You Killed Humor! You Bastards!

[mrdankelly]

Since my electric toothbrush doesn't quit for two full minutes, I usually watch a little TV to kill time as I vibrate the plaque off my teeth. Consequently, South Park is usually on at the time, albeit the edited for late night TV version. Last night's episode was the one about people from the future coming to South Park via a time tunnel, and

Comments

[quixotic]

the quality of parker and stone's work is inversely related to how much money they have. my favorite movie of all time is cannibal! the musical, which is the first film they ever made. zero budget student film, and just the sort of mocking cheesyness that i love. also, it's absolutely not political. compare with team america, which was one of the most disappointingly unfunny pieces of shit i've ever paid $7 to see. the thing is, when they have more money, not only are they lazy, but they're on this weird power trip because they can get away with more. it's about them, not a quality product. increasingly, they went from trying to create something that other people would enjoy to seeing how far they could go just because it amuses them. they don't care about making anyone laugh but themselves anymore -- and they know it doesn't matter because they know people will watch their shit and laugh at it anyway. it's like all of those people who think it's funny to post goatse pictures on the teletubbies message board or shit like that. i used to watch south park pretty religiously -- especially in the early seasons, there was a lot of good stuff in there, even if it increasingly got bogged down with shock stupidity and lazy repetition. i also used to think matt stone was really hot, until he cut his hair off and stopped bathing.

and yes, they're both pretty vocal libertarians.

-a

[quixotic]

and also, for what it's worth, matt stone is jewish.

-a

[mrdankelly]

Yeah, I knew that, and I pondered it in the context of what's happening to Michael Chabon right now. In reviews of his new book, he's being accused of anti-Semitism by other Jews. He now has the opportunity to make that knee-slapper of a joke, "Well, you know you've made it when other Jews call you an anti-Semite." Oh, that crazy self-deprecating Jewish humor! It sounds a lot like crazy self-deprecating Irish humor.

I think my point is that there's virulent anti-Semitism ala Illinois Nazis, then there's lazy "comedic" anti-Semitism that depends on buying into the stereotypes at some level (ironically or otherwise). The latter may not be motivated by wanting to see the Chosen People flying up the chimneys, but it's still pretty lame, and, unless done well, kind of opportunistic and vile. Whatever, it's good to crack wise about anything, so I'm not saying no one should ever make a Jewish joke.

What grinds my gears is when (1) The jokes just ain't funny-not offensive, just dumb ("Kyle, you greedy Jew, you're a greedy Jew, Kyle. You're greedy, Kyle, and a Jew. You greedy Jew, Kyle. You Jew. Kyle, you greedy Jew." Though, from what I hear, the "Passion of the Jew" episode dealt with the issue in a funnier and harder hitting way.), (2) causing the comedian to automatically drop into a defensive crouch, saying, "Whoa! I'm a Jew, folks, so it's all right!" That's pathetic. Crack wise and you should be ready to take your lumps. In Stone's case though I'm guessing he just doesn't give a damn.

But, you know, that's how those people are.

You know... Douches.

[quixotic]

i don't know how much south park you actually have watched, but as far as the jokes on kyle, i think they're almost always designed primarily to make fun of cartman, rather than kyle or jewish people. the jokes coming out of cartman's mouth are purposely dumb, repetitive, and annoying -- the joke is not that jews are greedy, but rather the joke is that cartman is a fat, annoying dumbass. of course, whether making jokes about fat, annoying dumbasses isn't stale is another thing entirely. it's funny in part because kyle is none of the things cartman says he is. he's essentially cartman's foil. he's the kindest, most giving kid on the show. there is no joke on the show that is anything like "hey look, jews are greedy. ha!" i'm defending this a little too much because one of the few things i find to be really funny on south park anymore is the cartman/kyle rivalry. now, there are jokes on jews on the show -- i'm thinking mostly of the very stereotypical portrayal of kyle's mom, but even that is amusing to me. there are a lot of really, really shitty, lazy, hopelessly bad jokes on south park, but i generally think that the jewish jokes are generally done pretty well in context.

-a

[mrdankelly]

Obviously, I know nothing of the dance!