South Park Appreciation

[grand theft sparrow]

since people stayed away from MI3 specifically because of Tom Cruise.

But if South Park never made fun of him, we'd all respect him for the classically trained thespian that he is?

Wasn't the deal that either Comedy Central pulls the episode or Tom Cruise doesn't do press for MI3?  Then MI3 didn't do so well because most people were sick of Tom Cruise.  So he's not the hot shit he used to be and they're running the episode again. 


I have to be honest, Walrus.  Your avatar scares me.

[Pubrick]

I have to be honest, Walrus.  Your avatar scares me.

you're a braver man than me to face the fear which has, along with his jokes, led me to avoid his posts altogether.

[MacGuffin]

Ad didn't take aim at Gibson
Source: Los Angeles Times



"C'mon Jews," the ad exhorted, "show them who really runs Hollywood." Hint: It's not Mel Gibson.

In Tuesday's full-page ad in Daily Variety, placed by Comedy Central, the answer is clear from the cartoon showing "South Park" characters next to the Scientology headquarters.

Though the ad appears to be a humorous and timely takeoff on Gibson's widely reported tirade against Jews during last week's arrest in a drunk driving case, the timing is "pure coincidence," Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said Tuesday.

In fact, the ad congratulates "South Park" on its Emmy nomination for the episode "Trapped in the Closet" and refers to another controversy altogether — the still unresolved question of whether Tom Cruise influenced Comedy Central to pull a scheduled rerun of the Scientology-satirizing episode in March.

"It's a little bit of an inside joke at our expense for pulling the Scientology episode," Fox said.

"South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have said they submitted that particular episode for Emmy consideration as a reproof to executives who initially refused to re-air the show, originally televised last November. Now it will compete for best animated program at the Emmy's creative arts ceremony Aug. 19.

Though Cruise was widely rumored to have asked that the episode not be replayed — an allegation he denied — Fox said: "We've never commented on that.... We were aware the 'South Park' guys were unhappy. We told them we would put it back on the air."

"Trapped in the Closet" re-aired last week for the first time.

Fox said Tuesday's ad is in the Comedy Central tradition of being "topical and a bit of a thumb in your eye." Still, it wasn't as topical as it appeared, since the ad was designed and approved weeks before Gibson's arrest on Friday, he said.

"South Park" previously made fun of Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" in an episode called "The Passion of the Jew." In that show, the characters visit Gibson at home when they can't get their money back at the box office.

[MacGuffin]

'South Park' comes of age, sort of

"South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone weren't sure the series would last beyond its initial order of six episodes. But the irreverent comedy show, which first aired Aug. 13, 1997, begins a new season Oct. 4.

So how long can they keep it going?

"We've said in a lot of interviews, 'There's no way we're going to be 35 or 40 doing this show,' and here we are at 35, and we're doing the show," Stone said. "Now we'll say, 'There's no way we're going to be 45 to 50 doing this show.' "

"I think when I have kids, it'll be over," Parker added. "Because that'll be the day, we'll have kids, and then one of us will come in the office and be like, 'I think we should take the show in a different direction. I think we offended some people last night, and I don't know that that's good.' "

Stone: "Once we have kids, we'll do the George Lucas thing, and we'll go back and change all the old episodes."

Parker: "All the guns out of people's hands and stuff."

Stone: "Get all weird and wimpy."

[Ravi]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6093802.stm

South Park defends Irwin sketch

The TV network behind controversial cartoon South Park has defended the latest episode which makes fun of the death of TV naturalist Steve Irwin.

The episode shows a bloody Mr Irwin with the stingray that killed him in September hanging from his chest.

John Beyer, of TV watchdog Mediawatch, called it "grossly insensitive".

Comedy Central said: "The South Park guys do inappropriate things all the time...Their goal is to make people laugh, not to offend people."

In the episode, shown on Comedy Central in the US this week, Mr Irwin is at a Halloween party hosted by the devil.

Other guests include Hitler and Diana, Princess of Wales, but Irwin is thrown out because he is not in fancy dress.

Tony Fox of Comedy Central said: "We recognise that they [the South Park creators] do a lot of provocative things - is this one of them, probably yes.

"They are largely free to do what they like in terms of creativity and kinds of subject matter, and this is perhaps just another example of that."

The expletive-heavy humour of the cartoon, created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, is considered too close to the bone for many people but loved by many others.

Previous episodes have also caused controversy by making fun of actor Tom Cruise and Scientology, the Virgin Mary and the Prophet Muhammad.

But Mr Beyer said of the Mr Irwin sketch: "Mr Irwin's family are obviously still grieving about their tragic loss and it seems inappropriate to me that South Park should be trying to make some capital out of it.

"To lampoon somebody's death like that is unacceptable, and so soon after the event is grossly insensitive and shows a great deal of disrespect for his family."

The 44-year-old naturalist - known as the Crocodile Hunter - died after being struck in the chest by the stingray's barb while filming a documentary on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.

He was mourned by thousands of people in Australia, who considered him as a national hero because of his conservation work.

Tributes and donations to his charity Wildlife Warriors also flooded in from around the world and more than 5,000 people attended a memorial service at Mr Irwin's Crocoseum stadium in Queensland.

[Pubrick]

Tony Fox of Comedy Central said: "We recognise that they [the South Park creators] do a lot of provocative things - is this one of them, probably yes.

"They are largely free to do what they like in terms of creativity and kinds of subject matter, and this is perhaps just another example of that."

commitment phobe.

[Weak2ndAct]

I find it amusing that showing Irwin is taboo, yet the episode also features priests that have naked boys on leashes-- which will not raise an eyebrow. 

[Chest Rockwell]

Last night's episode was fairly brilliant.

[squints]

When Ms. Garrison was explaining evolution....
i don't know if i've ever laughed so hard.

[MacGuffin]

"South Park" duo ink lucrative deal

An animated series is redrawing the lines of television mega-deals.

The eye-popping $75 million pact announced Monday by Comedy Central and the creators of "South Park" may be the most prominent example of the Internet as a bona fide backend window alongside syndication and DVD. The duo of Matt Stone and Trey Parker will get a 50-50 ad split on digital platforms but not on television.

The new extension will bring three more 14-episode seasons -- the same volume Stone and Parker re-signed for in 2005. "Park" is in place now through 2011, bringing its stint at Comedy Central to 15 seasons going back to 1997.

"Three more years of 'South Park' will give us the opportunity to offend that many more people," Stone said. "And since Trey and I are in charge of the digital side of 'South Park,' we can offend people on their cell phones, game consoles and computers too."

Stone and Parker already have negotiated a share of the hundreds of millions of dollars "Park" has poured in to the network via the backend, not to mention a robust licensing and merchandising revenue stream.

But this time around, they are poised to haul half of the unknown -- but up to now quite modest -- sum awaiting them on the Internet, where "Park" footage has been a fixture of Comedy Central's dot-com strategy, not to mention illegal file-sharing.

Also part of the deal is the formation of a digital animation studio launched jointly with the Viacom-owned channel, which would participate in any new programming spawned under the venture. South Park Digital Studios would come under the Web site it launched earlier this year, Southparkstudios.com.

The deal represents a coup for Kevin Morris, attorney for Parker and Stone, and Doug Herzog, president of MTV Networks Entertainment Group, who ran Comedy Central when "Park" became the channel's first breakout hit. Parent company Viacom also could use a boost in the digital domain, where the company has been criticized on Wall Street.

Abel Lezcano, a lawyer at Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano whose clients include "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry, was less impressed by the ad split than the total value of the pact.

"To me that's not as big a deal as if Comedy Central had given them a share of ad revenue from TV broadcasts, but the total amount is pretty big," he said. "The Big Four networks still won't let you share in any form of advertising (broadcast or Internet) because they sell ads across all platforms and don't want to separate it out, so in that respect, it's different."

Dan Black, partner at Greenberg Traurig in Santa Monica, agrees that this is not a precedent-setting deal.

"I've seen deals like that before with Web site revenue splits," he said. "The paradigm is familiar, but the $75 million is recognition of the success of the show."

But with the ink still drying, speculation already has begun as to what will be the next TV franchise to command a payday of similar scope. Bigger franchises from "The Simpsons" to "Saturday Night Live" also have established online presences that could complicate future negotiations.

Sameer Mithal, consultant for media and content at BusinessEdge Solutions, believes that only A-list content players will get a slice of the digital pie. "A lot of people are going to ask for it, but very few are going to get it," he said. "Someone just starting out doesn't have the leverage of the 'South Park' guys."

Lightning may well strike twice at Comedy Central, which already may be negotiating with another Internet darling: "The Daily Show" anchor Jon Stewart, whose current four-year contract expires at the end of 2008. The current deal for "Park" was also scheduled to elapse late next year.

James Dixon, who manages Stewart, applauded the "Park" pact but said his client is not concerned. "We'll see what happens with his next deal, but 'Daily' is a different animal than an animated series," he said. "A lot more than digital needs to be discussed."

[pumba]

Did anyone see the season premiere?

HOLY SHIT. this is the funniest show on television ever.

[diggler]

not the funniest episode ever, but butters at the urinal was classic.

[matt35mm]

It was a pretty funny episode, and South Park is one of the few shows I can count on to deliver time and time again.

Not every single episode is good, but I feel like I'm in good hands when I tune in, and I understand when they can't hit it out of the ballpark every time.  My feeling is based on how, after so many years, it's clearly still two guys putting up what's funny to them.  I always know that they're not going to try to sell me something that they wouldn't buy (unlike the majority of sitcoms and, ahem, The Simpsons now).  And so when there's a mediocre episode on, that doesn't mean that there's not a brilliant episode on the horizon.  Trey and Matt have, overall, not lost a single bit of edge, because they still approach their work with intelligence and honesty.  And they're still fucking funny.

[squints]

please tell me someone watched this. (don't look!! if you didnt')

I have to admit last week's episode sucked but...

Michael Bay, M. Night Shamalamalamlan, crazy Mel Gibson and his story structure, dragonheart, saving private ryan/ronald mcdonald . This is why they won an emmy (albeit they didnt' have much competetition). A trilogy? It is as if the show has no restrictions in a showtime/hbo sort of way. Prestige television indeed.

[72teeth]

  fuckin amazing...
all the cameos were great!