If you didn't happen to catch the new episode of South Park last night, it was a parody of Glenn Beck. Cartman lands a job as the school's morning announcements reader...and, with the power of the microphone, takes it upon himself to lambaste the "socialist" regime undertaken by Wendy as president of the student council. (Watch it here. Warning: it starts off quite violently, with a shooting at the school that resonates a bit differently in the wake of Ft. Hood.)
Cartman wonders if school money is going to drugs...he doesn't know that it's the case, but how would we know if it wasn't? He's just asking questions.
South Park pretty much nails the conspiracy theories, the outrage, the anger over government use of money, and the populism, plus Beck's
tendency to sometimes stand up and walk around the set.
But ironically, the reason Cartman gets to continue his tirades: ACLU
lawyers step in to defend his free speech. Not that the ACLU wouldn't do so. One doesn't exactly think of Beck and the ACLU as peas in a pod...but the ACLU did defend Rush Limbaugh one time, filing an amicus brief on his behalf when state officials went through his medical records in Florida. So perhaps it's not so far fetched.
One of the reasons I usually enjoy watching South Park is their ability to incorporate issues like this into a feasible story line. There are usually 2 types of shows, one of which is just entertaining and funny, the other political and funny. On this episode, however, it seemed like they were trying a little too hard, and the whole smurfs thing just got kind of weird.
Yeah it didn't quite hang together for me, but I think I was really just kind of thrown by the opening. I wonder if this episode got locked before Ft. Hood, or if they did that deliberately. I love SP, and usually am all for making fun of whatever, but there didn't seem to be a real point to it. If they were going to make a point about the shootings, or the reaction to the shootings, fine, but it was just setup for the episode. It never really came back, and to me that made it a little distasteful.
OgWiseman - SouthPark distasteful??? Say it aint so! ;)
I'm a fan of Becks. I thought the show was great. Especially the reference to "going rogue".
I'm actually very excited to see them doing Beck. I've been a Beck fan since his radio show went national many years ago. Seeing him now being spoofed by South Park reinforces to me just how successful he has gotten. For so many years nobody even knew who he was, but now he's mainstream, simply amazing! Congrat's Glenn, your fans are very proud of you, and you truly do represent us as Americans!
The main point of this show is to show how unrealistic Glenn Beck is and to make fun of him. It shows how people who don't think for themselves can easily get sucked into his thinking. It shows how closed minded and negative he is, as well as how he blows things way out of proportion. Even though the show did get weird at times it did get it right about Beck. As for him representing "us Americans," I would hope that most Americans have the sense to realize how far-fetched his ideas can be.