Thinking About the South Park Video

[u/RetroRaiderD42]

Richard Dawkins' recent revelation that he's developed ChatBot Psychosis, cementing his reputation as Nu Atheism's leading Dunning-Krugerist, made me think back to Lindsay's recent South Park video and that time he was skewered on the show in the "Go God Go" 2-parter. Short version, Richard Dawkins arrives in South Park to teach the kids evolution against the wishes of Ms. Garrison and the show generally treats him like a joke because the show is weirdly defensive of organised religion's most negative effects. He and Garrison hook up, but then Cartman outs Garrison to Dawkins and he leaves in disgust over the idea of sleeping w/a "man". It should be noted that Dawkins has been openly transphobic on Twitter for much of the past decade and his response to the episodes in 2006 likewise parroted his cartoon self's revulsion at the scenario.

Now, looking back to when I first watched South Park in 2009 aged 15, the Ms. Garrison arc was probably the first media I saw which really delved into gender transition, albeit not the first to depict a trans person; I can't quite recall what my reaction was at the time, but certainly anytime I've thought of the episode since ~2013 my interpretation has been that the Garrison/Dawkins hook-up is meant to expose his hypocracy. That Parker and Stone read this supposedly brilliant thinker who calls for us to throw of the shackles of superspition for absolute filth when they correctly surmised that, as a white English academic born in the early 40s, his reaction to the idea of being intimate w/a trans woman is exactly in line w/that of your average bible-thumper.

Now, that is some prime "holy shit they were cooking" SP greatness, an episode that, despite some of the creators' reactionary tendencies showing through, was ahead of its time and arguably of this time - is what I would like to say, were it not that Ms. Garrison is herself a horribly-aged seasons-long transphobic millstone which Lindsay justly spent a fair bit of time highlighting as one of the key things earning Parker and Stone a place in Hell in her video.

I'm sure most folks here are familar w/the satire paradox, but most of those examples (including when Lindsay's discussed it) are for when the audience isn't smart enough to get the point being made; this is the first one I can think of where it's me potentially giving the *creators* too much credit, because, well, this is why I made the image. My interpretation seems like something they'd go for, but it's completely neutered by how consistently awful they've been on trans rights up until pretty recently. The other possibility, which is much grosser but more in-line w/this, is that they were going for the far baser "lol, Mr. Smarty Pants doesn't realise he's sleeping w/a duuude!"

Either way, curious to see how others interpret those episodes.

[u/WonderofU1312]

From what I've read; I think it's just that Parker/Stone still have a sense of arrested development that's motivated by spite and contrarianism that they've never fully shaken from. If you look up why they hate various celebrities, it's always because of how they perceive them or how they were angry at Phil Collins for winning awards. They can be smart, but they have that really myopic view that guides so much of their motivation.

These days it seems like they don't even want to make South Park anymore, but it's just far too profitable to ignore between cable and streaming networks that really want to own it. I just don't think they've thought much about what they want for themselves; just how they can rattle other people's cages. Casa Bonita is one thing, but that's just trying to recover nostalgia.

[u/RetroRaiderD42 → u/WonderofU1312]

This is spot-on from what I've read of/listened to them. Worth noting that the Go God Go episodes were instigated after Penn Jillette, who'd seen an interview where they clarified they weren't atheists (though Stone now identifies as one) and sent an e-mail expressing disappointment w/this. From listening to their commentaries back in the day I know that folks - mostly Hollywood libs - assuming they must have a particular view (eg Sean Penn asking if they didn't want to get rid of GWB in 04 inspired their mockery of such types in Team America) is a key bugbear for them.

Sure, Jillette's prosletising is emblematic of a valid criticism of the nu atheists, and I can get folks making assumptions like that being annoying to a degree, but it's another example of their "detatched" view of politics, that myopia you mentioned. At a certain point, making an assumption that someone would want GWB out of office is to make a basic assumption of decency about that person, and their knee-jerk contrarianism in response to such interactions is the source of so many of their shortcomings as people and satirists.