FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Saturday, June 24, 2006
South Park : Freedom of Speech at Work
Sometimes watching episodes of the American adult cartoon, South Park, really does make me cringe... they couldn't get closer to the bone if they performed a live amputation, and this is exactly what makes the programme so different and, ultimately, so popular.
As much as we like to believe that we live in a free society where open and honest discussion is encouraged, the truth is that most programmes on our British television and radio are to a greater or lesser extent censored by a common sense of decency, as judged by those who broadcast this stuff. Even our current affairs programming tends to edge toward the 'politically correct' ideal when it comes to the way events are covered and discussions are conducted. Of course, the extreme nationalism of many American television channels is even more clearly an example of the way the public's ability to watch 'real' life on their so-called free media is totally distorted by those with a certain US-centred agenda who are in charge of what goes out.
And then there is South Park, created in the very heart of the American MidWest - an area of Colorado that Trey Parker and Matt Stone describe as 'painfully normal' and well-known as a breeding ground for far-right, redneck culture. Yet, this programme is one of the most openly offensive bits of television that I know of, directly targeting groups and individuals who the creators feel like having a poke at. One particularly remarkable example of this was in season 8 when a new neighbour comes to town called "Mr Jefferson" who is blatantly a figure who is representative of the media's portrayal of Michael Jackson. One scene shows Mr Jefferson in bed with the four main child characters and when he's caught in this position by one of the adult characters his high-pitched voice exclaims "You're all so ignorant!", as a direct reference to Michael Jackson's use of language in his interview with Martin Bashir. How the producers of South Park get away with this kind of thing on the American mainland is quite beyond me, but it does please me that this level of freedom of speech is possible in this day and age, even if it does offend certain people. I think other groups should look to the South Park phenomenon as an example of what free-speech is really about, particularly the theatre production companies that recently crumbled under pressure from religious types who want to silence views that don't show them in a good light. The Christian church even wanted to close down the lighthearted musical Jerry Springer on the grounds that one of the characters in the play describes Jesus Christ as being "a bit gay" : surely the doctrine of several thousand years of theological thought can stand a little fun-poking, can't it??
Oh, as a matter of interest, when I was in Colorado in 2001, myself and my buddies went to visit the real South Park - a small mountain town a couple of hours away from Denver. And it seriously was JUST like the way it is portrayed on the television programme : a very cold, dusty little town with nothing much there but a few shops and an elementary school. Interestingly, there was a cafe there called "South Perk" that was presumably named as a reference to the other big American sitcom, Friends.
As much as we like to believe that we live in a free society where open and honest discussion is encouraged, the truth is that most programmes on our British television and radio are to a greater or lesser extent censored by a common sense of decency, as judged by those who broadcast this stuff. Even our current affairs programming tends to edge toward the 'politically correct' ideal when it comes to the way events are covered and discussions are conducted. Of course, the extreme nationalism of many American television channels is even more clearly an example of the way the public's ability to watch 'real' life on their so-called free media is totally distorted by those with a certain US-centred agenda who are in charge of what goes out.
And then there is South Park, created in the very heart of the American MidWest - an area of Colorado that Trey Parker and Matt Stone describe as 'painfully normal' and well-known as a breeding ground for far-right, redneck culture. Yet, this programme is one of the most openly offensive bits of television that I know of, directly targeting groups and individuals who the creators feel like having a poke at. One particularly remarkable example of this was in season 8 when a new neighbour comes to town called "Mr Jefferson" who is blatantly a figure who is representative of the media's portrayal of Michael Jackson. One scene shows Mr Jefferson in bed with the four main child characters and when he's caught in this position by one of the adult characters his high-pitched voice exclaims "You're all so ignorant!", as a direct reference to Michael Jackson's use of language in his interview with Martin Bashir. How the producers of South Park get away with this kind of thing on the American mainland is quite beyond me, but it does please me that this level of freedom of speech is possible in this day and age, even if it does offend certain people. I think other groups should look to the South Park phenomenon as an example of what free-speech is really about, particularly the theatre production companies that recently crumbled under pressure from religious types who want to silence views that don't show them in a good light. The Christian church even wanted to close down the lighthearted musical Jerry Springer on the grounds that one of the characters in the play describes Jesus Christ as being "a bit gay" : surely the doctrine of several thousand years of theological thought can stand a little fun-poking, can't it??
Oh, as a matter of interest, when I was in Colorado in 2001, myself and my buddies went to visit the real South Park - a small mountain town a couple of hours away from Denver. And it seriously was JUST like the way it is portrayed on the television programme : a very cold, dusty little town with nothing much there but a few shops and an elementary school. Interestingly, there was a cafe there called "South Perk" that was presumably named as a reference to the other big American sitcom, Friends.
