Post #4: Day Took Er Jubs!
If there is a hobbie/passion in my life greater than baseball it is without a doubt South Park. This here post will be the honorary first South Park post and probably not the last. Being such, I will be more inclusive and detailed in said post. To begin, if you are unfamiliar with South Park (that's you, dwellers of under the rock) South Park is an animated show on comedy central which uses 4 foul mouthed kids and their wacky town as tools to mock conservatives and liberals, democrats and republicans, to mock celebrities, to mock people who believe ridiculous nonsense, and generally to tackle every issue in a humorous manner to expose the ridiculousness of the extremists positions within the issue on both sides of the spectrum. As M&T (the shows creators) often say, whatever is funny goes. They don't draw lines as to what is/isn't fair game. Social topics covered, off the top of my head, include but are FAR from limited to: fad of metrosexuality, gay marriage, abortion, saving the rainforest, immigration, scientology, the Mohammod cartoon, voting (Puff Daddy's Vote or Die campaign), the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Michael Jackson, and much much more.
Currently the show is in its 10th season. Being that I own every episode, every special, and practically every interview M&T ever did on my hard drive and have watched them all multiple times, I feel more than qualified to say that the show is not what it used to be. Some people point to the better animation (claiming that the older, choppier animation and sound from the first 6 or so seasons had more "charm") or the morphing of some of the character's personalities/voices (particularly Cartman) as negative points of change. I disagree, those have neither taken away from or added to my enjoyment of the show. It's just that some of the recent episodes (some not all) have first of all featured unnecessary nastiness, ie disgusting scenes (like the gay sex scene between Richard Dawkins and Mrs. Garrison, the teacher who had a sex change) that are not intrinsic to the plot. When the etzem nastiness is part of the process of parody, it is not only acceptable but enhances the experience. But when it is separate and apart and even random from the myseh parody, a la some recent episodes, it is a huge detriment. I hope you chapped that.
Another point of decline in my estimation is a tangible lack of ferocity in the parody. Usually great exaggeration is used to really "stick it" to the victims of the parody, but recently (particularly in the episode "Mr. Teacher Bangs a Boy" about Ike having an affair with his teacher a la the recent LeFleur and other scandals) there is a large void, a vancantness in the episode. It lacks essense. In other words, like in that teacher episode, Kyle does NOT give a 2 minute long "I learned something today" speech in the end detailing the extent of the teachers obvious retarded psychotic state. Also there are a lot more pauses of dead air which bother me and add to the lack of intensity.
Anyway, despite all of this, it is still my obssession and favorite show and always will be as long as they continue to keep the premise of the show going. I will now discuss the current episode: Go, God. Go! Part 2 was last Wednesday's episode. It was named part 2 for reasons unknown yet (the previous episode was completely unrelated). The following is the summary of the episode from Wikipedia, which for some reason has DIE HARD south park fans updating it constantly as you will soon see, so if you already saw this episode just scroll down a bit:
Cartman is unable to wait three weeks until the Nintendo Wii comes out, spending his time mindlessly pacing in front of a store called EV Games (a parody of EB Games) and asking how long until it comes out at intervals of about five seconds. Unable to wait any longer, he decides to go into suspended animation and get unfrozen as soon as the Wii comes out. Cartman gets Butters to bury him in the snow in the nearby mountains to ensure that he won't be disturbed until the release of the Wii.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Garrison — strongly against her wishes — is forced to teach evolution; however, she hates the theory and doesn't seem to know very much about it, and instead teaches the students about "retarded fish frogs having butt sex." Principal Victoria decides to hire Richard Dawkins to teach the theory along with her — they quickly get into an argument, and Mrs. Garrison decides to "act like a monkey" if she's related to one, ultimately throwing her own feces at him. However, Dawkins turns out to be infatuated with Garrison, and she becomes very excited about her first real date since becoming a woman.
On their date, Dawkins and Garrison hit it off, and Dawkins manages to convert Garrison to atheism (citing the Flying Spaghetti Monster), before the two have sex; the next day, Garrison – just as outspoken about her new atheism as her former beliefs — denounces God to the class and makes Stan sit in the "dunce chair" for suggesting God could exist along with evolution, after Stan makes the suggestion that evolution could be the answer to how and not why lifeforms are the way they are. Dawkins is at first reluctant to be so brazen, but Garrison tells him he was too soft on religious people in the past and that together they can rid the world of religion and all the violence it causes. To celebrate their new idea the two have sex again. Meanwhile Proffessor Chaos and General Disarray race to find Cartman, but remains hidden for 540 years after an avalanche covers his body. Finally he is unfrozen, and despite his loved ones being dead, is most upset that the future people do not have a Nintendo Wii.
Cartman is told that his unfreezers might be able to retrieve an antique Wii from a technology museum. In the future, everyone is atheistic and believes only in science (often saying things like "Oh my Science" and "Science Damn you!," but mocking Cartman for using similar, religious phrases). They tell Cartman that they think someone he knew caused the atheistic revolution, but before they can tell them who, they are attacked by another atheist group (the United Atheist Alliance, or Alliance Atheists), which kills the first group (the Unified Atheist League) and takes Cartman. They then contact a group of superintelligent sea otters (the Allied Atheist Allegiance) with whom they are also at war, who tell Cartman that the world will soon be theirs.
The episode ends, to be continued.
A couple of interesting notes which may/may not be obvious to you:
The whole point of the various Atheists in the future is to show the people who believe that religion is a major cause for war, that even without religion there would still be fighting and lack of unity. (It's obvious even to a mild fan that they love to attack hippies on this show, in a recent interview they were open about enjoying sticking it to radical liberals more than anyone else. The song Imagine by John Lennon, King Hippie himself, references the fact that religions = war.)
Also as someone pointed out on a South Park message board, its interesting that Atheists exist in the South Park universe considering Jesus lives in South Park, Santa and Mr. Hankey are frequent holiday visitors, God himself made an appearance at the New Year, and Satan has a recurring role.
Another point is Stan asking "Couldn't evolution be the answer to how rather than who" to ask that aren't evolution and the idea of intelligent design not necessarily mutually exclusive.
For reference, this is the second time someone was frozen and revived in the future. In the episode Prehistoric Ice Man (Season 2 Episode 18 original air date 1.20.99) Steve/Gorak/Larry was found frozen from the ancient time of 1996. Also interesting is that Steve Irwin, the late crocodile hunter first made an appearance in Prehistoric Ice Man and then wasn't seen until 2 weeks ago's episode, the Hell on Earth 2006 Halloween special in which he appeared with the sting ray tastelessly yet hilariously attached to his chest as a member of hell. You see? This is the type of stuff you get from Simmyball.
Another important episode to reference is Goobacks, the episode about immigration from Season 8 Episode 7 on 4.24.04. This is one of my favorite all time episodes, the origin of Day Took Er Jubs ("They took our jobs"). It is about people from the future called "goobacks" (they have gooey backs) who come back in time to current South Park because the world in the future is overpopulated and there aren't enough jobs. From Wikipedia: in the newscast it is reported that the time-traveler is looking for work because of the overpopulation in his time, and that the money he earns will be enough to feed his family in 3045. The time portal he took is said to follow "Terminator rules," as it is a one-way portal, (as opposed to the two-way "Back to the Future rules").
At the bottom of the wikipedia page someone who is now my idol wrote:
Despite what the episode states, "fading" occurs in the Back to the Future movies, not the Terminator movies. Under The Terminator rules, when someone comes from the future, they remain in the present time even if they alter the course of events so that they no longer exist in the future. The Back to the Future rule says that when someone comes from the future and alters the future so they will no longer exist, they fade in the present day into nothingness, along with any other tangible proof of their existence. Regarding the rules of time travel discussed in the episode, the time portal itself is the only thing which follows the rules designated by films, while the actual physical manifestation of the person from the future follows different rules.
If you weren't sure, the goobacks faded at the end of the episode. Anyway, the goobacks are from 3045 and Cartman was transported to the future in 2546. It is to be determined if the one way time travel which exists in 3045 was invented yet in 2546. My guess is that Cartman will get to either playing the ancient Wii or a cooler new system and won't want to leave the future, but somehow get tricked into returning to the past.
Did you know? There are 3 players in baseball history with a .424+ OBP, 1500+ RBI and less than 1300 Strikeouts: Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Frank Thomas.
Currently the show is in its 10th season. Being that I own every episode, every special, and practically every interview M&T ever did on my hard drive and have watched them all multiple times, I feel more than qualified to say that the show is not what it used to be. Some people point to the better animation (claiming that the older, choppier animation and sound from the first 6 or so seasons had more "charm") or the morphing of some of the character's personalities/voices (particularly Cartman) as negative points of change. I disagree, those have neither taken away from or added to my enjoyment of the show. It's just that some of the recent episodes (some not all) have first of all featured unnecessary nastiness, ie disgusting scenes (like the gay sex scene between Richard Dawkins and Mrs. Garrison, the teacher who had a sex change) that are not intrinsic to the plot. When the etzem nastiness is part of the process of parody, it is not only acceptable but enhances the experience. But when it is separate and apart and even random from the myseh parody, a la some recent episodes, it is a huge detriment. I hope you chapped that.
Another point of decline in my estimation is a tangible lack of ferocity in the parody. Usually great exaggeration is used to really "stick it" to the victims of the parody, but recently (particularly in the episode "Mr. Teacher Bangs a Boy" about Ike having an affair with his teacher a la the recent LeFleur and other scandals) there is a large void, a vancantness in the episode. It lacks essense. In other words, like in that teacher episode, Kyle does NOT give a 2 minute long "I learned something today" speech in the end detailing the extent of the teachers obvious retarded psychotic state. Also there are a lot more pauses of dead air which bother me and add to the lack of intensity.
Anyway, despite all of this, it is still my obssession and favorite show and always will be as long as they continue to keep the premise of the show going. I will now discuss the current episode: Go, God. Go! Part 2 was last Wednesday's episode. It was named part 2 for reasons unknown yet (the previous episode was completely unrelated). The following is the summary of the episode from Wikipedia, which for some reason has DIE HARD south park fans updating it constantly as you will soon see, so if you already saw this episode just scroll down a bit:
Cartman is unable to wait three weeks until the Nintendo Wii comes out, spending his time mindlessly pacing in front of a store called EV Games (a parody of EB Games) and asking how long until it comes out at intervals of about five seconds. Unable to wait any longer, he decides to go into suspended animation and get unfrozen as soon as the Wii comes out. Cartman gets Butters to bury him in the snow in the nearby mountains to ensure that he won't be disturbed until the release of the Wii.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Garrison — strongly against her wishes — is forced to teach evolution; however, she hates the theory and doesn't seem to know very much about it, and instead teaches the students about "retarded fish frogs having butt sex." Principal Victoria decides to hire Richard Dawkins to teach the theory along with her — they quickly get into an argument, and Mrs. Garrison decides to "act like a monkey" if she's related to one, ultimately throwing her own feces at him. However, Dawkins turns out to be infatuated with Garrison, and she becomes very excited about her first real date since becoming a woman.
On their date, Dawkins and Garrison hit it off, and Dawkins manages to convert Garrison to atheism (citing the Flying Spaghetti Monster), before the two have sex; the next day, Garrison – just as outspoken about her new atheism as her former beliefs — denounces God to the class and makes Stan sit in the "dunce chair" for suggesting God could exist along with evolution, after Stan makes the suggestion that evolution could be the answer to how and not why lifeforms are the way they are. Dawkins is at first reluctant to be so brazen, but Garrison tells him he was too soft on religious people in the past and that together they can rid the world of religion and all the violence it causes. To celebrate their new idea the two have sex again. Meanwhile Proffessor Chaos and General Disarray race to find Cartman, but remains hidden for 540 years after an avalanche covers his body. Finally he is unfrozen, and despite his loved ones being dead, is most upset that the future people do not have a Nintendo Wii.
Cartman is told that his unfreezers might be able to retrieve an antique Wii from a technology museum. In the future, everyone is atheistic and believes only in science (often saying things like "Oh my Science" and "Science Damn you!," but mocking Cartman for using similar, religious phrases). They tell Cartman that they think someone he knew caused the atheistic revolution, but before they can tell them who, they are attacked by another atheist group (the United Atheist Alliance, or Alliance Atheists), which kills the first group (the Unified Atheist League) and takes Cartman. They then contact a group of superintelligent sea otters (the Allied Atheist Allegiance) with whom they are also at war, who tell Cartman that the world will soon be theirs.
The episode ends, to be continued.
A couple of interesting notes which may/may not be obvious to you:
The whole point of the various Atheists in the future is to show the people who believe that religion is a major cause for war, that even without religion there would still be fighting and lack of unity. (It's obvious even to a mild fan that they love to attack hippies on this show, in a recent interview they were open about enjoying sticking it to radical liberals more than anyone else. The song Imagine by John Lennon, King Hippie himself, references the fact that religions = war.)
Also as someone pointed out on a South Park message board, its interesting that Atheists exist in the South Park universe considering Jesus lives in South Park, Santa and Mr. Hankey are frequent holiday visitors, God himself made an appearance at the New Year, and Satan has a recurring role.
Another point is Stan asking "Couldn't evolution be the answer to how rather than who" to ask that aren't evolution and the idea of intelligent design not necessarily mutually exclusive.
For reference, this is the second time someone was frozen and revived in the future. In the episode Prehistoric Ice Man (Season 2 Episode 18 original air date 1.20.99) Steve/Gorak/Larry was found frozen from the ancient time of 1996. Also interesting is that Steve Irwin, the late crocodile hunter first made an appearance in Prehistoric Ice Man and then wasn't seen until 2 weeks ago's episode, the Hell on Earth 2006 Halloween special in which he appeared with the sting ray tastelessly yet hilariously attached to his chest as a member of hell. You see? This is the type of stuff you get from Simmyball.
Another important episode to reference is Goobacks, the episode about immigration from Season 8 Episode 7 on 4.24.04. This is one of my favorite all time episodes, the origin of Day Took Er Jubs ("They took our jobs"). It is about people from the future called "goobacks" (they have gooey backs) who come back in time to current South Park because the world in the future is overpopulated and there aren't enough jobs. From Wikipedia: in the newscast it is reported that the time-traveler is looking for work because of the overpopulation in his time, and that the money he earns will be enough to feed his family in 3045. The time portal he took is said to follow "Terminator rules," as it is a one-way portal, (as opposed to the two-way "Back to the Future rules").
At the bottom of the wikipedia page someone who is now my idol wrote:
Despite what the episode states, "fading" occurs in the Back to the Future movies, not the Terminator movies. Under The Terminator rules, when someone comes from the future, they remain in the present time even if they alter the course of events so that they no longer exist in the future. The Back to the Future rule says that when someone comes from the future and alters the future so they will no longer exist, they fade in the present day into nothingness, along with any other tangible proof of their existence. Regarding the rules of time travel discussed in the episode, the time portal itself is the only thing which follows the rules designated by films, while the actual physical manifestation of the person from the future follows different rules.
If you weren't sure, the goobacks faded at the end of the episode. Anyway, the goobacks are from 3045 and Cartman was transported to the future in 2546. It is to be determined if the one way time travel which exists in 3045 was invented yet in 2546. My guess is that Cartman will get to either playing the ancient Wii or a cooler new system and won't want to leave the future, but somehow get tricked into returning to the past.
Did you know? There are 3 players in baseball history with a .424+ OBP, 1500+ RBI and less than 1300 Strikeouts: Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Frank Thomas.
posted by Simmy Cohen at 4:10 PM
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