Saturday, September 22, 2012

the complex issue of bullying


We Got This Covered: "...Maybe I’ve been a little hard on South Park recently, but I think it’s justified to expect constant hilarity from two creators that so regularly have weaved smart satire with obscure toilet-humor. Is it so wrong to want a solid reason for the Kony 2012 director reference time and time again? Sure it’s contemporary. But if that’s the only requirement for a critical joke here, then Stan might as well have just been having dinner with Rick Santorum at the end of this episode. It feels like the writers are losing their grip on Butters’ character. Two weeks ago he sat in a classroom the whole ep with a gun in his mouth, and now he’s beating up talk show hosts and standing up to his grandma for this weeks resolute. Sure characters require a certain amount of personal growth throughout the years, but Butters’ humor relies on his brave ignorance that’s just short of being overt. If last weeks episode was the tip of their funny bone, we are all in for a boring season. The writing room needs a little more energy, it’s obvious. Maybe Matt and Trey should hire some strippers for the office, or blow lines off their dry erase boards. I doubt they do that stuff anymore though. Either way, I hope they can at least pretend to enjoy making this show after 16 seasons. Although, they have an additional 3 season contract since last November. They might not have to care..." - Ryan Levee (READ MORE)

Wired: "...I am not saying I am for bullying either. I don’t like bullying, and can’t imagine anyone does, even the bullies themselves. Bullying is the recourse of the weak and insecure, usually coming from children that have some sort of family, personal, or social situation they don’t know how to deal with. Many bullies come from broken homes or are abused. Many (and most of mine) were simply privileged children with a chip on their shoulder and an imaginary social standing they felt they had to reinforce. I don’t hold a grudge. I’m doing fantastic while many of them are working part time at a car wash. This past week on South Park in the episode titled “Butterballs” the gang tackled the complex issue of bullying by bullying each other into a political stance on bullying. Stan created a video speaking out against bullying, saying that it should kill itself. The video Stan makes is actually called “Make Bullying Kill Itself.” There are multiple references to the movie Bully as well as a “jack it in San Diego” reference, which is a direct dig on Kony 2012 creator Jason Russell. Once again South Park was able to take a complex social issue and break it down in a 22 minute chunk of hilarity that we all should take a lesson from. Why is it that the most obvious lessons in life tend to come from cartoons? Because they are able to cross the lines that we are afraid to cross, and say the things that we can only think without fear of retribution. While I anticipate the backlash to this article will be hefty, it’s worth it because of the end message..." - Curtis Silver (READ MORE)


South Park is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language and dark, surreal humor that lampoons a wide range of topics. The ongoing narrative revolves around four boys—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick—and their bizarre adventures in and around the titular Colorado town. Parker and Stone, who met at college, developed the show from two animated shorts they created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, which ultimately led to its production as a series. South Park debuted in August 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Comedy Central's highest rated shows. It is Comedy Central's longest running program; a total of 226 episodes have aired, and the series is slated to run through at least 2016.

Each episode bar the very first one, which was produced by cutout animation, is created with software that emulates the cutout technique. Each episode is typically written and produced during the week preceding its broadcast. Parker and Stone continue to perform most of the voice acting, and Parker is the primary writer and director. The series has received numerous accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and a #3 ranking in the Channel 4 2004 documentary The 100 Greatest Cartoons. The series' almost instant popularity resulted in a feature-length theatrical film, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut which was released in June 1999, less than two years after the show's premiere, and became a box office success. Almost all episodes of the series feature a TV-MA rating, however, in syndication and in reruns on Comedy Central before 8:00 PM the episodes are altered to be TV-14. - Wikipedia (READ MORE)

Posted by
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Search This Blog
Bullying is an abusive treatment, the use of force or coercion to affect others, particularly when habitual and involving an imbalance of power. It may involve verbal harassment, physical assault or coercion and may be directed persistently towards particular victims, perhaps on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexuality, or ability. The "imbalance of power" may be social power and/or physical power. The victim of bullying is sometimes referred to as a "targeted individual" (Wikipedia).