'South Park' vs. Lucas and Spielberg: Too far?

Never mind "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," the most welcome Comedy Central program this election season just might be "South Park."

The series has been on a roll for the past four/five seasons, and whether turning an alien invasion into an examination of immigration, or leprechauns into targets of terrorism, "South Park" has been presenting relatively reasoned examinations of cultural issues.

Until, perhaps, last night. "South Park" has missed out on skewering this summer's pop-culture events, and last night, the episode was on the attack. As dark and twisted as "The Dark Knight" was, "South Park" was just as aggressively over the top.

Returning with new episodes as part of its 12th season, "South Park" didn't level its aim at presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain (fingers are crossed for such an episode to be forthcoming). Instead, the series had Hollywood heavyweights George Lucas and Steven Spielberg directly in sights.

Oh, there was also a paranoid Cartman convinced that China's Olympic opening ceremony telegraphed an attack on the United States, but Cartman's mockery of Chinese stereotypes was almost an afterthought after Matt Stone and Trey Parker completely dismantled the worldwide hit "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

"We all saw it happen," says the handicapped Jimmy, discussing "The Crystal Skull" as if it's a personal tragedy. "Do you remember that scene with Indiana in the refrigerator? It didn't make any sense, Stan."

From there, an excited Stan sits down to watch the latest film in a dream sequence/nightmare, but soon has to warn Indiana Jones that Spielberg and Lucas are nearby. And then in a series of film parodies, Indy's pants come off.

The boys of "South Park" spend much of the episode struggling to come to grips with the raping of Indiana Jones. In its rave review of the episode, IGN wrote that "South Park" went "beyond offensive and into some sort of hyper-offensive stratosphere," all of it hilarious.

Indeed, each scene builds upon the other, with Spielberg and Lucas eventually becoming two rednecks in the woods who demand Indy "squeal like a pig" as the pair humiliates and degrades a cinematic icon. A Stormtrooper gets it even worse, prompting the "South Park" police to lock up the directors to prevent such travesties from happening again.

Not that anyone didn't see this coming. Parker and Stone tried to warn Spielberg and Lucas from even making a fourth "Indiana Jones" flick. Back in 2002, the series took the two to task for re-editing their films for the worse, hoping to prevent a ruining of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

But was continually -- and graphically -- having Spielberg and Lucas violently rape Indiana Jones too far? "He's gonna do it right there!" shouts a cartoon Spielberg in one scene, holding back Indy's hands over a pinball machine. Or was seeing a Stormtrooper completely defiled still easier to swallow than having to watch Shia LaBeouf swing like a monkey, or worse, inserting aliens into the film?

Show Tracker put a call in to Lucasfilm to try to get their thoughts (ha!), but in the meantime, do you side with "South Park," or those behind the "Crystal Skull" on this one? Coming a few days after The Times' Hero Complex wrote that "Indy 5" is still a possibility, it might be time to make your voice known. 

-- Todd Martens

Photos: http://www.southparkstudios.com/

Comments

[toto]

It's Comedy Central, for crying out loud. It's sleazy tv (south park, daily show, unedit shows) for the sleazy viewer.

[Slapshot]

South Park rocks! I thought it was great. When we left after watching "The Crystal Skull" My wife and I both looked at each other and said "Man that SUCKED!" I'm glad they did this, I feel I got a little refund.

[adam]

rape is funny.daffy duck raping porky pig. 'nuff said.

[JoeHartsock]

I thought the episode was hilarious, and yes the movie (crystal skull) did go too far with the aliens.

[God]

Wait til they doooo buckwheat!

[970am]

This was a BRILLIANT episode.

[King Zilch]

I thought the references to Deliverance and The Accused salvaged what was otherwise a pretty pointless episode. Parker and Stone are pretty smart guys, which made it sad that they seemed to be siding with every illiterate internet troll who overreacted to the movie not jibing with their expectations.

[riz]

Yet more PC nonsense. Waaaaah. It was bloody funny, Hell, the storm trooper scene is making me laugh every time I think of it. If you don't want to be a target, don't be a public figure and more importantly don't keep pimping classics to make that extra buck.

[Tim]

Look, the satires on Jesus were way over the top and ridiculously offensive, particularly when the creators pulled their punches in taking similar shots at Islam. Criticizing South Park for attacks on depleted Hollywood moguls Spielberg and Lucas in light of prior satires is myopic at best.

[Don]

If I can get you to laugh at it, I can eventually get you to accept it, embrace it and make it normal in society. There is nothing out of bounds and untouchable so long as you can make it funny. The most depraved of human behaviour is made palatable with humor, right? Canabalism, that's a hoot. Sex with animals, side splitting stuff. Sex with kids, classic classroom cartoons. Rape in any form, its a riot. Dead babies, were all the rage in the wake of Roe-v-Wade.
Just because something can be done does not mean it should be done. Think about what we laugh at... ah yes entertain us at any and all costs. Human dignity is a small price to pay so long as we are entertained and it makes us laugh. Make us laugh and we will rationalize anything you do. The mere fact that stuff like this is accepted as normal is an inditement of our society and our depravity. There is no real shock and indignation for something so far outside our social norms... because it has become the social norm.... and (ho-hum) no one cares.

[al haus]

Sniffle, sniffle.

Aw, poor little liberals.

Not happy with the personal attacks on South Park?

How dare they make fun of liberals?

We are only supposed to make fun of those evil slavery outlawing, tax refunding and freedom loving, bitter people that cling to their religion and guns.

We need that fairness doctrine so we can finally silence dissenting opinions and silence the first amendment.

Osama Hussein Obama 08

[LS]

at first they were funny and didn't really care about the geopolitical/social scene. now they are never funny and always trying to "teach" us something. cartoons are supposed to be funny, leave the teaching to those idiots at the daily show. a sad end for SP!

[Farmer Bob]

Of course they didn't go beyond what's acceptable. There's so much acceptable nowadays that you can even have people talking about "homages" to rape scenes with a straight face. And how nice to read that the scuzziest cartoon series in the history of man has become the place for the study of "serious social issues." In the good old days, it was the cartoons that were supposed to make you laugh, not their viewers.

[Alfred]

Soooo...it's acceptable for SNL to suggest that Governor Palin's husband sleeps with his children but THIS is unacceptable? Come on, get a life! At least this was had some sort of substance to it. While I did not see this episode, I know how South Park uses their antics to poke fun at pop culture and send a message. SNL on the other hand, not the same. Let's make sure outrage is appropriate and balanced.

[BC]

It's a cartoon. And you're taking a survey?!

Why not report on something more important, like the implications and meaning of Barack Obama's past and recent associations with Bill Ayers, or Rev. Jerimiah Wright, or Obama's trying to set political policy with Iraq to delay troop pullout until after the elections so as to benefit Obama should he win. Or his position that a baby born alive during an abortion procedure may be put to death. This to go, of course, with the reporting on the reasons behind Sarah Palin's firing of a state trooper (or whoever she fired), and whether she used her personal email for state business. There is a reason your readership and subscriptions are down. It is because you do not report news, and when you do you either make the news yourself or slant it.

I have a survey of my own: Do newspapers violate the public trust when they misreport or slant their coverage? YES: This is the reason their readership is in the tank, but the market is responding with coverage by independent net reporters. NO: And they cannot help it or be expected to do better than they do because they are staffed by liberal hippies and it's not their fault - it's the fault of the unreasonable customers that expect businesses (here, newspapers) to take responsibility for their stupidity and actions (or lack thereof).

Like, OMG.

[Jeff Walker]

I love SP, didn't like the most recent ep, but didn't think it was over the top, I just didn't think it was funny. There have been faaaaaaaaar more offensive things on SP than this, IMHO, but should Matt & Trey be condemned or even criticized for this? No more so than for most of the stuff they've pulled over the years. Just don't think it's that big a deal.

[Diana]

You reap what you sow. Hollyweird has done nothing but remakes of remakes of remakes. They've made light of murder, rape, etc...So much so that they've desensitized a vast majority of our young people. They've got them thinking gang banging is cool. That murder isn't nothing. Movies like...Hey we're gang bangers we can dance on Broadway. I'll rape that girl then she'll fall in love with me and we'll live happily ever after. Or let's go to the opposite extreme, we'll make a movie where a girl gets raped and she helps to kill 100s of people for revenge. Hey let's publicize every single word and action, really it will make a great movie of that serial killer, then all the other serial killers will want their 15 seconds of fame too. At least we'll have a script and won't have to make another remake of a remake....Can't be letting any fresh ideas in here getting a share of our God(money). Now they want to scream...No Hypocrisy to see here folks move along.

[Timothy]

As George Carlin once said: You don't think rape is funny? Imagine Elmer Fudd raping Porky Pig.

[El-Kris-O]

People that get offended easily are at the bottom of the gene pool.

[TGintheOC]

He sure had a purdy mouth.....................