South Park

You mean the boys' current teacher? She's an Asian woman, and her name is Mrs. Nelson.

I think technically the cops are the new teachers. Still, Mrs. Nelson didn't have much of anything to do but just be normal.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Wasn't them being teachers just a one-time thing for the Pandemic Special? I'm pretty sure they won't be teachers in the next episode.

I think so, yeah.

Optimism is a duty.

Continuity is wack at this point. PC Principal was supposed to be a one-time thing. Who knows what sticks anymore?

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

“You mean the boys' current teacher? She's an Asian woman, and her name is Mrs. Nelson.”

She’s not Asian. She just has narrow eyes the same way Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon have.

Pretty sure she's designed like a lot of other Asian characters (barring the early ones that have straight-up slant eyes). They don't draw Fallon or Kimmel with those eyes.

Edited by mightymewtron on Feb 4th 2021 at 9:43:31 AM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

The South Park wiki says she's Asian, and she clearly looks Asian.

That’s odd since Kimmel and Fallon do have Asian-esque eyes. Plus, the wiki is made by the fans so take it with a grain of salt.

Regardless, I hope Garrison somehow returns. He’s always been one of the best characters.

Edited by HBarnill on Feb 5th 2021 at 12:16:46 PM

Changing a bit the topic, I always found it amusing how in SP there exists Imaginationland, i.e. a parallel dimension where every character ever dreamed by humans lives, but at the same time some of these characters are living, breathing people in the world of the show.

For example, Family Guy is a cartoon, but Mickey Mouse and apparently most Disney and Marvel characters are Animated Actors. The Simpsons are a cartoon, but a character being Bart Simpson in all but name appeared as a kid in the show. A visibly aged Dick Dastardly and Muttley were contestants in the race in "Handicar". And Freddy Krueger somehow was both an imaginary villain in Imaginationland and a real-life good guy with wife and kids in "Insheeption". (I'm not complaining, just find it hilarious somewhat)

edit: also for religious figures, since Jesus and Satan are characters in the show but the Imaginationland trilogy still implies that all religious figures are imaginary as well. How does that work?

Edited by WoodyAlien3rd on Feb 6th 2021 at 8:09:22 PM

"Effective Altruism" is just another bunch of horsesh*t.

I always figured it was a case of the actual figure and what people interpreted them as.

Or a case of South Park not particularly caring about that sort of continuity.

Optimism is a duty.

I was going to question how Judaism even exists in South Park when they know Jesus personally and he is canonically acknowledged as the Son of God, but it's also heavily implied that Jesus fakes his miracles, so Jesus himself may not really be holy.

Plus canonically the only religion acknowledged as "true" is Mormonism. So there's that.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Maybe take it as a composite of all fictional versions of them. There's tons of fictional versions of Jesus, going all the way back to the non-canon books like the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

As for why Judaism exists, it's because Kyle is Matt Stone and to be a source for jokes.

Edited by Smasher on Feb 6th 2021 at 5:00:36 AM

Also, Jesus himself was a Jew, of course, so by definiton, Jews must have existed for Jesus to exist.

Optimism is a duty.

Oh, duh. Plus South Park is huge on religious pluralism anyway since Trey and Matt's stance seems to be "the logic of any particular religion doesn't matter as long as your faith inspires you to be genuinely good."

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Great message but it does seem they treat atheists and Scientologists far worse than those who follow a religion. They specifically call the former people who shit out their mouths and the latter...

They tend to focus on the hypocrisy of behaviors rather than the specifics of what any group believes (though they have fun with that too). The Richard Dawkins episode in particular is about the fault of extremism whether it comes from religion or science. That's also why they have unusual affection for Mormons, they made the musical because they felt like Mormons are about to break into song and dance already.

Do you not know that in the service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils!

Also I don't think they treated atheists worse than the Catholic Church, which was depicted as chock full of pedophiles. (Yes, that's a stock joke, but so is the smug asshole atheist at this point.) They just shit on people who use faith (or lack thereof) as an excuse to abuse power.

Their agnostic parody was probably the funniest because it really had nothing to do with the philosophy of agnostics, it was just parodying religions fundamentalism with people who are apathetic about religion. Maybe it was light on the actual belief of agnosticism because I think Trey and Matt are agnostic themselves? (Either that or atheist, I lost track.) IDK. I just found it amusing as an agnostic person.

Edited by mightymewtron on Feb 6th 2021 at 6:40:42 AM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

I still think the end of the Passion of The Christ parody spelled it out rather well, that worship is fine but fundamentalist anger was the sort of thing people did in the Dark Ages, and that ended poorly.

I have seen at least one atheist unironically use the clip with the "I Have Faith" dunce cap to insult a religious person.

I mentioned that Trey believes in God but Matt? I dunno. He says he’s atheist and then says he’s agnostic so go figure. I mean you can be both.

Edited by HBarnill on Feb 6th 2021 at 3:56:24 AM

The line between atheist and agnostic can be pretty thin, someone may identify as one or the other depending on their mood that day.

Do you not know that in the service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils!

”Goddamn it! There’s traffic! I’m an atheist! Oh, it’s speeding up! I’m agnostic!”

It's also interesting how in Imaginationland all the deities and religious figures were on the good side of imagination, while the bad side is almost totally composed by evil characters and monsters from popular culture. I was about to say "as not to offend anyone", but then again, when has South Park ever worried about not offending people? I guess that that ties in with their stance that, if a story inspires you to do good and be a better person, it doesn't matter if it's from the Bible or a comic book.

On the other hand, however, the terrorists who blew up the barrier between good and evil side were fairly clearly Muslim, then again it was made during the War on Terror and it was part of the whole underlying metaphor ("the terrorists will win if they conquer our imagination!" or something like that).

Also (not complaining, just stating it) it is funny how in evil Imaginationland All Crimes Are Equal, so that, say, Gargamel and Darkseid are pretty much on the same plane

"Effective Altruism" is just another bunch of horsesh*t.