'South Park' whips up on 'Indiana Jones,' George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

Everyone's head is still spinning from "South Park" last night.

If you missed it, basically Trey Parker and Matt Stone are of the opinion that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raped the once-glorious "Indiana Jones" franchise with the fourth film released this past summer.

So guess how the two gleeful firebrands metaphorically presented that point of view on last night's new episode? Yep, that's right, "South Park" put those two iconic filmmakers and their archaeologist hero into a reenactment of the most disurbing scene from "Deliverance."

Todd Martens at Show Tracker has the ugly details and some screen grabs from the episode. I'm taking the high road but not posting them here (but, obviously, I'm also taking the low road by putting in a link).

-- Geoff Boucher

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Comments

[Rich]

That episode admittedly made me a little uncomfortable, but I won't argue with their sentiment. Indy IV was a steaming pile.

[kurlybear13]

OK, so I of the 3 rape scenes, I can recognize two. The 2nd: The Accused, and the 3rd: Deliverance. Which movie was referenced in the 1st rape scene?

[AmbroseKalifornia]

I'd still rather watch a bad Indy movie that a great South Park episode any day.

[meathead1219]

For kurlybear13 - I thought the 1st was just from Raiders of the Lost Arc (minus the rape part of course) but the part at the beginning where they capture Indiana Jones and take the statue.

I could be wrong though.

The best part was "we found the dead corpses of Yoda and Short Round in the closet".

[ariel]

Well, I didn't see the episode. South Park is typically tasteless and that is fine with me. I sometimes watch and have no real objection to it. I'm sure this episode was as tasteless as the rest. Complaining about it is like complaining about Howard Stern - what do you expect from it?? Nobody is immune - not even Speilberg and Lucas - and they shouldn't be. Laugh it off everyone.

As for Indy 4 I admit that SOME of the film was dumb and some scenes out of the realm of possibility even for a hero like Indy (i.e., surviving the nuke in the fridge? That is a stretch and I remember looking at my husband going "for real?") and yes the gopher was bad. The beginning of the film was not my favorite I admit but c'mon it DID actually get better. I tend to cut a couple of the biggest film makers in history a little slack from time to time. I enjoyed the rest of the move and plan to complete our series with it, saw the blips in believability for what they were and enjoyed nostalgically the character that is Indiana Jones. Are they counting on this type of feeling? Sure, but I don't care. Make billions of dollars and have an occasional "iffy" film - I don't care. C'mon, the world economy is collapsing, execs that are just rotten pieces of you know what are walking away with millions of dollars a piece for destroying the U.S. and possibly world economy and we are complaining about Lucas and Speilberg and a film that maybe wasn't the best ever made but was still entertaining and brought back a character we all love and appreciate to the screen?

Everyone chill on both Southpark & Indy 4. I'll take that supposed "flop" over the flop in the White House any day.

[seasick1]

South Park has always had a creepy underlying feel in some of their work, and this takes it to a new level. Couldn't watch the whole thing...

[Marc R]

Yeah, here's the thing. If Lucas or Spielberg criticized the "South Park" episode, they'd be faulted for being so full of themselves. If they exhibited a sense of humor and said it was funny, they'd be faulted for finding humor in rape. So, there's no way they can win now, is there? Finally, the fan boys have their way! They can criticize Steven and George all they want and there's NOTHING Steven or George can do about it!

Except ...

It was pretty damned stupid of the Comedy Central execs and the producers to bite the (Viacom/Paramount) hand that feeds them. I mean, that's like badmouthing your teacher, then turning around to find the teacher standing right behind you.

Oops.

[Steven S.]

It was funny! Rarely do I laugh out loud but man...those rape scenes were so "WTF" funny. George and Steven really did mess up Indy 4, I mean cmon, besides the survive a nuke in a fridge thing..there was the idiotic uninteresting alien plot, and Shia swinging vines with a monkey army..I mean cmon now.

[TK421]

Great episode, it really hit home because since I saw the craphole that was Indy 4 I have been suppressing the images of Indy getting raped.

The raping of Indiana Jones is the worst thing that has happened in 2008.

[JT]

Sadder than "Indiana Jones" ever could have been is the incessant "entitlement" fan boys feel. They got a fun adventure -- and, as Lucas said MANY times before the movie came out, NOTHING they made would ever have satisfied those bitter fans.

More importantly and to the point, the South Park episode simply, well, wasn't funny. It was like the class clown going one step too far -- no one's laughing except him and his sycophantic buddies. As a South Park kid might say, "Dude. It's just ... not ... funny."

Even within the context of South Park it didn't work. In the same episode, we're supposed to laugh at Cartman for his hysterial, ill-thought scheme ... yet sympathize with the other boys for how they felt after seeing "Indiana Jones."

It all just left me thinking that Parker and Stone are themselves to the point where they've gotten very, very, very rich off of something they created and are scared to think that they are what they used to mock -- rich, snobby filmmakers. The only problem is, their show attracts a couple of million viewers and is on its last legs (its originality is, literally, "so 10 years ago") and because THEY don't have another original idea in their heads, they have to mock those who revisit their own successes.

It wasn't funny. It wasn't satirical. It wasn't, frankly, even offensive.

It was just ... not good.

[Mr Derp]

Boo Hoo. Dry those tears up guys, it was funny.

I love how Butters - er, I mean, JT - says South Parks on it's last legs. Check the facts, brother, it is among CC's top rated shows and the most recent seasons have seen the biggest audience yet.

[brad]

i thought it was funny, but seriously indiana jones movie was acutally pretty good. I love the people who said it was far fetched with the aliens and all... ok, like the first three weren't? um ark of covenent opening and souls going everywhere... a man pulls out hearts and rocks give life to a small village, and cup of Christ that gives eternal life...um, yea those are all believeable...

[Jimmy]

WOW, I just caught the episode. A little distasteful, but you all need to realize that southpark has made a habit of rıpping on things like this...remember the passion. they keep making them, we keep watching them, talking about how terrible it was, but guess what, We are still watching.

[Jason]

This is what makes south park brilliant. It's the very essence of satire: they irreverantly and severely point what they consider to be tremendous flaws in society, culture, and anything else within reach. And they do so intelligently and unapologetically, which I whole-heartedly admire.

Of course my admiration is probably facilitated by the fact that I completely agree with them on this particular episode. The fourth installment of Indiana Jones seemed to me to be an artless act of greed, millking (and in the process, maiming) a truly great creation for a few more million dollars. It was narratively ridiculous, and like most recent LucasArts projects, any attempt at artistic merit has been replaced with masturbatory special effects.

So I say satire on, Matt and Trey! Let satire live on until the satirized get it.

And an a comment to TK421 above: I have read (and agree with) the opinion that an artist stops owning their work as soon as they offer it up for public consumption. Then it does in fact belong to the observers, and they are entitled to their part in its existence. When those entitlements are betrayed or denied, it is a natural and reasonable reaction to feel angry and abandon the artist and/or works of art.

[Bo]

The South Park episode in question was highly entertaining, and well-deserved. True, the first three films did have their unbelievable moments: Indy surviving a submarine ride, jumping out of plane with an inflatable raft for a parachute, or getting Hitler's autograph at a book-burning. However, that being said, there was only about one or two implausible scenes in each of the original trilogy; whereas, there were at least five in the new film: the refrigerator, the waterfall, the ants, the swinging with monkeys, and the space ship. Not one of those scenes was worthy of an Indiana Jones film. So, the "raping" of Indy is warranted, and while unsettling to some, it was the perfect metaphor. What's worse, is that Lucas is currently composing a fifth film. Sure, the fanboys get up in arms about tripe such as this new film, but their concern and comments are valid, for without them, the first trilogy would not have existed past Raiders. So, Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford need to be called to task. They are NOT making these, the fourth and possible fifth Indy films, for the fans, as they claim. Instead, they are making them to satisfy personal egos, and, in the process, they are raping mine and many others' childhood memories of the "man in the hat."

[RealityMan]

The latest Indiana Jones movie was bad. As filmmakers, Spielberg and Lucas are over-the-hill. It happens to everyone.

The South Park creators are basically angry because they LOVE the Indiana Jones movies and are incredulous that the very filmmakers who brought Indiana Jones into the world, could possibly screw up a good thing.

So they commented on that. What's the big deal? Jeez.

[daisy]

I love this show. This is the funniest adult cartoon there is, and thank GOODNESS Comedy Central took this series and allowed the creators to do "almost" anything. If there was an alternate universe for "Peanuts", you've hit it in "South Park".Mak ur mood delightful by watching all eps http://download-south-park-episodes.edogo.com/here...

[Lola]

Omg this episode had too be the worst. I mean Indiana Jones? China? They are definitley running out of ideas. I mean they used to be funny but their not anymore. They should just quit-now. I mean seriously.