If anyone watched last nights premiere of the 10th season of South Park, they saw the death of one of the greatest cartoon characters ever. Chef made us all laugh with his habit of breaking into song any time the kids asked his advice. Some of his more classic musical lines in my mind:
"A prostitute is someone who'll love you, no matter who you are or what you look like, yes it's true"
"Hey everybody have you seen my balls, they're big and salty and brown. If you ever need a quick pick-me-up, just stick my balls in your mouth...ooh suck on my chocolate salty balls (put 'em in your mouth)...put 'em in your mouth and suck 'em"
And of course there's the all-time classic Love Gravy: "I'm gonna make love to you woman, gonna lay you down by the fire. And caress your womanly body, make you moan and perspire. Gonna get those juices flowin', we making love gravy, love gravy, love love love love GRAVY!"
So enough of my tribute to a creat character created by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Isaac Hayes...I'll get to my point now.
What angers me about this, is basically the same thing that angered Parker & Stone: Hayes never complained about the anti-christian, anti-semitic, chauvinistic or racist themes in the show, but he quit (supposedly) over the conflict in views over Scientology. Now most of you know how much disdain I hold for religion in general, so even though some people consider Scientology to be a cult and less of a real religion than Christianity, I see them as the same. Just as Hayes got offended by the anti-scientologist episode, the ultra-catholics got offended by the episode about the Virgin Mary. Both of these reactions are just flat wrong.
People need to have a sense of humor about their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation...whatever. My favorite comedians tend to be the ones who talk about what they know...themselves, their peers, their own experiences. Margaret Cho is an Asian who always tells Asian jokes, Chris Rock got wildly popular with his "Niggas vs Black People" sketch, Dave Chappelle tells all kinds of racist jokes (including the best comedy sketch in years: black head of the KKK). And who can forget the Jews? Woody Allen, Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld...all of those comedians poke fun at the foibles that make up their group.
So why is it so different to TAKE a joke that someone else tells about your specific group? I'm not offended when someone tells me a joke about Russians, Jews, White People or intellectuals, so why was Chef so offended by a HILARIOUS episode that made fun of a very quirky religion? You'd think after 9 years of making highly offensive shows he'd develop a sense of humor about himself. He obviously isn't offended by the racism in the show, so why would he be offended by someone making of a religion that he wasn't even born into? Maybe they really do brainwash in Scientology...
I'm gonna miss Chef in South Park, but I also think that South Park should probably call it quits after this season to avoid the lame down-turn that has killed the Simpsons since the late-nineties.
"A prostitute is someone who'll love you, no matter who you are or what you look like, yes it's true"
"Hey everybody have you seen my balls, they're big and salty and brown. If you ever need a quick pick-me-up, just stick my balls in your mouth...ooh suck on my chocolate salty balls (put 'em in your mouth)...put 'em in your mouth and suck 'em"
And of course there's the all-time classic Love Gravy: "I'm gonna make love to you woman, gonna lay you down by the fire. And caress your womanly body, make you moan and perspire. Gonna get those juices flowin', we making love gravy, love gravy, love love love love GRAVY!"
So enough of my tribute to a creat character created by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Isaac Hayes...I'll get to my point now.
What angers me about this, is basically the same thing that angered Parker & Stone: Hayes never complained about the anti-christian, anti-semitic, chauvinistic or racist themes in the show, but he quit (supposedly) over the conflict in views over Scientology. Now most of you know how much disdain I hold for religion in general, so even though some people consider Scientology to be a cult and less of a real religion than Christianity, I see them as the same. Just as Hayes got offended by the anti-scientologist episode, the ultra-catholics got offended by the episode about the Virgin Mary. Both of these reactions are just flat wrong.
People need to have a sense of humor about their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation...whatever. My favorite comedians tend to be the ones who talk about what they know...themselves, their peers, their own experiences. Margaret Cho is an Asian who always tells Asian jokes, Chris Rock got wildly popular with his "Niggas vs Black People" sketch, Dave Chappelle tells all kinds of racist jokes (including the best comedy sketch in years: black head of the KKK). And who can forget the Jews? Woody Allen, Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld...all of those comedians poke fun at the foibles that make up their group.
So why is it so different to TAKE a joke that someone else tells about your specific group? I'm not offended when someone tells me a joke about Russians, Jews, White People or intellectuals, so why was Chef so offended by a HILARIOUS episode that made fun of a very quirky religion? You'd think after 9 years of making highly offensive shows he'd develop a sense of humor about himself. He obviously isn't offended by the racism in the show, so why would he be offended by someone making of a religion that he wasn't even born into? Maybe they really do brainwash in Scientology...
I'm gonna miss Chef in South Park, but I also think that South Park should probably call it quits after this season to avoid the lame down-turn that has killed the Simpsons since the late-nineties.
posted by Dan Pasternack at 3:03 PM
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