television programmer. For that reason, Trey and I have not tested anything we've ever done since. We don't test any of our television shows, and we don't test our movies." These days, people expect to see deep cultural and political messages in "South Park" episodes. Does that put any pressure on you?

The only thing we've ever wanted to do was be funny. That's not easy. That's actually harder than being socially responsible. ... The only thing that ever concerned us was whether or not it made people laugh. If a fart joke makes you laugh, then it's funny. ... Only after three years of doing the show did people start calling us satirical, and we had to look up what that meant. Some of your best shows are ones you put together at the last minute. Yeah. That's just the way we do the show, and it works for us. As stressful as it is, it makes sense. But you make them look so effortless. They're really not. Anything that looks effortless that's good, it's not effortless. ... We really are stressing out the night before, trying to make it make sense. There have been some that have been more down to the wire than others, but they're all hard. I think our production schedule is much more akin to "Saturday Night Live," where they work hard all week to be ready for Saturday. Tuesday's the big day for 'South Park." I hate waking up on Tuesdays.

"South Park" also has been embraced by every side of the political spectrum, which is interesting because you guys seem very politically independent. Did that take co-opting of "South Park's" attitude by so-called "South Park Conservatives" take you by surprise? Yeah. ... Everyone wants to co-opt it as theirs, but it's very important to us that we keep it -- I guess we'd call it apolitical. It's not a Republican show or a Democrat show. ... I think that's an obscene thing to do with your art. Believe it or not, we kind of consider "South Park" to be art. Art should be a Rorschach test, it should be an examination our own emotions. I hate it when people do movies that say, "Oh, I'm going to fascinate the Democrats , I'm going to fascinate the Republicans!" I hate that. What does it say about our culture that, within the decade that the show has been on the air, it may be one of the only television outlets for limitless satire? It's scary. It puts the pressure on us. ... The job of network television is to be bland and lame.

It's OK, there's a place for that, and there's a place for what we do, too. And since it's a cartoon, you can say things that live action actors can't. That's always been true, and that's true not only of us but cartoons in general. It's so -- like, killing an 8-year-old little boy over and over again, we can make that funny on "South Park," but in live action we would never be able to do it. ... It also is a sneak attack, because for some dumb reason cartoons have always been considered to be a kid's medium ... so we can hit people when they're not expecting it. But if you take the last 20 shows, there's probably four or five or six that are overtly political. A lot of our shows are just the boys doing some stupid thing and getting caught. It's just one facet of "South Park." ... And also, we'll do anything for a laugh, but at the end of the day, it has a moral center. We do a lot of things, but there's an optimism to it. I don't know how to put it any other way than that it has a big heart.

You can't just do crude on top of crude. It doesn't work. For some reason we figured that out, and that's why we're still on the air. So are you going to dial back the political and social commentary this season? I don't know. ... As soon as someone says we're this, we try not to be that. That's our instinct. As soon as the show started being, "Oh, Kenny dies, and Chef sings," then we stopped having Kenny die and Chef stopped singing. Trey and I are both natural contrarians in a way, so we'll just naturally do what's least expected. That said, as soon as we say that we're not going to do anything overtly political, well, look, we'll open the season with something political. A few producers have said that they know how their series are going to end, what the last line will be. Do you have any idea of how "South Park" is going to end someday? Oh, man, ... I think we'll probably just end with a single fart. Just like the first joke. We'll go out with a fart. Satire - TV Tropes Satire You need to login to do this.

Get Known if you don't have an account Share YMMV Satire is a form of humor, and is considered the cruelest form of comedy. Satire points out the folly of people, organizations, institutions, and ideas. Often, satire will use fictional counterparts of real people as characters, as a parody of Real Life . However, a satirical work can also use original characters to explore the foibles or ramifications of an organization or course of action. Satire often relies on current events, which raises a danger that it won't be appreciated in another era. The poetry of Pope and Dryden satirized English politics of the 18th century, but few would appreciate the humor now. The best satire can still be appreciated on its own merits even after the thing it's criticizing fades from consciousness. Occasionally, a piece of satire regains relevance in similar circumstances; for example, satire aimed at George Bush I (or, perhaps more justifiably, Richard Nixon ) can often be easily applied to Bill Clinton ; 1990s "look at the old guy!" barbs at Bob Dole were recycled in 2008 to target John McCain.

The Roman poets Ennius and Lucilius are considered the progenitors of the genre, though almost all of their work has been lost. Latin satire was generally delivered in verse, like most literature of the time. It was considered the sole branch of literature native to Rome and there was no Greek equivalent, though some Greek comedy, such as Aristophanes , had elements that we would consider satiric. Horace , Persius, and Juvenal are perhaps the three most famous Roman satirists, ranging from good-natured (Horace disposing of a dreadful bore) to savage (Juvenal's condemnation of sodomites pretending to be philosophers). They are for the most part preoccupied with urban life, morality, and how other people suck. Literary convention divides satire into the Horatian (good-natured, almost affectionate , light-hearted, and more likely to view the target as foolish rather than evil ) and the Juvenalian (contemptuous, abrasive, scornful, and outraged, relentlessly mocking a target often regarded as outright evil). See also Parody , Pastiche , Farce , Meta Trope Intro . Compare Deconstruction , as a lot of satire incorporates elements of it.

Examples: Anime and Manga Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei makes dark commentary on general shallowness, escapism, otaku and society in general. Kino's Journey basically does this Once an Episode as Kino travels from one city to another. Notably one episode has a democracy where only a single citizen is still alive, all the others having died because of their absolute belief in majority rules. Oh! Edo Rocket is a farcical meta-satire of its own genre, managing to (hilariously) savage just about every cliche and character type in the world of anime and manga. Depending on if you consider it a parody or not Black Lagoon is this towards the over the top violence that was 90's anime. Art Superflat is a Po Mo art movement that was started by Takashi Murakami who was inspired by Hideaki Anno . It sometimes satirizes many aspects of Japan (particularly things sparked by Anime ) such as consumerism, the prevalence of Kawaisa , Lolicon , and Fanservice along with the Otaku subculture that is the driving force behind all of them.

However, since certain artists associated with Superflat are lolicon otaku themselves, it could also be seen as a form of self-parody. Furthermore, it should be noted that not all Superflat works are satirical in nature - Superflat Monogram, by Murakami and Mamoru Hosoda , for instance, is merely a Louis Vuitton commercial. Dada was a Po Mo movement that was a satire of modern art and post-WWI malaise. Especially the album "The Blue Lotus", which references the Chinese-Japanese War in the 1930s. "The Broken Ear" is a satire of the Gran Chaco War in South America. Robert Crumb Transmetropolitan : An excessively Juvenalian satire of American consumer culture, Politics, Journalism, Television, Religion, Cyberpunk writing, Utopian futurism and the future in general. Not Brand Echh had satires of many MarvelComics comic book heroes as well as a few other companies' characters. Pugad Baboy Fanfiction Lily And The Art Of Being Sisyphus is a hilarious and exceptionally well-made satirical mockery of popular conventions in Harry Potter Fanfiction, the Harry Potter fandom, and the universe of Harry Potter in general.

Of special note is the relationship between the Mundane and Wizarding worlds- which is sharply delineated in the source material and most fanfiction. In the protagonist's eyes there is no divide, and a significant element of the humor stems from everyone around her being unable to parse this. Films — Live-Action The movie The Player satirized Hollywood's crushing effect on the visions of individual artists as well as the kind of people that environment attracts. Being There , which brought us Chance the Gardener , is a satire of the human tendency to favor style over substance and take things at face value, particularly where media and politics are concerned. Basically Horatian. Cannibal Holocaust : It is the most sick, vile, twisted, bloody and most violent piece of satire ever made by a film director. Eli Roth ï¿½s The Green Inferno is more bloody, gorier & more barbarically gruesome, not to mention even more controversial. A Clockwork Orange is a satire of the battle against violence in society Dr. Strangelove is one of the most well known satires of the Cold War, and of the foolishness of the nuclear arms race. An interesting case where Horatian techniques were put to a Juvenalian end.

"Mr. President, we must not allow... A MINE SHAFT GAP!" Charlie Chaplin 's The Great Dictator is a satire on Hitler, Nazism and Fascism. Given the subject, it's Juvenalian, but surprisingly mildly so. Man Bites Dog is a satire on the sensationalism of the TV industry. Meet John Doe is a satire on the populist movement in the United States and Europe following The Great Depression . Monty Python's Life of Brian is a satire on religions and ideologies and their followers, more specifically Christianity. Generally Horatian and very gently toward Chistianity, but other ideologies get sharper treatment. Network by Sidney Lumet is a satire on the television industry. Quite Juvenalian. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a satire of censorship. Thank You for Smoking is a satire of the tobacco industry. Combines Juvenalian and Horatian techniques to great comic effect. To Be or Not to Be is a satire of Nazism. The Truman Show is a satire of reality TV and television in general, yet it inspired the television show Big Brother . The films of Jacques Tati are a satire on the contrast between the traditional society and the technological innovations of the modern world.

A Serbian Film is a satire ( supposedly ) of modern Serbian cinema and the history of the nation as a whole. So Juvenalian, some couldn't even tell it was a satire . Wag The Dog is a particularly Juvenalian satire on the US news media and politics. Idiocracy : A satirical dystopian sci-fi critique on human evolution in modern society, mass pop culture, mainstream media and commercialism. It also both references and lampoons classic dystopian sci-fi films like The Running Man , Total Recall (1990) , 2001: A Space Odyssey , Logan's Run , plus the novels Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World . Bamboozled shows how far African-American portrayals on television can really go, and how television network executives will do anything to keep their ratings up, at the cost of racially exploiting and ruining the lives of others. This Is Spinal Tap is a satire of rock bands. Literature Jonathan Swift A Modest Proposal . One of the most Juvenalian works ever produced. Gulliver's Travels . No, not the film with Jack Black . Nor the book of the film. That would be Self-Parody .

Jonathan Swift in general, really. Edwin A. Abbott's 1884 novella Flatland is a scathing dissection of Victorian class structures, of biological racism and eugenics, and of misogyny. The works of Honorï¿½ de Balzac , Marcel Proust , Rabelais and Voltaire. Some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books are satires of government, religion, and other things, often with the assistance of parody and pastiche. Typically Horatian. Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote satirizes nearly all of its contemporary examples of literature and theater and ridicules them; also a Juvenalian take of Spanish society at The Cavalier Years . The Confidence Man has characters that are satirized expys of 19th-century authors. Forrest Gump (the novel, but not the movie) was a fairly biting satire of Americana from the '50s to the '70s. The novel was more Juvenalian, the film being Horatian. Its sequel, Gump and Co.

was a less-biting satire of the '80s and '90s, including a light dig at the original novel's film adaptation . Many of the works of Mark Twain are clear examples of satire — most famously, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (protestations to the contrary on the back cover notwithstanding). Andrew Martin's novel Bilton is a satire on lifestyle journalism, involving a rude and alcoholic Marxist intellectual who works at the Daily Globe, a newspaper so swollen and fatuous that it has a supplement listing all the other supplements. The Devil's Dictionary , satirizing a wide variety of topics (and Juvenalian to the core). Notably contains an entry on "satire" teeming with sarcastic disdain for those who don't get satire. Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock is mocking the hubbub that sprang up when a friend of his cut a woman's lock of hair. Long story short: hair gets cut , war erupts . Very obviously Horatian (the targets of Pope's satire were his friends, whom he thought were making a mountain out of a molehill).

Tom Sharpe 's Wilt , while primarily comic farce, is also a bitter satire on academic bureaucracy and the heirarchy within colleges and universities. The theme is more deeply developed in the later books of the Wilt series, but Sharpe, a veteran of the unglamorous end of British higher education, makes some pretty trenchant points about what education should actually be for, and lays into the sort of people who let ambition, or wooly thinking, or vested interests, get in the way of delivering education to the people who arguably need it most. the Ipford Technical College is there primarily to provide vocational trades education and continuing education to adults who missed out earlier in life: its Principal misses the point entirely and is wasting the budget trying to get the place one step nearer becoming a university, for his personal prestige. Despite the fact this is not what it is intended to be and it is far more effective doing the job it was built for. Interfering politicians, Ministry of Education bureaucrats, political extremists, trendy teachers, ridiculous or grandiose "Mickey Mouse courses" and others who get in the way of the purpose of education are also mercilessly hammered.

Several of Ralph Bakshi 's animated feature films are heavy on satire, particularly Coonskin . The Simpsons is one huge satire of late 20th and early 21st century Western society. Family Guy , often in the most controversial sort of manner. The more recent seasons of South Park usually use satire as their primary source of humor. Futurama frequently satirizes aspects of modern life, from our waste and consumerism, technological evolutions to our short-sightedness to relentless and irritating evangelists. MAD : Its a spiritual and satirical successor to Mad TV, in the form of an animated sketch series. It even had the nerve to ridicule James Cameron's: Avatar . Invader Zim : Itï¿½s done an excellent job with poking fun at Human Life. Even the aspects of daily life in the far-future have devolved into a tortured mockery of itself. In a most Juvenalian manner. Tiny Toon Adventures : This show mocks and laughs at American Retro Pop culture, also old fashioned media censorship policies.

Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation , the direct to video animated film of the series, jabs its toes further into Summertime Activities, such as water fights, boating, including a car trip to a satirical Disneyland Park, Johnny Depp in the form of a skunk cartoon, and even the late 1980s horror films Friday The 13th & The Hitcher. Animaniacs uses this kind of humor 4 years later. Essay about South Park Satire - 1135 Words South Park Essay ...South Park as Parody of Society South Park began airing in 1997. The commercials that preceded it gave the impression of it beinganother stupid cartoon; however, when I began watching, I realized important issues were being covered through the repeated behaviors and actions of its characters, through the influences these actions could have on the viewers, through the reinforcement and rejections of certain stereotypes, through the... 1497 Words | 4 Pages south park Essay ...WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM SOUTH PARK TODAY? South Park is an American animated sitcom intended for mature audiences.

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Question: The US satirical TV series is what Park?
Answer: South