I think you just expressed something that I always seemed to experience when I watched South Park. I would watch it because the obnoxious humor was entertaining, but I did it at the expense of feeling like I had to sit through some kind of a preaching session. More entertaining than other things on tv at the moment, but with the cost of having to listen to some kind of propaganda.

You remember that they released a movie called Team America: World Police, right?

Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

The problem with Parker and Stone is that they’re responding to the idiocy they see on a daily basis: Hollywood liberalism. If you consider them from that narrow viewpoint, they appear to be outsiders; much in the way that McCain is a maverick by Washington media standards. But if you don’t have your head up your ass, you can see that they’re basically run-of-the-mill, politically speaking, and often aim at the wrong targets.

Remember how there was once this American president who wouldn’t even bother to read hand-delivered memos about terrorist strikes, and then later went on to attack the wrong country at a cost of more American lives than the original terrorist strikes? And yet Parker and Stone reserve their harshest criticism for … Al Gore.

You would have to be some sort of god damn idiot to think they are even-handed about their targets. Mind you, they’re well within their rights to say whatever they want; but if it is their decision to be partisan hacks, then it’s only fair to call them on it.

Granted, Parker claims to be a “libertarian”, but like most “libertarians”, he is basically a rank-and-file Republican who is vaguely aware that it takes a monumental amount of stupidity to be a rank-and-file Republican. So he figures that, if he calls himself a “libertarian” instead, that places him a step above the idiot crowd he is marching in lockstep with.

I do think Obama’s the best federal-level politician for the US since at least Bill Clinton and maybe much longer, and I think South Park is despicably ruled by the fatuous, nihilist, libertarian, Cartman-esque impulse not to learn, not to think, and not to revolt against those who deserve it, and always has been.

However, this carping at South Park just isn’t that funny, and now that the election’s over, Obama needs harder criticism than the exile is delivering. Look at how last spring he gave a great, moving speech about how he could no more cut loose his anti-white pastor than his anti-black grandmother, then less than a week later as the pressure rose, denounced Wright after all. Or how last summer he voted yes on amnesty for the telecoms that eagerly helped Bush illegally wiretap us all. He’s a mercenary, ambitious lawyer and politician, not a saint. The rich and powerful, including Obama, are down here in the desperate, miserable mud with the rest of us, and pointing that out is why journalists are here on Earth.

The “Mandingo Jesus” line, for example. That’s a funny cheap shot. You guys need more of those.

Arguments between Republicans and Democrats? When you get through all the red herrings they remind me of the committee meeting scene in the Original Star Wars movie. You have Grand Moff Tarkin (Republican) and cowardly, nameless lickspittle (Democrat) discussing the Emperor’s plan to eliminate the Senate. The lickspittle figures the Galactic Senate keeps the local systems in line because it looks good even if it just a rubber stamp. Tarkin believes that with the Death Star, it is unnecessary, because fear alone will keep the local systems in line.

Now, it was probably executed lamely, but McCain and Obama high fiving each other? Not so far fetched.

Oh, and I hope he (Obama) proves me wrong, but… Larry Fucking Summers? I should’ve voted for Cynthia McKinney.

I haven’t seen the episode so I can’t really comment on its content, but from the post I think I can still see the significance of the diamond heist subplot. It’s quite simple, really, and I’m surprised nobody has mentioned it yet: They’re the same; they’re theives; they’re in it for the riches and the notoriety, not for the people or integrity or any of that crap.

More than that, there’s this duality in the South Park narrative that pisses me off because so many people miss it. They claim “not to support either side” and “make fun of everyone,” but there’s always a clear moral or point overtly stated at the end of most episodes. They pretend they aren’t pundits, but take on that role all the time.

That said, I agree with Yul; this episode lamed out after the first few minutes.

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=8424&IBLOCK_ID=35

(although admittedly not written by John Dolan himself)