South Park

I've read up a bit on the new Joker movie here, and now I understand a lot better where this first episode was coming from with its Mexican Joker concept. Maybe they should have made that connection a little more explicit, to show that it was about this particular interpretation, not the character in general.

It also does not bode well for Randy. I am now more convinced that he will be the one turning into the Joker, having already committed several murders this past episode.

Edited by Redmess on Oct 2nd 2019 at 1:20:14 PM

Want another Joker/Mexicans connection? Here it is, courtesy of Gabriel Iglesias:

According to the other wiki, Mickey Mouse, Winnie The Pooh, and Pokemon generate more revenue than Star Wars.

I was half expecting the episode to end with the Chinpokomon appearing. Hey, Pokemon airs on Disney XD you know!

Can't wait for their Hello Kitty episode.

Did you guys see the new episode? Looks like the latest episode "Band in China", the episode revolving around censorship in China, has actually caused South Park to actually be banned in China altogether.

I'm just surprised that China would air South Park at all.

I don't know if it was ever "aired" but the article reads more as the government moving to take down anything to do with it on the internet and social media. Lots off shows get user uploaded to popular streaming sites, banning in this case means scrubbing it off of those.

Also note this isn't actually going to stop the show from popping up on the street, nor will it stop literally any college student from turning on their vpn and torrenting.

Edited by TheAirman on Oct 7th 2019 at 6:06:37 AM

The odd thing is, I haven't seen it appear on my streaming site of choice yet. They are usually pretty punctual, but for some reason, not this week.

Yep, Band in China has made CNN International.

And they've issued probably the best Backhanded Apology I've ever seen over it.

See for yourselves.

Yeah, I saw it yesterday. I'm glad they're back to directly calling out people for their bullshit.

I never thought I would praise South Park, but given recent events, I say bravo to them. They directly called out the thin-skinnedness of China's censors and the cowardice of businesses caving in to them, without making it a racial or cultural issue.

Edited by Alycus on Oct 8th 2019 at 11:41:33 AM

Well, they uncaved the other day, but of course it's hardly credible after they already caved before.

It rings rather hollow to talk of how important human rights are to you when you disregarded them in favour of doing business just the other week.

After how Blizzard kowtowed to China recently, I appreciate this series' unapologetic slam on Chinese influence even more.

Edited by dRoy on Oct 10th 2019 at 1:25:07 AM

It's not just Blizzard, it's a general attitude of American companies towards China. Wnen these companies have to choose between Anglo-Saxon style capitalism profiting from the huge Chinese market, and upholding their values of freedom and free speech, they tend to choose capitalism over values.

In the past, I've thought that I don't really dislike Randy, but sometimes I disliked it when he was shoved into episodes that he didn't really need to be in. This season is the first time where I'm really sick of him constantly being given focus. For once, I wish a meddling executive would step in and tell them "Guys, knock it off with the fucking Randy plots."

Someones gotta run hell now that Satans got his Red Dead Redemption.

To be fair, this season Randy seems to be written as a purposeful Hate Sink. Hopefully that means that he'll either develop or get punished soon.

A little late but:

That comment was always a Take That! at themselves. They were basically admitting they could see why some people would prefer FamilyGuy (one mindless joke after another) to their own show. Of course, then Family Guy also started in with the ham-fisted political commentary...

Edited by LSBK on Oct 9th 2019 at 4:44:23 AM

True, but South Park never was just one mindless joke after another, either. I just think earlier seasons had a better balance of humour vs messaging.

A major point of the Cartoon Wars episodes was that South Park strove for story and narrative causality, A leads to B leads to C. This held true for something like The Simpsons (or even Seinfeld), where even if the overarching story constantly changes over the episode there was a narrative reason for it. Family Guy rarely has that, their Cutaway Gags sometimes last an entire act break and even their actual story gags are just "what random jokes can we think of Peter doing in this scenario?" nonsense. It may be funny, but it's not storytelling.

And that's really the underlying reason why South Park episodes have moral messages, their stories actually culminate into a final resolution. Parker and Stone said that the moral messages became more prevalent precisely because a couple years in was Columbine, which they grew up nearby, and they felt a personal obligation to not waste their media platform.

Trevor has more examples of American companies grovelling to China:

So it turns out Blizzard, Hollywood, etc have their prices, and China found them.

Absolutely. This is not just an issue with the NBA. This is a widespread issue. You want to do business in China, you have to toe the Communist Party line. No exceptions. And clearly, for many the lure of Chinese money is just too great.

I stopped caring about SP after the terrible season 20, but I still watch some of it and read about it once in a while. I'm disappointed that they are still doing serialized episodes even after they said they wouldn't do them anymore, mostly because this Tegridy thing is being run into the ground. Also I too dislike how Randy has basically become the series' mascot and the go-to character at this point. Maybe turning him into a callous murderer means that he'll get in-universe backlash too?

By the way I also read that, for the 300th episode, the latest episode wasn't especially epic or funny (nothing to do with "200/201" in any case) and the satire against anti-vax movements was nothing special either. Anyway props to them for the "Band in China" episode and their subsequent "apology". It takes balls to do it.

Does it, though? It's not like China makes death threats over South Park episodes.

Showing Mohammed took balls. Dissing China is comparatively easy and straightforward.

you'd think that but then you have blizzard who took away someone's winnings who spoke for Hong Kong and then firing the announcers who interviewed him and banning wearing Winnie the pooh merch at any blizzard event. And then stopping people from deleting their accounts. And the NBA situation. So yeah people in entertainment actually saying you know what fuck China is great.

Also I don't blame Matt and trey for not Making 300 epic bdxause the last time they tried to do an epic anniversary episode they got burned hard